Vladimír Páral (born August 10, 1932) is Czech fiction writer whose work ranges from biting

satire Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of shaming ...

to works of

Socialist Realism Socialist realism is a style of idealized realistic art that was developed in the Soviet Union and was the official style in that country between 1932 and 1988, as well as in other socialist countries after World War II. Socialist realism is ch ...

, produced under the communist regime.

Biography

Although born in Prague, he spent his early years in

Brno Brno ( , ; german: Brünn ) is a city in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. Located at the confluence of the Svitava and Svratka rivers, Brno has about 380,000 inhabitants, making it the second-largest city in the Czech Republic ...

, where his father was a military officer. After graduating from secondary school, he received technical training then went on to study

chemical engineering Chemical engineering is an engineering field which deals with the study of operation and design of chemical plants as well as methods of improving production. Chemical engineers develop economical commercial processes to convert raw materials int ...

at a branch of the University of Chemistry and Technology in

Pardubice Pardubice (; german: Pardubitz) is a city in the Czech Republic. It has about 89,000 inhabitants. It is the capital city of the Pardubice Region and lies on the Elbe River. The historic centre is well preserved and is protected as an Cultural monu ...

; graduating in 1954. He worked at various locations until 1967, when he took a permanent position at the Institute of Scientific, Technical and Economic Information. He had begun writing in 1962, and made contributions to the local daily, ''Průboj'', under the name Jan Laban. Five years later, he started to write novels and, in 1972, became an editor at ''Severočeském nakladatelství''. In 1977, he was one of the signatories to , a formal government document condemning Charter 77, a human rights initiative. In 1992, some classified documents were leaked, including a list of people who had allegedly worked for the

StB State Security ( cs, Státní bezpečnost, sk, Štátna bezpečnosť) or StB / ŠtB, was the secret police force in communist Czechoslovakia from 1945 to its dissolution in 1990. Serving as an intelligence and counter-intelligence agency, it de ...

(secret police), and Páral's name was on that list.see ''Necenzurované Noviny'' (uncensored newspaper), #04/2000, pg.56 Since 1995, he has divided his time between Prague and

Mariánské Lázně Mariánské Lázně (; german: Marienbad) is a spa town in Cheb District in the Karlovy Vary Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 12,000 inhabitants. Most of the town's buildings come from its Golden Era in the second half of the 19th centu ...

Bibliography

Black pentalogy

*''Veletrh splněných přání'' (Fair granted wishes), 1964 *''Soukromá vichřice: Laboratorní zpráva ze života hmyzu'' (Private storm: Laboratory note of insect's life), 1966 *''Katapult: Jízdní řád železničních, lodních a leteckých drah do ráje'' (Catapult: Traffic order of railway, shipment and airlines into paradise), 1967 *''Milenci a vrazi: Magazín ukájení před rokem 2000'' (Lovers and murders: Magazine of cater before year 2000), 1969 *''Profesionální žena: Román pro každého'' (Professional woman: Novel for everyone), 1971

White pentalogy

*'' Mladý muž a bílá velryba: Malý chemický epos'' (Young man and white whale: Little chemical epic), 1973 *''Radost až do rána: O křečcích a lidech'' (Joy until morning: About hamsters and people), 1975 *''Generální zázrak: Román naděje'' (General miracle: Romance of hope), 1977 *''Muka obraznosti: Konfrontace snu a skutečnosti'' (Agony of symbolic: Confrontation of dream and reality), 1980

Sci-fi

*''Romeo & Julie 2300'', 1982 *''Pokušení A-ZZ'' (Tepmting A-ZZ), 1982 *''Válka s mnohozvířetem'' (War with manybeast), 1983 *''Země žen'' (World of woman), 1987

Recent works

*''Dekameron 2000 aneb Láska v Praze'', 1990 *''Kniha rozkoší, smíchu a radosti'', 1992 *''Playgirls 1 and 2'', 1994 *''Profesionální muž'', 1995 *''Tam za vodou'', 1995

References

1932 births Living people {{Czech-writer-stub