“In these magical tales, Jarda Cervenka moves with remarkable authority over the surface of the globe, from post-Cold War Prague to a remote Inuit village in Canada, from the dim light of a Japanese monastery to a Brussels brothel, and to ever more exotic realms—including memory itself, that most mysterious kingdom. This is the book of an adventurer, and the voice of these wry knowing stories remains as arresting as the keen eye taking in the wide world of oddity and appetite that binds them together. The stories here are lyric and tough-minded, and everywhere display the best quality of fiction, each story unfolding almost off-handedly, but finally, with captivating inevitability.” —Patricia Hampl, author of A Romantic Education
“In the most marvelous way, Jarda Cervenka's imagination and his prodigious cosmopolitanism are not only contiguous but continuous—they are successive moments of one journey. In The Revenge of Underwater Man, the exotic topographies (Prague, Key West, an Inuit village on Hudson Bay, the outskirts of Nairobi) are as much of the inner world as of the outer, and remarkable friendships between male characters are staked out in the borderlands of difference by the epic gusto they share. Altogether, Cervenka's fabulous second collection convinces us that there is more to this world than we have let ourselves dream.” —Jaimy Gordon, author of Bogeywoman and She Drove Without Stopping
“Against the numbness of much of daily life we feel so often these stories show how much substance, drama and fun is there to be lived. Jarda Cervenka writes prose masterful in style, which is at once elegant and enthralling, wise and adventurous. It is a narrative of remarkable beauty, an exploration of life well-lived, a book to savor one story after another.” —Jakub Tolar
“A wild array of funny, tragicomic, and macabre characters unfold their plights in tales taking us to world-wide locations. Memorable reading indeed.” —Vlad Jindrich, Veteran Peace Corps Volunteer, Bohemia
“Whether it is picking wild mushrooms, photography, ceramics work or writing, Jarda Cervenka has the unique gift of being able to turn it all into poetry.” —Jan Triska, actor, Hollywood, California
“Very powerful impressions emerge from all the stories put together by Jarda Cervenka: a richness in variety of subjects and of human attitudes—combined with his special, precise, and knowingly heartly, ways of writing them for us . . . I simply love his stories.” —George J. Ruzicka, Paris, France
“Jarda Cervenka introduces a kaleidoscopic array of unique individuals, including Eskimo hunters, Belgian prostitutes and a Czech water fairy, as well as more mundane characters such as obsequious university administrators and nagging spouses. We encounter angels amidst a heart attack, lose a friend to AIDS and struggle with customs, climate and fauna in the far corners of the planet. His language is precise, his images crisp, and his endings often surprising.” —Walter Burgdorf, M.D., Munich, Germany
“Cervenka, traveler, adventurer, tugs at the reader as his story opens, lures his victim to the suspenseful middle, then pulls him or her up to the climax. Cervenka's characters are rainbow in their diversity, haunting in their mein, and range from holy to bohemian in their language. They span continents, climes and cultures. They are gems all, and their creator uncanny. Cervenka spices his stories with his favorite phrases from a spectrum of languages— Inuit (Eskimo), Japanese, Czech, German, Spanish, Swahili, Igbo.” —Professor Anezi Okoro, Enugu, Nigeria
“Few other nationalities find it as hard as Central and East Europeans to leave their own country. Jarda Cervenka, despite of being Czech, is a citizen of the World, who both understands the Vltava fairy tale mythology and lives happily on the other side of the world. He can as easily lecture in Thailand or research illnesses in Africa. He is an extraordinary, interesting and a good person. I cannot imagine he could write a book that is not what he is: extraordinary, interesting, and over all good.” —Ota Nutz, journalist, Czech Radio, Prague
“This fascinating collection of stories told by a scientist who was also an olympic star is vastly entertaining. His news and views from distant and suspicious places are entirely fresh.” —Esther Wattenberg, Professor, Center for Urban and Regional Affairs, University of Minnesota
