Fu(*n*)k Bomb

Fu(*n*)k Bomb (original title Bomba Funk, 2010) is music critic Karel Veselý’s first novel. A ‘grotesque mystification’ in the grand Czech tradition of dry comedy, which stretches from the Tyrolean Elegies of Karel Havlíček-Borovský through Jaroslav Hašek’s Good Soldier Švejk and the absurdist works of Václav Havel and Pavel Kohout, Fu(*n*)k Bomb revolves around the farcical and delightfully humorous idea of saving Czechoslovakia for Communism through the mobilisation of funk music.

Set just before the Velvet Revolution in 1989, Jiří, a rather naive true-believer who works at a cultural institution on the outskirts of Prague, is suddenly summoned to the office of President Gustáv Husák. The last Communist head of state reveals not only his concern at the growing dissident movement set to topple four decades of Party rule (‘This time it’s different,’ he warns young Jiří), but his wild (yet strangely logical) plan of ‘getting the youth of the country back on our side’ by calling to life a funk band, which will not only captivate music lovers with its irresistible dance-music patterned after the ‘music of oppressed Black America,’ but also inculcate ‘right-thinking’ through carefully vetted Socialist lyrics.

Accepting the challenge, Jiří sets off on a strange musical adventure, which will not only be the artistic project of his life, but also disabuse him of his childlike naiveté in the way things are and the guiding rule of a paternalistic Party. For despite President Husák’s support, inter-party scrimmages threaten to undermine the surprisingly successful new pop group, Funky Leninz — and by a surprising, yet logical, twist of fate, Jiří and his mates are forced into a dissident position themselves — although they are working to preserve the status quo!

Veselý’s Fu(*n*)k Bomb is not only a witty return trip to late-eighties Prague, complete with tributes to the author’s musical heroes, from James Brown and Parliament Funkadelic through Pražský výběr and Plastic People of the Universe.