Actors Ms Zachovalová and Martin Jelínek are making a film
in the East European countryside, with spruce woods,
farmhouses and poor roads. The temperamental director
won't
show them the whole script of the film THE ICE CREAM MAN
which is set in 1947 and contains scenes of interrogation
and adult behaviour; they have to read, interpret and act
a
scene at a time. This is supposedly so that they know no
more of the outcome than do the characters living the
story. Zachovalová starts to see everything from the point
of view of her character Esther, and thinks of Martin as
Esther's husband Tomas, both from Czechoslovakia.
As this setting is both modern and historic, the reader
finds references to the Hapsburgs, the Austro-Hungarian
Empire and the Second World War. An amputee man is among
the film cast, who obligingly shows the actress his
prosthesis; he is to play a pilot who lost his leg during
the war. She asks whether he is always playing the same
part, and he replies, no, lots of different men who just
happen to be one-legged. The reader can find these asides
humorous, but the tale itself is gritty, as we feel the
discomforts, lack of privacy or dignity and occasional
distaste experienced by this dedicated woman.
We also see through the eyes of others involved with the
film, how the Czechs had to come to terms with repression
by Russia, always needing papers and visas, constantly
having their motives questioned. At the same time a
ballroom ceiling is hung with antique Bohemian crystal
chandeliers, mocking the shabbiness of the people in the
street. Later the scene moves to liberal Sweden, where a
young man from Prague finds he can travel without anyone
asking what colour his toothbrush is.
Translated by Ellen Hockerill in this edition, THE ICE
CREAM MAN won the European Union Prize for Literature in
2013. The chopping-and-changing identities won't suit
everyone, but we are free to interpret them as we wish;
maybe the layered story is about the layers of identities
assumed by East European people to hide their real selves
from the Russian troops and survive until they could
regain
national character. THE ICE CREAM MAN is the second book
by Katri Lipson.
Two years after the end of World War II, a director sets
out
to mimic real life by creating a film without a script,
where the actors learn the story and their part in it as
they go. The tale unfolds of a young couple on the run
during the Nazi occupation, but soon the characters they
play begin to take on lives of their own.
As the lines between fiction and reality blur, the Secret
Police become convinced that the director holds
information
that could compromise the nation’s security, and they
decide
to interrogate him about his fictional plot. Fear and
desire
merge in this imaginative world where coincidence is never
just that, and overlapping identities and unconventional
romance offer a playful notion of truth.
Winner of the 2013 European Union Prize for Literature.
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