Štindl's novel When Your Head Turns is a cross between satire, horror, psychodrama and road movie
Czech Republic, January 2018. President Miloš Zeman has just been elected to a second term, it is freezing outside, citizens are pouring their hearts out on social media, and burnt-out commentator Jan "Johan" Souček is involuntarily quitting the editorial office of an unnamed daily newspaper.
The anti-hero of Ondřej Štindel's third novel is torn by helplessness, anger and fear - and when he reads a mocking comment under his article on the web, he makes one senseless, desperate decision. It begins with a darkly grotesque tale in which two men from opposite camps of the social spectrum cross paths and then things start to happen.
Štindl's novel unfolds between satire, horror, psychodrama and road movie. It is possible to see in it a crude and oppressive caricature of a divided society. And also an image of existential crisis, fear of nothingness and the desire to escape. Johan's path is defined by narcissism and bitterness, disgust with his surroundings and himself. In his world there is a certainty of awkwardness and only a remote possibility of catharsis.
Štindl captures the story of his anti-hero with unflagging intensity and very close-up; in Johan's outpourings, he lets the distorted echo of the basic questions of life resound, which, however, do not lose their seriousness and meaning even in their distorted form. And from them flashes the sadness of a man who can only "cherish that hole in his heart, that cold place" and is tortured by the feeling that it is probably not enough.
