Almost Famous

Okay. This is honestly going to be hard for me to write because I am quite literally overcome with excitement. Today I realized one of my life dreams. I met a famous Czech author in a café. Ever since I have gotten to Prague and discovered that they do, in fact, sit in cafes and read and drink and talk all day, I got excited. And when I found out that famous Czech people actually hang out in very accesible cafes and that it was very likely that I was brushing elbows with at least one a day, I got very excited. Every time I enter a café (and I’m currently averaging like two a day; I’m not kidding, it’s a lifestyle here), I quickly scout around and decide who might be famous and try to sit close to them so that they’ll ask me about what I’m reading. Usually, of course, this effort is futile, useful only to entertain my overly active, melodramatic imagination. Today, though, the famous person chose me.

I was sitting in a café near my bus stop, Kabinet, which I’ve been to a few times before. Not long after I got there, an old-ish man came in with two women and sat at the table right next to me. Throughout the three hours I was there, people kept coming to his table and leaving, and pretty much everyone in the café said “dobry den” to him. This wasn’t that unusual; I figured he was a regular, and I was enjoying my research, and then my book, so I didn’t pay much attention. Fast forward until around 2, when I was thinking about leaving, and just one other young-ish guy was at the table with him. This man, who I now know is 56 but looks much older, turned around and pushed up the book that I was reading so that he could see the title. The book was “I Served the King of England” by Bohumil Hrabel. Hrabel is pretty much THE Czech author post- WWII, and this book happens to be one of his best (plus it was just made into a movie). He asked me whether I liked it, and started talking to me about some Czech literature and then asking questions about where I’m from, why I’m here, etc. The guy he was with looked slightly embarrassed, but helped the older man with some English and ended up talking to me a bit, too. Suddenly the younger one said to me, “He will hate this, but you should know that you are talking to a famous Czech author.”

Well. I almost fell out of my seat. I immediately wanted to ask him who he was and what he’d done and on and on but there’s really no tactful way to go about doing that, so I stared with my mouth open for a bit and then said, “You’re not Hrabel, are you?” He laughed and said he wasn’t (which was actually a relief to me, that would be too much), but admitted that Hrabel was his mentor (!!!!). It turns out he’s now teaching creative writing, and the guy with him, along with all of the other people who had come to his table, were his students.

He was perfect. Even before I knew he was famous, he was everything an old, cynical, slightly creepy, uber-intelligent, intense Czech author should be. Throughout our conversation, he kept trying to hint that I would make a great match with the student who was there. He said things like, “Can I buy you a drink? Something Irish?”. He asked me about all of the Czech literature I had read (thank goodness I’ve been reading Czech literature) and commented on what was worth reading and what wasn’t. He asked how long I was staying, then asked, “But what will your Czech boyfriend do when you leave?” When I told him that I didn’t have a Czech boyfriend, he said, “Ah, but that will change by Christmas...”. The best part of the whole conversation was when I asked, “So what are you doing now? Are you still writing, or just teaching, or do you have a new occupation or hobby?” He replied, “Now, I am drinking.” His student apologized and laughed and said, “He means that right now he is drinking...” (This was overwhelmingly obvious). The beauty of it was that I’m not sure that’s what the author did mean, and even if it was, his comment was witty and delivered with brilliance. It was straight out of a movie.

I had to leave fairly soon after we started talking, and at the end of our conversation, he asked me to tell him how I liked the end of the book after I finished reading it. I agreed, and he said, “When?” I sort of laughed, but we ended up making a “date” to meet back at the same café next Friday at “High noon” (his words- priceless! I’ve never met anyone at “high noon” before). I was pretty sure I wasn’t going to keep that meeting, but that might have changed...

He wouldn’t go into more details about who he was, but I ended up leaving at the same time as the student. As soon as we got outside I immediately begged him to tell me who this man was and what he had done. His name is Petr Sabach, and he is a REALLY BIG DEAL in the Czech Republic. He is among the top three bestselling authors currently, and many of his books have been made into movies, which are quite famous, as well. Unfortunately, none of the books have been translated into English, but get this- I got home and googled him and he wrote the book which was made into the movie that I watched on Monday night with Simon! It was called “Pupendo” and I really enjoyed it. It gets better.

I left the café and went to meet with my advisor for my project (who I like more and more, by the way). We were chatting and I mentioned that I had just lived a dream by meeting my first Czech author, and when I told him who it was, he said, “Oh, Petr Sabach? He was here yesterday doing a reading for us.” !!!!!! So, not only is this guy famous and an author and hilarious, but he’s also involved in the organization that I’m doing my project with. Though there’s a 90% chance that he doesn’t remember our “meeting” next week, I’m going to go for sure, because I would love to talk to him about how he got involved with Roma students.

I am pumped about this, clearly. It’s surreal for me because I imagined this type of encounter over and over but never thought it would really happen. Sigh. I’m a lucky, lucky girl. I’ve had an exciting week otherwise, too, including a VERY exciting press conference yesterday (which led to half of me being on Czech news last night !!! ), but I’ll save that for later.