Jan Balabán’s world — and is it not the world we all inhabit? — is far from perfect. But it is not escape from that world that we need, but acceptance of its, and our, limitations, and engagement with it, with other people, in kindness and understanding. This is what prompts Hans’ meditations in the attic of the rectory where his grandfather was pastor years before:
The vicarage attic was a perfect pyramid raised on a square base of sturdy beams. When he was a child, the deep, longitudinal cracks in the beams frightened Hans with the thought that the roof might cave in. Later, when he came to realise that all beams are cracked, this became the basis of his attitude toward life. After the disillusionments that resulted from his yearning toward perfection, he formulated the rule that, if he
