The Prague Orgy (2 page)

“
Eva, tel
l
him about your Jewish demons. He is the American authority on Jewish demons. She is pursued, Mr. Zuckerman, by Jewish demons. Eva, you must tell him about the Vice-Minister of Culture and what happened with him after you left your husband. Eva was married to somebody that in America you have never heard of, but in Czechoslovakia the whole country loves him. He is a very beloved theatrical personality. You can watch him on
t
elevision every week. He has all the old mothers crying when he sings Moravian folk songs. When he talks to them with that dreadful voice, the girls are all swooning. You hear him on the jukeboxes, you hear him on the radio, wherever you go you hear this dreadful voice that is supposed to be a hot-blooded gypsy. If you are that man
’
s wife you don
’
t have to worry. You can play all the great heroines at the National Theater. You can have plenty of
room to live. You can take all
the trips you want abroad. If you are that man
’
s wife, they leave you alone.
”

“
He leaves you alone too,
”
she says.
“
Zdenek, why do you persecute me?
I
do not care to be an ironical Czech character in an ironical Czech story. Everything that happens in Czechoslovakia. they shrug their shoulders and say,
‘
Pure Schweik, pure Kafka.
’
I
am sick of them both.
”

“
Te
l
l me about your Jewish demons,
”
I say.

“
I don
’
t have them,
”
she replies, lo
oking furiously at Sisov
sky.

“
Eva fell in love with a Mr. Polak and left her husband for him. Now, if you are Mr. Polak
’
s mistress,
”
Sisovsky says,
“
they do not leave you alone. Mr. Polak has had many mistresses and they have never left any of them alone. Eva Kalinova is married to a Czechoslovak Artist of Merit, but she leaves him to take up with a Zionist agent and bourgeois enemy of the people. And this is why they write
‘
the Jew
’
s whore
’
on the wall outside the theater, and send poems to her in the mail about her immorality, and drawings of Polak with a big Jewish nose. This is why they write letters to the Minister of Culture denouncing her and demanding that she be removed from the stage. This is why she is called in to see the Vice-Minister of Culture. Leaving a great Artist of Merit and a boring, sentimental egomaniac like Petr Kalina for a Jew and a parasite like Pavel Polak, she is no better than a Jew herself.
”

“
Please,
”
says Eva,
“
stop telling this story. All these people, they suffer for their ideas and for their banned books, and for democracy to return to Czechoslovakia—they suffer for their principles, for their humanity, for their hatred of the Russians, and in this terrible story I am still suffering for love!
”

“
‘
Do you know,
’
he says to her, our enlightened Vice-Minister of Culture,
‘
do you know. Madam Kalinova,
’”
Sisovsky continues,
“
‘
that half our countrymen believe you really are a Jewess, by blood?
’
Eva says to him, very dryly—for Eva can be a very dry, very beautiful, very intelligent woman when she is not angry with people or frightened out of her wits—very dryly she says,
‘
My dear Mr. Vice-Minister, my family was being persecuted as Protestants in Bohemia in the sixteenth century.
’
But this does not stop him—he knows this already. He says to her,
‘
Tell me—why did you play the role of the Jewess Anne Frank on the stage when you were only nineteen years old?
’
Eva answers,
‘
I played the role beca
use I was chosen from ten young
actresses. And all of them wanted ii more than the world.
’
‘
Young actresses,
’
he asks her,
‘
or young Jewesses?
’”

“
I beg you, Zdenek, I cannot hear my ridiculous story! I cannot hear
your
ridiculous story!
I
am sick and tired of hearing our story. I am sick and tired of
having
our story! That was Europe, this is America! I shudder to think
I
was ever that woman!
”

‘“
Young actresses,
’
he asks her,
‘
or young Jewesses?
’
Eva says,
‘
What difference does that make? Some were Jewish, I suppose. But ! am not.
’
‘
Well then,
’
he says to Eva,
‘
why did you want to continue playing this Jewess on the stage for two years, if you weren
’
t, at the least, a Zionist sympathizer even then?
’
Eva replies,
‘
I have played a Jewess in
Ivanov
by Anton Chekhov. I have played a Jewess in
The Merchant af Venice
by Shakespeare.
’
This convinces him of nothing. That Eva had wanted to play a Jewess even in a play by Anton Chekhov, where you have to look for one high and low, does not, in the opinion of the vice-minister, strengthen her position.
‘
But everybody understands,
’
Eva explains to him,
“
… these are only
roles.
If half the country thinks I
’
m a Jew, that does not make it so. They once said I was part gypsy too; probably there are as many people who still believe that because of the ridiculous film I made with Petr. But, Mr. Vice-Minister,
’
Eva says,
‘
what everybody knows, what is true and indisputable, is that I am none of these things:
I
am an actress.
’
He corrects her.
‘
An actress, Madam Kalinova, who likes to portray Jewesses, who portrays them masterfully—
that
is what everyone knows. What everyone knows is that no one in all of our country can portray a Jewess belter.
’
‘
And if that is even true? Is that also a crime in this country now?
’
By then Eva is shouting and, of course, she is crying. She is shaking all over. And this makes him nice to her suddenly, certainly nicer than before. He offers brandy to calm her down. He explains that he is not talking about what is the law. He is not even speaking for himself. His heart happens to have been greatly moved in 1956 when he saw Eva playing little Anne Frank. He wept at her performance—he has never forgotten it. His confession causes Eva lo become completely crazy.
“
Then what are you talking about?
’
she asks him.
‘
The feelings of the people,
’
he replies.
‘
The sentiments of the great Czech people. To desert Petr Kalina, an Artist of Merit, to become the mistress of the Zionist Polak would have been damaging enough, but to the people it is unforgivable because of your long history of always playing Jewesses on the stage.
’
‘
This makes no sense,
”
Eva tells
him.
‘
It cannot be. The Czech people
l
oved Anne Frank, they loved
me
for portraying her!
’
Here he removes from his file all these fake letters by all the offended members of the theatergoing public—fake, just like the writing on the theater wails. This closes the case. Eva is dismissed from the National Theater. The vice-minister is so pleased with himself that he goes around boasting how he handled Polak
’
s whore and made that arrogant Jew bastard know just who is running this country. He believes that when the news reaches Moscow, the Russians will give him a medal for his cruelty and his anti-Semitism. They have a gold medal just for this. But instead he loses his job. The last I heard he was assistant editor of the publishing house of religious literature. Because the Czechs
did
love Anne Frank—and because somebody high up wants to be rid of the stupid vice-minister anyway—he is fired for how he has handled Eva Kalinova. Of course for Eva it would have been better if instead of firing the vice-minister they would restore her position as leading actress with the National Theater. But our system of justice is not yet so developed. It is stronger on punishment than on restitution.
”

“
They are strong on
nothing,
”
says Eva.
“
It is that I am so weak. That I am stupid and cannot defend myself against all of these bullies! I cry, I shake, I cave in. I
deserve
what they do. In this world, still to carry on about a man! They should have cut my head off.
That
would have been justice!
”

“
And now,
”
says Sisovsky,
“
she is with another Jew. At her age. Now Eva is ruined completely.
”

She erupts in Czech, he replies in English.
“
On Sunday,
”
he says to her,
“
what will you do at home? Have a drink, Eviczka. Have some whiskey. Try to enjoy life.
”

Again, in Czech, she pleads with him, or berates him, or berates herself. In English, and again most gently, he says,
“
I understand. But
Zuckerman
is interested.
”

“
I am going!
”
she tells me—
”
I must go!
”
and rushes from the living room.

“
Welt, I stay…
’’
he mutters and empties his glass. Before I can get up to show her out, the door to my apartment is opened and slammed shut.

“
Since you are curious,
”
says Sisovsky, while I pour him another drink,
“
she said that she is going home and I said what will you do at home and she said,
‘
I am sick of your mind and I am sick of my body and I am sick to death of these boring stories!
’”

“
She wants to hear a new story.
”

“
What she wants is to hear a new man. Today she is angry because she says I bring her here with me only to show her to you. What am I to do—leave her alone in our room to hang herself? On a Sunday? Wherever we go now in New York and there is a man, she accuses me of this.
‘
What is the function of this man?
’
she says. There are dramatic scenes where she calls me a pimp. I am the pimp because she wants to leave me and is afraid to leave me because in New York she is nobody and alone.
”

“
And she can
’
t go back to Prague?
”

“
It is better for her not to be Eva Kalinova here than not to be Eva Kalinova there. In Prague, Eva would go out of her mind when she saw who they had cast to play Madam Arkadina.
”

“
But here she
’
s out of her mind selling dresses.
”

“
No,
”
he says.
“
The problem is not dresses. It
’
s Sundays. Sunday is not the best day in the
émigré
’
s
week.
”

“
Why did they let the two of you go?
”

“
The latest thing is to let people go, people who want to leave the country. Those who don
’
t want to leave, they must keep silent. And those who don
’
t want to leave, and who don
’
t wish to keep silent, they finish up in jail.
”

“
I didn
’
t realize, Sisovsky, that on top of everything else you were Jewish.
”

“
I resemble my mother, who was not. My father was the Jew. Not only a Jew, but like you, a Jew writing about Jews; like you, Semite-obsessed all his life. He wrote hundreds of stories about Jews, only he did not publish one. My father was an introverted man. He taught mathematics in the high school in our provincial town. The writing was for himself. Do vou know Yiddish?
”

“
I am a Jew whose language is English.
”

“
My father
’
s stories were in Yiddish. To read the stories, I taught myself Yiddish.
I
cannot speak. I never had him to speak it to. He died in 1941. Before the Jews began even to be deported. a Nazi came to our house and shot him.
”

“
Why him?
”