Sis, Peter. The Wall. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007.
Peter is a regular guy. He’s into rock music, forms a band with his friends, and gets a job as a DJ on a radio show.
(excerpts from Peter’s journal)
February 1967: I form a rock group with my friends, but we have no instrument and we haven’t settled on a name yet. My father makes me get a haircut. I paint people with long hair.
May 1967: We start making instruments. It’s hard to make an electric guitar. You plug it into the radio and it blows a fuse.
August 1967: Hop-picking time again—a good way to meet girls. After working all day, we get together and sing Beatles songs.
Everything’s great, except for the wrench in the works: he lives in Czechoslovakia during the Cold War.
(more excerpts)
January-February 1969: Jan Palach and Jan Zajic, students, set themselves on fire to “wake up the nation from lethargy.”
1970: Vetvicka, a fun guy and bass player, died of head injuries after the police beat him in the melee following the Beach Boys concert.
1976: The Plastic People of the Universe rock band are in prison. I used to argue with them, and do not care for their music—but prison?
Peter is a regular guy, but he lives in a world full of lies and brutality. For his story of resistance, you’ll need to read on…
