Little Stories by a Great Master

by Jaroslav Hasek

This is primarily a collection of snide little anecdotes about Czech politicians in the Austro-Hungarian era. There are two really funny things about it:

i. Hasek starts his own political party, and calls it "The Party of Moderate Progress within the Limits of the Law" and
ii. The introduction was written a couple of years before the Velvet Revolution, and keeps talking about Hasek as though he were some kind of Soviet Realist hero.

These things are okay for a giggle, but only if you're a big Hasek fan to begin with - and the only reason to be a Hasek fan is "The Good Soldier Svejk". So read that instead. But only read the first two hundred pages, because after that it just repeats itself.