Readers´ Comments
Katarina1138 (www.Kosmas)
A wonderful book which I read in one go. It contains the whole life of an important tenacious, indispensable personality of Czech-Slovak figure skating as well as of the lawyers´ world. The book includes both happy and less happy moments of the world of figure skating. I am extremely glad that the author has published this book.
E.R.
I wish to congratulate you once more on the successful launch of your fantastic book. When I started to read it, I always had a big problem to stop when I had to do something else. Anybody who will start to read it, will have the same problem.
J.E.
The book is really amazing, I really liked it very much. I had a lot of additional questions, but since I didn't write them down, I immediately forgot them .
L.V.
I couldn't resist and ordered the book right away. It has arrived the day before yesterday and really - I can't break away from it. It's just great. Yesterday, my wife Vlasta started stealing it from me. So once again, congratulations!
P.H.
I read the book with bated breath in almost one go. More exciting than a detective story, moreover written very attractively. It is hard to believe that one person could experience so many things ....
L. Ž.
J.K.
Amazing, interesting reading and photos. One doesn't even want to break away and go to bed.
J.S.
I really want to congratulate you on your book. To be honest, I don't like memoirs, currently a widely used literary style. It is because they are written by people who are not personalities and who have nothing to say. -But you are a personality who rightly wears this label and for whom I have always had extremely high human respect for all the time we have known each other.Your life and your work has moved you to a realm where memoir is really in place.The storyline runs well and you present a great number of facts in such a way that one reads the book with bated breath, and even though I know a lot about your life, it was an exciting reading for me.
P.S.
I was looking forward to every next chapter and reading the book was a great excitement and experience for me.
M.K.
I read your book with great interest. It pleasantly surprised me with its story content, and especially with the cultivated language. The very difficult situation of your family during World War II, the immense dedication of your parents in caring for the family, the selfless help of others, all this has left me with a deep impression. There is a lot of subtle humor, which alleviates some tense situations. Your stay abroad, in Norway, where you found a second family, your beginnings in your career as a lawyer are imbued with perspective, overview and pleasant humor. I'm always looking forward to the next chapter.
V.K.
After unpacking, I was surprised by the title and author of the book. I immediately started flipping through it and found that it would be an interesting reading. That's why I started to read the book as soon as I have returned home. My wife had to drive me away to change and do other necessary work, but having done so, I immediately sat down and continued to read again. I have to admit, it reads like a detective story.
I.Š.
I spent very pleasant but also exciting moments with your book. It is almost unbelievable what you have experienced. It is a pity that there are no more people like you among us.
J.R.
"Read !!. It takes time but once started it runs fast. A beautiful book which made me cry at the end. Very nice and inspiring.
P.F.
You are living a rich life with many almost tragic twists, alternated with personal successes (the latter thanks to diligence, intelligence and talent, sometimes perhaps a little luck).As I mentioned already, your life deserves a film adaptation.
J.B.
I do wish that we have as many as possible renaissance personalities of your format, who can be seen and heard, not only in the advocacy.
M.M.
Captivating biography
Jarin58 (www, Kosmas)
A huge experience for me. Thank you
1amu (www.Kosmas)
Looking back by the author (84) at his prolific life. There are few people in our country who could demonstrate such results, and I dare to say that the name Gerhardt Bubník is not well known to general public. I myself was most interested in his fight against the growing doping in sports. The reader will learn incredible things about how the mafia acted in this world of sport.
L.P.
You wrote an amazing book! I read it with one breath. It is very interesting. I had to write it to you.
F.H.
It is a rich and versatile book, where your talents and discipline, and visible fascination and love for life and the people around you comes out with impressive clarity.I also think it tells a lot about the qualities of your parents to teach you values, goals and lay a base for life. This comes out so clearly in many of your reflections on principles and purpose for you life. Very impressive to see the ease with which you express the ethos and wisdom that has guided you along.
K.G.F.
Your biography.
You are truly a wonderful man, who has shown that success is in the hands of each individual and it is for each individual to apply themselves to achieve their goals.
You are a man from a simple background but a loving family and, through your own efforts, you have succeeded in international law and sport. You lost family in the gas chamber of the war and yet you bear no bitterness. You are truly remarkable. You are a quite extraordinary human being and it is an honour to know you and I hope that we can get back to Prague to meet you once more.
J.T.
What an impressive life you line out, what an admirable memory of details that happened 80 years ago! I must admit that I was very much moved by your description of your early years during the German occupation of your country.
Childhood, life, book
editor of Lidové noviny: Marta Švagrová | Round and Round | 16th April 2021
Gerhardt Bubník, a renowned lawyer, a successful athlete and referee and figure skating official, talked often himself and others were talking about him (most recently in a portrait in Lidové noviny on April 12) about his life which would be sufficient not just for a single film, but for long series. What is important is that what he had experienced during many many years (he was born in 1935), in which several regimes and also a war took turns, he has carefully documented and, with the help of Magdalena Sodomková, recorded it factually and attractively readable in his book Life Between Paragraphs.
In fact, all sections of his life, whether they take place in Prague's Vršovice, in a Norwegian family just after the war, at Harvard, in stadiums where international competitions took place, or in law offices and courtrooms, are very interesting and reflect the history of Czechoslovakia in more than eight decades. They are so interesting also because the author was an active actor in this history.
The introductory part of the memories is particularly interesting, even though even this partit is presented here objectively and without sentiment. Here, Gerhardt Bubník describes his childhood. The family did not have much money. The mother was a seamstress who also fed her mother, the father, a trained chef, had to enlist during the First World War, but he ran over and became an Italian legionnaire. But that was just the beginning. Then the German occupation came, mother had to wear a yellow star and the deportation of the Jews began. In those memories the circumstances of the lives of children who suddenly found themselves without parents and the characters of people who selflessly helped them in difficult times are described in detail. And again, although fortunately the parents survived Terezín, the troubles were far from over. The 1950s were marked by, among other things, father's illness, when the mother had to replace him in the tobacco shop and with that small earnings, they still kept their sons at school and took also care of their old grandmother.
When reading similar life stories, one has to realize how little are the contemporaries prepared to endure discomfort, illness, not telling need, and how beneficial it is from time to time to read or listen to such a biography. It will usually help to clarify the priorities of a decent life. Even finding that an extraordinary personality can emerge from a modest nest is not in vain.( contact for readers´commentaries: gbubnik@gmail.com )