An Ordinary Life by Karel Capek

Coming to terms with the prosaic and the perverse

An Ordinary Life is the third book in what Czech author Karel Capek called his “Noetic Trilogy.” This novel was originally published in 1934, following Hordubal and Meteor, the first two books in the series. Though the stories and characters of the three novels are unrelated, they do share a common style and purpose. I won’t attempt to define “Noetic,” but I can say that the common theme or scheme that runs throughout the trilogy is that in each book the life of its protagonist is viewed and/or analyzed through multiple perspectives. The disagreements in the various viewpoints alternately obscure and enlarge the reader’s understanding of different aspects of the character and events of the story, thus calling into question how we myopically view our own lives and what narrative will be left behind after our own passing.

When an unnamed narrator is diagnosed with a terminal illness, he decides to write his autobiography. He doesn’t consider his life anything exceptional, but why shouldn’t an ordinary man leave behind an account of his ordinary life? So that’s what he sets out to do. He paints a prosaic and mundane picture of his life as a contented railroad employee. He diligently works his way from one incremental promotion to the next. Along the way he meets a young woman. They marry, but have not children. The first half of the novel leads the reader to expect exactly what the title promises, a life so unremarkable that the book begins to descend into boredom.

About the halfway point, however, the autobiography unexpectedly changes direction and turns into something different entirely. The narrator becomes more critical of his life and begins to reveal details that belie the serenity of the account he just related. What differentiates An Ordinary Life from its two predecessors is that in this case the multiple perspectives through which the man’s life are reflected are all within his own mind. This is not a case of literal schizophrenia or multiple personality disorder, but rather an example of one person’s ability to assess his own life through different aspects of his personality. The portrait of hard work and contentment is only one side of the story, much like the favorable life narratives we craft for public view on social media. As various sides of the subject’s psyche begin to argue with one another over what should be included or omitted from his autobiography, other aspects of his character are revealed, including an aggressive ambition, a hypochondria enabled by his coddling mother, and perverted desires spawned by forbidden sexual encounters in his past. Capek’s writing on these darker topics is surprisingly frank and disturbing. This was a challenging read for its time, not a pandering potboiler. Capek also delivers some insightful dissenting views on the institution of marriage, albeit the marriage dynamic of the 1930s, when women were forced into a more subservient role than today.

All three novels in the Noetic Trilogy are well worth reading. It is a toss-up between Hordubal and An Ordinary Life as to which is the best of the three books. Meteor is not quite as outstanding as the other two, but it is still a remarkable work. English-language readers primarily know Capek as a science fiction writer, from his futuristic play R.U.R. and his utopian novel War of the Newts. The books in the Noetic Trilogy, however, are not sci-fi at all but rather more along the lines of the existential fiction of Franz Kafka or Albert Camus. An Ordinary Life and the two books that preceded it reveal Capek to be an underrated author with a keen insight into human psychology and an exceptional talent for crafting innovative and thought-provoking literature.
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