[mikrl]

It’s like catch 22 but more crude, and more brutal.

Lots of drinking, stealing, fist fighting, long winded anecdotes (with plenty of embellishments) telling lies to get into / out of trouble, and ethnic humour reflecting the attitudes which were typical of the imperial period: Germans/Austrians look down on Czechs, Czechs resent the Germans and are unfriendly with Hungarians, the imperial soldiers harass Jews (who get them back in various ways) and there is a scene where the Czechs in military jail are practicing their Russian: for an assumed surrender at the front.

[chalst]

I guess what you described, though unpleasant sounding, fitted the Czech Republic’s history. Perhaps that’s why hilbert42 liked it.