Ričardas Gavelis’s (1950–2002) prose contains many cultural references, including the names of famous European writers, thinkers and philosophers, such as Camus, Kafka, Beckett, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, or Orwell. Characters of Gavelis’s novels think about these authors, discuss their texts and ideas with others, but also write letters to them, contact them telepathically or even… physically. A few Lithuanian authors’ names can be found there as well. Hence, the aim of this article is to have a closer look at those names and the context in which they appear. I am going to analyze first three novels written by Gavelis: “Vilnius Poker” (Vilniaus Pokeris, 1989), “Memoirs of a Life Cut Short” (Jauno žmogaus memuarai, 1991) and “Vilnius Jazz” (Vilniaus džiazas, 1993), as they depict the same literary vision. Lithuanian authors that are mentioned in these novels include, among others, such significant figures of Lithuanian culture as Vincas Mykolaitis-Putinas (in “Memoirs of a Life Cut Short”), a writer, a poet, and a university professor, or Justinas Marcinkevičius, considered to be „the only one real Lithuanian poet” (in “Vilnius Poker”). The characters of Gavelis’s novels criticize Lithuanian literature for propagating the stereotype of the „Lithuanian spirit” – lyrical, sentimental, experiencing deep emotions but not thinking, soft, introvert and passive, hermetic and closed in its own circle. The authors such as Camus, Kafka, Orwell, Beckett, Russell, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, and Ortega y Gasset – thinkers, innovators, precursors – add the European context to this picture. Their presence shows us what Gavelis’s characters (and probably Gavelis himself) require from literature. The model claimed as typical for Lithuania does not cover their intellectual needs. It is also considered dangerous because it creates a picture of Lithuanian mentality as soft, submissive and easy to control.