Bookcase

Asturias - Leyendas de Guatemala

A world unknown and far away was Guatemala and the land of Central America in general for me. This is the scene of the main work of the Banana Trilogy written by the Nobel laureate writer. Hundred thousands of the miserable poor flock here to build a Brave New World. Just a few survive the epidemics and those who remain are dried to parchment by the devastating heat. In the steep of all time heat Indian legends, thousand year old myths and magic business of the colonizer tycoons blend. In the deep of the furnace of Asturias a strange mixture is whirling: sentences to taste word by word, and floating chain of dream-thoughts which make the work a masterpiece of "prose steamed to poetry".

Boris Vian - Verquin et le plancton

The first work of the short-lived jazz-trumpeter-drama critic-chanson writer Vian - who is the eponym of the publication Frothing Papers - is this amusing comedy, written by him at the age of 23. Although his pulp fictions also highly succeeded, Vian's real gift stands out in Verquin et le plancton, beside Froth on the Daydream and L' Automne á Pékin. Vian's prologue would be appropriate here; but as he says: " My prologue is absolutely needless, whereby it exactly achieves its aim." The frame of the story of Verquin et le plancton is provided by two wild parties, in the midst of the main characters' life-leapfrogs the thread of their lives assemble to a hank impossible to unravel. In the background of the witty surrealist story a serious social criticism stands, as it reveals the awkwardness of the officialdom that was trying its wings then and has become choking by now.

Géza Csáth - Napló (1912 - 1913) (Diary)

I have to confess, that at first I proved to be prudish while reading this Diary. Sometimes I vaulted the tender points, seeking spirit. Later when the book got back to the self something stirred in me. Csáth put his diary down when he was already highly addicted to morphine. He put down two years of his life working as a doctor in a spa. The work is kind of a sex novel, an honest confession of a writer escaping from narcotics to bodily pleasures. Both a psychoanalysis and a valuable literary historical document, the open up of doctor Csáth on the dissection-table. Descending into the depths of the Diary is only possible with a same kind of openness - it is how this travel will be really illuminating.

János Endrődy - Énekes az országúton (Singer on the Road)

Sometime in the middle of the 10^th century, people called themselves 'kathars' or 'cleans' wandered from the land of Bulgarians, advocating the new faith. About 150 years later Innocent III proclaimed a crusade against these believers called 'albigens' from the town of Albi next to Toulouse. Guillem Figueira, a tailor and musician of Toulouse belonged to the 'albigens'. He had to make a hard decision whether he surrenders his instruments to the inquisition or leaves his ancestors' land. A long time of wandering starts, through German Land, passing Italy. One can get to know the life of strolling musicians, in the background of political-religious fights. While we are having fun with the adventures of the characters, we are also get acquainted with contemporary troubadour songs, Minnesanger poems and forgotten songs of wanderer students. Works translated with great care raise a monument to writers not less famous than Hélinant de Froidmont, Walter von der Vogelweide, Richard the Lionheart and Giacomo da Lentini.

F. Scott Fitzerald - Tender is the Night

It is a revealing work of the Lost Generation. A psychiatrist falls in love with a wonderful and rich lady patient who has, otherwise, unsteady nerves. Though their matrimony the power of money presents itself. The all-consuming love sweeps along the talented doctor with fine prospects into both moral and mental deterioration. The Big American Dream vanishes and what it leaves is only desolate and empty wilderness.

Heinrich Böll - The Clown

Books of the Nobel laureate writer - also called the 'clown of Köln' in his country - became famous rightly all over the world. Besides his works also adopted for the screen Billiards at Half Past Nine (1961) and The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum (1976) his most shocking novel, The Clown was written in 1963. Its main character is Hans Schnier - son of a tycoon - who is unable to compromise, violates the social conventions and becomes a clown. Cocking a snook at everyone he performs from the stages of Köln to the muddy streets of Bonn. Decadence is inevitable, while his true love becomes infected by the blinded religious and middle class public morality.

John Steinbeck - Sweet Thursday

Monterey is a strange Californian county where Steinbeck's heroes come to life. It is a scene for emotion (East of Eden) that sweeps everything, for workers' movements (The Grapes of Wrath) and also for the heart-piercing friendship (Of Mice and Men). It is the same place where the characters of Cannery row - these crooks of the Nobel laureate writer - live. You can pleasingly laze with them by some litres of Junk Tennis Shoes or can listen to classical music with Doc in the Physiology Lab. Between the Bear Banner and the Palace Pub you can muse about a sunnier side of life, where problems work out more easily somehow. Mac ad the others tack with stoical wisdom among matters of life yet their sins canonize them in the eye of the reader.

Michael Ende - Mirror in the Mirror

Everyone knows the name of the writer of Momo or the Neverending Story. He is a worthy 20^th century successor of Andersen or the Grimm brothers who writes children's poems that also include serious lessons for adults. The volume Mirror in the Mirror is dedicated to his painter father Edgar Ende. The fine threads of his surrealist stories lace one another, subjects and characters of the short stories vanish, then appear in an other dreamlike vision. Mosaics of our souls slowly unite to a dim reflection of ours. Whether this picture is funny or sad also depends on the reader: Ende sets us against ourselves ruthlessly - it is up to the reader if they manage to do introspection or laugh at their own frailties.

Michel Tournier - Le Coq de bruyére / The Fetishist

Every year TV channels bill Tournier's world famous novel adopted for the screen titled The Erl King. The main character of the film creates an own world to the place of unbearable reality. Forming a grotesque and contradictory character, he balances on the pillars of moral principles. He is miserable and heroic at the same time as all the obsessed characters of Tournier. This collection of stories appeared in 1978. The works are astonishing and comical satires of a world turned inside out. How did Jahve create Eve? What could happen to Robinson Crusoe in his late years? Through witty and thought-provoking stories several taboos collapse, opening doors that may have jammed since long in the reader.

Susan Sontag - Death Kit

Diddy, the Non-Existing dreamt strange things. Although it is possible that everyone else dreamt, the reality is that they filled the space around Diddy, the Existing. Maybe it is Rag Rob who is responsible for everything - his red-striped legs are hanging loosely in the blue trouser leg. When, as a child, he was punished (now he is not, Diddy, the Adult) it was always the rag doll who suffered. It lost his thread hair as a start, followed by its bean-button eyes. The novel is a real low-altitude flying into the dark side of Dalton Harris's soul. From mosaics seemingly meaningless the reader fits together the picture and gets a serious pathological case.

William Golding - The Hot Gates

After and during the success of Lord of the Flies and Pincher Martin, novels of Golding were published continually. One of them is The Hot Gates written in 1965. Its anti-hero is Father Jocelin, who builds a tower. Not a tower, a church. Moreover, a cathedral. He builds it of sweat, tear and blood. The stock is the human - frail and mortal - who is worth nothing as he had a vision. The tower must be finished, cresting above everyone. Above the tumbled community, above killed love. It will stand as a memento of madness, an eternal remonstrance: not even in return for Hell can we resort to Devil's means.

Szelevényi Gellért