Semmi művészet

I have been delightedly occupied with reading books lately , and there isn’t really anything else I could tell you about… so let’s talk books. (the other option would be “let’s talk Hungarian Studies… but really, how many of you would be interested in that?)

Do you know what love is?  Love is to find the book you stared at so longingly on the other side of Europe in your own house.

The book in question is called Semmi művészet ( “No Art” in English- as far as I know, there is no English translation available, and Ingen konst in Swedish, the language I'm reading it in) and it’s written by one of the most influential Hungarian writers (we are talking contemporary literature here), Péter Esterházy.
This book is about the writer’s mother: a beautiful creature who adores football and was friends with a certain Ferenc Puskás (one of the best European footballers in the 20th century). So, almost automatically it becomes a story about football. To such an extent that the book was chosen the “Football Book of the Year” in Germany in 2009. Set in the 1950s and onwards, it’s also impossible to escape the obligatory glimpse into the Communist regime.

Most of all, though, it’s the touching story of the relationship between a son and his mother.
The writing is jumpy, the sentences are long. It’s funny and warm, sometimes a bit eccentric, but definitely worth a read.