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Péter Esterházy |
"His motto is: 'It is miserably hard to lie when you do not know the truth.' Péter Esterházy is an avowed opponent of linear narrative. But all of Europe still loves him," Tilman Spreckelsen writes in the lede of the piece.
The piece takes the reader from Esterházy's literary debut, Fancsikó and Pinta, published in 1976, to Revised Edition, written after he discovered his father was an informer for the secret police, via Celestial Harmonies, his magnum opus from 2000.
Celestial Harmonies, a history of Esterházy's family that spans centuries, is an "immense panoramic novel" peppered with stories, essays, snapshots and long exposures of European history.
Esterházy's rejection of the shallowness of Socialist Realism had a "ground-breaking effect". But he also established himself in a different literary tradition, joining his predecessor Kosztolányi.
Source: Hungarian News Agency (MTI) / Photo: MTI
