We were supposed to be climbing Kleine Scheidegg today but as it was pouring with rain we didn`t. As I`m now lacking a Book Club to ramble onto about the books I`ve read, I`m going to write it here. I`ve not written a book review before so bear with me.
I rather enjoyed this book - it basically follows two members of a Hungarian national basketball team around the country for a few years in postwar communist Hungary. I don`t know whether Fischer is Hungarian or not (his paragraph-bio claims he`s a Brit) but either way he`s certainly done his research and the book is as much about life, death and politics in Hungary as it is about basketball. Actually there`s not a lot of basketball in it, so perhaps that`s not hard. One thing that makes me hope he`s a Brit is his use of words I don`t understand. If anyone would care to let me know what the following mean, I`d much appreciate it:
catafalque
epistemological
plenitude
ozymandiased
obsequies
vituperating
fulminated
ontogeny
phylogeny
badinage
eructations
sesquipedalian
imprecations
presentment
aposiopesis
manumittance
You need to actually know what they mean, rather than have a guess or think you`ve heard them before. Answers on a postcard.
The book has a quite charming tone to it, and Fischer does well at following two characters at once. In some ways the plot is a bit directionless but he gets away with it by sticking in a healthy chunk of Hungarian history to keep you happy. I found the second half a lot easier to get through than the first - I think his prose can be a little sticky to read and the language improves as time goes on.
Readers who were also members of Book Club will know that we score books one (good) to five (bad) in the three categories used by the Hardens` restaurant guides - food, service and ambience.
Food: 3
Service: 2
Ambience: 2