Not Art : A Novel

Esterhazy, Peter

ISBN 10: 0061792969 / ISBN 13: 9780061792960

Published by HarperCollins Publishers, 2010

About this Item

Former library book; may include library markings. Used book that is in excellent condition. May show signs of wear or have minor defects.

Seller Inventory # 11615441-6

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Not Art : A Novel
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
• Publication Date: 2010
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0061792969
• ISBN 13: 9780061792960
• Binding: Soft cover
• Edition: 1st Edition.
• Condition: Very Good

About this title

Synopsis

′I WILL WRITE ABOUT ALL THAT IN MORE DETAIL LATER.′

The final sentence of Helping Verbs of the Heart - was it a promise, a threat, a quote? In 1985, when Péter Esterházy′s book came out on unnumbered, black-edged pages, this much-cited sentence seemed most likely to be the manifestation of authorial posturing. After the publication of his books on his father Celestial Harmonies and Revised Edition, this sentence and the preceding book on his mother′s death, broken up into auxiliary verbs, now gain new meaning twenty-three years later in Not Art.

Not Art is the book of the reawakened mother, a mother who knows the offside rule, and whose language, which determines her relationship to the world, is the language of football. The son only exists in relation to it, just as everything and everyone else only exists in relation to this mother′s football language. Football, in the author′s last book a stage and a medium for private historiography, now acts as a worldview, its roots in his relationship to his mother and his mother tongue: a mother′s language complex.

Readers seeking ′family stories′ will find them - in subtly written, rounded stories. Those looking for emotions will find them too: platonic love, marital love filled with tenderness, and of course love for his mother and father. And those interested in the esterházyesque auto-reflexive textual world (where does the author begin and end) will not be disappointed either.

About the Author

Peter Esterhazy, a member of one of Europe’s most prominent aristocratic families, was born in Budapest in 1950. His books, published mostly in Europe, are considered to be significant contributions to postwar literature.