Press and readers
Reviews
What writers, critics and readers have said about the books. Translated from Hungarian.
This book is first-rate as a psychological novel, too: within moments I found myself in the shoes of the love-starved daughter who all but wears herself out trying to win her father’s affection. But the book is much more than a family novel.
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Around the middle comes a long section entitled “As I Imagine It”. Here we jump back in time and get to know a Zionist camp operating in a manor house in the village of Deszk.
The author deserves nothing but praise for her depiction of camp life, too. The colourful gallery of the other children and the teachers, their humanity, creates a perfectly rounded world – one that, moreover, does not shut itself off from the children and adults of the village.
This is a very good read: an imagined story that takes aim at the reality of past and present. I think it would work well in translation.
“The writer knows instinctively that it is not the big things you need to know, but the details.”
“This is not a novel of forgiveness (as the blurb says) but of acceptance and inexhaustible love.”
“Migratory Lobster offers engaging portraits of the winners and losers of the past several decades. I particularly enjoyed the wealth of precise details and the way the objects and moods of the late Kádár era, the fall of socialism and the new, wild capitalism emerge in the text again and again, so vividly, with an almost intoxicating vitality.”
“From time to time you pick up a book and start reading, and then you notice that although you are an early sleeper, dawn is already breaking and you haven’t slept a wink. You devour every page, because you want to know what will become of the masterfully crafted characters. And by morning you know that Viktória Lugosi has won yet another devoted fan.”
“Viktória Lugosi is a superb storyteller who knows how to tie and untie narrative threads; her book is full of good stories. Storytelling needs characters, and hers are familiar in just the right proportion – we have met people like them, but only like them, for each has something surprising and thought-provoking about them, a twist that teaches us something about how life works.”
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“That takes knowledge of life and many kinds of knowledge – not only of the soul but of trades and professions, of business, of the different parts of the city, of travel abroad, wealth and poverty, fashion, snobbery, home furnishings and Hungarian life over the past decades.”
Superbly told episodes, skilfully drawn, richly detailed portraits. Interesting faces and places. You can smell the gugelhupf as well as the rotting vegetable leaves of the wholesale market. One of the text’s greatest strengths is how vividly it makes you see.
“The characterisation is masterly. I confess it has been a long time since a book had such a hold on me.”
“In one sitting, one reads Agatha Christie and Chandler. And Viktória Lugosi. Yes, her. From start to finish. Who is this woman? Where did she come from? Did she spring from Zeus’s forehead? Fully armed, no less? Quite something. And she bears the kiss of the muse. On her forehead. The kiss of the muse – or of eternity?”
“The life of a family in Budapest in the 1960s, seen through the eyes of a little girl – but not just any little girl. She is sensitive, unfailingly sincere, and at the same time full of understanding and love. The characters are wonderful, lovable and unbearable, as if they were members of our own family… Precise, bold, amusing and deeply moving – a wonderful read.”
“It has been a long time since we encountered a character sketched with such empathy, in such refined pastel colours and with so much love. The grandmother in Oy Vey!, who becomes an almost mythical figure, the archetype of the Yiddish mame, can be placed – without comparing the artistic achievement – alongside Péter Esterházy’s imposing portrait of the father in his great family tableau Harmonia Caelestis, and the mother and father figures in the novels of Miklós Vámos.”
“All the virtues are there: lived experience, a seemingly spontaneous dramaturgy, authentic references. The vegetable-stew air of the Kádár era feels familiar. […] The secret of the book’s greatest strength lies in the fifty centimetres by which a child’s horizon sits below an adult’s. From there, closer up, the fine details of the world are easier to see – and it is precisely these sparingly drawn details that guarantee the novel’s authenticity.”
“With an inexhaustible delight in storytelling she pieces together the mirror shards of her childhood before our eyes: those barely tangible, subtle perceptions, the small moments of awakening to the world that few people are able to recall.”
“Enchanting humour.”
“I am glad I was among the first readers of your excellent book. I was captivated by its humour, its subtle irony and that inner cheerfulness without which no one can write a good children’s book. I liked the twisting plot, the irresistible joy of storytelling, and the fact that you know children need neither baby talk nor spoon-feeding. Of course, adult readers can enjoy it too, just as I did. As for the names – every one of them is a hit; I confess, and I hope you won’t mind, that Egygár and Kétgár made me green with envy. Do write for children often. (And for me.)”
Hümmögő does not lack imagination: it can tell a story, it doesn’t treat children as simple-minded, and it creates a carefully drawn world. It follows plenty of good traditions, inspired naming being one of them. […] Lugosi is a born optimist who sees the wondrous in the everyday. The plot never stumbles, and the book radiates cheerfulness and a love of storytelling. The story is made for an animated film.
“Viktória Lugosi’s children’s book Hümmögő promises pure entertainment… Although openly didactic in places, the story never over-explains anything for a moment and never doubts children’s intelligence, even when it comes to understanding weighty emotional questions.”