Friends
AuthorAndrás Gerevich
Original titleBarátok
CountrySlovakia
LanguageHungarian
GenrePoetry
PublisherKalligram Könyvkiadó
Publication date
2009
Media typePrint
Pages88
ISBN8-081-01170-6
OCLC1086349815
Preceded byMen (2005)[1] 
Followed bySixteen Sunset (2014)[2] 

Friends (Hungarian: Barátok[lower-alpha 1]; Hungarian pronunciation: [ˈbɒraːtok]) is the third poetry collection by András Gerevich. It was first published in 2009 by Kalligram Könyvkiadó.[4]

The poems in the book are arranged into four cycles and explore three themes: childhood traumas, homosexual relationships, and life abroad.[5][6]

Contents

  • "Búcsú Londontól" (Farewell to London)[7]
  • "Családi időszámítás" (Family Time)[8]
  • "Októberi reggel" (October Morning)[9]
  • "Naphegy tér" (Naphegy Square)
  • "Gyermekem" (My Child)
  • "Anya és fia" (Mother and Son)
  • "Apa" (Father)
  • "Gyermekkori sötét szobák" (Childhood Dark Rooms)
  • "Garázs" (Garage)
  • "Baross utca" (Baross Street)
  • "Barátok" (Friends or Boyfriends)[10]
  • "Inszomnia" (Insomnia)[11]
  • "Fénykép" (Photo)[4]
  • "A francia mozis" (The French Cinema)
  • "Stalker"[12]
  • "MY EX"
  • "Roquebrune-Cap-Martin"
  • "Buli" (Party)
  • "Régi barátok" (Old Friends)[13]
  • "Alig ismertem" (I hardly knew you)
  • "Buszon" (On the Bus)
  • "Vacsora" (Dinner)
  • "Mentás birka" (Mint Sheep)
  • "A vak fiú" (The blind boy)
  • "Két férfi" (Two men)
  • "Erzsébet-híd" (Elizabeth bridge)
  • "Marmaris"[14]
  • "Joe"
  • "Getno"
  • "Rally"
  • "Add nekem" (Give it to me)
  • Madár" (Bird)
  • "Matrac" (Mattress)
  • "Zöld" (Green)
  • "Tükör" (Mirror)
  • "Mosoly" (Smile)
  • "Napolaj" (Sun oil)
  • "Állatok" (Animals)
  • "Párhuzam" (Parallel)
  • "London"
  • "Egészséges" (Healthy)[4]
  • "Verjen a Sors keze 2007" (Beat the Hand of Fate 2007)
  • "Holland Park"
  • "London Bridge"
  • "Vauxhall"
  • "Waterloo"[15]

Reception

Péter Demény of Élet és Irodalom called the collection "nice and beautiful". He further wrote that "It's beautiful, because desire, passion and suffering (at least since Denis de Rougemont, we know that these two go together), loneliness, soul anguish, and guilt can be heard in good poems."[16] Csaba Báthori, writing for Magyar Narancs, praised the overall volume, writing, "András Gerevich's poetry is able to dissolve it into a poetic grayscale, and in the third third of the poem, he snappily summarizes what he depicted before. The drawing of hot primary sensations is mostly perceptive and usually leads to important, meaningful statements (or begins with such a memorable statement)." But he criticised some poems by writing, "here and there the poems cannot yet master what the body has experienced into a work of art; they cannot transmit the poet's emotions to the reader; they cannot turn the direct impressions of soulless flesh into a spiritual-poetic figure"[17] Litera's György Vári wrote, "Despite the occasional clumsiness of some of the poems in the collection , Barátok is one of the most important volumes of poetry in recent years."[18]

Imre Payer of PRAE, praised "intentional free verse form" and "metaphor-less verse speech" in the volume by writing, "The emphasis on visuality and new sensibility is also proven by the fact that András Gerevich is especially good at composition. He knows and has mastered classical topical and acoustic tech very well"[19] Endre Balogh, the owner of PRAE later described it as “one of the most important Hungarian books of poetry in the year 2009.“[20]

Homoerotic themes in the volume were also praised. Viktória Radics of Revizor, wrote, “András Gerevich, who until now attracted attention with his openness about sex between men in poetry, has now crossed the line of breaking the taboo. These current poems are shockingly good not because they write about the strange erotic-sexual experiences and bizarreness of gay relationships, but because they touch on the height and depth of love, sometimes even capture it.“[6] Könyves Magazine wrote, “Barátok goes beyond the poetics of chest hair in the poems the homosexual theme is objectified in such a way that the experience material of the lyrical self holds exciting possibilities even for the reader who is not familiar with the homosexual experience.“[21]

In 2023, Zsigmond Kassai in his article Queer Hungarian Literature: On a Path Out of Isolation for Hungarian Literature Online, wrote, "Barátok, his third volume, achieves another important innovation in Gerevich’s poetic world. It highlights the consequences of biological infertility on a gay man’s life, a question which comes to be a defining element of the gay male perspective in Gerevich’s own poetry and in gay poetry more broadly. Furthermore, this aspect is growing more and more miserable nowadays as it is now illegal in Hungary for LGBTQ persons to adopt.[3]

Notes

  1. ↑ The term 'barátok' in Hungarian is used for both “Friends” and “Boyfriends”, the title implies both.[3]

References

  1. ↑ Borbély, Szilárd (19 August 2005). "Férfiakról - mindenkinek" [About men - for everyone]. Élet és Irodalom (in Hungarian). Vol. 49, no. 33. Budapest. ISSN 0424-8848. Archived from the original on 3 August 2023. Retrieved 3 August 2023. Gerevich András második kötete a férfiak közötti szerelemről szól úgy, hogy az önéletrajzi beszéd kódját is elrejti a kötet darabjaiban [András Gerevich's second volume is about love between men in such a way that it also hides the code of autobiographical speech in the pieces of the volume.]
  2. ↑ Inzsöl, Kata (4 May 2015). "A világ űr: Gerevich András: Tizenhat naplemente" [The world is space: András Gerevich: Sixteen sunsets]. Jelenkor (in Hungarian). Archived from the original on 7 April 2019. Retrieved 15 August 2023.
  3. 1 2 Kassai, Zsigmond (30 June 2023). "Queer Hungarian Literature: On a Path Out of Isolation". Hungarian Literature Online. Archived from the original on 5 July 2023. Retrieved 6 July 2023. After his first book of poems was published in 1997, he released Férfiak ("Men") in 2005 and Barátok (implying both "Friends" and "Boyfriends") in 2009.
  4. 1 2 3 "Gerevich András: Barátok" [András Gerevich: Friends]. Litera – az irodalmi portál (in Hungarian). 19 August 2009. Archived from the original on 8 September 2023.
  5. ↑ Vincze, Ildikó (18 January 2010). "Csak a hiány, amit talál – Vincze Ildikó kritikája Gerevich András Barátok (Kalligram, 2009.) című verseskötetéről" [Only the lack that you find - Ildikó Vincze's review of András Gerevich's book of poems entitled Friends (Kalligram, 2009)]. Irodalmi Jelen (in Hungarian). Archived from the original on 5 November 2023. Retrieved 5 November 2023.
  6. 1 2 Radics, Viktória (29 September 2009). "MI MINDENT HORD A SZERELEM, Gerevich András: Barátok" [Love Carries All, András Gerevich: Friends]. Revizor (in Hungarian). Archived from the original on 13 February 2014. Retrieved 14 December 2022.
  7. ↑ "Búcús londontól" [Farewell to London]. Holmi (in Hungarian). Vol. 19, no. 4. Budapest. April 2007. pp. 467–468. Archived from the original on 22 August 2023. Retrieved 22 August 2023.
  8. ↑ "Családi időszámítás" [Family Time]. Élet és Irodalom (in Hungarian). Vol. 52, no. 3. Budapest. 18 January 2008. Archived from the original on 1 September 2019. Retrieved 5 November 2023.
  9. ↑ "Októberi reggel" [October Morning]. Élet és Irodalom (in Hungarian). Vol. 53, no. 6. Budapest. 6 February 2009. Archived from the original on 1 September 2019. Retrieved 5 November 2023.
  10. ↑ "Barátok" [Friends]. Élet és Irodalom (in Hungarian). Vol. 49, no. 41. Budapest. 14 October 2005. Archived from the original on 1 September 2019. Retrieved 5 November 2023.
  11. ↑ "Inszomnia" [Insomnia]. Élet és Irodalom (in Hungarian). Vol. 48, no. 15. Budapest. 9 April 2004. Archived from the original on 20 July 2023. Retrieved 5 November 2023.
  12. ↑ "Stalker". Élet és Irodalom (in Hungarian). Vol. 53, no. 20. Budapest. 15 May 2009. Archived from the original on 1 September 2019. Retrieved 5 November 2023.
  13. ↑ "Régi barátok" [Old Friends]. Élet és Irodalom (in Hungarian). Vol. 53, no. 20. Budapest. 15 May 2009. Archived from the original on 1 September 2019. Retrieved 5 November 2023.
  14. ↑ "Marmaris (poems)". Hungarian Literature Online. 7 November 2006. Archived from the original on 13 September 2015. Retrieved 16 July 2023.
  15. ↑ "Waterloo". Élet és Irodalom (in Hungarian). Vol. 53, no. 20. Budapest. 15 May 2009. Archived from the original on 1 September 2019. Retrieved 5 November 2023.
  16. ↑ Demény, Péter (5 June 2009). "Kapu alatt a füstben" [Under the gate in the smoke]. Élet és Irodalom (in Hungarian). Vol. 53, no. 23. Budapest. Archived from the original on 8 September 2023. Retrieved 8 September 2023.
  17. ↑ Báthori, Csaba (30 July 2009). "Könyv - A barátság koordinátái - Gerevich András: Barátok" [Book - The coordinates of friendship - András Gerevich: Friends]. Magyar Narancs (in Hungarian). Vol. 21, no. 31. Budapest. Archived from the original on 8 September 2023. Retrieved 8 September 2023.
  18. ↑ Vári, György (12 August 2009). "Pergő homokórák" [Snare hourglasses]. Litera – az irodalmi portál (in Hungarian). Archived from the original on 9 April 2016. Retrieved 7 November 2023.
  19. ↑ Payer, Imre (10 August 2009). "A HOMOSZEXUALITÁS SZENZIBILIS POÉTIKÁJA" [THE SENSITIVE POETICS OF HOMOSEXUALITY]. prae.hu. PRAE- a művészeti portál. Archived from the original on 25 July 2023. Retrieved 25 July 2023. A vizualitásra és az új szenzibilitásra tett hangsúlyt az is bizonyítja, hogy amúgy Gerevich András kifejezetten jó a verstanban. Nagyon jól ismeri és elsajátította a klasszikus topikus és akusztikus technét, a legendás Lator-szemináriumok szorgalmas hallgatója volt. A szabadvers forma, a metaforátlan versbeszéd szándékos a költészetében [The emphasis on visuality and new sensibility is also proven by the fact that András Gerevich is especially good at composition. He knows and has mastered classical topical and acoustic techne very well, and was a diligent student of the legendary Lator seminars. The free verse form, the metaphorless verse speech, is intentional in his poetry.]
  20. ↑ Balogh, Endre (15 February 2010). "Barátkozás Gerevich András új könyvével" [Make Friends with András Gerevich's New BOOK]. PRAE.HU - a művészeti portál (in Hungarian). Archived from the original on 27 March 2023. Retrieved 7 July 2023.
  21. ↑ "Túl a mellszőrzet poétikáján" [Beyond the poetics of chest hair]. Könyves Magazin (in Hungarian). Budapest. 11 November 2009. Archived from the original on 8 July 2023. Retrieved 8 July 2023.
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