Name: In Praise of Older Women
ISBN: 9780141192062

Stephen Vizinczey

You cannot put it down: witty, moving and it's all about sex' Margaret Drabble 'A masterpiece ... dazzling ... like all great novels, it shows the truth about life' Le Monde 'At the basis of pleasure, of eroticism, Vizinczey places consciousness. His novel consists of scenes which you can see ... Stupefying: it leaves you breathless with excitement. Here, everything is living ardour, inexhaustible fervour' Giorgio Montefoschi, Corriere della Sera

The Amorous Recollections of András Vajda

In Praise of Older Women

Frederik Van den Bril

I can’t say I like this book but can’t say I hate it either. It’s just kinda weird, don’t know what to make off it. This coming-of-age novel / bildungsroman had great potential in my eyes because of its unique subject and space in time. But pretty soon it gets lost in the ramblings of an old man (with a severe case of Hungarian-in-exile romantic nostalgia) about his time as a young man with obsessive-compulsive sexual behavior towards older women. Generally the writing is bland and not very inspiring. It has some interesting pieces on Hungary during WOII, the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 and the general Hungarian mindset. I finished it because it was an easy read.

"A cool, comic survey of the sexual education of a young Hungarian, from his first encounter, as a twelve-year-old refugee with the American forces, to his unsatisfactory liaison with a reporter's wife in Canada at the belated end of his youth, when he was twenty-three . . . elegantly erotic, with masses of that indefinable quality, style . . . this has the real stuff of immortality."—B. A. Young, Punch "A pleasure. Vizinczey writes of women beautifully, with sympathy, tact and delight, and he writes about sex with more lucidity and grace than most writers ever acquire."—Larry McMurtry, Houston Post "Like James Joyce, who was as far from being a writer of erotica as Dostoevsky, Vizinczey has a refreshing message to deliver: Life is not about sex, sex is about life."—John Podhoretz, Washington Times "The gracefully written story of a young man growing up among older women . . . although some passages may well arouse the reader, this novel brims with what the courts have termed "redeeming literary merit."—Clarence Petersen, Chicago Tribune "A funny novel about sex, or rather (which is rarer) a novel which is funny as well as touching about sex . . . elegant, exact and melodious—has style, presence and individuality."—Isabel Quigly, Sunday Telegraph "The delicious adventures of a young Casanova who appreciates maturity while acquiring it himself. In turn naive, sophisticated, arrogant, disarming, the narrator woos his women and his tale wins the reader."—Polly Devlin, Vogue

In Praise of Older Women The Amorous Recollections of András Vajda

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