In the Footsteps of Orpheus The Life and Times of Miklós Radnóti

Osvath (literature and the history of ideas, U. of Texas) combines biography and literary criticism to present the times and work of Hungarian-Jewish poet, Miklos Radnoti (1909-44). Radnoti's work is more suited than many literary figures to biographical analysis since his ponderous life figured prominently in his work. His birth was the occasion of his mother's and twin brother's death, his decision to become a public poet almost simultaneous with growing hostility from rightist and anti-Semitic factions, and his resolve to stay in Hungary at all costs, the beginning of his demise: when the Nazis occupied Hungary, Radnoti was herded on to a train, railroaded into slave labor, and shot in the back of the neck on a long march he could no longer endure. Osvath chronicles, in great detail, chunks of political and personal history and then proceeds to the poems that grew from these contexts. Radnoti's last poems were found in his breast pocket in a mass grave over a year after his execution. In light of T. Adorno's assertion that there can be no poetry after the Holocaust, it is especially astounding that Radnoti continued to write poems even while subjected to the Holocaust. Annotation copyrighted by Book News Inc., Portland, OR