Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 2000. [Vol. 6.] Eger Journal of American Studies. (Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 26)
Book reviews - Judit Ágnes Kádár: Zoltán Abádi-Nagy: Világregény— Regényvilág: Amerikai íróinterjúk (The Novel of the World—The World of the Novel: Conversations with American Writers.)
the conversational situations. The critic/journalist must allow for some necessary time and spatial limitations and must take the frustrating challenge of sorting out the less relevant questions sometimes only minutes before the actual interview takes place, just in the case of the Doctorow interview (161). Enormous amount of background information help us understand not only the main currents of contemporary prose writing but also hidden ramifications that occasionally seem to be unveiled even for the writers themselves throughout the conversations, for example in the Percy interview (24), where the novelist seems to reconsider his own texts and approaches to literature in a new perspective. The rich cultural, philosophical and literary theoretical implications of the dialogues often give a roundup on significant notions, such as the concept of the American South and the way the novelist relates himself to that particular awareness of the region (24). The interviewer's comprehensive expertise in literary criticism often unmasks itself in the course of longer explanatory notes incorporated in the body of the questions (e.g. Vonnegut interview 88) that are almost briefs in the study of a particular literary text. A further culture specific addition of the interviews is AbádiNagy's remarks on the apparent relationship between the novels and various aspects of the critic/journalist's own (Hungarian) culture. Gaddis's The Recognitions : Valentine, Doctorow's Houdini figure in Ragtime , Sukenick's Evelyn in 98.6, Vonnegut's perceptions regarding the unique Hungarian sense of humor or Federman's appreciation for Hungarian people and culture. The Novel of the World —The World of the Novel presents a study of narrative strategies and their development as well, for example on Gaddis's 'sustained dialogue' technique (150), Sukenick's collage technique (197) and generative prose writing vis-á-vis the dominance of mimetic functions (Sukenick interview 207), for instance Vonnegut's time technique (103—4), the structure of his texts (105) as well as his sense of humor, with regards to the social, historical and political context of his novels. In the case of Vonnegut the dialogue seems to include relatively more references to contextual factors shaping the text of his novels, for instance a brief overview on relevant issues in American history and current sociopolitical questions is presented in the dialogue. In my view the genre of the 213
