Gecse Annabella et al. (szerk.): Tisicum - A Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok Megyei Múzeumok Évkönyve 18. (Szolnok, 2009)
Irodalom- és művészettörténet - Bistey András: Egy szolnoki prózaíró a XX. század közepéről
Irodalom- és művészettörténet András Bistey A prose-writer of Szolnok from the mid-20th century György Gyomai (1899-1973) was a characteristic figure of the literary life of Szolnok in the middle of the 20th century. A schoolmaster and public educator, he taught young children in small village schools for 20 years, but next to his work as a teacher he also carried out informative activities among the adult population in his environment. The result of these activities is his volume Virad a tanyán (Dawn at the Farm-Stead). In some short stories of this book, elements of journalism and publicism are mixed with those of belles- lettres and he used his writings for his public educational purposes and thus he created a characteristic new literary department. With his short stories and novels, he wanted to offer mainly people living in small villages and isolated farms something valuable to read as an alternative of trashy literature. One example of these is his novel Sunday afternoon published in cheap note-book format, but the plot of his greatest undertaking, Love on Sóhajtó cart-track also takes place in this rural environment. The characters of his short stories and novels are mainly village teachers and farmers living in remote farmhouses. He knew very well the ways of thinking of those people and their language, a feature that makes his writing so genuine and accurate. His style, which was overornamented and showed elements of folksiness, became more simplified, expressive and plastic with the course of time. In his stories published after World War Two (Painter at the Farm-Stead, Mihály, Sheet-tin Feet), he achieved the summit of his writing career. In 1956, he published a novel called Wolves in the Reeds the story of which takes place during the early 18th century Rákóczi War of Independence. 609
