Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 1996. [Vol. 3.] Eger Journal of American Studies. (Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 23)
BOOK REVIEWS - Csaba Czeglédi: Endre Vázsonyi: Túl a Kacegárdán, Culmet-vidéki amerikai magyar szótár [Beyond Castle Garden: An American Hungarian Dictionary of the Calumet Region]. Edited and introduction by Miklós Kontra. A Magyarország-kutatás könyv-tára XV. Budapest: Teleki László Alapítvány, 1995. 242 pp
information" (43) in the narration that makes this prose what it really is (Linsey Abrams) . Minimalists, most often, deal with the surface and it is "the prose of an opaque vision" (43). Authors are not concerned about the "great themes" of literature (Robert Dunn). The minimalist writer has a bias in favor of the objective world (44) (Diane Stevenson), and they, instead of expanding, are reducing the possibilities of plot. They are obsessed with the details of the surface while they intentionally neglect the social differences among the people they talk about(44)(Madison Bell). John Barth calls it a "realist or hyper-realist .... cold fiction" (44) that "can tell us a lot but it has nothing to do with the actual length of the story" (44), it is a "concise, associative, realist or hyper-realist" (44) prose. The critical opinions and attitudes collected here vary from that of the writer of 'The Literary Brat Pack" (45) (Bruce Bawer), an article of vehement hostility towards minimalism, to Tom Wolfe's literary "manifesto-like article" (46) in Harper's Magazine, in which he talks about an "anesthetic fiction" that maneuvers microscopic domestic situations set mainly in small town America. From among the European 'critical angles' Abádi Nagy chooses Marc Chenetier's "Living On/Off The 'Reserve,'" which is written solely about Raymond Carver's stories but "whose observations concerning the performance nature and interrogative characteristics .... of Carver's prose can be valid to describe the whole phenomenon of minimalism" (47). The introductory chapter closes with a thematic grouping of minimalist authors. Abádi Nagy arranges the authors into the following groups: 1/ the generation of the 1970s, 2/ the generation of the 1980s and 3/ borderline-writers, for writers whose work can only partially be categorized as part of the minimalist movement. The chapter devoted to the minimalist writers of the 1970s contains the following names: Raymond Carver, Ann Beattie, Frederick Barthelme, Joy Williams, Bobbie An Mason, Jayne Anne Phillips, Richard Ford and Mary Robison. The chapter for the minimalists of the 1980s lists its authors as: Tobias Wolff, Elizabeth Tallent, David Leavitt, Jay Mclnerney and Bret Easton Ellis, while the chapter for the 187
