Under The Frog

The worst possible place to be in is “under a frog’s arse down a coal mine.” That’s supposedly a Hungarian proverb, and Tibor Fischer’s 1993 Booker-shortlisted, Betty Trask Award-winning book ‘Under The Frog’ borrows this idea as its title. The title of the book caught my attention while browsing at a bookstore in Bangalore a couple of months ago, and after reading the back cover, which described the book as ‘hilarious’, I decided to buy it. Since work pressures had kept me busy, I managed to pick up the book a few days ago and finished reading it.

‘Under The Frog’ is the story of young Gyuri, a basketball player for the Hungarian Railways, who goes traipsing around the country between 1944 and 1956, trying to avoid the War and the subsequent Communist regime in Hungary. His escapades with people in authority, education, politics, his friend Pataki, and his eternal search for the company of women, are narrated in a style that reminded me of J D Salinger’s ‘The Catcher In The Rye’. It seemed to me, the protagonist here, Gyuri Fischer, was an older East-European version of Salinger’s Holden Caulfied.

Although ‘Under The Frog’ started off slowly, it picked up speed quickly thanks to Tibor Fischer’s humorous writing, which had me chuckling to myself on many occasions. The story aptly captured Hungarian sentiments during the Soviet takeover of their country, yet it stayed away from any melodrama, grief or the bloodshed. The anger, the angst and the bitterness of the Hungarian people were depicted so ruefully by the narrator, and through Gyuri’s never-say-die escapades, that I had no choice but to cheer them all on, wishing myself and telling them that there was a light at the end of the tunnel.

Perhaps this story is biographical in nature as Tibor Fischer’s Hungarian parents were (reportedly) basketball players, who escaped from Hungary in 1956. Tibor Fischer, who was born in England in 1959, could very well be narrating his father’s life for his readers in a fictional form. Honestly, I hadn’t heard of Tibor Fischer until I noticed and read this book. But, after ‘Under The Frog’, I’m tempted to read more of his writing.