Stephen Vizinczey
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Stephen Vizinczey, originally István Vizinczey (12 May 1933 – 18 August 2021) was a Hungarian-Canadian writer.


Early career and influences

Vizinczey was born in Káloz, Hungary. His first published works were poems which appeared in George Lukacs's
Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...
magazine ''Forum'' in 1949, when the writer was 16. He studied under Lukacs at the
University of Budapest A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, th ...
and graduated from the city's Academy of Theatre and Film Arts in 1956. He wrote at that time two plays, ''The Last Word'' and ''Mama'', which were banned by the Hungarian Communist regime. He took part in the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, and after a short stay in Italy, ended up in Canada speaking only 50 words of English, and eventually taking Canadian citizenship. He learned English writing scripts for Canada's
National Film Board The National Film Board of Canada (NFB; french: Office national du film du Canada (ONF)) is Canada's public film and digital media producer and distributor. An agency of the Government of Canada, the NFB produces and distributes documentary fi ...
and the CBC. He edited Canada's short-lived literary magazine, ''Exchange''. In 1966 he moved to London. Vizinczey cited his literary heroes as
Pushkin Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin (; rus, links=no, Александр Сергеевич ПушкинIn pre-Revolutionary script, his name was written ., r=Aleksandr Sergeyevich Pushkin, p=ɐlʲɪkˈsandr sʲɪrˈɡʲe(j)ɪvʲɪtɕ ˈpuʂkʲɪn, ...
,
Gogol Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol; uk, link=no, Мико́ла Васи́льович Го́голь, translit=Mykola Vasyliovych Hohol; (russian: Яновский; uk, Яновський, translit=Yanovskyi) ( – ) was a Russian novelist, ...
, Dostoevsky, Balzac, Stendhal and Kleist. His best-known works were the novels ''In Praise of Older Women'' (1965) and ''An Innocent Millionaire'' (1983).


''In Praise of Older Women''

''In Praise of Older Women: the amorous recollections of András Vajda'' is a ''
Bildungsroman In literary criticism, a ''Bildungsroman'' (, plural ''Bildungsromane'', ) is a literary genre that focuses on the psychological and moral growth of the protagonist from childhood to adulthood (coming of age), in which character change is import ...
'' whose young narrator has sexual encounters with women in their thirties and forties in Hungary, Italy, and Canada. "The book is dedicated to older women and is addressed to young men--and the connection between the two is my proposition" is the book's epigraph. Kildare Dobbs wrote in '' Saturday Night'', "Here is this Hungarian rebel who in 1957 could scarcely speak a word of our language and who even today speaks it with an impenetrable accent and whose name moreover we can't pronounce, and he has the gall to place himself, with his first book and in his thirty-third year, among the masters of plain English prose..." In 2001 it was translated for the first time into French, and became a best-seller in France. It has twice been made into a movie: a 1978 Canadian production starring
Tom Berenger Tom Berenger (born Thomas Michael Moore; May 31, 1949) is an American actor. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of Staff Sergeant Bob Barnes in ''Platoon'' (1986). He is also known for playing Jake ...
as Andras Vajda, and a subsequent 1997 Spanish production featuring
Faye Dunaway Dorothy Faye Dunaway (born January 14, 1941) is an American actress. She is the recipient of many accolades, including an Academy Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, three Golden Globe Awards, and a BAFTA Award. In 2011, the government of France mad ...
as Condesa. In 2010, the book was reissued as a Penguin Modern Classic. Gerald Jacobs
"In Praise of Older Women by Stephen Vizinczey: review"
''The Telegraph'', 16 May 2010.


''An Innocent Millionaire''

First published in 1983, ''An Innocent Millionaire'' tells the story of Mark Niven, the son of an American actor who makes an uncertain living in Europe. "Mankind, we are told, is divided into the haves and the have-nots, but there are those who both have the goods and do not, and they live the tensest lives." The boy who spends his childhood in various countries "has no emotional address" and once financial pressures led to the divorce of his parents, he becomes enchanted with the idea of finding a Spanish treasure ship. He finds both love and the treasure ship, but the fortune turns into a nightmare and his happiness with a married woman ends in tragedy. The novel was praised by critics including
Graham Greene Henry Graham Greene (2 October 1904 – 3 April 1991) was an English writer and journalist regarded by many as one of the leading English novelists of the 20th century. Combining literary acclaim with widespread popularity, Greene acquir ...
and
Anthony Burgess John Anthony Burgess Wilson, (; 25 February 1917 – 22 November 1993), who published under the name Anthony Burgess, was an English writer and composer. Although Burgess was primarily a comic writer, his dystopian satire ''A Clockwork ...
. Burgess wrote in ''
Punch Punch commonly refers to: * Punch (combat), a strike made using the hand closed into a fist * Punch (drink), a wide assortment of drinks, non-alcoholic or alcoholic, generally containing fruit or fruit juice Punch may also refer to: Places * Pun ...
'' that Vizinczey could "teach the English how to write English", praised the novel's "prose style and its sly apophthegms, as well as in the solidity of its characters, good and detestable alike." Burgess ended his review by saying: "I was entertained but also deeply moved: here is a novel set bang in the middle of our corrupt world that, in some curious way, breathes a kind of desperate hope." The London ''
Literary Review ''Literary Review'' is a British literary magazine founded in 1979 by Anne Smith, then head of the Department of English at the University of Edinburgh. Its offices are on Lexington Street in Soho. The magazine was edited for fourteen years by v ...
'' called the novel "an authentic social epic, which reunites, after an estrangement of nearly a century, intellectual and moral edification with exuberant entertainment."


Essays

Vizinczey wrote two books of literary, philosophical and political essays: ''The Rules of Chaos'' (1969) and ''Truth and Lies in Literature'' (1985).


Bibliography

*''In Praise of Older Women'' (1966) *''The Rules of Chaos'' (1969) *''An Innocent Millionaire'' (1983) *''Truth and Lies in Literature'' (1985) *''The Man with the Magic Touch'' (1994) *''If Only'' (2016) *''3 Wishes'' (2020)


References


External links


Official websiteStephen Vizinczey's BlogTruth and Lies in Literature
in
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.
Official Facebook page


by journalist Will Robinson {{DEFAULTSORT:Vizinczey, Stephen 1933 births 2021 deaths People from Fejér County Hungarian essayists Canadian male essayists Hungarian male novelists Canadian male novelists Canadian literary critics Hungarian literary critics Hungarian emigrants to Canada 20th-century Canadian novelists 20th-century Canadian essayists 20th-century Canadian male writers 21st-century Canadian novelists 21st-century Canadian essayists 21st-century Canadian male writers 20th-century Hungarian novelists 20th-century Hungarian male writers 21st-century Hungarian novelists 21st-century Hungarian male writers