Mária Tompa is the heir and caretaker of the Szentkuthy legacy, who was a direct collaborator of the writer and translator Miklós Szentkuthy (1908-1988) between 1978 and 1988. Szentkuthy is an emblematic figure of the XX. to Hungarian literature of the 20th century - Mária Tompa gathered together the memories of the period she lived with him, the work they did together, the family, literary and life experiences that are indispensable for the writer, but mainly the interpretation of the works. It approaches the fascinating oeuvre through art analysis and reminiscences, interviews and letter excerpts.
For Szentkuthy, culture and reading did not mean encyclopedic knowledge for its own sake or the accumulation of lexical data. All of this is rather the "aphrodisiac of aphrodisiacs" worked into the spiritual and spiritual metabolism. That is why Mária Tompa's book is best recommended to those who can realize in parallel with the author's reflections: what a good game it is to raise your thinking! This also opens a path into the universal unknown - it deepens the personality, evokes the experience of thinking together, and strengthens the analytical interpretation of the world.
"For Szentkuthy, the scene was important, where he could probe the inner and spiritual composition of the person facing him. One of my happiest memories is: I go into the library room with an urgent request or question, I left some work hanging outside, I apologize for the disturbance, but he readily answers adna, motioning for calmness, pointing to the armchair opposite: Sit down. We'll talk. Let's drink a coffee together. We're living, aren't we? The depth of the present was contained in these last three words, and I also knew that it was not Pascal's "divertissement", the sentence of distraction with it, on the contrary, instead of mindlessly rushing around the spokes of the wheel, it is fitting to the center, calmness, fulfillment in the point. Well, we live, don't we? That's when you can understand each other with half-words, maybe without words, and do it deeply in the fullness of the present, which in that moment is our job." Dull Mary