ABSTRACT
This chapter presents concise biographical information of Tibor Fischer and analysis of his major works and themes. Fischer's first novel, Under the Frog, takes its title from a Hungarian saying. To be 'under the frog's arse down a coal mine' means, as one might guess, to be at a low point in one's life. It is a picaresque story of the adventures of two Hungarians, Pataki and Gyuri, as they tour their country with a national basketball team in the years between the end of the Second World War and the Hungarian uprising in 1956. Trapped in the everyday lunacies of totalitarianism, the two young men and their team-mates are interested primarily in sex, drink, food and maintaining their place in the squad. Outside the cocoon of the team and the special train on which it travels swirls the madness of the Communist regime.
