Gömblakók

Rózsa Jódal's novel Gömblakók (Sphere Dwellers) – which deviates from the usual prose form – was submitted to the Forum Publishing House's 1986 novel competition, and the publisher is now making it available to readers. Fekete J. József, a member of the novel competition jury, recommends this work with the following words: It carries broad and profound intellectual content, and more importantly, it is rooted in the topicality of our present. Its appearance makes it our 'most contemporary' novel, and the text even seems to wink a little towards the future. … This novel is a tableau, a tableau of desperate, fallen, broken destinies. A deep, psychological exploration of the borderline cases of humanity, in countless variations and extremes. The 'sphere dweller', a child suffering from immunodeficiency from birth, polarizes not only his family members but also his immediate environment. An endless series of disagreements arises between the mother, who comes from a syphilitic family and gives herself to drinking, and the father, who, in their torment, become estranged from themselves. In their child, they first see a pitiable creature, then become alienated from him, and finally try to make a business out of him, while shedding their humanity. The young nurse…, the caregiver of the 'sphere dweller', gives her youth and life for the child, her charge. The medical professor sees a Nobel Prize in him, and in order to obtain it, he too sheds his humanity. Similar, severe shocks and distortions are experienced by the other characters in the story. And Ádám, the sphere dweller, just sits in his forced prison, feeling, seeing, hearing everything… knowing everything, and wanting to live. Like other people, like other normal people. But by the time he is freed from his sphere, he is no longer surrounded by 'normal' people, but by desperate, broken, deformed ones.