ATDTDA 720

[kelber at mindspring.com]

The book Temptation, by Hungarian American John Pen (the pen name for another Janos Szekely) is partially set in the Angel-Grounds, which is described a desperately poor (but working class) neighborhood on the outskirts of Buda-Pest.  One character explains that it's called that to commemorate the souls of all of the babies that were aborted because their mothers couldn't afford to have children.  Abortion due to necessity is one of the recurring plot points in the book.

Laura

-----Original Message-----
>From: János Székely <miksaapja at gmail.com>

>
>Vaci ut (I spare the accents) simply means the Road (leading) to Vac, a town
>north of Budapest.
>
>The most probable etymology for Angyalfold is "Engelsfeld", a plot which
>used to be the vineyard of a 18th c. Tyrolean immigrant called Stefan Engl
>or Engel.
>
>The Britannica article on Kassak misses the point. Apart from being a fine
>Constructivist painter, he was the single most important (almost
>prophet-like) figure of Hungarian avantgarde poetry. Angyalfold, though, is
>a rather non-avantgarde novel. Lajos is Hung. for Louis, a very common name.
>

>
>2008/2/1, Michael Bailey <michael.lee.bailey at gmail.com>:

>> Not much luck with the street name or with Angel's field,
>> except that Vaci Ut is a street, and Angel's Field is
>> a district in Budapest that has its own flag.
>> http://www.atlasgeo.net/fotw/flags/hu-bp-13.html
>>
>> Pynchonwiki sez it's a working-class neighborhood
>> in the northern part of the city.