One-minute short stories

The epithet "one minute" already became a popular expression during István Örkény's lifetime, and it is still cited in a large number of contexts. There are few classic literary inventions that have become so integrated into our language and consciousness than the one-minute short story, Örkény's genre invention. Generations of readers grew up on his humor, his prose technique, and his innovative approach to literary thinking. High voltage on some pages, some lines or just in the address. The war-dictatorship-revolutionary experiences of the twentieth century, the absurdities of the present, condensed into one flash. In the writings, there is the grotesque sight of shared ideas falling into small pieces - but also the other way around: the mysterious beauty of life in the banalities. Because Örkény, with a bitter laugh, was most concerned with this question: what is the irreplaceable man like in his vulnerability on a historical scale. In the short myths of Egyperces short stories, heroes are born: Jenő Janász, a sheet music-carving soldier who fell on the front, whose composition he had just started, no one can finish; Mrs. Wolf, the office slave who earned her name; Zetelaki, an actor ready to play even after his death. And of course Varsány's, who also undertakes mouse extermination in the destroyed Budapest.