A JOURNEY ROUND MY SKULL By Frigyes Karinthy
This unusual and extremely interesting book (Faber, 8s. 6d.) is the patient's history of an illness and its cure. Mr. Karinthy is apparently one of Hungary's most prominent literary figures, equally known as poet, popular wit, and humorous journalist, and also one of the pillars of Budapest cafe society. He re- ceived the first warning that he was not well when, sitting in a cafe attempting to solve a crossword puzzle, he suddenly heard the noise of trains. The trains did not in fact exist ; they were the first, and least unpleasant, symptom of a tumour on the brain, the existence of which he recognised, after other symptoms had appeared, long before the doctors had diag- nosed it. Eventually he had to submit to an operation, which lasted four hours, for three of which he remained conscious. The operation itself, and the experiences that preceded it— fainting fits, conflicting diagnoses, dreams, hallucinations, pains—are described in detail, and with a quite extraordinary objectivity. Karinthy had been trained as a doctor, and his medical knowledge, combined with a reporter's curiosity, enabled him to bring to the study of his own case an informed detachment which make his descriptions astonishingly effective. As well as being a brilliant imaginative record of an the book is also a very revealing autobiography.
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