Under the Frog by Tibor Fischer

This is perhaps the best book I have read in the last 2 dozen books I have read.

At times satirical, other times poignant account of youth set around Hungary's revolution of 1956, the book is brilliantly written. I am still wondering why I had never heard of the book, despite being something of a Booker Prize book fiend. The tale is told through the voice of Gyuri, one of a team of talented & colourful basketball players obsessed with sex, not working, not studying and avoiding conscription but drawing some sort of state wages under a communist regime.

Strongly recommended.

Here is a delightful sample, describing how one of the main characters, Pataki approached exams "...by the time he walked out, he already knew less than when he walked in..."

It appears that the author derived his tale from that of his parents who were basketball players and fled Hungary in 1956. As Wiki informs the reader, the title is derived from a Hungarian saying, that the worst possible place to be is under a frog's arse down a coal mine