January - March 2013 Theme Read: 20th/21st century Central and Eastern European literature
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1DieFledermaus
The theme for the first quarter will be Central/Eastern Europe in the 20th and 21st century - Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovenia, Ukraine, Moldova and Romania. I’ll be leading the group read with some help from Rebecca (rebeccanyc). I’ve included a brief description of the authors and their works as well as a short history for each country.
Some notes: the 20th century was dominated by constantly changing borders and the formation/collapse of various nations so the nationality of some of the authors can be a bit uncertain - some were born in countries that no longer existed when they died or were born in a town that later moved within the borders of another country. There are also language differences or controversies (the Czech/German split in Czech authors, Russian vs Ukrainian for Ukrainian writers, the Moldovan/Romanian controversy - are they different languages? - and authors like Müller, a Romanian-born German-language novelist). Because of population disruptions and emigration, a number of authors also spent their lives in other countries (e.g., Škvorecký and Kosinski). All this makes it occasionally difficult to assign nationality to an author and I would be interested in hearing any disagreements. I didn’t include authors who were mainly known as poets or nonfiction writers (no Szymborska, Kapuściński, Žižek , Havel, Eliade, Cioran) but if there is interest, I can add them.
Some notes: the 20th century was dominated by constantly changing borders and the formation/collapse of various nations so the nationality of some of the authors can be a bit uncertain - some were born in countries that no longer existed when they died or were born in a town that later moved within the borders of another country. There are also language differences or controversies (the Czech/German split in Czech authors, Russian vs Ukrainian for Ukrainian writers, the Moldovan/Romanian controversy - are they different languages? - and authors like Müller, a Romanian-born German-language novelist). Because of population disruptions and emigration, a number of authors also spent their lives in other countries (e.g., Škvorecký and Kosinski). All this makes it occasionally difficult to assign nationality to an author and I would be interested in hearing any disagreements. I didn’t include authors who were mainly known as poets or nonfiction writers (no Szymborska, Kapuściński, Žižek , Havel, Eliade, Cioran) but if there is interest, I can add them.
2DieFledermaus
Poland -
At the start of the 20th century, Polish territory had been divided and parts were controlled by the Austro-Hungarian empire, Russia, and Prussia due to various uprisings and treaties in the 19th c. However, nationalist sentiment and ideas of an independent Poland had also become popular. After WWI, Poland regained its independence, defending its territory from the Bolsheviks and halting the Communist spread westward in the 1919-20 conflict. Józef Piłsudski helped lead the fight and later became president of the new republic. He served as de facto head of state even when he no longer had an official position and the government became increasingly repressive.
Poland was devastated by WWII, with 25% of the population and 90% of the Jewish population killed in the war. The Molotov-Ribbentrop pact split the nation between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany. Some of the most notorious concentration camps were located in Polish territory and the Katyn massacre, where thousands of Polish officers were murdered, was perpetrated by and later denied by the USSR. The Polish Home Army (AK) was one of the largest resistance movements but the Warsaw Uprising to drive out the Germans resulted in the destruction of the city. After the war, other upheavals occurred - the borders of Poland were moved west, many emigrated and deportation of ethnic Germans was carried out.
In the postwar era, Poland fell under the influence of the Soviet Union, with the Polish Communist party winning undemocratic elections. After the death of Stalin and the Polish Communist Bolesław Bierut, the 1956 protests and riots (the October Revolution) ushered in a more open era under Władysław Gomułka. However, Communist policies and the party stayed in power. A number of other strikes would occur in response to the poor economy - strikes in 1970 ousted Gomułka who was replaced by Edward Gierek. A notable one occurred in 1980 at the Gdansk shipyards which led to the formation of the trade union Solidarity, which became one of the main political players later on, led by Lech Wałęsa. The end of the Communist regime came, as in other countries, in 1989 but through elections.
In the 1990’s and 2000’s, the focus was on the economy and the center-right or center-left parties would be in power. The country transitioned to a free-market economy and increased freedom of speech and civil rights. Poland joined NATO in 1999 and the EU in 2004.
Wilanów Palace in Warsaw
Stalinist Palace of Culture and Science - clashes with the rest of the city
St. Mary's in Krakow
Jerzy Andrzejewski - during WWII, he participated in the Polish underground and he joined the Communist party after the war. He became disillusioned in 1956 after the October Revolution and later joined an anti-Communist party. His best known novel, Ashes and Diamonds, was published after WWII and depicts the varied inhabitants of a Polish town at the end of the war and the confusing, chaotic and uncertain atmosphere of that period. Holy Week, which portrays the Warsaw ghetto uprising and the indifference of Poles to the Jewish plight, has also been translated.
Tadeusz Borowski - in his short life, Borowski experienced much of the turmoil of the 20th c. and his works are acknowledged Polish classics. Borowski’s father was sent to the Gulag and his mother was deported. The family later moved to Warsaw and Borowski participated in the Polish underground during the Nazi occupation. He was sent to Auschwitz and his experiences there formed the basis for his most famous book This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentleman, which shows the cynicism, numbness and indifference that developed in the camps and the violence perpetrated by the non-Jewish prisoners like himself. Later, he joined the Polish Communist party but was disillusioned by their tactics and committed suicide in 1951 at age 28.
Witold Gombrowicz – one of the most famous Polish authors. In the 1920’s and 30’s, he completed his education and started writing stories. He traveled to Argentina shortly before war broke out and stayed there until the 1960’s, publishing some works including Ferdyduke. Gombrowicz moved back to Europe but was criticized by the Polish authorities and spent his life in West Berlin, Paris and Venice. His works are modern, satiric, playful and often absurd, examining the clash between traditional and contemporary culture. In Ferdyduke, immaturity versus age is examined when the main character relives his adolescent years again. Cosmos is a surreal, darkly comic detective story; Pornografia also looks at youth vs. age as the narrator, attempting to escape WWII, gets caught up in an obsessive romantic game and finds he can’t escape the violence of the war; Bacacay is a collection of short stories.
Henryk Grynberg - Grynberg and his mother were the only members of his family to survive WWII and spent much of the war in hiding. His works examine the lives of WWII-era Jews and the post-war period. After the war, he collaborated with the Communists but later defected and worked for the U.S. propaganda department. Some of his works include The Jewish War, The Victory, and Drohobcyz, Drohobycz and other stories (which imagines the death of Bruno Schulz).
Marek Hlasko - after the death of Stalin, he became one of the best-known Polish writers, a “Polish James Dean” whose life was as notorious as his work. The Eighth Day of the Week, which depicts grey, repressive life under Communism as a couple tries to find a place to be alone, was a critical and popular hit when it came out. Hlasko, who changed employment often, lived up to his image by vandalizing pubs and bars, getting jailed for fights with the police, attempting suicide twice and dying at age 35, possibly of a suicide. His works show the disillusionment in 1950’s Poland, with the cynical, tough, romanticized characters often seen as stand-ins for Hlasko.
Pawel Huelle - a popular and critically acclaimed contemporary writer whose symbolic, postmodern novels and stories often combine several genres - a mystery, Who Was David Weiser, does not so much examine the central disappearance but looks at the motivations of people surrounding the case; Castorp, a prequel to The Magic Mountain, echoes many of the events in the Mann, and Mercedes-Benz has the main character distracting his driving instructor with stories of his family, which revolve around the titular automobiles and cover Polish history of the 20th c.
Jaroslaw Iwaszkiewicz - poet, novelist, and short story writer best known for his pre-WWII publications. After the war, he was the editor of a literary journal and chairman of the Polish Writers Union but was later criticized for collaborating with the Communist government and attacking other writers. The stories The Birch Grove and Other Stories are from the 1930’s and portray love and loss in the Polish countryside.
Tadeusz Konwicki - his experience fighting in the Polish Home Army during and after WWII informs his works, some of which unromantically depict the Home Army. He became disillusioned with the Communist party after the war and his works were published by the Polish underground press. Konwicki’s novels are bitter satires on Polish society and government with occasional surreal elements. A Minor Apocalypse takes place during the day that the narrator agrees to set himself on fire as a protest but keeps putting it off in his wanderings around Warsaw. Some wonderful prose and absurdist humor. The Polish Complex has the narrator standing in line and reflecting on his life and Polish history, A Dreambook for Our Time finds the narrator waking from a coma after a suicide attempt.
Jerzy Kosinski - a well-known Polish-American writer with a colorful history and numerous controversies. He survived the Holocaust with the help of many who sheltered his family, became a professor, then emigrated to America by starting a false foundation. His most famous work, The Painted Bird, depicts a child’s view of WWII and encounters with cruel and abusive people. The contrast to his own history and accusations of plagiarism plagued the book, which was a bestseller. Being There is about the American media, Steps is a series of stories about alienation, violence and sex.
Stanislaw Lem - a well-known sci-fi author, he started publishing after the October revolution of 1956. He also wrote a number of philosophical works. This influenced his science fiction - some concerns include the impossibility of communication, mankind’s place in the universe, and the limits of intelligence and technology. Solaris is his most popular work and has been made into several movies. The Cyberiad is a collection of short stories featuring robots and other intelligent machines.
Wieslaw Mysliwski - an award-winning contemporary author whose works often are set in the Polish countryside. Stone Upon Stone is an epic of 20th c. Polish history told from the POV of a farmer from a small town.
Jerzy Pilch - contemporary author and journalist, his satirical and ironic novels have earned comparisons to Gombrowicz. The Mighty Angel has a drunken writer named Jerzy in and out of rehab, collecting stories and musing about the universal nature of the alcoholic. In A Thousand Peaceful Cities, young Jerzy gets involved in the scheme of his father and his father’s friend to assassinate Władysław Gomułka, the Communist head of Poland.
Bruno Schulz - Schulz published little in his lifetime but is considered one of the greatest Polish-language authors of the 20th century. The Street of Crocodiles (Cinnamon Shops) and Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass are surreal and almost plotless but are written in a vivid, lyrical, dreamlike and highly idiosyncratic style. The books describe the narrator’s childhood in a portrait of Schulz’s hometown Drohobych. For most of his life, Schulz lived in his provincial hometown, which was part of the Austro-Hungarian empire when he was born, later was transferred to Poland, then was occupied by the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany. He was killed by a German officer in 1942.
Isaac Bashevis Singer - a Nobel prize-winning Polish-American novelist and short story writer who wrote and published in Yiddish. He fled Poland in 1935 due to the growing Nazi threat and went to America where he lived until his death in 1991. Singer started working for a Yiddish language newspaper which published many of his works. He’s best known as a short story writer. His works are often about Jewish communities and religious struggles, as well as some family sagas. There are several story collections available and some of his novels include Enemies, A Love Story and The Family Moskat.
Andrzej Stasiuk - a popular contemporary writer, his experience in prison after deserting the army influenced his work. Later he moved to SE provincial Poland and his writing is full of impressionistic descriptions of the area. Exceptions include his breakthrough novel White Raven, a story about a group of friends who go on the run after an accidental murder, and Nine which portrays a grim contemporary Warsaw populated by gangsters and druggies.
Olga Tokarczuk - a contemporary writer popular with both the public and critics, her novels and short stories are often fantastic or magic realist, often with mythical overtones, allusions to Polish history, and a fragmented style. She studied psychology and ideas such as the Jungian collective unconscious are present in her works. Books available in English are House of Day, House of Night and Primeval and Other Times.
Magdalena Tulli - a contemporary writer, Tulli writes dense, lyrical, surreal novels that are often allegorical or symbolic. She is also a translator and has translated Proust and Calvino into Polish. Her works include Dreams and Stones, a highly symbolic, dreamlike description of the creation of a city, Moving Parts, a piece of metafiction, where the characters of a story wander off and have lives of their own, Flaw, which examines the effect of a group of refugees on the inhabitants of an unnamed town, and In Red, which also comments on 20th c. history through its depiction of a fictional Polish town.
At the start of the 20th century, Polish territory had been divided and parts were controlled by the Austro-Hungarian empire, Russia, and Prussia due to various uprisings and treaties in the 19th c. However, nationalist sentiment and ideas of an independent Poland had also become popular. After WWI, Poland regained its independence, defending its territory from the Bolsheviks and halting the Communist spread westward in the 1919-20 conflict. Józef Piłsudski helped lead the fight and later became president of the new republic. He served as de facto head of state even when he no longer had an official position and the government became increasingly repressive.
Poland was devastated by WWII, with 25% of the population and 90% of the Jewish population killed in the war. The Molotov-Ribbentrop pact split the nation between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany. Some of the most notorious concentration camps were located in Polish territory and the Katyn massacre, where thousands of Polish officers were murdered, was perpetrated by and later denied by the USSR. The Polish Home Army (AK) was one of the largest resistance movements but the Warsaw Uprising to drive out the Germans resulted in the destruction of the city. After the war, other upheavals occurred - the borders of Poland were moved west, many emigrated and deportation of ethnic Germans was carried out.
In the postwar era, Poland fell under the influence of the Soviet Union, with the Polish Communist party winning undemocratic elections. After the death of Stalin and the Polish Communist Bolesław Bierut, the 1956 protests and riots (the October Revolution) ushered in a more open era under Władysław Gomułka. However, Communist policies and the party stayed in power. A number of other strikes would occur in response to the poor economy - strikes in 1970 ousted Gomułka who was replaced by Edward Gierek. A notable one occurred in 1980 at the Gdansk shipyards which led to the formation of the trade union Solidarity, which became one of the main political players later on, led by Lech Wałęsa. The end of the Communist regime came, as in other countries, in 1989 but through elections.
In the 1990’s and 2000’s, the focus was on the economy and the center-right or center-left parties would be in power. The country transitioned to a free-market economy and increased freedom of speech and civil rights. Poland joined NATO in 1999 and the EU in 2004.
Wilanów Palace in Warsaw
Stalinist Palace of Culture and Science - clashes with the rest of the city
St. Mary's in Krakow
Jerzy Andrzejewski - during WWII, he participated in the Polish underground and he joined the Communist party after the war. He became disillusioned in 1956 after the October Revolution and later joined an anti-Communist party. His best known novel, Ashes and Diamonds, was published after WWII and depicts the varied inhabitants of a Polish town at the end of the war and the confusing, chaotic and uncertain atmosphere of that period. Holy Week, which portrays the Warsaw ghetto uprising and the indifference of Poles to the Jewish plight, has also been translated.
Tadeusz Borowski - in his short life, Borowski experienced much of the turmoil of the 20th c. and his works are acknowledged Polish classics. Borowski’s father was sent to the Gulag and his mother was deported. The family later moved to Warsaw and Borowski participated in the Polish underground during the Nazi occupation. He was sent to Auschwitz and his experiences there formed the basis for his most famous book This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentleman, which shows the cynicism, numbness and indifference that developed in the camps and the violence perpetrated by the non-Jewish prisoners like himself. Later, he joined the Polish Communist party but was disillusioned by their tactics and committed suicide in 1951 at age 28.
Witold Gombrowicz – one of the most famous Polish authors. In the 1920’s and 30’s, he completed his education and started writing stories. He traveled to Argentina shortly before war broke out and stayed there until the 1960’s, publishing some works including Ferdyduke. Gombrowicz moved back to Europe but was criticized by the Polish authorities and spent his life in West Berlin, Paris and Venice. His works are modern, satiric, playful and often absurd, examining the clash between traditional and contemporary culture. In Ferdyduke, immaturity versus age is examined when the main character relives his adolescent years again. Cosmos is a surreal, darkly comic detective story; Pornografia also looks at youth vs. age as the narrator, attempting to escape WWII, gets caught up in an obsessive romantic game and finds he can’t escape the violence of the war; Bacacay is a collection of short stories.
Henryk Grynberg - Grynberg and his mother were the only members of his family to survive WWII and spent much of the war in hiding. His works examine the lives of WWII-era Jews and the post-war period. After the war, he collaborated with the Communists but later defected and worked for the U.S. propaganda department. Some of his works include The Jewish War, The Victory, and Drohobcyz, Drohobycz and other stories (which imagines the death of Bruno Schulz).
Marek Hlasko - after the death of Stalin, he became one of the best-known Polish writers, a “Polish James Dean” whose life was as notorious as his work. The Eighth Day of the Week, which depicts grey, repressive life under Communism as a couple tries to find a place to be alone, was a critical and popular hit when it came out. Hlasko, who changed employment often, lived up to his image by vandalizing pubs and bars, getting jailed for fights with the police, attempting suicide twice and dying at age 35, possibly of a suicide. His works show the disillusionment in 1950’s Poland, with the cynical, tough, romanticized characters often seen as stand-ins for Hlasko.
Pawel Huelle - a popular and critically acclaimed contemporary writer whose symbolic, postmodern novels and stories often combine several genres - a mystery, Who Was David Weiser, does not so much examine the central disappearance but looks at the motivations of people surrounding the case; Castorp, a prequel to The Magic Mountain, echoes many of the events in the Mann, and Mercedes-Benz has the main character distracting his driving instructor with stories of his family, which revolve around the titular automobiles and cover Polish history of the 20th c.
Jaroslaw Iwaszkiewicz - poet, novelist, and short story writer best known for his pre-WWII publications. After the war, he was the editor of a literary journal and chairman of the Polish Writers Union but was later criticized for collaborating with the Communist government and attacking other writers. The stories The Birch Grove and Other Stories are from the 1930’s and portray love and loss in the Polish countryside.
Tadeusz Konwicki - his experience fighting in the Polish Home Army during and after WWII informs his works, some of which unromantically depict the Home Army. He became disillusioned with the Communist party after the war and his works were published by the Polish underground press. Konwicki’s novels are bitter satires on Polish society and government with occasional surreal elements. A Minor Apocalypse takes place during the day that the narrator agrees to set himself on fire as a protest but keeps putting it off in his wanderings around Warsaw. Some wonderful prose and absurdist humor. The Polish Complex has the narrator standing in line and reflecting on his life and Polish history, A Dreambook for Our Time finds the narrator waking from a coma after a suicide attempt.
Jerzy Kosinski - a well-known Polish-American writer with a colorful history and numerous controversies. He survived the Holocaust with the help of many who sheltered his family, became a professor, then emigrated to America by starting a false foundation. His most famous work, The Painted Bird, depicts a child’s view of WWII and encounters with cruel and abusive people. The contrast to his own history and accusations of plagiarism plagued the book, which was a bestseller. Being There is about the American media, Steps is a series of stories about alienation, violence and sex.
Stanislaw Lem - a well-known sci-fi author, he started publishing after the October revolution of 1956. He also wrote a number of philosophical works. This influenced his science fiction - some concerns include the impossibility of communication, mankind’s place in the universe, and the limits of intelligence and technology. Solaris is his most popular work and has been made into several movies. The Cyberiad is a collection of short stories featuring robots and other intelligent machines.
Wieslaw Mysliwski - an award-winning contemporary author whose works often are set in the Polish countryside. Stone Upon Stone is an epic of 20th c. Polish history told from the POV of a farmer from a small town.
Jerzy Pilch - contemporary author and journalist, his satirical and ironic novels have earned comparisons to Gombrowicz. The Mighty Angel has a drunken writer named Jerzy in and out of rehab, collecting stories and musing about the universal nature of the alcoholic. In A Thousand Peaceful Cities, young Jerzy gets involved in the scheme of his father and his father’s friend to assassinate Władysław Gomułka, the Communist head of Poland.
Bruno Schulz - Schulz published little in his lifetime but is considered one of the greatest Polish-language authors of the 20th century. The Street of Crocodiles (Cinnamon Shops) and Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass are surreal and almost plotless but are written in a vivid, lyrical, dreamlike and highly idiosyncratic style. The books describe the narrator’s childhood in a portrait of Schulz’s hometown Drohobych. For most of his life, Schulz lived in his provincial hometown, which was part of the Austro-Hungarian empire when he was born, later was transferred to Poland, then was occupied by the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany. He was killed by a German officer in 1942.
Isaac Bashevis Singer - a Nobel prize-winning Polish-American novelist and short story writer who wrote and published in Yiddish. He fled Poland in 1935 due to the growing Nazi threat and went to America where he lived until his death in 1991. Singer started working for a Yiddish language newspaper which published many of his works. He’s best known as a short story writer. His works are often about Jewish communities and religious struggles, as well as some family sagas. There are several story collections available and some of his novels include Enemies, A Love Story and The Family Moskat.
Andrzej Stasiuk - a popular contemporary writer, his experience in prison after deserting the army influenced his work. Later he moved to SE provincial Poland and his writing is full of impressionistic descriptions of the area. Exceptions include his breakthrough novel White Raven, a story about a group of friends who go on the run after an accidental murder, and Nine which portrays a grim contemporary Warsaw populated by gangsters and druggies.
Olga Tokarczuk - a contemporary writer popular with both the public and critics, her novels and short stories are often fantastic or magic realist, often with mythical overtones, allusions to Polish history, and a fragmented style. She studied psychology and ideas such as the Jungian collective unconscious are present in her works. Books available in English are House of Day, House of Night and Primeval and Other Times.
Magdalena Tulli - a contemporary writer, Tulli writes dense, lyrical, surreal novels that are often allegorical or symbolic. She is also a translator and has translated Proust and Calvino into Polish. Her works include Dreams and Stones, a highly symbolic, dreamlike description of the creation of a city, Moving Parts, a piece of metafiction, where the characters of a story wander off and have lives of their own, Flaw, which examines the effect of a group of refugees on the inhabitants of an unnamed town, and In Red, which also comments on 20th c. history through its depiction of a fictional Polish town.
3DieFledermaus
Slovakia and Hungary -
Slovakia -
Slovakia was under Hungarian rule at the start of the 20th c. Magyarization policies made Hungarian mandatory, spurred the growth of the nationalist movement, and led to mass emigration of Slovaks. Slovakia, along with Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia and Ruthenia formed Czechoslovakia after WWI. Government from Prague was better than Hungarian rule but the mix of minorities in the new country created conflict. It was a fairly stable democracy during the interwar period due to recognition of minority rights but the economic woes of the 1930’s created unrest. The Czechoslovak German population’s support of far-right groups and British and French appeasement in 1938 led to the Munich agreement, which allowed Germany to take control of areas with a German population. Slovakia broke off under threat from Germany and Hungary and declared its independence. Under the puppet government of Jozef Tiso, Slovakia allied with Germany and allowed the deportation of its Jewish population. However, a resistance movement grew, leading to a violent clash - the Slovak National Uprising - with the Nazi occupiers.
After the war, Czechoslovakia was re-formed and the deportation of the German population was carried out. There was initial popular support for the Communist party but it waned with the poor economy. Klement Gottwald, Communist prime minister, engineered a coup by filling the government with his party members. Under Stalinist rule, there were Five Year Plans, industrialization, gulags and show trials of top government officials. After the death of Stalin in 1953, repressive policies stayed in place. Alexander Dubček, a Slovak politician, came to power in 1968 - the start of the Prague Spring, where liberal reforms were put in place. Warsaw Pact countries were unnerved by the developments and invaded in August 1968. Dubček was removed and Gustáv Husák replaced him and initiated a campaign of “normalization” - more purges and repression of dissent. However, federalization, which gave Slovakia more independence, was kept in place even if not in practice.
In 1989, Communist rule came to an end with the peaceful Velvet Revolution, a series of strikes and protests. Bratislava was a major center for protesters. Slovakia had for much of the 20th c. taken direction from Prague and the idea of independence gained force. The country was dissolved in 1993, when Slovakia again became an independent state. Slovakia joined NATO and the EU in 2004 and adopted the Euro in 2009.
Bratislava Castle
Sad Janka Kráľa, the oldest public park in Central Europe
High Tatras mountains, near the Polish-Slovak border
Peter Pišťanek - he started publishing in the late 80’s and early 90’s and is best known for his Rivers of Babylon trilogy (Rivers of Babylon, The Wooden Village and The End of Freddy), a vicious satire which features an ignorant, greedy, vulgar, morally deficient protagonist who represents the robber barons who prospered in post-Communist Slovakia. His books might be difficult to find.
Martin Šimečka - the son of a prominent Czechoslovak dissident, his semi-autobiographical first novel The Year of the Frog has the main character, a young man barred from the university in Bratislava in the 1980’s, working menial jobs but comforted by love and his passion for running. It was well-reviewed but possibly too many philosophical ramblings.
Hungary -
As part of Austria-Hungary, Hungary had its own parliament and self-government though the same ruler (king in Hungary, emperor in Austria) and one foreign and military policy. During WWI, the dual monarchy was allied with Germany. Hungary suffered huge relative losses. After the war, Hungary lost territory to Romania, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia. Béla Kun and the Hungarian Communist Party took power in 1919. Kun nationalized industries and institutions and started a campaign of violent repression. After a couple botched military excursions, he fled the country. A rightwing authoritarian government headed by Admiral Miklós Horthy took over and also engaged in violent repression. The Treaty of Trianon, signed in 1920, finalized the loss of Hungarian lands, required the payment of reparations and limited military buildup. The harsh Horthy government kept dissent low and the prime minister, István Bethlen, rewarded supporters and made deals with leftists. However, the economic downturn in the 1930’s allowed the far right Arrow Cross party to gain in strength. German economic and political alliances helped Hungary regain some of its territory and relieve the poor economy but also made it dependent on Germany. A number of anti-Jewish laws were put in place and Hungary signed an alliance with the Axis powers.
Hungarian troops initially participated in the invasion of Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union (though reluctantly both times) but heavy losses led them to abandon the Germans. German forces occupied Hungary and replaced Horthy with a puppet government. The end of the war brought another loss of territories and more reparations. The death toll was high, especially for the Jewish community which had been devastated by the Nazi occupation. The Soviets occupied the country at the end of the war - they had raped, killed, arrested, and deported many hundreds of thousands. In addition, ethnic Hungarians had been deported from elsewhere in Europe.
The Soviets gained control of many institutions but the first elections in 1945 were a victory for the Smallholders’ Party. For the next elections, arrests and intimidation of political opponents, a forced coalition with the Social Democrats and election manipulation resulted in a victory for the Communists, with Mátyás Rákosi heading the country. Soviet-style systems were put in place - heavy industrialization, collective farms, gulag-style labor camps. Communists as well as the church and other groups were subjected to purge. After the death of Stalin, the more popular Imre Nagy replaced Rákosi but was removed in 1955.
The 1956 Hungarian Revolution was a dramatic uprising that took place after peaceful demonstrations were met by violence. Resistance fighters attacked Soviet troops and forced them to withdraw. Nagy was reinstated and promised changes, withdrawing from the Warsaw Pact. The Soviet troops moved in to Budapest and quelled the uprising. János Kádár was picked to head Hungary and though there was an initial reactionary phase, he eventually instituted a number of reforms - some free market elements and individual freedoms. Hungary was among the more open Soviet bloc countries. Renewed protests and the more liberal government of Gorbachev paved the way for free elections. With the Communist party transformed into a leftist party advocating a free market economy and social democracy, all three major political parties pushed for economic liberalization and closer ties to the west. Hungary joined NATO and the EU but some tensions with Romania remained.
Hungarian Parliament Building in Budapest
Lake Balaton, the largest lake in Central Europe
Terror House, now a controversial museum, formerly the headquarters of the Nazi occupiers and the Communist secret police
Miklós Bánffy - a Hungarian nobleman from a distinguished family, he was elected to the parliament of the Austro-Hungarian empire and later became foreign minister in the Hungarian government of 1921. While retired, he tried to convince the Romanians to join with Hungary in abandoning the Axis powers and his estate was burned in retaliation by the Germans. Under the Soviets, the fate of Transylvania, his native land, was uncertain. Banffy was separated from his family in an unsuccessful attempt to defend his estate but finally returned to Budapest and died there. His trilogy A Transylvanian Tale (They Were Counted, They Were Found Wanting, They Were Divided), shows the life of an aristocratic family in the declining years of the dual monarchy and raises the issue the status of Transylvania. A good review by Rebecca is posted on the work page.
Attila Bartis - his father was prominent Transylvanian writer but was stripped of his Romanian citizenship so the family moved to Budapest in 1984. Bartis is also a journalist and professional photographer. In his novel Tranquility, a dark, darkly comic and neurotic work, the writer narrator engages in sordid affairs, has a relationships with a woman with issues, and attempt to deal with with his overbearing, bitter mother and the absence of his sister who defected to the west.
Géza Csáth - a WWI-era writer, critic and medical doctor, his work in a psychiatric hospital influenced his characteristic dark stories, which feature, violence, murder, and rape and examine the disturbed minds of his characters. He became addicted to drugs, fled from a psychiatric hospital, murdered his wife and tried to kill himself, then escaped from the hospital again. While on the way to check himself into a psychiatric hospital, he was stopped by border guards and poisoned himself. Opium and Other Stories is one of his collections.
György Dalos - he was accused of subversive activities and his works were banned from publication. Some of his novels address this - 1985, a sequel to 1984, imagines that Big Brother has died and the story of the aftermath is told by Orwell’s characters. Others, like The Circumcision, examine the conflict of being Jewish and Hungarian, much like Dalos.
Tibor Déry - he tangled with most of the governments of Hungary - the pre-WWII Hungarian Communist party and Kun expelled him, when he returned in 1935, he was jailed by the Horthy regime, he was expelled from the Communist party in 1953, and was sentenced to prison for participating in the uprising of 1956. His book Niki: The Story of a Dog shows life in Communist Hungary through the hardships faced by Niki’s family.
Péter Esterházy - one of the best-known contemporary Hungarian authors, from an illustrious family. He’s best known in the west for his metafictional novel Celestial Harmonies which looks at the history of his family up to the 20th c. in a fragmented, allusive way, often borrowing from other writers and jumping back and forth. This oddness is in his other works as well - The Book of Hrabal features Bohumil Hrabal, secret police angels, God and Charlie Parker and A Little Hungarian Pornography uses porn as a metaphor for the Hungarian Communist period.
Erzsebet Galgoczi - she was born in a village, moved to the city and worked as a reporter and social worker. In 1981, she was elected to parliament. Concerns for the poor, downtrodden and ostracized members of society are found in her work - women, the scorned intelligentsia, poor villagers. Another Love takes place during the 1956 uprising and relates the story of a journalist found dead - a refusal to compromise and her lesbianism made her a target for the authorities.
Margit Kaffka - one of the most important and influential Hungarian female authors, she wrote in the first decades of the 20th c. and died in the 1918 flu pandemic. Her novels such as Colors and Years depict the decline of the aristocracy and address women’s hardships in the early 20th c.
Ferenc Karinthy - son of the famous writer Frigyes Karinthy, his first novel translated into English is Metropole, a Kafka-esque story about a man who finds himself in a foreign city where he attempts to learn where he is and about the language and city, but remains mystified.
Imre Kertész - Hungarian Jewish author who survived Auschwitz, his best known book Fatelessness also depicts a teenage protagonist who survives the concentration camps though Kertesz has disclaimed any similarities. He won the Nobel Prize in 2002. Various other works are available - Kaddish for an Unborn Child, Liquidation, Detective Story and others.
Arthur Koestler - his Darkness at Noon is one of the most famous and influential anti-Communist books and during the 20th c. he seemed to be everywhere and meet everyone. He experienced the political turmoil in Hungary in 1919 and 1920, lived in a kibbutz in Palestine, was sentenced to death in Spain during the Civil War, wrote a sex encyclopedia, joined and later quit the Communist party, worked for the British propaganda department during the war, experimented with drugs with Timothy Leary, championed anti-Communism and many other causes and inspired a number of controversies. Darkness at Noon is vague as to time and names but is a fictionalized account of the Soviet purges of Old Bolsheviks.
György Konrád - he studied sociology and psychology at university and wrote about these topics, as well as politics and literature. He participated in the 1956 uprising and in 1988 helped found the political party Alliance of Free Democrats but later left it. The Case Worker looks at grim modern-day society through the POV of a social services bureaucrat, The City Builder is the monologue of an architect contemplating Communist Hungary and the city and The Loser has its protagonist, who has experienced war and repressive governments, deciding that the insane asylum is better than the Communist-run outside.
Dezső Kosztolányi - a poet, journalist and translator, he participated in the revival of Hungarian literature at the start of the 20th c. He died in 1936. An older couple finds happiness when their daughter leaves for a trip, but it is colored with the knowledge that soon things will go back to the way they were again in Skylark. Anna Edes is a hardworking, innocent country girl who comes to work as a servant for horrible bourgeois family. Things go terribly wrong. Kornel Esti is an old friend of the narrator and his comedic and crazy antics are related in several vignettes.
László Krasznahorkai - when he began publishing in the 1980’s, his works were immediately acclaimed by critics and awarded prizes. They do take some work though - he has dense prose, lengthy sentences, grim atmospheres of despair, absurd and surreal situations that might seem allegorical but run off in strange directions. Several characters convene at an unnamed town but the bleak atmosphere is the main character in Satantango. In The Melancholy of Resistance, a strange circus sets off paranoia and apocalyptic rumblings. The main character of War and War finds an antique manuscript and runs off with it to New York where contemplates suicide and wanders.
Agota Kristof - she fled Hungary after the 1956 uprising and moved to Switzerland where she lived until her death in 2011. She wrote in French. Her trilogy The Notebook, The Proof and The Third Lie was highly praised. Through the story of two brothers who grow up in Hungary, she examines the east/west, good/evil dichotomy as well as 20th c. history.
Gyula Krúdy - a journalist, short-story writer and novelist who was popular around WWI but whose readership declined thereafter. Drinking, gambling and illness left him in poor health and he died in 1933. There was renewed interest in his works after the publication of Sandor Marai’s Sinbad Comes Home, which describes Krudy’s last day. English translations - the very odd, surreal, dreamlike and beautifully-written Sunflower, The Adventure of Sindbad - also dreamy and surreal stories told by the dead Sindbad about women he loved and his adventures when he was alive, and Life is a Dream, more realistic short stories about a variety of characters, much of whose time is spent in bars and eating stuff. Rebecca has posted good reviews of his books.
Sándor Márai - he was born in the Austro-Hungarian empire and many of his books are about the old regime. He criticized the Nazis and left after the Communists took power, living in Italy and the U.S. His works were not given much attention outside of Hungary until the 1990’s, where there was an upsurge in his popularity. Some of his novels are about love triangles (Embers, Casanova in Bolzano, The Portrait of a Marriage) but are constructed as various characters’ monologues reminiscing about the old days of the empire.
Terézia Mora - a contemporary writer, she moved to Germany in 1990 and writes in German. Her first novel, Day In Day Out, is the quixotic quest of a gay Balkan man who travels to an unnamed town looking for his father and encounters a number of odd characters.
Zsigmond Móricz - journalist and novelist in first half of 20th c, he wrote about rural life and poverty though it was not always a positive picture. Be Faithful Unto Death is a classic coming-of-age story about a boy who struggles to adjust at school and is plagued with money issues.
Péter Nádas - very famous contemporary author, has earned comparisons to Proust and Mann, but sometimes his books are described as frustrating. These doorstoppers are often postmodern looks at Hungary during the 20th c. A Book of Memories has a writer, writing about his childhood under Communism, engaged in a love triangle - other narratives are by his friend and the character in his novel. Parallel Stories has multiple, well, parallel stories of various people during WWII, with some links between the characters appearing after 1000+ pages or so.
István Örkény - he initially studied chemistry and pharmacology but published his first book before WWII, spent some of the war in a forced labor camp and was banned from publishing in Hungary until 1960. His novels are full of absurd and grotesque situations. Some include One Minute Stories - the title is literal, some stories are as short as a sentence - and The Flower Show and The Toth Family
Magda Szabó - popular and award-winning author who died in 2007, her works were not allowed to be published under Communist government. She initially wrote poetry, but after the ban was lifted, published novels such as The Door, a semi-autobiographical story of a writer’s friendship with her housekeeper.
Antal Szerb - scholar, writer and well-known literary personality in 1930’s Budapest. His travels in Britain, France and Italy inform some of his books such as The Pendragon Legend, a mystery, Gothic novel, and comedy set in a British estate and the most famous, Journey By Moonlight, which portrays a death-haunted, decadent Venice. Of Jewish descent, he was arrested in 1944 and died in a concentration camp in 1945
Miklós Vámos - a contemporary author and journalist who also hosts a talk show. His The Book of Fathers looks at 300 years of Hungarian history through the troubles of one family - there’s a review by Rebecca on the work page.
Lajos Zilahy - a writer and film director who served in WWI in the Austro-Hungarian army, was later at odds with the rightwing Horthy regime, and fled for the U.S. after conflicting with the Communists. His trilogy(Century in Scarlet, The Dukays, The Angry Angel) describes an aristocratic family from the beginning of the 19th c. to the middle of the 20th.
Slovakia -
Slovakia was under Hungarian rule at the start of the 20th c. Magyarization policies made Hungarian mandatory, spurred the growth of the nationalist movement, and led to mass emigration of Slovaks. Slovakia, along with Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia and Ruthenia formed Czechoslovakia after WWI. Government from Prague was better than Hungarian rule but the mix of minorities in the new country created conflict. It was a fairly stable democracy during the interwar period due to recognition of minority rights but the economic woes of the 1930’s created unrest. The Czechoslovak German population’s support of far-right groups and British and French appeasement in 1938 led to the Munich agreement, which allowed Germany to take control of areas with a German population. Slovakia broke off under threat from Germany and Hungary and declared its independence. Under the puppet government of Jozef Tiso, Slovakia allied with Germany and allowed the deportation of its Jewish population. However, a resistance movement grew, leading to a violent clash - the Slovak National Uprising - with the Nazi occupiers.
After the war, Czechoslovakia was re-formed and the deportation of the German population was carried out. There was initial popular support for the Communist party but it waned with the poor economy. Klement Gottwald, Communist prime minister, engineered a coup by filling the government with his party members. Under Stalinist rule, there were Five Year Plans, industrialization, gulags and show trials of top government officials. After the death of Stalin in 1953, repressive policies stayed in place. Alexander Dubček, a Slovak politician, came to power in 1968 - the start of the Prague Spring, where liberal reforms were put in place. Warsaw Pact countries were unnerved by the developments and invaded in August 1968. Dubček was removed and Gustáv Husák replaced him and initiated a campaign of “normalization” - more purges and repression of dissent. However, federalization, which gave Slovakia more independence, was kept in place even if not in practice.
In 1989, Communist rule came to an end with the peaceful Velvet Revolution, a series of strikes and protests. Bratislava was a major center for protesters. Slovakia had for much of the 20th c. taken direction from Prague and the idea of independence gained force. The country was dissolved in 1993, when Slovakia again became an independent state. Slovakia joined NATO and the EU in 2004 and adopted the Euro in 2009.
Bratislava Castle
Sad Janka Kráľa, the oldest public park in Central Europe
High Tatras mountains, near the Polish-Slovak border
Peter Pišťanek - he started publishing in the late 80’s and early 90’s and is best known for his Rivers of Babylon trilogy (Rivers of Babylon, The Wooden Village and The End of Freddy), a vicious satire which features an ignorant, greedy, vulgar, morally deficient protagonist who represents the robber barons who prospered in post-Communist Slovakia. His books might be difficult to find.
Martin Šimečka - the son of a prominent Czechoslovak dissident, his semi-autobiographical first novel The Year of the Frog has the main character, a young man barred from the university in Bratislava in the 1980’s, working menial jobs but comforted by love and his passion for running. It was well-reviewed but possibly too many philosophical ramblings.
Hungary -
As part of Austria-Hungary, Hungary had its own parliament and self-government though the same ruler (king in Hungary, emperor in Austria) and one foreign and military policy. During WWI, the dual monarchy was allied with Germany. Hungary suffered huge relative losses. After the war, Hungary lost territory to Romania, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia. Béla Kun and the Hungarian Communist Party took power in 1919. Kun nationalized industries and institutions and started a campaign of violent repression. After a couple botched military excursions, he fled the country. A rightwing authoritarian government headed by Admiral Miklós Horthy took over and also engaged in violent repression. The Treaty of Trianon, signed in 1920, finalized the loss of Hungarian lands, required the payment of reparations and limited military buildup. The harsh Horthy government kept dissent low and the prime minister, István Bethlen, rewarded supporters and made deals with leftists. However, the economic downturn in the 1930’s allowed the far right Arrow Cross party to gain in strength. German economic and political alliances helped Hungary regain some of its territory and relieve the poor economy but also made it dependent on Germany. A number of anti-Jewish laws were put in place and Hungary signed an alliance with the Axis powers.
Hungarian troops initially participated in the invasion of Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union (though reluctantly both times) but heavy losses led them to abandon the Germans. German forces occupied Hungary and replaced Horthy with a puppet government. The end of the war brought another loss of territories and more reparations. The death toll was high, especially for the Jewish community which had been devastated by the Nazi occupation. The Soviets occupied the country at the end of the war - they had raped, killed, arrested, and deported many hundreds of thousands. In addition, ethnic Hungarians had been deported from elsewhere in Europe.
The Soviets gained control of many institutions but the first elections in 1945 were a victory for the Smallholders’ Party. For the next elections, arrests and intimidation of political opponents, a forced coalition with the Social Democrats and election manipulation resulted in a victory for the Communists, with Mátyás Rákosi heading the country. Soviet-style systems were put in place - heavy industrialization, collective farms, gulag-style labor camps. Communists as well as the church and other groups were subjected to purge. After the death of Stalin, the more popular Imre Nagy replaced Rákosi but was removed in 1955.
The 1956 Hungarian Revolution was a dramatic uprising that took place after peaceful demonstrations were met by violence. Resistance fighters attacked Soviet troops and forced them to withdraw. Nagy was reinstated and promised changes, withdrawing from the Warsaw Pact. The Soviet troops moved in to Budapest and quelled the uprising. János Kádár was picked to head Hungary and though there was an initial reactionary phase, he eventually instituted a number of reforms - some free market elements and individual freedoms. Hungary was among the more open Soviet bloc countries. Renewed protests and the more liberal government of Gorbachev paved the way for free elections. With the Communist party transformed into a leftist party advocating a free market economy and social democracy, all three major political parties pushed for economic liberalization and closer ties to the west. Hungary joined NATO and the EU but some tensions with Romania remained.
Hungarian Parliament Building in Budapest
Lake Balaton, the largest lake in Central Europe
Terror House, now a controversial museum, formerly the headquarters of the Nazi occupiers and the Communist secret police
Miklós Bánffy - a Hungarian nobleman from a distinguished family, he was elected to the parliament of the Austro-Hungarian empire and later became foreign minister in the Hungarian government of 1921. While retired, he tried to convince the Romanians to join with Hungary in abandoning the Axis powers and his estate was burned in retaliation by the Germans. Under the Soviets, the fate of Transylvania, his native land, was uncertain. Banffy was separated from his family in an unsuccessful attempt to defend his estate but finally returned to Budapest and died there. His trilogy A Transylvanian Tale (They Were Counted, They Were Found Wanting, They Were Divided), shows the life of an aristocratic family in the declining years of the dual monarchy and raises the issue the status of Transylvania. A good review by Rebecca is posted on the work page.
Attila Bartis - his father was prominent Transylvanian writer but was stripped of his Romanian citizenship so the family moved to Budapest in 1984. Bartis is also a journalist and professional photographer. In his novel Tranquility, a dark, darkly comic and neurotic work, the writer narrator engages in sordid affairs, has a relationships with a woman with issues, and attempt to deal with with his overbearing, bitter mother and the absence of his sister who defected to the west.
Géza Csáth - a WWI-era writer, critic and medical doctor, his work in a psychiatric hospital influenced his characteristic dark stories, which feature, violence, murder, and rape and examine the disturbed minds of his characters. He became addicted to drugs, fled from a psychiatric hospital, murdered his wife and tried to kill himself, then escaped from the hospital again. While on the way to check himself into a psychiatric hospital, he was stopped by border guards and poisoned himself. Opium and Other Stories is one of his collections.
György Dalos - he was accused of subversive activities and his works were banned from publication. Some of his novels address this - 1985, a sequel to 1984, imagines that Big Brother has died and the story of the aftermath is told by Orwell’s characters. Others, like The Circumcision, examine the conflict of being Jewish and Hungarian, much like Dalos.
Tibor Déry - he tangled with most of the governments of Hungary - the pre-WWII Hungarian Communist party and Kun expelled him, when he returned in 1935, he was jailed by the Horthy regime, he was expelled from the Communist party in 1953, and was sentenced to prison for participating in the uprising of 1956. His book Niki: The Story of a Dog shows life in Communist Hungary through the hardships faced by Niki’s family.
Péter Esterházy - one of the best-known contemporary Hungarian authors, from an illustrious family. He’s best known in the west for his metafictional novel Celestial Harmonies which looks at the history of his family up to the 20th c. in a fragmented, allusive way, often borrowing from other writers and jumping back and forth. This oddness is in his other works as well - The Book of Hrabal features Bohumil Hrabal, secret police angels, God and Charlie Parker and A Little Hungarian Pornography uses porn as a metaphor for the Hungarian Communist period.
Erzsebet Galgoczi - she was born in a village, moved to the city and worked as a reporter and social worker. In 1981, she was elected to parliament. Concerns for the poor, downtrodden and ostracized members of society are found in her work - women, the scorned intelligentsia, poor villagers. Another Love takes place during the 1956 uprising and relates the story of a journalist found dead - a refusal to compromise and her lesbianism made her a target for the authorities.
Margit Kaffka - one of the most important and influential Hungarian female authors, she wrote in the first decades of the 20th c. and died in the 1918 flu pandemic. Her novels such as Colors and Years depict the decline of the aristocracy and address women’s hardships in the early 20th c.
Ferenc Karinthy - son of the famous writer Frigyes Karinthy, his first novel translated into English is Metropole, a Kafka-esque story about a man who finds himself in a foreign city where he attempts to learn where he is and about the language and city, but remains mystified.
Imre Kertész - Hungarian Jewish author who survived Auschwitz, his best known book Fatelessness also depicts a teenage protagonist who survives the concentration camps though Kertesz has disclaimed any similarities. He won the Nobel Prize in 2002. Various other works are available - Kaddish for an Unborn Child, Liquidation, Detective Story and others.
Arthur Koestler - his Darkness at Noon is one of the most famous and influential anti-Communist books and during the 20th c. he seemed to be everywhere and meet everyone. He experienced the political turmoil in Hungary in 1919 and 1920, lived in a kibbutz in Palestine, was sentenced to death in Spain during the Civil War, wrote a sex encyclopedia, joined and later quit the Communist party, worked for the British propaganda department during the war, experimented with drugs with Timothy Leary, championed anti-Communism and many other causes and inspired a number of controversies. Darkness at Noon is vague as to time and names but is a fictionalized account of the Soviet purges of Old Bolsheviks.
György Konrád - he studied sociology and psychology at university and wrote about these topics, as well as politics and literature. He participated in the 1956 uprising and in 1988 helped found the political party Alliance of Free Democrats but later left it. The Case Worker looks at grim modern-day society through the POV of a social services bureaucrat, The City Builder is the monologue of an architect contemplating Communist Hungary and the city and The Loser has its protagonist, who has experienced war and repressive governments, deciding that the insane asylum is better than the Communist-run outside.
Dezső Kosztolányi - a poet, journalist and translator, he participated in the revival of Hungarian literature at the start of the 20th c. He died in 1936. An older couple finds happiness when their daughter leaves for a trip, but it is colored with the knowledge that soon things will go back to the way they were again in Skylark. Anna Edes is a hardworking, innocent country girl who comes to work as a servant for horrible bourgeois family. Things go terribly wrong. Kornel Esti is an old friend of the narrator and his comedic and crazy antics are related in several vignettes.
László Krasznahorkai - when he began publishing in the 1980’s, his works were immediately acclaimed by critics and awarded prizes. They do take some work though - he has dense prose, lengthy sentences, grim atmospheres of despair, absurd and surreal situations that might seem allegorical but run off in strange directions. Several characters convene at an unnamed town but the bleak atmosphere is the main character in Satantango. In The Melancholy of Resistance, a strange circus sets off paranoia and apocalyptic rumblings. The main character of War and War finds an antique manuscript and runs off with it to New York where contemplates suicide and wanders.
Agota Kristof - she fled Hungary after the 1956 uprising and moved to Switzerland where she lived until her death in 2011. She wrote in French. Her trilogy The Notebook, The Proof and The Third Lie was highly praised. Through the story of two brothers who grow up in Hungary, she examines the east/west, good/evil dichotomy as well as 20th c. history.
Gyula Krúdy - a journalist, short-story writer and novelist who was popular around WWI but whose readership declined thereafter. Drinking, gambling and illness left him in poor health and he died in 1933. There was renewed interest in his works after the publication of Sandor Marai’s Sinbad Comes Home, which describes Krudy’s last day. English translations - the very odd, surreal, dreamlike and beautifully-written Sunflower, The Adventure of Sindbad - also dreamy and surreal stories told by the dead Sindbad about women he loved and his adventures when he was alive, and Life is a Dream, more realistic short stories about a variety of characters, much of whose time is spent in bars and eating stuff. Rebecca has posted good reviews of his books.
Sándor Márai - he was born in the Austro-Hungarian empire and many of his books are about the old regime. He criticized the Nazis and left after the Communists took power, living in Italy and the U.S. His works were not given much attention outside of Hungary until the 1990’s, where there was an upsurge in his popularity. Some of his novels are about love triangles (Embers, Casanova in Bolzano, The Portrait of a Marriage) but are constructed as various characters’ monologues reminiscing about the old days of the empire.
Terézia Mora - a contemporary writer, she moved to Germany in 1990 and writes in German. Her first novel, Day In Day Out, is the quixotic quest of a gay Balkan man who travels to an unnamed town looking for his father and encounters a number of odd characters.
Zsigmond Móricz - journalist and novelist in first half of 20th c, he wrote about rural life and poverty though it was not always a positive picture. Be Faithful Unto Death is a classic coming-of-age story about a boy who struggles to adjust at school and is plagued with money issues.
Péter Nádas - very famous contemporary author, has earned comparisons to Proust and Mann, but sometimes his books are described as frustrating. These doorstoppers are often postmodern looks at Hungary during the 20th c. A Book of Memories has a writer, writing about his childhood under Communism, engaged in a love triangle - other narratives are by his friend and the character in his novel. Parallel Stories has multiple, well, parallel stories of various people during WWII, with some links between the characters appearing after 1000+ pages or so.
István Örkény - he initially studied chemistry and pharmacology but published his first book before WWII, spent some of the war in a forced labor camp and was banned from publishing in Hungary until 1960. His novels are full of absurd and grotesque situations. Some include One Minute Stories - the title is literal, some stories are as short as a sentence - and The Flower Show and The Toth Family
Magda Szabó - popular and award-winning author who died in 2007, her works were not allowed to be published under Communist government. She initially wrote poetry, but after the ban was lifted, published novels such as The Door, a semi-autobiographical story of a writer’s friendship with her housekeeper.
Antal Szerb - scholar, writer and well-known literary personality in 1930’s Budapest. His travels in Britain, France and Italy inform some of his books such as The Pendragon Legend, a mystery, Gothic novel, and comedy set in a British estate and the most famous, Journey By Moonlight, which portrays a death-haunted, decadent Venice. Of Jewish descent, he was arrested in 1944 and died in a concentration camp in 1945
Miklós Vámos - a contemporary author and journalist who also hosts a talk show. His The Book of Fathers looks at 300 years of Hungarian history through the troubles of one family - there’s a review by Rebecca on the work page.
Lajos Zilahy - a writer and film director who served in WWI in the Austro-Hungarian army, was later at odds with the rightwing Horthy regime, and fled for the U.S. after conflicting with the Communists. His trilogy(Century in Scarlet, The Dukays, The Angry Angel) describes an aristocratic family from the beginning of the 19th c. to the middle of the 20th.
4DieFledermaus
Czech Republic -
At the start of the 20th c., Czech lands were under the control of Austria-Hungary. There had been much historical precedent for Bohemian and Moravian (two Czech regions) autonomy and rebellion and there was still disappointment that Hungary was Austria’s equal but not the Czech lands. In the early decades, conflict arose between the parties that pushed for greater autonomy - some wanted more freedom within the dual monarchy, others, such as Tomáš Garrigue (T.G.) Masaryk, a professor and member of the Realist Party, wanted independence and closer cooperation with the Slovaks. Czechs and Slovaks were not happy fighting on the Austrian side in WWI and many defected to form the Czechoslovak League, on the side of the Allies. Masaryk also went to the Western powers to curry favor for a Czechoslovak state. After the collapse of Austria-Hungary, the new Czechoslovak Republic was established in 1918. Slovaks agreed to join the new state but the League had to be called in to secure the cooperation of the German-speaking areas of Bohemia and Moravia. The League also had to drive out the Hungarian Communist Kun’s troops from the new Czechoslovak lands.
The first Czechoslovak Republic was a parliamentary democracy notable for granting extensive rights to minority groups. It was also the only democracy in the region at the time. Part of the cohesive nature of the state, which was made up of many ethnic groups, was due to President Masaryk’s political skill and openness. The Republic allowed universal suffrage and bilinguality in any area with a significant minority population. Initially, the economy did well in the 1920’s as many of the industrialized areas of the dual monarchy were located in the new Republic. However, after the economic crash in 1929, dissatisfaction caused nationalist, Communist and far-right parties to gain in Slovakia, Ruthenia and the Sudetenland, the German-speaking areas of Bohemia and Moravia. Masaryk died in 1937, leaving Edvard Beneš in charge. The far-right Sudeten German Party collaborated with the Nazis and called for independence for the Sudetenland. As this would have dismantled Czechoslovakia’s border defenses, Beneš refused. However, in a notorious act of appeasement, the French, British and Italian government signed the 1938 Munich Pact with the Nazis, giving them part of Czechoslovakia without consulting the Czechoslovak government. Unsurprisingly, this did not satisfy the Nazis - under threat by the Germans and their Hungarian allies, Slovakia seceded and fell under Hungarian control and the Nazis occupied the rest of the Czech lands.
Under Nazi rule, the Nuremburg laws went into effect and many were arrested. Reinhard Heydrich was assigned to head the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, as it was called. The Czechoslovak government in exile and the Czech resistance were active in opposing the Nazis, culminating with the 1942 assassination of Heydrich. In retaliation, the Germans massacred the inhabitants of the villages of Lidice and Ležáky, who were not involved in the resistance. The Terezín ghetto was established and served as a holding station before transport to Auschwitz. Around 300,000 were killed or executed, most of them Jews. The arrival of Soviet troops and the 1945 Prague uprising drove the Germans out.
Beneš had negotiated the deportation of the German population and there were violent reprisals against ethnic Germans after liberation. Germans had to prove their anti-fascist credentials though the other populations were not suspect. Their property was also confiscated without compensation. Although the transport was supposed to be fair and orderly, this did not work in practice and thousands died due to poor conditions. Initially, the Communists were popular - the Soviets had participated in the liberation of Czech lands, Stalin had opposed the Munich agreement and the Communist-controlled police force distributed former German lands. The Communist party got the largest percentage in the 1946 elections and Klement Gottwald was appointed prime minister. He claimed to want a parliamentary government but in 1948 engineered a bloodless coup where he filled the cabinet with Communists and rewrote the Constitution, giving the Communists control.
Things proceeded in the Stalinist mode - development of heavy industry, nationalization of industries, mining Gulags, targeting of political enemies, priests, “class enemies” and “kulaks”. There were several show trials of party members and officials, the most notorious being that of Rudolf Slánský, who was second only to Gottwald. Gottwald died shortly after Stalin in 1953 but there seemed to be no thaw - show trials went on, workers’ protests were violently quashed and the economy remained poor with few reforms implemented. In 1968, Alexander Dubček came to power. He was a moderate Slovak politician but there had been increasing pressure for reform. He abolished censorship, and the party published a program allowing for federalization, freedom of assembly and expression and democratization of parliament. As other political parties re-formed and anti-Soviet opinions appeared in the paper - the Prague Spring - other Communist countries became fearful and called for repression of the revolution. On August 21, Soviet troops invaded and arrested Dubček and other Communist reformers. Riots followed. Gustáv Husák’s policy of “Normalization” purged thousands from the party and demoted or fired others. Dissent was firmly controlled. After a rock band was arrested, a group of intellectuals formed the Charter 77 to monitor human rights abuses. Writers such as Václav Havel and Ludvík Vaculík were part of the group and were subsequently harassed. However, no large opposition movements were formed.
After the fall of other Communist regimes in 1989, there were a number of protests and strikes. Violent opposition to these inflamed the public and protests increased. Opposition leaders such as Havel called on the government for change and they promised to form a coalition government. However, their first effort was all Communist-dominated and the strikes continued. Finally, a coalition government was formed and Havel was voted in as president. There were bumps in post-Communist life - Slovakia declared independence, there was much controversy over issues of reparations to those who lost property in 1948 or the Sudeten Germans, and the treatment of the Roma remains a problem. The Czech Republic transitioned to a market economy and joined NATO and the EU. There’s the usual cynicism about politics and tradeoffs of power between the center-right and center-left.
Charles Bridge crossing the Vltava, with Prague Castle in the background
The Old New Synagogue in Prague, legend has the Golem in the attic
The Brno dragon (well, really a crocodile) and wheel, the subject of local legends
Michal Ajvaz - a contemporary author, poet and translator who writes Borges-influenced, philosophical magic realist/fantastic novels. The Golden Age looks in anthropological detail at the inhabitants of an island who, among other odd customs, only have one book but one that can expand to include anything. In The Other City, the narrator finds a mysterious book that acts as a portal to a shadow Prague.
Pavel Brycz - an acclaimed contemporary author, his book I, City, which tells multiple stories of the inhabitants of the Bohemian city of Most from the POV of the city, has been translated.
Karel Čapek - any competition for the Great Czech Author would find Čapek high on the list. His friendship with the first Czechoslovak president, T.G. Masaryk, and his intellectual gatherings made him one of the best-known writers in the 20’s and 30’s. He even wrote a biography about Masaryk, made up of his journals, writings and conversations. His work includes plays, poetry, short stories, novels, travel writing and a book on gardening. However, he is probably best known today for his sci-fi works. The play R.U.R., about a company that produces intelligent automatons which go on a world-destroying rampage, was the first use of the word “robot”. The novel The War with the Newts has intelligent amphibians launching a war to control the world - satirizing warmongering nations. Other sci-fi works include the novel The Absolute at Large and the plays The Makropulos Case and The Insect Play. He wrote a number of stories - Tales from Two Pockets is a collection of short mysteries and Apocryphal Tales consists of Čapek’s take on various Biblical stories, myths, historical figures and literary characters. They’re both distinguished by Čapek’s warm, humorous, casual take on the foibles of humanity. Some novels include Hordubal, about the problems with a police investigation and justice, Meteor, which recreates the life of an unknown man who died in a plane crash, and An Ordinary Life, about a railway employee who finds that his seemingly dull life is full of complications. Čapek's anti-war works, such as the plays The Mother and The White Plague, infuriated the Nazis. He died in 1938, after the annexation of Czechoslovakia, before he could be arrested by the Nazis.
Jiří Gruša - his The Questionnaire was a cause celebre after he was banned from publishing, then released it as part of the underground samizdat literature and was arrested for distributing copies. He was released after worldwide condemnation of his arrest but his citizenship was revoked in 1981 and he lived in Germany until the fall of the Communist government. In the post-Communist era, he held multiple positions in the government and died in 2011. The Questionnaire is a metafictional, magic realist novel where the narrator tells the story of his family and his life while filling out a questionnaire.
Emil Hakl - in the Communist era, he worked a number of manual labor jobs while writing poetry and plays. He was a copywriter in the 1990’s and began publishing his poetry, short stories and novels at the end of the decade. Of Kids and Parents is a drinking-and-walking novel as a father and son amble around Prague and reminisce about the history of Croatia and Prague, where they came in 1945.
Jaroslav Hašek - The author of the extremely influential and beloved The Good Soldier Švejk, sort of like a Czech Catch-22 in that it looks at the absurdities of the war and inspired some phrases in its native language. Hašek was born in Prague when it was part of Austria-Hungary. He never finished school and held a number of jobs. Hašek joined the anarchist party and due to his political activities was frequently arrested and imprisoned. Before WWI, he had written some stories that featured Švejk but after the war, he developed the idea of the cheerful idiot (or genius?) soldier who exposes the pointlessness of WWI and the hypocrisy of the Austro-Hungarian authorities. He was drafted into the war and was captured by the Russians. Later, he defected to join the Czechoslovak League. The Good Soldier Švejk was unfinished - he was dictating chapters from his bedside when he died in 1923.
Josef Hiršal - an experimental poet and translator, his A Bohemian Youth is also experimental - the actual text is seven pages followed by considerably more notes, then some notes to the notes. The story is supposed to be about his childhood and the notes give background, elaborate on the plot and provide different interpretations. Hirsal died in 2003.
Egon Hostovský - a Jewish Czech diplomat and author, he worked as an editor and published several novels in the 1930’s, including The Arsonist, which won the Czechoslovak State Prize for Literature. He was abroad when Czechoslovakia was occupied by the Nazis and he spent the war in New York working for the exiled Czechoslovak consulate. Many members of his family died in concentration camps. He returned to Czechoslovakia after the war but left again to protest the Communist government. Hostovský spent the rest of his life in America, publishing more novels and working for Radio Free Europe. The Arsonist is about a teenager living in a Bohemian town menaced by an arsonist in the mid-1930’s
Bohumil Hrabal - one of the greatest Czech authors of the 20th c. Born in the Moravian town of Brno when it was part of Austria-Hungary, Hrabal went to Charles University in Prague but his studies were interrupted by the Nazi occupation. During the war years he worked as a railway employee, clerk, insurance agent, foundry worker and stagehand. Hrabal sporadically published after the war but ran into trouble with the Communists. A number of his early works are semi-autobiographical (The Little Town Where Time Stood Still) but still have his characteristic dark humor, quirkiness, events that seem to almost be surreal, some nostalgic descriptions of the small towns with plenty of grim realistic depictions of the Nazi occupation and life under the Communists. Closely Watched Trains, about an eccentric railway worker who is more concerned with women and the shenanigans of his coworkers than the war and the Nazis, was a huge hit when it came out. Collaborating with Jiří Menzel, a Czech director, on a film adaptation of Closely Watched Trains resulted in an Academy Award for the film in 1967. His works were banned from publication after the 1968 invasion but he released them through the underground samizdat press. I Served the King of England also features a quirky wise fool who works as a waiter at a posh hotel before the war and faces life under the Nazis and Communists with a bemused attitude. Too Loud a Solitude tells the story of another eccentric, a paper crusher who hoards banned books, in wonderful prose. Hrabal famously chatted with Vaclav Havel, Bill Clinton and Madeleine Albright in his favorite bar in 1994. He died in 1997, in a rather bizarre way - falling from the fifth floor of a hospital in an attempt to feed the birds.
Petra Hůlová - a popular and award-winning contemporary author. Her first novel - translated into English as All This Belongs to Me - rocketed her to fame and success as it was a bestseller. She had published four novels by the time she was 27. All This Belongs to Me was based on Hulova’s year in Mongolia as an exchange student. Five women in one Mongolian family tell their stories, from the nomadic life on the steppes to the grim realities of life in Ulaanbaatar.
Ivan Klíma - a famous and well-regarded author. He and his family were sent to Terezin where they spent WWII and amazingly survived. However, there is little in Klíma’s work about his experiences during the war. He later joined the Communist party but became disillusioned. Many of his books are about the oppressive Communist regime and the problems in the post-Communist period. Love and Garbage is about the life of a writer who had to give up his academic career to be a street sweeper and his problems with love and family. In Judge on Trial, the moral dilemmas of a judge under the Communist system are examined. Waiting for the Dark, Waiting for the Light follows its detached, disillusioned filmmaker protagonist after the fall of the Communist government.
Ladislav Klíma - Klima was a very odd character. Expelled from school for insulting the Hapsburgs, he never finished his education and never held a permanent job. He lived off occasional royalties and the generosity of his friends. His The World as Consciousness and Nothing, influenced by Schopenhauer and Nietzsche, posits that each individual creates his own world and that the world at large is all fiction. He wrote several other philosophical works. His fiction is influenced by his ideas as well as his rejection of conventional society - The Sufferings of Prince Sternenhoch is a bizarre, crazy, satirical, obscene work. The diminutive and self-important prince marries the demonic, vicious Helga. He both loathes and loves her but he eventually has trouble distinguishing between reality and his delusions. There’s a good review by steven03tx on the work page. Glorious Nemesis is also available. Klima died of tuberculosis in 1928.
Pavel Kohout - a novelist and playwright, he participated in the Prague Spring, was a founding member of the Charter 77 and was subsequently exiled to Austria. The Widow Killer is a mystery set in occupied Prague at the end of WWII and follows a Czech detective uneasily partnering with a Gestapo agent to catch a serial killer. I Am Snowing is a comic take on Czech society after the fall of the Communists.
Barbara König - a contemporary author, her The Beneficiary is a ironic, minimalist story of a man who learns that another took his place in front of the firing squad in WWII and ponders his now displaced life.
Milan Kundera - a Franco-Czech novelist, probably one of the most famous contemporary Czech writers. His works were originally written in Czech but from 1993 on, he has written in French. Kundera joined the Communist party but was expelled in 1950, an experience he used while writing the early novel The Joke, a realistic look at the lives of several characters living under the Communist government, one being a student who was kicked out of the party and has remained bitter and vengeful ever since. He later participated in the Prague Spring and was again expelled from the party and stripped of his citizenship in 1971. Kundera left for France where he has lived ever since. Some of his other early works examine life under the Communist regime - The Book of Laughter and Forgetting and his most famous, The Unbearable Lightness of Being - but his later books moved away from specifically Czech settings. Many novels have philosophical concerns and Kundera often mixes short chapters with plot/characters with others containing general musings on life. Some of his works have metafictional or magic realist elements and even the darkest have some absurdities or a lightness to the narration. There has been some tension between Kundera and his native country - accusations of living an easy life while other writers had to endure the government repression and more recent suspicions that he was an informer.
Arnošt Lustig - as a teenager, he was sent to Terezin and later Auschwitz. He escaped during transport and participated in the Prague uprising in 1945. After the war, he worked as a journalist at Radio Prague. Later, Lustig criticized the Communists and left the country after the 1968 Soviet invasion. Lustig went to Israel and the United States. After the fall of the Communist government in 1989, he split his time between the U.S. and Prague. He died in 2011. Most of his books are about the Holocaust in some way - Lovely Green Eyes is about a Jewish girl who passes as Aryan and spends the war in a brothel, Night and Hope is a collection of stories set in Terezin, A Prayer for Katerina Horvitzova looks at a group of Jewish American prisoners who believe they will be traded for German POWs.
Gustav Meyrink - born in Vienna, he spent 20 years in Prague and wrote about the city, most famously in The Golem. He worked as a bank manager but eventually got involved in cabalism, alchemy and drug experimentation. He also had a stint in prison for fraud which informs a scene in The Golem. It’s a dark, gothic, hallucinatory novel about a man who realizes he has lost his memories and tries to find them while getting involved in a blackmail plot, finding himself intrigued by two different women and losing the ability to distinguish between his dreams and reality. A number of dark and supernatural stories pop up in the novel. Other books are also gothic and supernatural - The Angel of the West Window is about John Dee in, among other places, Prague, The Green Face features the legend of the Wandering Jew and Walpurgisnacht examines the Prague rebellion, with the Czech population confronting the German rulers.
Patrik Ouředník - an editor and translator, he emigrated to France, where he lives, in 1984. He writes experimental works such as Europeana, which is an odd history of the 20th century, seemingly presented in a straightforward way, but juxtaposing the many absurdities and contradictions. Case Closed is a bizarre detective story set in post-Communist Czech Republic. The Opportune Moment 1855 follows a group out to set up a utopian anarchist community in Brazil but things don’t turn out well.
Iva Pekárková - Czech-born author who lives in New York. In Truck Stop Rainbows, the nonconforming photographer/student narrator enjoys her adventures hitchhiking with Western truckers but when she starts prostituting herself to help a friend, things go downhill. The World is Round looks at the misadventures of a Czech woman who ends up in a refugee camp.
Leo Perutz - born in Prague when it was part of Austria-Hungary, Perutz lived in Vienna and moved to Palestine after 1938. He was also a mathematician. Perutz wrote in German and most of his works are short historical novels with weird ironic or supernatural twists. The Swedish Cavalier has a nobleman and a thief switching places; various adventures occur and issues of identity are raised. By Night Under the Stone Bridge is a collection of linked stories that take place during the reign of Rudolf II with supernatural happenings and twists of fate. The Master of the Day of Judgment is a tidily wrapped up but oddly ambiguous mystery about some seemingly random suicides.
Peter Sís - an award-winning children’s book author and illustrator. The Wall:Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain is an illustrated memoir of his childhood. He has written and illustrated a number of other books - Tibet Through the Red Box, The Conference of the Birds and Starry Messenger. The Three Golden Keys is set in Prague and is a reworking of Czech fairy tales, with some comments on Communism.
Josef Škvorecký - a well-known Czech-Canadian writer and publisher. During WWII, he was forced to work in a German aircraft factory (as does his alter ego, Danny Smiricky, in The Engineer of Human Souls). He published some work in the 1950’s but it was banned - The End of the Nylon Age for being pornographic, The Cowards, the first appearance of Smiricky, for being anti-Communist. He participated in the Prague Spring but he and his wife fled to Canada after the Soviet invasion. They ran a dissident printing press which published banned Czech and Slovak works. Škvorecký also taught American literature at the University of Toronto. He was a longtime jazz lover and that figures in many of his novels. He died in 2012. The Smiricky books look at the narrator’s life under the Communist government and later in Canada. His best known novel, The Engineer of Human Souls (named after the Stalin quote about writers), is a tragicomedy about Danny’s attempts to sabotage the aircraft factory during WWII and his many relationships with women, and, later, his life in the Czech ex-pat community in Canada. A gloriously messy, jumpy and funny book. Besides Danny Smiricky, Škvorecký also had several books featuring Lieutenant Boruvka, a homicide detective in Communist Czechoslovakia.
Jáchym Topol - a poet and translator, his debut novel City Sister Silver is a challenging and dense work looking at post-Communist Prague, with plenty of verbal playfulness and Meyrink-inspired hallucinatory darkness.
Hermann Ungar - a German-language writer born in a Moravian town but who later lived in Prague. He fought in WWI and later worked for the Czechoslovak Foreign Service. He died in 1929 of appendicitis. The Maimed is a dark and twisted work about a pathologically shy and neurotic man whose poor, empty but acceptable life is disrupted when he is forced to have sex with his landlady and gets horribly entangled with an old childhood friend, now crippled, bitter and paranoid, and a cast of grotesques. To paraphrase a quote - you can’t unread this book, though you may want to. The Class also features a paranoid obsessive, a teacher who is sure that his wife is cheating on him and that his class will get out of control. Boys and Murderers is a collection of stories about more disturbed, obsessive people.
Ludvík Vaculík - a writer and journalist who had a prominent role in the Prague Spring and the Charter 77. As a member of the Communist party, he gave a sharply critical speech of the party in 1967. Dubček came to power and instituted reforms, but Vaculík felt he had not gone far enough and published his “Two Thousand Words” in several newspapers, urging people to call de-Stalinization and to fight against any invasion by Warsaw Pact forces. He was kicked out of the party and had to publish works through the samizdat press. Vaculík was one of the founders of the Charter 77 and he was frequently harassed by the secret police and subjected to interrogation. The ban was lifted on his works after 1989. The Guinea Pigs, about a man who decides to study his pet guinea pigs, is an allegory for life in Czechoslovakia after the Soviet invasion. The Axe looks at the changes in life in Czechoslovakia from the First Republic to the dismemberment under Nazi occupation and harsh life under the Communists through the experiences of a dysfunctional family.
Jiří Weil - as a young man in the 1920’s, Weil joined the Communist party, translated Russian literature and wrote articles about life in the Soviet Union. He worked for the Comintern in Moscow, but was caught up in the purges of the 1930’s, banned from the party and exiled. He returned to Prague and was unable to emigrate. One of his books described the atmosphere during the purges. During the war, Weil managed to avoid being sent to Terezin, hiding with friends or in the hospital. After the war, he worked as an editor and continued publishing though his most famous novel, Life with a Star came under fire. Also translated is Mendelssohn is on the Roof - both are about the Jewish experience during the Nazi occupation.
At the start of the 20th c., Czech lands were under the control of Austria-Hungary. There had been much historical precedent for Bohemian and Moravian (two Czech regions) autonomy and rebellion and there was still disappointment that Hungary was Austria’s equal but not the Czech lands. In the early decades, conflict arose between the parties that pushed for greater autonomy - some wanted more freedom within the dual monarchy, others, such as Tomáš Garrigue (T.G.) Masaryk, a professor and member of the Realist Party, wanted independence and closer cooperation with the Slovaks. Czechs and Slovaks were not happy fighting on the Austrian side in WWI and many defected to form the Czechoslovak League, on the side of the Allies. Masaryk also went to the Western powers to curry favor for a Czechoslovak state. After the collapse of Austria-Hungary, the new Czechoslovak Republic was established in 1918. Slovaks agreed to join the new state but the League had to be called in to secure the cooperation of the German-speaking areas of Bohemia and Moravia. The League also had to drive out the Hungarian Communist Kun’s troops from the new Czechoslovak lands.
The first Czechoslovak Republic was a parliamentary democracy notable for granting extensive rights to minority groups. It was also the only democracy in the region at the time. Part of the cohesive nature of the state, which was made up of many ethnic groups, was due to President Masaryk’s political skill and openness. The Republic allowed universal suffrage and bilinguality in any area with a significant minority population. Initially, the economy did well in the 1920’s as many of the industrialized areas of the dual monarchy were located in the new Republic. However, after the economic crash in 1929, dissatisfaction caused nationalist, Communist and far-right parties to gain in Slovakia, Ruthenia and the Sudetenland, the German-speaking areas of Bohemia and Moravia. Masaryk died in 1937, leaving Edvard Beneš in charge. The far-right Sudeten German Party collaborated with the Nazis and called for independence for the Sudetenland. As this would have dismantled Czechoslovakia’s border defenses, Beneš refused. However, in a notorious act of appeasement, the French, British and Italian government signed the 1938 Munich Pact with the Nazis, giving them part of Czechoslovakia without consulting the Czechoslovak government. Unsurprisingly, this did not satisfy the Nazis - under threat by the Germans and their Hungarian allies, Slovakia seceded and fell under Hungarian control and the Nazis occupied the rest of the Czech lands.
Under Nazi rule, the Nuremburg laws went into effect and many were arrested. Reinhard Heydrich was assigned to head the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, as it was called. The Czechoslovak government in exile and the Czech resistance were active in opposing the Nazis, culminating with the 1942 assassination of Heydrich. In retaliation, the Germans massacred the inhabitants of the villages of Lidice and Ležáky, who were not involved in the resistance. The Terezín ghetto was established and served as a holding station before transport to Auschwitz. Around 300,000 were killed or executed, most of them Jews. The arrival of Soviet troops and the 1945 Prague uprising drove the Germans out.
Beneš had negotiated the deportation of the German population and there were violent reprisals against ethnic Germans after liberation. Germans had to prove their anti-fascist credentials though the other populations were not suspect. Their property was also confiscated without compensation. Although the transport was supposed to be fair and orderly, this did not work in practice and thousands died due to poor conditions. Initially, the Communists were popular - the Soviets had participated in the liberation of Czech lands, Stalin had opposed the Munich agreement and the Communist-controlled police force distributed former German lands. The Communist party got the largest percentage in the 1946 elections and Klement Gottwald was appointed prime minister. He claimed to want a parliamentary government but in 1948 engineered a bloodless coup where he filled the cabinet with Communists and rewrote the Constitution, giving the Communists control.
Things proceeded in the Stalinist mode - development of heavy industry, nationalization of industries, mining Gulags, targeting of political enemies, priests, “class enemies” and “kulaks”. There were several show trials of party members and officials, the most notorious being that of Rudolf Slánský, who was second only to Gottwald. Gottwald died shortly after Stalin in 1953 but there seemed to be no thaw - show trials went on, workers’ protests were violently quashed and the economy remained poor with few reforms implemented. In 1968, Alexander Dubček came to power. He was a moderate Slovak politician but there had been increasing pressure for reform. He abolished censorship, and the party published a program allowing for federalization, freedom of assembly and expression and democratization of parliament. As other political parties re-formed and anti-Soviet opinions appeared in the paper - the Prague Spring - other Communist countries became fearful and called for repression of the revolution. On August 21, Soviet troops invaded and arrested Dubček and other Communist reformers. Riots followed. Gustáv Husák’s policy of “Normalization” purged thousands from the party and demoted or fired others. Dissent was firmly controlled. After a rock band was arrested, a group of intellectuals formed the Charter 77 to monitor human rights abuses. Writers such as Václav Havel and Ludvík Vaculík were part of the group and were subsequently harassed. However, no large opposition movements were formed.
After the fall of other Communist regimes in 1989, there were a number of protests and strikes. Violent opposition to these inflamed the public and protests increased. Opposition leaders such as Havel called on the government for change and they promised to form a coalition government. However, their first effort was all Communist-dominated and the strikes continued. Finally, a coalition government was formed and Havel was voted in as president. There were bumps in post-Communist life - Slovakia declared independence, there was much controversy over issues of reparations to those who lost property in 1948 or the Sudeten Germans, and the treatment of the Roma remains a problem. The Czech Republic transitioned to a market economy and joined NATO and the EU. There’s the usual cynicism about politics and tradeoffs of power between the center-right and center-left.
Charles Bridge crossing the Vltava, with Prague Castle in the background
The Old New Synagogue in Prague, legend has the Golem in the attic
The Brno dragon (well, really a crocodile) and wheel, the subject of local legends
Michal Ajvaz - a contemporary author, poet and translator who writes Borges-influenced, philosophical magic realist/fantastic novels. The Golden Age looks in anthropological detail at the inhabitants of an island who, among other odd customs, only have one book but one that can expand to include anything. In The Other City, the narrator finds a mysterious book that acts as a portal to a shadow Prague.
Pavel Brycz - an acclaimed contemporary author, his book I, City, which tells multiple stories of the inhabitants of the Bohemian city of Most from the POV of the city, has been translated.
Karel Čapek - any competition for the Great Czech Author would find Čapek high on the list. His friendship with the first Czechoslovak president, T.G. Masaryk, and his intellectual gatherings made him one of the best-known writers in the 20’s and 30’s. He even wrote a biography about Masaryk, made up of his journals, writings and conversations. His work includes plays, poetry, short stories, novels, travel writing and a book on gardening. However, he is probably best known today for his sci-fi works. The play R.U.R., about a company that produces intelligent automatons which go on a world-destroying rampage, was the first use of the word “robot”. The novel The War with the Newts has intelligent amphibians launching a war to control the world - satirizing warmongering nations. Other sci-fi works include the novel The Absolute at Large and the plays The Makropulos Case and The Insect Play. He wrote a number of stories - Tales from Two Pockets is a collection of short mysteries and Apocryphal Tales consists of Čapek’s take on various Biblical stories, myths, historical figures and literary characters. They’re both distinguished by Čapek’s warm, humorous, casual take on the foibles of humanity. Some novels include Hordubal, about the problems with a police investigation and justice, Meteor, which recreates the life of an unknown man who died in a plane crash, and An Ordinary Life, about a railway employee who finds that his seemingly dull life is full of complications. Čapek's anti-war works, such as the plays The Mother and The White Plague, infuriated the Nazis. He died in 1938, after the annexation of Czechoslovakia, before he could be arrested by the Nazis.
Jiří Gruša - his The Questionnaire was a cause celebre after he was banned from publishing, then released it as part of the underground samizdat literature and was arrested for distributing copies. He was released after worldwide condemnation of his arrest but his citizenship was revoked in 1981 and he lived in Germany until the fall of the Communist government. In the post-Communist era, he held multiple positions in the government and died in 2011. The Questionnaire is a metafictional, magic realist novel where the narrator tells the story of his family and his life while filling out a questionnaire.
Emil Hakl - in the Communist era, he worked a number of manual labor jobs while writing poetry and plays. He was a copywriter in the 1990’s and began publishing his poetry, short stories and novels at the end of the decade. Of Kids and Parents is a drinking-and-walking novel as a father and son amble around Prague and reminisce about the history of Croatia and Prague, where they came in 1945.
Jaroslav Hašek - The author of the extremely influential and beloved The Good Soldier Švejk, sort of like a Czech Catch-22 in that it looks at the absurdities of the war and inspired some phrases in its native language. Hašek was born in Prague when it was part of Austria-Hungary. He never finished school and held a number of jobs. Hašek joined the anarchist party and due to his political activities was frequently arrested and imprisoned. Before WWI, he had written some stories that featured Švejk but after the war, he developed the idea of the cheerful idiot (or genius?) soldier who exposes the pointlessness of WWI and the hypocrisy of the Austro-Hungarian authorities. He was drafted into the war and was captured by the Russians. Later, he defected to join the Czechoslovak League. The Good Soldier Švejk was unfinished - he was dictating chapters from his bedside when he died in 1923.
Josef Hiršal - an experimental poet and translator, his A Bohemian Youth is also experimental - the actual text is seven pages followed by considerably more notes, then some notes to the notes. The story is supposed to be about his childhood and the notes give background, elaborate on the plot and provide different interpretations. Hirsal died in 2003.
Egon Hostovský - a Jewish Czech diplomat and author, he worked as an editor and published several novels in the 1930’s, including The Arsonist, which won the Czechoslovak State Prize for Literature. He was abroad when Czechoslovakia was occupied by the Nazis and he spent the war in New York working for the exiled Czechoslovak consulate. Many members of his family died in concentration camps. He returned to Czechoslovakia after the war but left again to protest the Communist government. Hostovský spent the rest of his life in America, publishing more novels and working for Radio Free Europe. The Arsonist is about a teenager living in a Bohemian town menaced by an arsonist in the mid-1930’s
Bohumil Hrabal - one of the greatest Czech authors of the 20th c. Born in the Moravian town of Brno when it was part of Austria-Hungary, Hrabal went to Charles University in Prague but his studies were interrupted by the Nazi occupation. During the war years he worked as a railway employee, clerk, insurance agent, foundry worker and stagehand. Hrabal sporadically published after the war but ran into trouble with the Communists. A number of his early works are semi-autobiographical (The Little Town Where Time Stood Still) but still have his characteristic dark humor, quirkiness, events that seem to almost be surreal, some nostalgic descriptions of the small towns with plenty of grim realistic depictions of the Nazi occupation and life under the Communists. Closely Watched Trains, about an eccentric railway worker who is more concerned with women and the shenanigans of his coworkers than the war and the Nazis, was a huge hit when it came out. Collaborating with Jiří Menzel, a Czech director, on a film adaptation of Closely Watched Trains resulted in an Academy Award for the film in 1967. His works were banned from publication after the 1968 invasion but he released them through the underground samizdat press. I Served the King of England also features a quirky wise fool who works as a waiter at a posh hotel before the war and faces life under the Nazis and Communists with a bemused attitude. Too Loud a Solitude tells the story of another eccentric, a paper crusher who hoards banned books, in wonderful prose. Hrabal famously chatted with Vaclav Havel, Bill Clinton and Madeleine Albright in his favorite bar in 1994. He died in 1997, in a rather bizarre way - falling from the fifth floor of a hospital in an attempt to feed the birds.
Petra Hůlová - a popular and award-winning contemporary author. Her first novel - translated into English as All This Belongs to Me - rocketed her to fame and success as it was a bestseller. She had published four novels by the time she was 27. All This Belongs to Me was based on Hulova’s year in Mongolia as an exchange student. Five women in one Mongolian family tell their stories, from the nomadic life on the steppes to the grim realities of life in Ulaanbaatar.
Ivan Klíma - a famous and well-regarded author. He and his family were sent to Terezin where they spent WWII and amazingly survived. However, there is little in Klíma’s work about his experiences during the war. He later joined the Communist party but became disillusioned. Many of his books are about the oppressive Communist regime and the problems in the post-Communist period. Love and Garbage is about the life of a writer who had to give up his academic career to be a street sweeper and his problems with love and family. In Judge on Trial, the moral dilemmas of a judge under the Communist system are examined. Waiting for the Dark, Waiting for the Light follows its detached, disillusioned filmmaker protagonist after the fall of the Communist government.
Ladislav Klíma - Klima was a very odd character. Expelled from school for insulting the Hapsburgs, he never finished his education and never held a permanent job. He lived off occasional royalties and the generosity of his friends. His The World as Consciousness and Nothing, influenced by Schopenhauer and Nietzsche, posits that each individual creates his own world and that the world at large is all fiction. He wrote several other philosophical works. His fiction is influenced by his ideas as well as his rejection of conventional society - The Sufferings of Prince Sternenhoch is a bizarre, crazy, satirical, obscene work. The diminutive and self-important prince marries the demonic, vicious Helga. He both loathes and loves her but he eventually has trouble distinguishing between reality and his delusions. There’s a good review by steven03tx on the work page. Glorious Nemesis is also available. Klima died of tuberculosis in 1928.
Pavel Kohout - a novelist and playwright, he participated in the Prague Spring, was a founding member of the Charter 77 and was subsequently exiled to Austria. The Widow Killer is a mystery set in occupied Prague at the end of WWII and follows a Czech detective uneasily partnering with a Gestapo agent to catch a serial killer. I Am Snowing is a comic take on Czech society after the fall of the Communists.
Barbara König - a contemporary author, her The Beneficiary is a ironic, minimalist story of a man who learns that another took his place in front of the firing squad in WWII and ponders his now displaced life.
Milan Kundera - a Franco-Czech novelist, probably one of the most famous contemporary Czech writers. His works were originally written in Czech but from 1993 on, he has written in French. Kundera joined the Communist party but was expelled in 1950, an experience he used while writing the early novel The Joke, a realistic look at the lives of several characters living under the Communist government, one being a student who was kicked out of the party and has remained bitter and vengeful ever since. He later participated in the Prague Spring and was again expelled from the party and stripped of his citizenship in 1971. Kundera left for France where he has lived ever since. Some of his other early works examine life under the Communist regime - The Book of Laughter and Forgetting and his most famous, The Unbearable Lightness of Being - but his later books moved away from specifically Czech settings. Many novels have philosophical concerns and Kundera often mixes short chapters with plot/characters with others containing general musings on life. Some of his works have metafictional or magic realist elements and even the darkest have some absurdities or a lightness to the narration. There has been some tension between Kundera and his native country - accusations of living an easy life while other writers had to endure the government repression and more recent suspicions that he was an informer.
Arnošt Lustig - as a teenager, he was sent to Terezin and later Auschwitz. He escaped during transport and participated in the Prague uprising in 1945. After the war, he worked as a journalist at Radio Prague. Later, Lustig criticized the Communists and left the country after the 1968 Soviet invasion. Lustig went to Israel and the United States. After the fall of the Communist government in 1989, he split his time between the U.S. and Prague. He died in 2011. Most of his books are about the Holocaust in some way - Lovely Green Eyes is about a Jewish girl who passes as Aryan and spends the war in a brothel, Night and Hope is a collection of stories set in Terezin, A Prayer for Katerina Horvitzova looks at a group of Jewish American prisoners who believe they will be traded for German POWs.
Gustav Meyrink - born in Vienna, he spent 20 years in Prague and wrote about the city, most famously in The Golem. He worked as a bank manager but eventually got involved in cabalism, alchemy and drug experimentation. He also had a stint in prison for fraud which informs a scene in The Golem. It’s a dark, gothic, hallucinatory novel about a man who realizes he has lost his memories and tries to find them while getting involved in a blackmail plot, finding himself intrigued by two different women and losing the ability to distinguish between his dreams and reality. A number of dark and supernatural stories pop up in the novel. Other books are also gothic and supernatural - The Angel of the West Window is about John Dee in, among other places, Prague, The Green Face features the legend of the Wandering Jew and Walpurgisnacht examines the Prague rebellion, with the Czech population confronting the German rulers.
Patrik Ouředník - an editor and translator, he emigrated to France, where he lives, in 1984. He writes experimental works such as Europeana, which is an odd history of the 20th century, seemingly presented in a straightforward way, but juxtaposing the many absurdities and contradictions. Case Closed is a bizarre detective story set in post-Communist Czech Republic. The Opportune Moment 1855 follows a group out to set up a utopian anarchist community in Brazil but things don’t turn out well.
Iva Pekárková - Czech-born author who lives in New York. In Truck Stop Rainbows, the nonconforming photographer/student narrator enjoys her adventures hitchhiking with Western truckers but when she starts prostituting herself to help a friend, things go downhill. The World is Round looks at the misadventures of a Czech woman who ends up in a refugee camp.
Leo Perutz - born in Prague when it was part of Austria-Hungary, Perutz lived in Vienna and moved to Palestine after 1938. He was also a mathematician. Perutz wrote in German and most of his works are short historical novels with weird ironic or supernatural twists. The Swedish Cavalier has a nobleman and a thief switching places; various adventures occur and issues of identity are raised. By Night Under the Stone Bridge is a collection of linked stories that take place during the reign of Rudolf II with supernatural happenings and twists of fate. The Master of the Day of Judgment is a tidily wrapped up but oddly ambiguous mystery about some seemingly random suicides.
Peter Sís - an award-winning children’s book author and illustrator. The Wall:Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain is an illustrated memoir of his childhood. He has written and illustrated a number of other books - Tibet Through the Red Box, The Conference of the Birds and Starry Messenger. The Three Golden Keys is set in Prague and is a reworking of Czech fairy tales, with some comments on Communism.
Josef Škvorecký - a well-known Czech-Canadian writer and publisher. During WWII, he was forced to work in a German aircraft factory (as does his alter ego, Danny Smiricky, in The Engineer of Human Souls). He published some work in the 1950’s but it was banned - The End of the Nylon Age for being pornographic, The Cowards, the first appearance of Smiricky, for being anti-Communist. He participated in the Prague Spring but he and his wife fled to Canada after the Soviet invasion. They ran a dissident printing press which published banned Czech and Slovak works. Škvorecký also taught American literature at the University of Toronto. He was a longtime jazz lover and that figures in many of his novels. He died in 2012. The Smiricky books look at the narrator’s life under the Communist government and later in Canada. His best known novel, The Engineer of Human Souls (named after the Stalin quote about writers), is a tragicomedy about Danny’s attempts to sabotage the aircraft factory during WWII and his many relationships with women, and, later, his life in the Czech ex-pat community in Canada. A gloriously messy, jumpy and funny book. Besides Danny Smiricky, Škvorecký also had several books featuring Lieutenant Boruvka, a homicide detective in Communist Czechoslovakia.
Jáchym Topol - a poet and translator, his debut novel City Sister Silver is a challenging and dense work looking at post-Communist Prague, with plenty of verbal playfulness and Meyrink-inspired hallucinatory darkness.
Hermann Ungar - a German-language writer born in a Moravian town but who later lived in Prague. He fought in WWI and later worked for the Czechoslovak Foreign Service. He died in 1929 of appendicitis. The Maimed is a dark and twisted work about a pathologically shy and neurotic man whose poor, empty but acceptable life is disrupted when he is forced to have sex with his landlady and gets horribly entangled with an old childhood friend, now crippled, bitter and paranoid, and a cast of grotesques. To paraphrase a quote - you can’t unread this book, though you may want to. The Class also features a paranoid obsessive, a teacher who is sure that his wife is cheating on him and that his class will get out of control. Boys and Murderers is a collection of stories about more disturbed, obsessive people.
Ludvík Vaculík - a writer and journalist who had a prominent role in the Prague Spring and the Charter 77. As a member of the Communist party, he gave a sharply critical speech of the party in 1967. Dubček came to power and instituted reforms, but Vaculík felt he had not gone far enough and published his “Two Thousand Words” in several newspapers, urging people to call de-Stalinization and to fight against any invasion by Warsaw Pact forces. He was kicked out of the party and had to publish works through the samizdat press. Vaculík was one of the founders of the Charter 77 and he was frequently harassed by the secret police and subjected to interrogation. The ban was lifted on his works after 1989. The Guinea Pigs, about a man who decides to study his pet guinea pigs, is an allegory for life in Czechoslovakia after the Soviet invasion. The Axe looks at the changes in life in Czechoslovakia from the First Republic to the dismemberment under Nazi occupation and harsh life under the Communists through the experiences of a dysfunctional family.
Jiří Weil - as a young man in the 1920’s, Weil joined the Communist party, translated Russian literature and wrote articles about life in the Soviet Union. He worked for the Comintern in Moscow, but was caught up in the purges of the 1930’s, banned from the party and exiled. He returned to Prague and was unable to emigrate. One of his books described the atmosphere during the purges. During the war, Weil managed to avoid being sent to Terezin, hiding with friends or in the hospital. After the war, he worked as an editor and continued publishing though his most famous novel, Life with a Star came under fire. Also translated is Mendelssohn is on the Roof - both are about the Jewish experience during the Nazi occupation.
5DieFledermaus
Slovenia and Ukraine -
Slovenia -
Slovenia was part of Austria-Hungary at the start of the 20th century, but there were already divisions as some parts of the country were subject to Austrian rule, some to Hungarian rule and other parts were under Italian control. In the 19th c. and the first decades of the 20th c., the idea of pan-Slavism became popular. During WWI, Slovenes fought for the Austrian side though defection was common. After the war, Slovenia joined with Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia and Bosnia to form a new nation after WWI. However, some Slovene territory went to Austria and Italy. Slovenes under Mussolini faced restrictions placed on the Slovene language and cultural and political institutions. In addition, the Kingdom of Yugoslavia became a dictatorship - initially, Slovenes were guaranteed rights in the constitution, though this didn’t always work in practice, but after 1929, the constitution was suspended. Repression of non-Serb populations followed, and anti-Serb sentiment and violence was high.
Initially on the Axis side of WWII, Yugoslavia switched after a government coup. The Nazis invaded, took control of Yugoslav territories and divided Slovene territory between Germany, Italy and Hungary. Thousands of Slovenes were arrested, tortured, executed and deported to camps or used for forced labor in Germany. Resistance movements were immediately formed, with the Slovene Liberation Front controlled by the Slovene Communist Party, but filled with members from other parties as well. The Slovene movement was mostly independent from Josip Broz Tito’s Yugoslav resistance movement until 1944. Occupying forces were finally driven out in 1945.
After the war, Yugoslavia was re-established and Slovenia regained some of the territory it had lost. Elections followed in 1945; however, the Communist party was the only one on the ballot. Led by the Josip Broz Tito, Yugoslavia broke away from Stalin in 1948 and the hard Stalinist line seen in other countries was not followed. However, there was still political repression (those suspected of supporting Stalin were sent to camps) and attempts at forced industrialization and collectivization. After industrialization, Slovenia’s economy developed rapidly and it had a measure of self-government. There was growing resentment at the idea that it had to prop up less economically stable regions. Tito died in 1980 and tensions between the regions worsened. Agitation for independence started several years before 1989. In 1990, elections ushered the opposition into power and in 1991, Slovenia voted for independence. The Yugoslav army moved in in the Ten Day War, which did involve fighting on both sides, but ended quickly. Movements toward independence continued. Slovenia was recognized by the EU in 1992 and later joined in 2004. Initial economic instability followed independence and there were still old conflicts with Italy and Croatia over territory though relations with Serbia improved. Slovenia joined NATO in 2004
The Triple Bridge crosses the Ljubljana River
Entrance to the Škocjan Caves
Triglav National Park
Vladimir Bartol - born in Trieste to a Slovene family, his masterpiece, Alamut, is seen as an allegory for the Italian treatment of the minority Slovene population. Alamut, which came out in 1938, is set in 11th century Persia and follows the duplicitous leader of the sect that controls the fortress at Alamut.
Andrej Blatnik - a contemporary author, translator, teacher and former punk band bassist, he has written novels and short stories. A couple of his collections have been translated - Skinswaps and You Do Understand. HIs stories are bleak but comic, also short - one is two sentences.
Drago Jančar - one of the most famous contemporary Slovene writers. He was arrested and jailed for sharing a book in 1974 and was banned from publishing. After Tito’s death, he started publishing his works. He has won many awards, worked as an editor and has publicly commented on politics and Slovene society as well as campaigned for candidates. Mocking Desire has a Slovene author exploring New Orleans and working for a professor who is writing a work about melancholy. Comic but also appropriately melancholic. Northern Lights is also about a displaced individual, an Austrian who comes to the Slovene city of Maribor in 1938 and sees hints of what is to come. Further back in time is The Galley Slave, a panoramic view of Slovene lands in medieval Europe and the sundry characters that the narrator meets.
Vlado Žabot - contemporary author and journalist, headed the Slovene Writers’ Association. In The Succubus, the main character starts taking night walks to escape boredom, then worries he will be accused of a murder and starts suspecting that the woman he encounters is a succubus. Somewhat surreal and nightmarish.
Vitomil Zupan - born in Ljubljana, when it was part of the Austro-Hungarian empire, Zupan fought in the Slovene resistance during WWII and was sent to a concentration camp. He escaped and went back to fight. After the war, he ran afoul of the Communist government and was arrested and sentenced to prison. He was able to start publishing again later and and his works were widely acclaimed. Some are semi-autobiographical accounts of Slovenia during WWII and his experience in prison. He died in 1987. Minuet for Guitar is available - there’s an informative review by RickHarsch on the work page.
Ukraine -
At the start of the 20th c., parts of Ukraine were controlled by the Russian Empire and Austria-Hungary. Underground nationalist and socialist groups had formed in the late 19th and early 20th c., but they were only a small percentage of Russian-controlled Ukraine. Tsarist Russia cracked down on attempts to form an Ukrainian identity but this was tolerated in Austrian-ruled lands. During WWI, Ukrainians fought on both sides of the war and suffered considerable losses as neither the Russians or Austrians trusted them. At the end of WWI, Ukrainian lands were caught up in the Russian Revolution of 1917. The collapse of the tsarist government allowed political life in Kiev and other areas to flourish. Several Ukrainian states were formed in the period between 1917-1920, among them several independent republics. Austrian-controlled Ukraine declared independence but this was opposed by Poland and fighting broke out. Ukrainian territories were at times occupied by the Bolsheviks, the White Army, Poles and Germans. There was widespread violence against Jews and thousands were killed. In the end, Soviet control was reasserted. Parts of Ukraine also went to Poland, Romania and Czechoslovakia.
Ukrainians living under Polish rule were treated poorly - the language was banned, Ukrainian schools and churches were closed, Ukrainians could not hold government positions and Poles were moved to Ukrainian villages. Violence followed on both sides. Under the Soviets, the language and cultural life was acceptable (as long as it did not contradict the standard tenets) and under the New Economic Policy, the economy recovered to pre-WWI levels. With the rise of Stalin, the rapid industrialization of Ukraine came at a high human cost and the forced collectivization and campaign against “kulaks” (rich peasants, but could be anyone) resulted in a famine that killed millions. Whether it was a genocide is being debated today. There were also purges of the Ukrainian Communist party and cultural institutions in both the early and late 1930’s. Stalin reversed the 1920’s policy of cultural toleration and peasants, workers, members of the intelligentsia and Communists were arrested, tortured, executed or sent to the Gulag.
During WWII, the Soviet Union invaded Polish Ukraine, claiming it was reuniting Ukraine. Many were killed, tortured and sent to the Gulag. While fleeing the Nazi advance, the Soviets killed 4,000 prisoners. Some Ukrainians welcomed the Germans, thinking they would allow an independent Ukraine. Instead, the Germans violently repressed the population, instituting public use of the German language, discriminating against the Ukrainians and rounding up men for forced labor in Germany. They arrested Communists, Jews and Roma, killing or sending them to camps. More than 30,000 Jews were killed in the massacre at Babi Yar. A resistance movement was formed and the Soviets pushed the Germans back. The fighting devastated Ukrainian territory and violent reprisals from the Nazis and Soviets took place. After the war, the Soviets claimed all Ukrainian territory and Stalinist policies continued. Western Ukraine, which had not previously been subject to the system, resisted and deportations and crackdowns were carried out.
The thaw under Khrushchev also affected Ukraine - some self-government was allowed and Khrushchev, who had previously headed the Ukrainian party, promoted Ukrainians in his government. Brezhnev cracked down on dissidents and Communist party members who pushed for more independence, though in general the economy improved and Western Ukraine remained one of the least Russified parts of the Soviet Union. There was agitation for reforms and independence in other countries under Gorbachev but the Chernobyl disaster in 1986, the worst of its kind, was the impetus for protests in Ukraine. Movement towards independence occurred throughout 1989 and 1990, though there was conflict over whether Ukraine should be fully independent or remain in the USSR with greater autonomy. In 1991, the vote was in favor of independence. However, economic and political reform was challenging and the economy crashed in the 1990’s.
The economy improved but a major scandal erupted when President Leonid Kuchma was caught on tape admitting to abuses of power - rigging elections, intimidating officials, selling weapons to Iraq, possibly ordering the murder of a journalist. Protests didn’t change the situation but the 2004 presidential election would be a referendum on Kuchma, who supported Viktor Yanukovych. Viktor Yushchenko, his opponent, was poisoned by dioxin, sparking many accusations of interfering with the election. When Yanukovych declared victory in what many believed was a rigged election, it led to the peaceful Orange Revolution. Yushchenko became president, but Yanukovych would later win in 2010. There would be more turmoil in that election - Yulia Tymoshenko, the former prime minister, ran against Yanukovych, criticized him and accused him of election fraud. She was charged with crimes relating to gas deals she brokered, convicted and sentenced to seven years. Many said it was a case of selective prosecution and politically motivated.
Saint Sophia Cathedral in Kiev
Babi Yar Monument in Kiev
Olesko Castle in Lviv
Yuri Andrukhovych - a contemporary writer of postmodern works, he writes in Ukrainian. His novels such as Perverzion and Moscoviad are stylistically modern - Perverzion is about the attempt to reconstruct the last days of a poet from a plethora of documents, Moscoviad looks at the adventures of a poet during one day in Moscow in 1992. Both are metafictional and allusive, with magic realist or surreal elements.
Andrey Kurkov - one of the most successful Ukrainian authors of the post-Communist era. He writes in Russian. His novels are told in a deadpan style and feature black comedy, violence and some surreal elements. Death and the Penguin follows a writer with a pet penguin whose obituaries end up coming true; the sequel, Penguin Lost continues the story. A Matter of Death and Life is the story of a man who hires a hitman to kill himself but finds complications when he decides to live. The life of the 2016 Ukrainian president is shown in The President’s Last Love and The Case of the General’s Thumb also takes place in Ukraine, but in the 1990’s.
Marina Lewycka - a contemporary author who was born in a German refugee camp to Ukrainian parents. Her family moved to the U.K. where she currently lives. Her first novel A Short History of Ukrainian Tractors was successful and nominated for several awards. Lewycka writes about the lives of Ukrainian immigrants to the U.K. A man who fled Ukraine in 1945 and settled in the U.K. marries a much younger Ukrainian woman, an obvious golddigger, which forces his daughters to reconcile and deal with the past. Humorous but serious, as the man’s past in Ukraine is also covered. Also comedic and quirky, Two Caravans shows the lives of Eastern European immigrants working as strawberry pickers. Several other novels have been published
Der Nister - pen name of Pinchus Kahanovich, a Yiddish-language author and journalist, his most famous work is The Family Mashber, a depiction of the decline of a family of Jewish merchants. When his work was deemed unacceptable in the Soviet Union, he worked as a journalist, and later was allowed to publish work portraying the plight of the Jews during WWII as in Regrowth. He was arrested in 1949 and died in a prison camp
Oksana Zabuzhko - contemporary author known for her controversial book Field Work in Ukrainian Sex which tackles Ukrainian identity and feminism. Told in stream-of-consciousness mode by a professor, the novel was a bestseller in Ukraine in the 1990’s In The Museum of Abandoned Secrets, a journalist investigates the life or a Ukrainian resistance fighter and the book covers 60 years of Ukrainian history, from WWII to the Orange Revolution.
Slovenia -
Slovenia was part of Austria-Hungary at the start of the 20th century, but there were already divisions as some parts of the country were subject to Austrian rule, some to Hungarian rule and other parts were under Italian control. In the 19th c. and the first decades of the 20th c., the idea of pan-Slavism became popular. During WWI, Slovenes fought for the Austrian side though defection was common. After the war, Slovenia joined with Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia and Bosnia to form a new nation after WWI. However, some Slovene territory went to Austria and Italy. Slovenes under Mussolini faced restrictions placed on the Slovene language and cultural and political institutions. In addition, the Kingdom of Yugoslavia became a dictatorship - initially, Slovenes were guaranteed rights in the constitution, though this didn’t always work in practice, but after 1929, the constitution was suspended. Repression of non-Serb populations followed, and anti-Serb sentiment and violence was high.
Initially on the Axis side of WWII, Yugoslavia switched after a government coup. The Nazis invaded, took control of Yugoslav territories and divided Slovene territory between Germany, Italy and Hungary. Thousands of Slovenes were arrested, tortured, executed and deported to camps or used for forced labor in Germany. Resistance movements were immediately formed, with the Slovene Liberation Front controlled by the Slovene Communist Party, but filled with members from other parties as well. The Slovene movement was mostly independent from Josip Broz Tito’s Yugoslav resistance movement until 1944. Occupying forces were finally driven out in 1945.
After the war, Yugoslavia was re-established and Slovenia regained some of the territory it had lost. Elections followed in 1945; however, the Communist party was the only one on the ballot. Led by the Josip Broz Tito, Yugoslavia broke away from Stalin in 1948 and the hard Stalinist line seen in other countries was not followed. However, there was still political repression (those suspected of supporting Stalin were sent to camps) and attempts at forced industrialization and collectivization. After industrialization, Slovenia’s economy developed rapidly and it had a measure of self-government. There was growing resentment at the idea that it had to prop up less economically stable regions. Tito died in 1980 and tensions between the regions worsened. Agitation for independence started several years before 1989. In 1990, elections ushered the opposition into power and in 1991, Slovenia voted for independence. The Yugoslav army moved in in the Ten Day War, which did involve fighting on both sides, but ended quickly. Movements toward independence continued. Slovenia was recognized by the EU in 1992 and later joined in 2004. Initial economic instability followed independence and there were still old conflicts with Italy and Croatia over territory though relations with Serbia improved. Slovenia joined NATO in 2004
The Triple Bridge crosses the Ljubljana River
Entrance to the Škocjan Caves
Triglav National Park
Vladimir Bartol - born in Trieste to a Slovene family, his masterpiece, Alamut, is seen as an allegory for the Italian treatment of the minority Slovene population. Alamut, which came out in 1938, is set in 11th century Persia and follows the duplicitous leader of the sect that controls the fortress at Alamut.
Andrej Blatnik - a contemporary author, translator, teacher and former punk band bassist, he has written novels and short stories. A couple of his collections have been translated - Skinswaps and You Do Understand. HIs stories are bleak but comic, also short - one is two sentences.
Drago Jančar - one of the most famous contemporary Slovene writers. He was arrested and jailed for sharing a book in 1974 and was banned from publishing. After Tito’s death, he started publishing his works. He has won many awards, worked as an editor and has publicly commented on politics and Slovene society as well as campaigned for candidates. Mocking Desire has a Slovene author exploring New Orleans and working for a professor who is writing a work about melancholy. Comic but also appropriately melancholic. Northern Lights is also about a displaced individual, an Austrian who comes to the Slovene city of Maribor in 1938 and sees hints of what is to come. Further back in time is The Galley Slave, a panoramic view of Slovene lands in medieval Europe and the sundry characters that the narrator meets.
Vlado Žabot - contemporary author and journalist, headed the Slovene Writers’ Association. In The Succubus, the main character starts taking night walks to escape boredom, then worries he will be accused of a murder and starts suspecting that the woman he encounters is a succubus. Somewhat surreal and nightmarish.
Vitomil Zupan - born in Ljubljana, when it was part of the Austro-Hungarian empire, Zupan fought in the Slovene resistance during WWII and was sent to a concentration camp. He escaped and went back to fight. After the war, he ran afoul of the Communist government and was arrested and sentenced to prison. He was able to start publishing again later and and his works were widely acclaimed. Some are semi-autobiographical accounts of Slovenia during WWII and his experience in prison. He died in 1987. Minuet for Guitar is available - there’s an informative review by RickHarsch on the work page.
Ukraine -
At the start of the 20th c., parts of Ukraine were controlled by the Russian Empire and Austria-Hungary. Underground nationalist and socialist groups had formed in the late 19th and early 20th c., but they were only a small percentage of Russian-controlled Ukraine. Tsarist Russia cracked down on attempts to form an Ukrainian identity but this was tolerated in Austrian-ruled lands. During WWI, Ukrainians fought on both sides of the war and suffered considerable losses as neither the Russians or Austrians trusted them. At the end of WWI, Ukrainian lands were caught up in the Russian Revolution of 1917. The collapse of the tsarist government allowed political life in Kiev and other areas to flourish. Several Ukrainian states were formed in the period between 1917-1920, among them several independent republics. Austrian-controlled Ukraine declared independence but this was opposed by Poland and fighting broke out. Ukrainian territories were at times occupied by the Bolsheviks, the White Army, Poles and Germans. There was widespread violence against Jews and thousands were killed. In the end, Soviet control was reasserted. Parts of Ukraine also went to Poland, Romania and Czechoslovakia.
Ukrainians living under Polish rule were treated poorly - the language was banned, Ukrainian schools and churches were closed, Ukrainians could not hold government positions and Poles were moved to Ukrainian villages. Violence followed on both sides. Under the Soviets, the language and cultural life was acceptable (as long as it did not contradict the standard tenets) and under the New Economic Policy, the economy recovered to pre-WWI levels. With the rise of Stalin, the rapid industrialization of Ukraine came at a high human cost and the forced collectivization and campaign against “kulaks” (rich peasants, but could be anyone) resulted in a famine that killed millions. Whether it was a genocide is being debated today. There were also purges of the Ukrainian Communist party and cultural institutions in both the early and late 1930’s. Stalin reversed the 1920’s policy of cultural toleration and peasants, workers, members of the intelligentsia and Communists were arrested, tortured, executed or sent to the Gulag.
During WWII, the Soviet Union invaded Polish Ukraine, claiming it was reuniting Ukraine. Many were killed, tortured and sent to the Gulag. While fleeing the Nazi advance, the Soviets killed 4,000 prisoners. Some Ukrainians welcomed the Germans, thinking they would allow an independent Ukraine. Instead, the Germans violently repressed the population, instituting public use of the German language, discriminating against the Ukrainians and rounding up men for forced labor in Germany. They arrested Communists, Jews and Roma, killing or sending them to camps. More than 30,000 Jews were killed in the massacre at Babi Yar. A resistance movement was formed and the Soviets pushed the Germans back. The fighting devastated Ukrainian territory and violent reprisals from the Nazis and Soviets took place. After the war, the Soviets claimed all Ukrainian territory and Stalinist policies continued. Western Ukraine, which had not previously been subject to the system, resisted and deportations and crackdowns were carried out.
The thaw under Khrushchev also affected Ukraine - some self-government was allowed and Khrushchev, who had previously headed the Ukrainian party, promoted Ukrainians in his government. Brezhnev cracked down on dissidents and Communist party members who pushed for more independence, though in general the economy improved and Western Ukraine remained one of the least Russified parts of the Soviet Union. There was agitation for reforms and independence in other countries under Gorbachev but the Chernobyl disaster in 1986, the worst of its kind, was the impetus for protests in Ukraine. Movement towards independence occurred throughout 1989 and 1990, though there was conflict over whether Ukraine should be fully independent or remain in the USSR with greater autonomy. In 1991, the vote was in favor of independence. However, economic and political reform was challenging and the economy crashed in the 1990’s.
The economy improved but a major scandal erupted when President Leonid Kuchma was caught on tape admitting to abuses of power - rigging elections, intimidating officials, selling weapons to Iraq, possibly ordering the murder of a journalist. Protests didn’t change the situation but the 2004 presidential election would be a referendum on Kuchma, who supported Viktor Yanukovych. Viktor Yushchenko, his opponent, was poisoned by dioxin, sparking many accusations of interfering with the election. When Yanukovych declared victory in what many believed was a rigged election, it led to the peaceful Orange Revolution. Yushchenko became president, but Yanukovych would later win in 2010. There would be more turmoil in that election - Yulia Tymoshenko, the former prime minister, ran against Yanukovych, criticized him and accused him of election fraud. She was charged with crimes relating to gas deals she brokered, convicted and sentenced to seven years. Many said it was a case of selective prosecution and politically motivated.
Saint Sophia Cathedral in Kiev
Babi Yar Monument in Kiev
Olesko Castle in Lviv
Yuri Andrukhovych - a contemporary writer of postmodern works, he writes in Ukrainian. His novels such as Perverzion and Moscoviad are stylistically modern - Perverzion is about the attempt to reconstruct the last days of a poet from a plethora of documents, Moscoviad looks at the adventures of a poet during one day in Moscow in 1992. Both are metafictional and allusive, with magic realist or surreal elements.
Andrey Kurkov - one of the most successful Ukrainian authors of the post-Communist era. He writes in Russian. His novels are told in a deadpan style and feature black comedy, violence and some surreal elements. Death and the Penguin follows a writer with a pet penguin whose obituaries end up coming true; the sequel, Penguin Lost continues the story. A Matter of Death and Life is the story of a man who hires a hitman to kill himself but finds complications when he decides to live. The life of the 2016 Ukrainian president is shown in The President’s Last Love and The Case of the General’s Thumb also takes place in Ukraine, but in the 1990’s.
Marina Lewycka - a contemporary author who was born in a German refugee camp to Ukrainian parents. Her family moved to the U.K. where she currently lives. Her first novel A Short History of Ukrainian Tractors was successful and nominated for several awards. Lewycka writes about the lives of Ukrainian immigrants to the U.K. A man who fled Ukraine in 1945 and settled in the U.K. marries a much younger Ukrainian woman, an obvious golddigger, which forces his daughters to reconcile and deal with the past. Humorous but serious, as the man’s past in Ukraine is also covered. Also comedic and quirky, Two Caravans shows the lives of Eastern European immigrants working as strawberry pickers. Several other novels have been published
Der Nister - pen name of Pinchus Kahanovich, a Yiddish-language author and journalist, his most famous work is The Family Mashber, a depiction of the decline of a family of Jewish merchants. When his work was deemed unacceptable in the Soviet Union, he worked as a journalist, and later was allowed to publish work portraying the plight of the Jews during WWII as in Regrowth. He was arrested in 1949 and died in a prison camp
Oksana Zabuzhko - contemporary author known for her controversial book Field Work in Ukrainian Sex which tackles Ukrainian identity and feminism. Told in stream-of-consciousness mode by a professor, the novel was a bestseller in Ukraine in the 1990’s In The Museum of Abandoned Secrets, a journalist investigates the life or a Ukrainian resistance fighter and the book covers 60 years of Ukrainian history, from WWII to the Orange Revolution.
6DieFledermaus
Moldova and Romania
Moldova -
Part of the Russian-held Bessarabia in the 20th c., it elected to join the Romanian kingdom after the war in 1918. This was not recognized by the Russian government. Instead, the Russians formed the Moldavian Autonomous Socialist Soviet Republic in parts of Ukraine and Moldova. Bessarabia was governed by the Romanian king and a frequently changing parliament in the interwar years. The Soviets demanded the return of Bessarabia after the Nazi-Soviet nonaggression pact and incorporated it into the Moldavian Republic. Romania aided the Nazis in the Soviet invasion and regained its territory; Romanian and German forces deported and killed Jews and Roma in Moldovan territories.
The Soviets formed the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic after the war when the territories again came under their control. There was a lengthy violent resistance to Soviet authority - the Soviet secret police arrested many and sent them to the Gulag or executed them; in addition, large populations were deported and Russians and others moved into the Moldavian territories. Widespread famine followed the war, population upheavals and an attempt at collectivization. The government also discriminated against ethnic Romanians in an effort to Russianize the population. Later, the Soviets would try to develop heavy industry in the MSSR. As in other Soviet satellites, 1989 brought a move towards independence. The Moldovan Popular Front was formed and won in elections, then declared independence in 1991. Two other areas, Gagauzia and Transnistria, broke off from Moldova. These areas, which had high populations of Russians and Ukrainians, feared what would happen if Moldova joined with Romania.
The Soviet collapse hurt the new Republic of Moldova’s economy and it is one of the poorest nation in Europe. Many have to go abroad to find work. Introducing a market economy led to rapid inflation and instability. However, in the 2000’s there was some economic growth. The breakaway areas were given recognition and plans for a union with Romania soon died. The Communists were voted back into power in 2001 but protests and accusations of election fraud caused them to lose power in 2009.
Nativity Cathedral in Chişinău
Valea Morilor Lake in Chişinău
Orthodox Church in Tiraspol
Any suggestions for books and authors would be welcome!
Romania -
At the beginning of the 20th c., part of modern-day Romania was an independent monarchy. Other areas were part of the Russian empire or Austria-Hungary. Romania participated in the Second Balkan War against Bulgaria then entered WWI on the side of Britain, Russia and France. Initially, things did not go well with the invasion of Transylvania, the Hungarian-held part of Romania. However, with the collapse of both empires, Transylvania, Bessarabia and Bukovina elected to join Romania. There was discrimination against the Hungarian population in Transylvania - an issue that would remain problematic. Several years followed with a couple governments and a poor economy; after the king Carol II took power, he dissolved parliaments frequently leading to political instability.
After the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact, the Soviets took back Bessarabia and Bukovina, Hungary took Transylvania and Bulgaria gained control of other parts of Romania. Carol fled Romania, leaving his son Mihai to take the throne. The new government was headed by Marshal Ion Antonescu. Under threat by the Nazis and Soviets and receiving weak offers from the west, Romania joined the Axis and later participated in the invasion of the Soviet Union, hoping to take back some of its lost territories. Anti-Semitic Romanian groups attacked and killed Jews and the Nazis deported Jews and Roma for slave labor or to the camps. When the Soviets began to advance west, Romania looked to throw off their former allies and, after a coup deposing Antonescu, switched sides.
King Mihai formed a coalition government after the war but fairly soon the Communists took power in rigged elections and deposed the king in 1947. Land reform initially involved distributing land to the peasants but soon collectivization started. There were protests and waves of arrests, rigged trials and executions. Nationalization of industries and crackdowns on dissent, in the Stalinist mode, followed. The Communists fought amongst themselves and Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej emerged triumphant. Even after Stalin’s death, he stuck to Stalinist policies. He died in 1965 and in 1969, another dictator emerged - Nicolae Ceaușescu. Initially, Ceaușescu seemed to be a reformer - he opposed the invasion of Czechoslovakia, criticized the Securitate, the secret police, and pushed for greater openness. Unfortunately, his response to the poor economy was to make changes to increase the workforce - forbidding abortions and birth control, higher taxation on singles and childless married couples. This led to an increase in children who were placed in overextended and understaffed orphanages. Other policies made Ceaușescu unpopular - discrimination against Hungarians and Roma, giving positions to family members, building grandiose projects while daily living conditions for most remained poor, his policy of removing villagers to towns and apartments in a systematization program. In 1989, protests broke out and the military refused to quell them. Ceaușescu and his wife tried to escape but were caught, tried and executed.
The first elections after Ceaușescu were widely believed to be fraudulent and protests and violence followed. Later elections were characterized by political infighting and further manipulations. However, there were some improvements in the economy and individual rights. Although there were some movements to join the rest of Europe, corruption and political fragmentation remain problems.
Palace of Parliament in Bucharest
The Ladder of Virtue at Sucevita Monastery, one of the spectacular painted frescoes in Bukovina
Bâlea Lake in the Făgăraş Mountains
Mircea Cărtărescu - contemporary Romanian poet, professor and novelist. Nostalgia consists of five unconnected but thematically related stories with postmodern/magic realist touches.
Daniela Crasnaru - poet and short story writer, her opposition to the Ceaușescu regime influenced her stories. The Grand Prize and Other Stories mixes the realistic, absurd and fantastic with some indirectly referencing the regime.
György Dragomán - contemporary novelist whose first novel The White King was popular and critically acclaimed. It’s a coming-of-age story set in a totalitarian Communist country, based on Ceaușescu’s Romania
Filip Florian - contemporary writer and journalist. In Little Fingers, a mass grave is discovered in a small Romanian town - is it the victims of the Communist regime or something older? The story is told through many inhabitants of the town. The Days of the King has a German dentist and his tomcat sidekick travelling to Bucharest and observing 19th c. Romanian history. One of those authors who might be a bit blocks-of-paragraphs, stream-of-consciousness.
Norman Manea - highly regarded Jewish-Romanian author who lives in the U.S. and is the writer in residence at Bard College. Sent to a concentration camp as a child, he later grew cynical about the Communist government. He faced difficulties with the Romanian censors for perceived political criticism and was exiled in 1986. Some works include Compulsory Happiness, four stories about the discomfort of always living under surveillance in a Communist regime, and his most popular work, The Hooligan’s Return, a memoir. The Black Envelope follows a man living with the repression in the 1980’s who attempts to discover what happened to his father 40 years earlier. October, Eight O’Clock Stories are stories describing life in a concentration camp from a child’s POV.
Herta Müller - Nobel-prize winning Romanian-born German-language writer. She was part of Romania’s ethnic German minority. Her father served in the SS during WWII and her mother was deported to the Soviet gulag - experiences that are incorporated into her writing. She was dismissed from her work at an engineering firm for refusing to cooperate with the Communist government. Many of her works - her first short story collection Nadirs, her best-known novel The Land of Green Plums and The Hunger Angel look at the experiences of Romania’s German minority. Müller was allowed to emigrate to West Berlin where she currently lives.
Lucian Dan Teodorovici - contemporary novelist, short story writer, journalist. Some works include Our Circus Presents, a darkly comic and absurdist story about a group of people who can’t commit suicide.
Moldova -
Part of the Russian-held Bessarabia in the 20th c., it elected to join the Romanian kingdom after the war in 1918. This was not recognized by the Russian government. Instead, the Russians formed the Moldavian Autonomous Socialist Soviet Republic in parts of Ukraine and Moldova. Bessarabia was governed by the Romanian king and a frequently changing parliament in the interwar years. The Soviets demanded the return of Bessarabia after the Nazi-Soviet nonaggression pact and incorporated it into the Moldavian Republic. Romania aided the Nazis in the Soviet invasion and regained its territory; Romanian and German forces deported and killed Jews and Roma in Moldovan territories.
The Soviets formed the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic after the war when the territories again came under their control. There was a lengthy violent resistance to Soviet authority - the Soviet secret police arrested many and sent them to the Gulag or executed them; in addition, large populations were deported and Russians and others moved into the Moldavian territories. Widespread famine followed the war, population upheavals and an attempt at collectivization. The government also discriminated against ethnic Romanians in an effort to Russianize the population. Later, the Soviets would try to develop heavy industry in the MSSR. As in other Soviet satellites, 1989 brought a move towards independence. The Moldovan Popular Front was formed and won in elections, then declared independence in 1991. Two other areas, Gagauzia and Transnistria, broke off from Moldova. These areas, which had high populations of Russians and Ukrainians, feared what would happen if Moldova joined with Romania.
The Soviet collapse hurt the new Republic of Moldova’s economy and it is one of the poorest nation in Europe. Many have to go abroad to find work. Introducing a market economy led to rapid inflation and instability. However, in the 2000’s there was some economic growth. The breakaway areas were given recognition and plans for a union with Romania soon died. The Communists were voted back into power in 2001 but protests and accusations of election fraud caused them to lose power in 2009.
Nativity Cathedral in Chişinău
Valea Morilor Lake in Chişinău
Orthodox Church in Tiraspol
Any suggestions for books and authors would be welcome!
Romania -
At the beginning of the 20th c., part of modern-day Romania was an independent monarchy. Other areas were part of the Russian empire or Austria-Hungary. Romania participated in the Second Balkan War against Bulgaria then entered WWI on the side of Britain, Russia and France. Initially, things did not go well with the invasion of Transylvania, the Hungarian-held part of Romania. However, with the collapse of both empires, Transylvania, Bessarabia and Bukovina elected to join Romania. There was discrimination against the Hungarian population in Transylvania - an issue that would remain problematic. Several years followed with a couple governments and a poor economy; after the king Carol II took power, he dissolved parliaments frequently leading to political instability.
After the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact, the Soviets took back Bessarabia and Bukovina, Hungary took Transylvania and Bulgaria gained control of other parts of Romania. Carol fled Romania, leaving his son Mihai to take the throne. The new government was headed by Marshal Ion Antonescu. Under threat by the Nazis and Soviets and receiving weak offers from the west, Romania joined the Axis and later participated in the invasion of the Soviet Union, hoping to take back some of its lost territories. Anti-Semitic Romanian groups attacked and killed Jews and the Nazis deported Jews and Roma for slave labor or to the camps. When the Soviets began to advance west, Romania looked to throw off their former allies and, after a coup deposing Antonescu, switched sides.
King Mihai formed a coalition government after the war but fairly soon the Communists took power in rigged elections and deposed the king in 1947. Land reform initially involved distributing land to the peasants but soon collectivization started. There were protests and waves of arrests, rigged trials and executions. Nationalization of industries and crackdowns on dissent, in the Stalinist mode, followed. The Communists fought amongst themselves and Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej emerged triumphant. Even after Stalin’s death, he stuck to Stalinist policies. He died in 1965 and in 1969, another dictator emerged - Nicolae Ceaușescu. Initially, Ceaușescu seemed to be a reformer - he opposed the invasion of Czechoslovakia, criticized the Securitate, the secret police, and pushed for greater openness. Unfortunately, his response to the poor economy was to make changes to increase the workforce - forbidding abortions and birth control, higher taxation on singles and childless married couples. This led to an increase in children who were placed in overextended and understaffed orphanages. Other policies made Ceaușescu unpopular - discrimination against Hungarians and Roma, giving positions to family members, building grandiose projects while daily living conditions for most remained poor, his policy of removing villagers to towns and apartments in a systematization program. In 1989, protests broke out and the military refused to quell them. Ceaușescu and his wife tried to escape but were caught, tried and executed.
The first elections after Ceaușescu were widely believed to be fraudulent and protests and violence followed. Later elections were characterized by political infighting and further manipulations. However, there were some improvements in the economy and individual rights. Although there were some movements to join the rest of Europe, corruption and political fragmentation remain problems.
Palace of Parliament in Bucharest
The Ladder of Virtue at Sucevita Monastery, one of the spectacular painted frescoes in Bukovina
Bâlea Lake in the Făgăraş Mountains
Mircea Cărtărescu - contemporary Romanian poet, professor and novelist. Nostalgia consists of five unconnected but thematically related stories with postmodern/magic realist touches.
Daniela Crasnaru - poet and short story writer, her opposition to the Ceaușescu regime influenced her stories. The Grand Prize and Other Stories mixes the realistic, absurd and fantastic with some indirectly referencing the regime.
György Dragomán - contemporary novelist whose first novel The White King was popular and critically acclaimed. It’s a coming-of-age story set in a totalitarian Communist country, based on Ceaușescu’s Romania
Filip Florian - contemporary writer and journalist. In Little Fingers, a mass grave is discovered in a small Romanian town - is it the victims of the Communist regime or something older? The story is told through many inhabitants of the town. The Days of the King has a German dentist and his tomcat sidekick travelling to Bucharest and observing 19th c. Romanian history. One of those authors who might be a bit blocks-of-paragraphs, stream-of-consciousness.
Norman Manea - highly regarded Jewish-Romanian author who lives in the U.S. and is the writer in residence at Bard College. Sent to a concentration camp as a child, he later grew cynical about the Communist government. He faced difficulties with the Romanian censors for perceived political criticism and was exiled in 1986. Some works include Compulsory Happiness, four stories about the discomfort of always living under surveillance in a Communist regime, and his most popular work, The Hooligan’s Return, a memoir. The Black Envelope follows a man living with the repression in the 1980’s who attempts to discover what happened to his father 40 years earlier. October, Eight O’Clock Stories are stories describing life in a concentration camp from a child’s POV.
Herta Müller - Nobel-prize winning Romanian-born German-language writer. She was part of Romania’s ethnic German minority. Her father served in the SS during WWII and her mother was deported to the Soviet gulag - experiences that are incorporated into her writing. She was dismissed from her work at an engineering firm for refusing to cooperate with the Communist government. Many of her works - her first short story collection Nadirs, her best-known novel The Land of Green Plums and The Hunger Angel look at the experiences of Romania’s German minority. Müller was allowed to emigrate to West Berlin where she currently lives.
Lucian Dan Teodorovici - contemporary novelist, short story writer, journalist. Some works include Our Circus Presents, a darkly comic and absurdist story about a group of people who can’t commit suicide.
7DieFledermaus
I'm planning to read some classics that I feel somewhat ashamed for not having read -
Candidates -
The Good Soldier Svejk - Jaroslav Hašek
Ferdyduke - Witold Gombrowicz
Darkness at Noon - Arthur Koestler
War with the Newts - Karel Čapek
and something by Imre Kertész since I have several of his books (Liquidation, Fatelessness and Kaddish for an Unborn Child) but haven't read any yet
as well as some that are currently review-less on LT -
some possibilities -
The City Builder - György Konrád
Our Circus Presents - Lucian Dan Teodorovici
The Polish Complex or Bohin Manor- Tadeusz Konwicki
Annihilation - Piotr Szewc
The World is Round - Iva Pekárková
Case Closed - Patrik Ouředník
The Ultimate Intimacy - Ivan Klíma
Candidates -
The Good Soldier Svejk - Jaroslav Hašek
Ferdyduke - Witold Gombrowicz
Darkness at Noon - Arthur Koestler
War with the Newts - Karel Čapek
and something by Imre Kertész since I have several of his books (Liquidation, Fatelessness and Kaddish for an Unborn Child) but haven't read any yet
as well as some that are currently review-less on LT -
some possibilities -
The City Builder - György Konrád
Our Circus Presents - Lucian Dan Teodorovici
The Polish Complex or Bohin Manor- Tadeusz Konwicki
Annihilation - Piotr Szewc
The World is Round - Iva Pekárková
Case Closed - Patrik Ouředník
The Ultimate Intimacy - Ivan Klíma
8kidzdoc
Thanks for hosting this theme and starting the thread this early, DieF. I'll read 1-2 books per month from the books that I already own:
Michal Ajvaz: The Other City
Witold Gombrowicz: Bacacay
Imre Kertész: Liquidation
Herta Müller: The Land of Green Plums
Wiesław Myśliwski: Stone Upon Stone
Péter Nádas: Fire and Knowledge: Fiction and Essays
Isaac Bashevis Singer: Collected Stories Volume 1
Bruno Schulz: The Street of Crocodiles and Other Stories
Magdalena Tulli: In Red
And, even though it isn't a work of literature, I'll probably also read The Art of the Novel by Milan Kundera.
Michal Ajvaz: The Other City
Witold Gombrowicz: Bacacay
Imre Kertész: Liquidation
Herta Müller: The Land of Green Plums
Wiesław Myśliwski: Stone Upon Stone
Péter Nádas: Fire and Knowledge: Fiction and Essays
Isaac Bashevis Singer: Collected Stories Volume 1
Bruno Schulz: The Street of Crocodiles and Other Stories
Magdalena Tulli: In Red
And, even though it isn't a work of literature, I'll probably also read The Art of the Novel by Milan Kundera.
9rebeccanyc
This is fabulous, DieF. You are kind to say I am helping, but you are doing all the heavy lifting! All I'm going to do, because I've read a lot in this area and also have a lot of titles on the TBR, is to list the books I've read and the ones on my TBR!
10A_musing
This is great stuff! Kundera's The Curtain: An Essay in Seven Parts has some interesting ruminations from him on literature of "small countries" such as the Eastern European ones.
11rebeccanyc
Here are books from this region that I've read, with links to my reviews (if I've reviewed them).
Poland
Moving Parts by Magdalena Tulli My review
Dreams and Stones by Magdalena Tulli My review
In Red by Magdalena Tulli My review
Ashes and Diamonds by Jerzy Andrzejewski My review
The Mighty Angel by Jerzy Pilch My review
Sanatorium under the Sign of the Hourglass by Bruno Schulz My review
Hungary
Sunflower by Gyula Krudy
The Adventures of Sindbad by Gyula Krudy My review
Life Is a Dream by Gyula Krudy My review
They Were Counted by Miklós Bánffy My review
They Were Found Wanting by Miklós Bánffy My review
They Were Divided by Miklós Bánffy My review
Skylark by Dezső Kosztolányi My review
The Book of Fathers by Miklós Vámos My review
I want to add two nonfiction books that I found very helpful for understanding this region, at least in the postwar period. First, the stunning and chilling and, I think, essential Bloodlands: Europe between Hitler and Stalin by Timothy Snyder, and then Anne Applebaum's Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe which, though not as impressive as her Gulag: A History, is still informative, thoughtful, and readable.
Poland
Moving Parts by Magdalena Tulli My review
Dreams and Stones by Magdalena Tulli My review
In Red by Magdalena Tulli My review
Ashes and Diamonds by Jerzy Andrzejewski My review
The Mighty Angel by Jerzy Pilch My review
Sanatorium under the Sign of the Hourglass by Bruno Schulz My review
Hungary
Sunflower by Gyula Krudy
The Adventures of Sindbad by Gyula Krudy My review
Life Is a Dream by Gyula Krudy My review
They Were Counted by Miklós Bánffy My review
They Were Found Wanting by Miklós Bánffy My review
They Were Divided by Miklós Bánffy My review
Skylark by Dezső Kosztolányi My review
The Book of Fathers by Miklós Vámos My review
I want to add two nonfiction books that I found very helpful for understanding this region, at least in the postwar period. First, the stunning and chilling and, I think, essential Bloodlands: Europe between Hitler and Stalin by Timothy Snyder, and then Anne Applebaum's Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe which, though not as impressive as her Gulag: A History, is still informative, thoughtful, and readable.
12rebeccanyc
And here are the books on my TBR from these countries. A star means one I'm most eager to read for this theme read.
Poland
Flaw by Magdalena Tulli
Bacacay by Witold Gombrowicz*
Ferdydurke by Witold Gombrowicz
My First Suicide by Jerzy Pilch
Stone upon Stone by Wiesław Myśliwski
Annihilation by Piotr Szewc
The Polish Complex by Tadeusz Konwicki*
House of Day, House of Night by Olga Tokarczuk
The Street of Crocodiles by Bruno Schulz
My Century by Aleksander Wat*
Hungary
Kornel Esti by Dezső Kosztolányi*
War and War by László Krasznahorkai*
Love in a Bottle by Antal Szerb
The Queen's Necklace by Antal Szerb
The City Builder by George Konrad*
Embers by Sándor Márai
Czech Republic
The Engineer of Human Souls by Josef Škvorecký*
The Opportune Moment 1855 by Patrik Ouředník*
The Guinea Pigs by Ludvik Vaculik
Tales from Two Pockets by Karel Čapek
Three Novels by Karel Čapek
The Good Soldier Svejk by Jaroslav Hasek
Laughable Loves by Milan Kundera*
Lovers for a Day by Ivan Klima
Judge on Trial by Ivan Klima*
I Served the King of England by Bohumil Hrabal
Ukraine
The Family Mashber by Der Nister*
Slovenia
The Galley Slave by Drago Jančar
Romania
The Lair by Norman Manea*
Of course, I may get intrigued by other works and other authors, so who knows where this will end up!
Poland
Flaw by Magdalena Tulli
Bacacay by Witold Gombrowicz*
Ferdydurke by Witold Gombrowicz
My First Suicide by Jerzy Pilch
Stone upon Stone by Wiesław Myśliwski
Annihilation by Piotr Szewc
The Polish Complex by Tadeusz Konwicki*
House of Day, House of Night by Olga Tokarczuk
The Street of Crocodiles by Bruno Schulz
My Century by Aleksander Wat*
Hungary
Kornel Esti by Dezső Kosztolányi*
War and War by László Krasznahorkai*
Love in a Bottle by Antal Szerb
The Queen's Necklace by Antal Szerb
The City Builder by George Konrad*
Embers by Sándor Márai
Czech Republic
The Engineer of Human Souls by Josef Škvorecký*
The Opportune Moment 1855 by Patrik Ouředník*
The Guinea Pigs by Ludvik Vaculik
Tales from Two Pockets by Karel Čapek
Three Novels by Karel Čapek
The Good Soldier Svejk by Jaroslav Hasek
Laughable Loves by Milan Kundera*
Lovers for a Day by Ivan Klima
Judge on Trial by Ivan Klima*
I Served the King of England by Bohumil Hrabal
Ukraine
The Family Mashber by Der Nister*
Slovenia
The Galley Slave by Drago Jančar
Romania
The Lair by Norman Manea*
Of course, I may get intrigued by other works and other authors, so who knows where this will end up!
13katrinasreads
My plan (I'm doing a book dare where I can only read books from my shelves - purchases are banned)
Poland:
Quo Vadis by Henryk Sienkiewicz
Hungary:
Embers by Sandor Marai
Czech Republic;
Amerika, The Castle and The Trial by Franz Kafka
The Unbearable Lightness of Being and Ignorance by Milan Kundera
Romania:
The Forest of the Hanged by Liviu Rebreanu
8 books is probably a realistic goal during the 3 months as I have other book commitments, and as a bonus with the exception of 1 all are 1001 books
Poland:
Quo Vadis by Henryk Sienkiewicz
Hungary:
Embers by Sandor Marai
Czech Republic;
Amerika, The Castle and The Trial by Franz Kafka
The Unbearable Lightness of Being and Ignorance by Milan Kundera
Romania:
The Forest of the Hanged by Liviu Rebreanu
8 books is probably a realistic goal during the 3 months as I have other book commitments, and as a bonus with the exception of 1 all are 1001 books
14RickHarsch
I just joined this group so I could say that though I know whatever books you choose will be 'controversial', one novel missing from the Slovene list is Minuet for Guitar by Vitomil Zupan, which, for a quick comparison, is for WWII what Journey to the End of the Night was for WWI. It just recently came out in either NYRB or Dalkey Ark....just looked it up: Dalkey Archive.
15rebeccanyc
#14 Thanks for the recommendation of Minuet for Guitar -- I'll look for it. Would you like to expand on what is "controversial" about books from this region? I for one would find it helpful in understanding better what I'm reading.
16wandering_star
I have several suitable books on my TBR:
The Street Of Crocodiles - Bruno Schulz
Journey By Moonlight - Antal Szerb
Several Milan Kundera novels - The Book Of Laughter And Forgetting, Immortality, and/or The Joke
Fateless - Imre Kertesz
The Beautiful Mrs Seidenman - Andrzej Szczypiorski
If I get to all of those, House Of Day, House Of Night is also on my wishlist.
The Street Of Crocodiles - Bruno Schulz
Journey By Moonlight - Antal Szerb
Several Milan Kundera novels - The Book Of Laughter And Forgetting, Immortality, and/or The Joke
Fateless - Imre Kertesz
The Beautiful Mrs Seidenman - Andrzej Szczypiorski
If I get to all of those, House Of Day, House Of Night is also on my wishlist.
17EBT1002
One way for me to manage (for myself) the large number of books from which to choose is to focus on Poland. Having spent 3 months there in 1981, just prior to and for about a week after Martial Law was declared, I feel a particularly strong affinity for the country. I'm happily making a list to take to the bookstore with me tomorrow.
18DieFledermaus
A lot of great lists! Kundera's one of my favorite authors even though occasionally his work makes me angry. His nonfiction is good as well - swells the wishlist - but sometimes I think he could branch out a bit with the authors he chooses to write about. Laughable Loves is on the pile - not sure if I'll get to that.
I'll second Rebecca's recommendation of Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe.
>14 RickHarsch: - RickHarsch - Minuet for Guitar sounds really interesting - good review. But what's a wicket labyrinth? Google tells me I'm looking for "wicked labyrinth" or suggests something involving Labyrinth, the puppet-Bowie movie, and Wicket the Ewok.
I'll second Rebecca's recommendation of Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe.
>14 RickHarsch: - RickHarsch - Minuet for Guitar sounds really interesting - good review. But what's a wicket labyrinth? Google tells me I'm looking for "wicked labyrinth" or suggests something involving Labyrinth, the puppet-Bowie movie, and Wicket the Ewok.
19A_musing
Minuet sounds somewhat similar to Kadare's Chronicle in Stone, especially Rick's characterization of it as depicting the "fog of war". By the way, he may not qualify for some since he writes in English and as much about India as Slovenia, but the Slovene writer Rick Harsch is well worth reading.
20LolaWalser
Just curious--how do Slovenia and Ukraine end up being grouped together?
21LolaWalser
#19
The Franco-Cuban writer Ernest Hemingway would totally understand.
The Franco-Cuban writer Ernest Hemingway would totally understand.
22A_musing
It is always interesting when an emigre is or is not adopted by and adopts the new country. I don't really think of Rick as Slovenian, but why not? He seems to be pretty settled there.
Lola, you must have some good suggestions for reads?
Lola, you must have some good suggestions for reads?
23LolaWalser
Rick settling in Slovenia? A damn Yankee on MY beautiful sapphire blue sea, in MY ancient towns sculpted in stone, drinking MY wine, stuffing self with MY figs & olives,--while I'm freezing to death toiling in Canada?! God, I hate globalisation.
Sorry, nothing constructive to offer, lists above look plentiful.
Wait--there's an LT member living in Ljubljana, rolig, who translates from Slovenian. His catalogue has lots of new and old Slovenian lit translated into English.
Sorry, nothing constructive to offer, lists above look plentiful.
Wait--there's an LT member living in Ljubljana, rolig, who translates from Slovenian. His catalogue has lots of new and old Slovenian lit translated into English.
24rebeccanyc
Thanks, Lola, for that suggestion about rolig. Here's a link to books he's tagged Slovene.
25RickHarsch
I revisited my Zupan review, and I regret resorting to the fog of war cliche, but am intrigued by wicket labyrinth. Anyway, this vast project requires Zupan and Krleža, the Return of Filip Latinowicz, or however it's being spelled lately.
Lola, since i heard that you had some sort of connection with Slovenia I have been drinking less refošk and teran and pissing less often in the Adriatic. We are all pitching in, pinching, to ensure there is plenty for your return. And you are more than welcome to swill what you like on our balkon. If you know the coast then you know Izola. I live on the edge of the center, in an aparment building where the city wall once was.
My nationality is still, unfortunately, more US than Slovene by all measures; I think even my disgust for the US politico-economico-culturo-environmento-santa klo is even probably expressed and felt in a US denizen sort of way. But I ain't going back.
Lola, since i heard that you had some sort of connection with Slovenia I have been drinking less refošk and teran and pissing less often in the Adriatic. We are all pitching in, pinching, to ensure there is plenty for your return. And you are more than welcome to swill what you like on our balkon. If you know the coast then you know Izola. I live on the edge of the center, in an aparment building where the city wall once was.
My nationality is still, unfortunately, more US than Slovene by all measures; I think even my disgust for the US politico-economico-culturo-environmento-santa klo is even probably expressed and felt in a US denizen sort of way. But I ain't going back.
26LolaWalser
No, but you could go further, to Lithuania perhaps.
Yes, I believe I'm fairly well acquainted with the entire six yards of Slovenian seacoast, although it's been a while... I have Slovenian family and connections in Ljubljana, Maribor and Bled.
#24
You're welcome, I'm glad I remembered the handle correctly.
Yes, I believe I'm fairly well acquainted with the entire six yards of Slovenian seacoast, although it's been a while... I have Slovenian family and connections in Ljubljana, Maribor and Bled.
#24
You're welcome, I'm glad I remembered the handle correctly.
27DieFledermaus
Zupan has been added to the list of Slovene authors.
>20 LolaWalser: - LolaWalser - I think the countries are from the Europe III and IV categories - central and eastern Europe without the Baltic states or Russia. Also, didn't look like we covered Slovenia in the Balkans theme read last year.
>23 LolaWalser:, 24 - Impressive list of books
>20 LolaWalser: - LolaWalser - I think the countries are from the Europe III and IV categories - central and eastern Europe without the Baltic states or Russia. Also, didn't look like we covered Slovenia in the Balkans theme read last year.
>23 LolaWalser:, 24 - Impressive list of books
28banjo123
Cool Thread!
I am planning to read Kundera's Unbearable Lightness of Being, which I have never read; Herta Muller's the Hunger ANgel ; maybe something by Kafka (The Hunger Artist?) and a couple non-fiction reads that I have on my list The Iron Curtain by Anna Applebaum and maybe Dark Continent: Europe's Twentieth Century. by Mark Mazower
I am planning to read Kundera's Unbearable Lightness of Being, which I have never read; Herta Muller's the Hunger ANgel ; maybe something by Kafka (The Hunger Artist?) and a couple non-fiction reads that I have on my list The Iron Curtain by Anna Applebaum and maybe Dark Continent: Europe's Twentieth Century. by Mark Mazower
29cameling
What a great thread, DF. Thanks for hosting this and for the introduction to the region we're going to cover in the first quarter of 2013. I haven't read many authors from this region so I'm looking forward to getting to some of the ones currently residing in my TBR Tower ...and potentially adding more recommendations from the group to my obese wish list.
The books I currently own from this region include:
Our Circus Presents - Lucian Teodorovici
The Milkman in the Night - Andrey Kurkov
The President's Last Love - Andrey Kurkov
The Ultimate Intimacy - Ivan Klima
The Street of Crocodiles - Bruno Schulz
The books I currently own from this region include:
Our Circus Presents - Lucian Teodorovici
The Milkman in the Night - Andrey Kurkov
The President's Last Love - Andrey Kurkov
The Ultimate Intimacy - Ivan Klima
The Street of Crocodiles - Bruno Schulz
30StevenTX
Fantastic thread! I've spent hours today just reading the info, browsing the links, and ordering not a few of the recommended books even though I already had more from the region than I can possibly read in three months. I don't yet know what I'll read, but I think I'll start with Ferdydurke by Witold Gombrowicz.
31labfs39
wow! Thanks, DieF, for all your hard work setting the thread up and giving us background and suggestions.
Some of my favorites (especial favorites are starred) from this region:
Poland
Quo Vadis by Henryk Sienkiewicz*
The Issa Valley by by Czesław Miłosz*
The Collected Poems, 1931-1987 by by Czesław Miłosz*
The Complete Fiction of Bruno Schultz
Solaris by Stanislaw Lem was okay (not so fond of Hospital of the Transfiguration)
Also helpful: The History of Polish Literature by Czesław Miłosz
Own and want to read:
Stone Upon Stone by Wiesław Myśliwski
This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen by Tadeusz Borowski
Although I was disillusioned by Love and Exile, I may try The Collected Stories of Isaac Bashevis Singer
Slovenia
Self Sown by Prezihov Voranc (not really a favorite, but thought I would put it out there as an option)
Hungary
Fatelessness* and The Pathseeker by Imre Kertesz
Skylark by Dezső Kosztolányi
Own and want to read:
Kaddish for an Unborn Child by Imre Kertesz (and one other whose title escapes me)
Ukrainian
A short history of tractors in Ukrainian and Strawberry Fields by Marina Lewycka (although I would consider her more British than Ukrainian)
I guess we are counting Gogol as Russian, not Ukrainian?
Romanian
No One is Here Except All of Us by Ramona Ausubel (although perhaps she doesn't count because she is in US?)
The Hunger Angel (which I liked slightly better than Land of the Green Plums) by Herta Müller (although I think of her more as German than Romanian, because that is how she seems to self-identify)
Czech
Too Loud a Solitude* by Bohumil Hrabal (although I have read other novels by him, this remains one of my all time favorite books)
Children of the Holocaust*, Lovely Green Eyes*, Night and Hope by Arnošt Lustig (didn't care for The Unloved: From the Diary of Perla S. as much)
Mendelssohn is on the roof by Jiří Weil
The Questionnaire, Or, Prayer For A Town & A Friend by Jiří Gruša
The Guinea Pigs by Ludvik Vaculik (a difficult read for animal lovers)
Sorry to say, I didn't care for The Good Soldier Svejk much and think Unbearable Lightness of Being made a better movie than book.
Own and want to read:
Dita Saxova, The house of returned echoes and The bitter smell of almonds : selected fiction by Arnošt Lustig
Dancing lessons for the advanced in age by Hrabal
One of the books I own by Josef Skvorecky
More Kafka
Plus: some of the many books that I don't own, but are mentioned in the posts above! (including the nonfiction Bloodlands and Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe by Anne Applebaum)
Some of my favorites (especial favorites are starred) from this region:
Poland
Quo Vadis by Henryk Sienkiewicz*
The Issa Valley by by Czesław Miłosz*
The Collected Poems, 1931-1987 by by Czesław Miłosz*
The Complete Fiction of Bruno Schultz
Solaris by Stanislaw Lem was okay (not so fond of Hospital of the Transfiguration)
Also helpful: The History of Polish Literature by Czesław Miłosz
Own and want to read:
Stone Upon Stone by Wiesław Myśliwski
This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen by Tadeusz Borowski
Although I was disillusioned by Love and Exile, I may try The Collected Stories of Isaac Bashevis Singer
Slovenia
Self Sown by Prezihov Voranc (not really a favorite, but thought I would put it out there as an option)
Hungary
Fatelessness* and The Pathseeker by Imre Kertesz
Skylark by Dezső Kosztolányi
Own and want to read:
Kaddish for an Unborn Child by Imre Kertesz (and one other whose title escapes me)
Ukrainian
A short history of tractors in Ukrainian and Strawberry Fields by Marina Lewycka (although I would consider her more British than Ukrainian)
I guess we are counting Gogol as Russian, not Ukrainian?
Romanian
No One is Here Except All of Us by Ramona Ausubel (although perhaps she doesn't count because she is in US?)
The Hunger Angel (which I liked slightly better than Land of the Green Plums) by Herta Müller (although I think of her more as German than Romanian, because that is how she seems to self-identify)
Czech
Too Loud a Solitude* by Bohumil Hrabal (although I have read other novels by him, this remains one of my all time favorite books)
Children of the Holocaust*, Lovely Green Eyes*, Night and Hope by Arnošt Lustig (didn't care for The Unloved: From the Diary of Perla S. as much)
Mendelssohn is on the roof by Jiří Weil
The Questionnaire, Or, Prayer For A Town & A Friend by Jiří Gruša
The Guinea Pigs by Ludvik Vaculik (a difficult read for animal lovers)
Sorry to say, I didn't care for The Good Soldier Svejk much and think Unbearable Lightness of Being made a better movie than book.
Own and want to read:
Dita Saxova, The house of returned echoes and The bitter smell of almonds : selected fiction by Arnošt Lustig
Dancing lessons for the advanced in age by Hrabal
One of the books I own by Josef Skvorecky
More Kafka
Plus: some of the many books that I don't own, but are mentioned in the posts above! (including the nonfiction Bloodlands and Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe by Anne Applebaum)
32labfs39
Oh, thank you for the reminder, Rebecca: I also have and want to read The Family Mashber by Der Nister. I didn't have him listed as Ukrainian.
33SassyLassy
>32 labfs39: I didn't either. I always thought of him primarily as a Yiddish writer, but if I had to ascribe nationality, up to now it would have been Russian. My edition (Flamingo) calls him Russian, but says he was born in Berdichev, then was associated with Kiev, so Ukrainian, but at the time Russian. Leonard Wolf's introduction calls him Russian, but the focus seems to be more on his role in Yiddish literature.
I like the idea of a separate category for Yiddish literature, as so much of it did not involve the external world, which was about to come crashing in on it.
I like the idea of a separate category for Yiddish literature, as so much of it did not involve the external world, which was about to come crashing in on it.
34labfs39
It's like Czesław Miłosz. He was born in Lithuania, but the area was ruled by Poland much of the time (see his autobiographical Issa Valley. He spoke and wrote in Polish (he was fluent in was fluent in Polish, Lithuanian, Russian, English and French), but emigrated to the US in 1960 and became a US citizen in 1970. In 1980 he received the Nobel Prize, and it was the first time many of his works saw the light of day in Poland. He died at his home in Krakow in 2004. So, born Lithuanian, later Polish, then American. Egads. I think there was a time when his hometown was part of Russia too.
35rebeccanyc
All of those places in eastern Europe went back and forth multiple times. I once looked up the towns my grandparents/great-grand parents came from and they all went back and forth between countries over the years (i.e., towns that are now in Lithuania and Poland were ruled at various times by Russians, Prussians, and Germans).
I was thinking about a Yiddish category too.
I was thinking about a Yiddish category too.
36Samantha_kathy
I'm planning on reading One Moldavian Summer by Ionel Teodoreanu, also known as La Medeleni ("In Medeleni"). It's known as one of the classic Romanian novels of the (early) 20th century.
37wandering_star
Given a miserable, grey 1 January I have managed to finish my first book for this theme, Antal Szerb's Journey By Moonlight. I'd previously read his The Pendragon Legend, which confounded my expectations of serious/dour central European literature by being a mad Gothic pastiche involving a remote castle and ancient curse. Journey By Moonlight is a little bit more serious but still just as mad.
I don't think I have a hope of summarising the plot, but here's the setup: Mihály is on his honeymoon when he runs into an old friend, who is rude to him and offensive to his new wife. Despite this, the encounter leaves Mihály with a great nostalgia for the wild (and wildly pretentious) days of his youth. It turns out that Mihály has spent fifteen years trying to adapt to an adult life of responsibility (culminating in his marriage) - but his teenage dread of a bourgeois existence is still lurking somewhere inside him, and once his memories are stirred up he can't suppress these feelings any longer. Accidentally-on-purpose, Mihály abandons his wife to look for his lost friends (and youth). As he does so, his wife takes up with a string of more or less dubious men, culminating in a Persian impresario who is "like an imperfectly tamed tiger". All this is intermingled with musings on the perverse attraction of oblivion and the deadening nature of everyday existence.
I hope that gives a flavour of the book. I wouldn't say that it made a huge amount of sense or indeed that you end up with a lot of sympathy for any of the characters. But I did very much enjoy the read - for the craziness itself and also for the witty writing.
I don't think I have a hope of summarising the plot, but here's the setup: Mihály is on his honeymoon when he runs into an old friend, who is rude to him and offensive to his new wife. Despite this, the encounter leaves Mihály with a great nostalgia for the wild (and wildly pretentious) days of his youth. It turns out that Mihály has spent fifteen years trying to adapt to an adult life of responsibility (culminating in his marriage) - but his teenage dread of a bourgeois existence is still lurking somewhere inside him, and once his memories are stirred up he can't suppress these feelings any longer. Accidentally-on-purpose, Mihály abandons his wife to look for his lost friends (and youth). As he does so, his wife takes up with a string of more or less dubious men, culminating in a Persian impresario who is "like an imperfectly tamed tiger". All this is intermingled with musings on the perverse attraction of oblivion and the deadening nature of everyday existence.
I hope that gives a flavour of the book. I wouldn't say that it made a huge amount of sense or indeed that you end up with a lot of sympathy for any of the characters. But I did very much enjoy the read - for the craziness itself and also for the witty writing.
38LolaWalser
Szerb is absolutely wonderful, his uncompleted life and work are such a terrible loss.
He had a rare combination of gifts, the training of a professional historian and powerful creativity. It makes even straight historical fiction such as The queen's necklace utterly delightful--and although I don't think this narrative is in any way crazy, there's definitely a touch of madcap fun in the figure of Cagliostro. He must have had a taste for the zany.
He had a rare combination of gifts, the training of a professional historian and powerful creativity. It makes even straight historical fiction such as The queen's necklace utterly delightful--and although I don't think this narrative is in any way crazy, there's definitely a touch of madcap fun in the figure of Cagliostro. He must have had a taste for the zany.
39berthirsch
what about the Bulgarian, Elias Canetti, his Auto-da-Fe is one of my favorites.
40DieFledermaus
>37 wandering_star:, 38 - Very nice flavor of Szerb. I did enjoy that one and found Oliver VII delightful as well - definitely some zany there as it is the story of a king who plots his own coup then ends up associating with con men and impersonating himself. The Pendragon Legend sounds like good crazy fun. Not sure if I'll get to read any more Szerb during the theme read as I want to reduce the pile some first.
>39 berthirsch: - I think Bulgaria was included in the Balkans read last year. Although I remember there was some puzzling over Canetti's nationality as he lived all over and had a British? passport. I've had Auto-da-Fe on the wishlist for a while now - have only heard good things.
>39 berthirsch: - I think Bulgaria was included in the Balkans read last year. Although I remember there was some puzzling over Canetti's nationality as he lived all over and had a British? passport. I've had Auto-da-Fe on the wishlist for a while now - have only heard good things.
41rebeccanyc
There was a big discussion of Canetti's nationality somewhere last year and I think the conclusion was that he was a "Wandering Jew."
42wandering_star
I think Oliver VII is next on my wishlist!
43berthirsch
41- ah. "wandering jews", i relish its aura. speaking of wandering jews Joseph Roth's "the wandering jews" is also excellent, and does depict some of eastern europe-the shtetls of Poland.
44StevenTX
Opium and Other Stories by Géza Csáth
Stories written in Hungarian 1908 to 1912
English translation by Jascha Kessler and Charlotte Rogers 1980
Géza Csáth, born 1887, was an upper middle class Hungarian who showed considerable talent as an artist, writer, musician and composer before deciding of his own volition to enter medical school. He devoted his early career to researching the origins of mental disorders, a fascination which carries over to the short stories he was writing at the time. At the same time, however, Csáth became addicted to opium. During the First World War he began his own descent into insanity. In 1919 he killed his wife, was institutionalized, escaped, and then killed himself.
Csáth's short stories are a mixture of the tragic, the absurd, the macabre and the fantastic. The author's mother died when he was a young child, leading evidently to a sense of betrayal that caused him to depict mothers as uncaring. Children are often the principal subjects of his stories, and they are typically angry and sadistic, wreaking violence and death on their pets, their siblings, and especially their mothers. In other stories young men are tantalized with the prospect of sexual pleasures, only to be thwarted by indifferent females, by their own inhibitions, or by waking at the wrong moment to find it was all a dream.
Csáth is not entirely misogynistic, however. In "Festal Slaughter" he presents a remarkably sensitive portrait of a servant girl who must rise in the freezing dawn to prepare for the slaughter of a sow by a visiting butcher. Along with her employer's family she works to exhaustion that day processing the carcass, making sausages, etc., only to be casually raped by the butcher before he leaves. She is just as much a piece of meat to her culture as the sow.
In the title story, "Opium," Csáth praises his favorite drug. Sure it shortens your life, he argues, but it slows time and extends the pleasures of each day. You may live, at most, for ten years, but in those ten years you will experience twenty million years of bliss before letting "your head fall on the icy pillow of eternal annihilation." Other stories present perhaps a more cautionary picture of addiction, such as one in which the narrator is plagued by dreams of a giant, fearsome toad in his kitchen.
There is a bit of black comedy in the collection as well, such as in the story "Father, Son" where a young man returns to Hungary from America to retrieve his father's skeleton from a medical college where it has just been put on display in a classroom. There is social satire too, such as the story "Musicians" wherein the players in a civic orchestra discover that it their politics, not their performance, that will win them new instruments.
I would characterize Géza Csáth as "Poe + Freud," as his macabre, drug-fueled visions are informed by a professional's knowledge and clinical experience with mental illness. His writings also reflect the final convulsions of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, a dream world of sorts itself. These are not great stories, but many are quite good and would appeal to anyone with an interest in the literature of the period or of drug addiction.
Stories written in Hungarian 1908 to 1912
English translation by Jascha Kessler and Charlotte Rogers 1980
Géza Csáth, born 1887, was an upper middle class Hungarian who showed considerable talent as an artist, writer, musician and composer before deciding of his own volition to enter medical school. He devoted his early career to researching the origins of mental disorders, a fascination which carries over to the short stories he was writing at the time. At the same time, however, Csáth became addicted to opium. During the First World War he began his own descent into insanity. In 1919 he killed his wife, was institutionalized, escaped, and then killed himself.
Csáth's short stories are a mixture of the tragic, the absurd, the macabre and the fantastic. The author's mother died when he was a young child, leading evidently to a sense of betrayal that caused him to depict mothers as uncaring. Children are often the principal subjects of his stories, and they are typically angry and sadistic, wreaking violence and death on their pets, their siblings, and especially their mothers. In other stories young men are tantalized with the prospect of sexual pleasures, only to be thwarted by indifferent females, by their own inhibitions, or by waking at the wrong moment to find it was all a dream.
Csáth is not entirely misogynistic, however. In "Festal Slaughter" he presents a remarkably sensitive portrait of a servant girl who must rise in the freezing dawn to prepare for the slaughter of a sow by a visiting butcher. Along with her employer's family she works to exhaustion that day processing the carcass, making sausages, etc., only to be casually raped by the butcher before he leaves. She is just as much a piece of meat to her culture as the sow.
In the title story, "Opium," Csáth praises his favorite drug. Sure it shortens your life, he argues, but it slows time and extends the pleasures of each day. You may live, at most, for ten years, but in those ten years you will experience twenty million years of bliss before letting "your head fall on the icy pillow of eternal annihilation." Other stories present perhaps a more cautionary picture of addiction, such as one in which the narrator is plagued by dreams of a giant, fearsome toad in his kitchen.
There is a bit of black comedy in the collection as well, such as in the story "Father, Son" where a young man returns to Hungary from America to retrieve his father's skeleton from a medical college where it has just been put on display in a classroom. There is social satire too, such as the story "Musicians" wherein the players in a civic orchestra discover that it their politics, not their performance, that will win them new instruments.
I would characterize Géza Csáth as "Poe + Freud," as his macabre, drug-fueled visions are informed by a professional's knowledge and clinical experience with mental illness. His writings also reflect the final convulsions of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, a dream world of sorts itself. These are not great stories, but many are quite good and would appeal to anyone with an interest in the literature of the period or of drug addiction.
45DieFledermaus
>43 berthirsch: - Interesting, I hadn't heard of that Roth before though I had planned to read more by him after reading an essay about his life.
>44 StevenTX: - Great review, Steven - you have me tempted. I was sort of hoping someone would read Csáth as his life and works sounded so bizarre and eventful. Also - it looks like your edition has an introduction by Angela Carter? Very nice.
>44 StevenTX: - Great review, Steven - you have me tempted. I was sort of hoping someone would read Csáth as his life and works sounded so bizarre and eventful. Also - it looks like your edition has an introduction by Angela Carter? Very nice.
46rebeccanyc
Great review, Steven, and nice to see the cover from another in the Writers from the Other Europe series -- I wish I had the whole collection.
47StevenTX
#45 - Yes, the introduction by Angela Carter was very insightful. It especially helped me look out for all the instances of loveless or dysfunctional motherhood and their consequences.
#46 - I don't know how many titles there are in the series, but I do have several others, including some recent acquisitions. One arrived on Wednesday: Skinswaps by Andrej Blatnik.
#46 - I don't know how many titles there are in the series, but I do have several others, including some recent acquisitions. One arrived on Wednesday: Skinswaps by Andrej Blatnik.
48DieFledermaus
Found this list on one of Rebecca's threads - the list was compiled by labsf
Here is a list of books included in Writers from the Other Europe. The list is from WorldCat.
Konrád, G. (1987). The case worker. New York, N.Y., U.S.A: Penguin Books.
Hrabal, B. (1981). Closely watched trains. New York: Penguin Books.
Konrád, G. (1987). The city builder. New York, N.Y., U.S.A: Penguin Books.
Vaculík, L. (1975). The guinea pigs: a novel. New York: Penguin Books.
Gombrowicz, W. (1986). Ferdydurke. New York: Viking Penguin.
Borowski, T. (1976). This way for the gas, ladies and gentlemen: And other stories. New York: Penguin Books.
Csáth, G., & Birnbaum, M. D. (1983). Opium and other stories. New York, N.Y: Penguin Books.
Konwicki, T. (1984). The Polish complex. New York, N.Y: Penguin Books.
Schulz, B. (1979). Sanatorium under the sign of the hourglass. New York: Penguin Books.
Andrzejewski, J. (1980). Ashes and diamonds. Harmondsworth, Eng: Penguin Books.
Roth, P., Borowski, T., Kiš, D., Kundera, M., & Schulz, B. (1979). Writers from the other Europe. Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England: Penguin Books.
Kundera, M. (1981). The book of laughter and forgetting. Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England: Penguin Books.
Kiš, D. (1980). A tomb for Boris Davidovich: A novel. New York: Penguin Books.
Kundera, M., Rappaport, S., & Roth, P. (1975). Laughable loves. New York: Penguin Books.
Konwicki, T., Welsh, D., & Kołakowski, L. (1976). A dreambook for our time. New York: Penguin.
Schulz, B. (1977). The street of crocodiles. New York: Penguin Books.
Kundera, M. (1977). The farewell party. New York: Penguin Books.
Kundera, M. (1983). The joke. New York, N.Y: Penguin Books.
Here is a list of books included in Writers from the Other Europe. The list is from WorldCat.
Konrád, G. (1987). The case worker. New York, N.Y., U.S.A: Penguin Books.
Hrabal, B. (1981). Closely watched trains. New York: Penguin Books.
Konrád, G. (1987). The city builder. New York, N.Y., U.S.A: Penguin Books.
Vaculík, L. (1975). The guinea pigs: a novel. New York: Penguin Books.
Gombrowicz, W. (1986). Ferdydurke. New York: Viking Penguin.
Borowski, T. (1976). This way for the gas, ladies and gentlemen: And other stories. New York: Penguin Books.
Csáth, G., & Birnbaum, M. D. (1983). Opium and other stories. New York, N.Y: Penguin Books.
Konwicki, T. (1984). The Polish complex. New York, N.Y: Penguin Books.
Schulz, B. (1979). Sanatorium under the sign of the hourglass. New York: Penguin Books.
Andrzejewski, J. (1980). Ashes and diamonds. Harmondsworth, Eng: Penguin Books.
Roth, P., Borowski, T., Kiš, D., Kundera, M., & Schulz, B. (1979). Writers from the other Europe. Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England: Penguin Books.
Kundera, M. (1981). The book of laughter and forgetting. Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England: Penguin Books.
Kiš, D. (1980). A tomb for Boris Davidovich: A novel. New York: Penguin Books.
Kundera, M., Rappaport, S., & Roth, P. (1975). Laughable loves. New York: Penguin Books.
Konwicki, T., Welsh, D., & Kołakowski, L. (1976). A dreambook for our time. New York: Penguin.
Schulz, B. (1977). The street of crocodiles. New York: Penguin Books.
Kundera, M. (1977). The farewell party. New York: Penguin Books.
Kundera, M. (1983). The joke. New York, N.Y: Penguin Books.
49DieFledermaus
I think all the books have been published in other editions except The Case Worker, Opium and other stories and A Dreambook for Our Time.
50rebeccanyc
Thanks, DieF, for reposting that list. After Lisa posted it on my thread, I tried to track down titles I didn't own (I have a set that includes Sanatorium under the Sign of the Hourglass, A Tomb for Boris Davidovich, and This Way to the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen and I already had Ferdydurke, The City Builder, and Laughable Loves in other editions, and have read The Book of Laughter and Forgetting). So I got Ashes and Diamonds, The Guinea Pigs, and The Street of Crocodiles.
I think Philip Roth was a pal of Milan Kundera, and that's why there were so many Kunderas in the series.
I think Philip Roth was a pal of Milan Kundera, and that's why there were so many Kunderas in the series.
51StevenTX
For those looking as I was for anything from Moldova, this is available as a Kindle book from Amazon for only 99 cents:
Mierla Domesticita: Blackbird Once Wild, Now Tame by Nicolae Dabija
Poems first published in Romanian 1992
English translation by John Michael Flynn 2012
Prior to its independence in 1991, Moldova was one of the constituent republics of the USSR. Though it's people traditionally spoke a dialect of Romanian, Russian was the official language in Soviet Moldova, and many people grew up speaking only Russian. Nicolae Dabija, as a politician, newspaper editor and poet, was one of the Moldovan's working to preserve the native language and culture. Barely a year after Moldova's independence, he published this collection of poems in Romanian.
But rather than celebrating his country's new identity and the restoration of its traditional language and alphabet, Dabija's poetry is an accusing cry of despair at how easily the people succumbed to foreign influence:
"I hear how in this world walk
Peoples without a language their gods tossed into a cart.
"Peoples who have no country.
What are they looking for? What do they want?...
"And if only to awaken after a time, dumb
and to learn the barbarian conquerors have finally left."
In the title poem of the collection, "Blackbird once wild, now tame," Dabija compares his people to a bird that voluntarily gives up its freedom:
"See this bird, once wild, now raised on grain
long ago it forgot how to fly.
See how the humble wind startles
her greasy, lethargic wings.
And in her eyes how the sky perishes....
"this voiceless aviator
who renounced a boundless horizon
for a feeder full of grain."
The first half of the collection consists of political poems such as these, some featuring scenes from folk life, others using mythological allegories.
The second half of the collection is mostly poems dedicated to a lost or recalcitrant lover. I found these to be substantially inferior to the political works, and almost painfully sophomoric at times. In one poem the writer declares that a millennium from now he will be nothing but a handful of clay that "shudders when touched by the clay you've become." And the shortest poem in the collection says only:
"I miss you
the way a wall misses a window."
However, one must give the author the benefit of the doubt and assume that much of the beauty of language was lost in translation. The translator states, in fact, that he had to forego all rhyming in order to preserve the literal meaning. The text is bilingual, and you can see that every poem rhymes in the original Romanian, while none of them does in English translation.
There are several really good poems in this short collection. (My favorite is one titled "The Cat.") But it will be read chiefly because it is one of the few specimens of Moldovan literature available in English translation.
Mierla Domesticita: Blackbird Once Wild, Now Tame by Nicolae Dabija
Poems first published in Romanian 1992
English translation by John Michael Flynn 2012
Prior to its independence in 1991, Moldova was one of the constituent republics of the USSR. Though it's people traditionally spoke a dialect of Romanian, Russian was the official language in Soviet Moldova, and many people grew up speaking only Russian. Nicolae Dabija, as a politician, newspaper editor and poet, was one of the Moldovan's working to preserve the native language and culture. Barely a year after Moldova's independence, he published this collection of poems in Romanian.
But rather than celebrating his country's new identity and the restoration of its traditional language and alphabet, Dabija's poetry is an accusing cry of despair at how easily the people succumbed to foreign influence:
"I hear how in this world walk
Peoples without a language their gods tossed into a cart.
"Peoples who have no country.
What are they looking for? What do they want?...
"And if only to awaken after a time, dumb
and to learn the barbarian conquerors have finally left."
In the title poem of the collection, "Blackbird once wild, now tame," Dabija compares his people to a bird that voluntarily gives up its freedom:
"See this bird, once wild, now raised on grain
long ago it forgot how to fly.
See how the humble wind startles
her greasy, lethargic wings.
And in her eyes how the sky perishes....
"this voiceless aviator
who renounced a boundless horizon
for a feeder full of grain."
The first half of the collection consists of political poems such as these, some featuring scenes from folk life, others using mythological allegories.
The second half of the collection is mostly poems dedicated to a lost or recalcitrant lover. I found these to be substantially inferior to the political works, and almost painfully sophomoric at times. In one poem the writer declares that a millennium from now he will be nothing but a handful of clay that "shudders when touched by the clay you've become." And the shortest poem in the collection says only:
"I miss you
the way a wall misses a window."
However, one must give the author the benefit of the doubt and assume that much of the beauty of language was lost in translation. The translator states, in fact, that he had to forego all rhyming in order to preserve the literal meaning. The text is bilingual, and you can see that every poem rhymes in the original Romanian, while none of them does in English translation.
There are several really good poems in this short collection. (My favorite is one titled "The Cat.") But it will be read chiefly because it is one of the few specimens of Moldovan literature available in English translation.
52DieFledermaus
>50 rebeccanyc: - I've seen mentions of Roth and Kundera being friends - wonder how much of that is responsible for Kundera being (relatively) well known in America? I guess there was the movie of The Unbearable Lightness of Being and he is also French - the French seem to treat their public intellectuals well.
>51 StevenTX: - Really informative review and very nice to see a Moldovan author. Too bad it was a mixed reading experience.
>51 StevenTX: - Really informative review and very nice to see a Moldovan author. Too bad it was a mixed reading experience.
53DieFledermaus
The Absolute at Large by Karel Čapek
In The Absolute at Large, a machine releases an invisible, spiritual power as a byproduct, leading to religious frenzy and global war, but somehow Čapek maintains a frenetic, comic tone as well as a loose, almost metafictional structure. He sometimes narrates the battles with a succinct journalist’s eye, then moves on to a chapter describing the myths surrounding the new Napoleon of France, then checks in with some villagers concerned with the price of food. It’s not quite cinematic cuts or a panoramic view of society, but rather Čapek deciding he’s going to be wonderfully weird and do what he wants (in fact he mentions this, saying he’s just following his preferences and checking in with carousel operators and dredge dwellers). The narrator often intrudes, in one instance apologizing for the unlucky thirteenth chapter.
Čapek wrote the novel in 1920 and it is set in the future, in 1943. Some things he predicted accurately – the development of atomic power – but others aren’t, as Russia is again a tsarist country. G.H. Bondy, a petty, greedy(but still rather amusing) industrialist, sees an advertisement for a new invention and, recognizing the inventor, goes to meet his old employee Marek. Marek is eager to give Bondy his Karburator and soon it’s revealed why – the machine, which destroys matter completely, releases a powerful spiritual force or the “Absolute”. Based on both the atomic theory of the day as well as philosophy which, in short, says God is in everything, the novel takes these ideas to the extreme. The released Absolute makes those around it blissfully pious and generous and also works miracles. Bondy is all too eager to make use of the Karburator and soon they are being sold around the world. Old atheist Marek and Bondy, who only worships money, make efforts to avoid Absolute contamination and Čapek checks in with them from time to time, but others try to harness the Absolute for their own purposes or fall under its spell.
The discussions of the Absolute and its devastating effects are filled with comedic bits – Bondy wonders whether they can negotiate with the Absolute, the bishop denounces the Absolute as a fraud but then later decides that the Church has to get in on it, one chapter is devoted wholly to the delivering of a telegram, there’s a ridiculous analysis of a ridiculous prophecy. Čapek has some obvious targets - religious hypocrisy, ridiculous extremism - but also depicts some more convoluted negative effects of the Absolute – the miracles performed include factories constantly being run with no human input, leading to enormous quantities of material. However, what with the owners and workers either off preaching or giving away everything, there’s no distribution and there are huge shortages of the materials. The religious parts sometimes read as if they were written by an old atheist like Marek but Čapek’s warm humanism fills every page. In the end, his characters sigh about how “people are always getting back just where they used to be” and bemoan how “Everyone believes in his own superior God, but he doesn’t believe in another man, or credit him with believing in something good…Everyone has the best of feelings towards mankind in general, but not towards the individual man. We’ll kill men, but we want to save mankind.”
In The Absolute at Large, a machine releases an invisible, spiritual power as a byproduct, leading to religious frenzy and global war, but somehow Čapek maintains a frenetic, comic tone as well as a loose, almost metafictional structure. He sometimes narrates the battles with a succinct journalist’s eye, then moves on to a chapter describing the myths surrounding the new Napoleon of France, then checks in with some villagers concerned with the price of food. It’s not quite cinematic cuts or a panoramic view of society, but rather Čapek deciding he’s going to be wonderfully weird and do what he wants (in fact he mentions this, saying he’s just following his preferences and checking in with carousel operators and dredge dwellers). The narrator often intrudes, in one instance apologizing for the unlucky thirteenth chapter.
Čapek wrote the novel in 1920 and it is set in the future, in 1943. Some things he predicted accurately – the development of atomic power – but others aren’t, as Russia is again a tsarist country. G.H. Bondy, a petty, greedy(but still rather amusing) industrialist, sees an advertisement for a new invention and, recognizing the inventor, goes to meet his old employee Marek. Marek is eager to give Bondy his Karburator and soon it’s revealed why – the machine, which destroys matter completely, releases a powerful spiritual force or the “Absolute”. Based on both the atomic theory of the day as well as philosophy which, in short, says God is in everything, the novel takes these ideas to the extreme. The released Absolute makes those around it blissfully pious and generous and also works miracles. Bondy is all too eager to make use of the Karburator and soon they are being sold around the world. Old atheist Marek and Bondy, who only worships money, make efforts to avoid Absolute contamination and Čapek checks in with them from time to time, but others try to harness the Absolute for their own purposes or fall under its spell.
The discussions of the Absolute and its devastating effects are filled with comedic bits – Bondy wonders whether they can negotiate with the Absolute, the bishop denounces the Absolute as a fraud but then later decides that the Church has to get in on it, one chapter is devoted wholly to the delivering of a telegram, there’s a ridiculous analysis of a ridiculous prophecy. Čapek has some obvious targets - religious hypocrisy, ridiculous extremism - but also depicts some more convoluted negative effects of the Absolute – the miracles performed include factories constantly being run with no human input, leading to enormous quantities of material. However, what with the owners and workers either off preaching or giving away everything, there’s no distribution and there are huge shortages of the materials. The religious parts sometimes read as if they were written by an old atheist like Marek but Čapek’s warm humanism fills every page. In the end, his characters sigh about how “people are always getting back just where they used to be” and bemoan how “Everyone believes in his own superior God, but he doesn’t believe in another man, or credit him with believing in something good…Everyone has the best of feelings towards mankind in general, but not towards the individual man. We’ll kill men, but we want to save mankind.”
54EBT1002
>48 DieFledermaus: Great list!!
55DieFledermaus
>54 EBT1002: - Yeah - a lot of nice selections on the list. I'm hoping Dalkey Archive will release the other Konrad and Konwicki since they've published other works by them. Will have to check out used bookstores for the Csath.
56DieFledermaus
Our Circus Presents by Lucian Dan Teodorovici
Every morning, the narrator of the book climbs out onto the ledge outside his window and hopes that the urge to jump will overtake him. So far it hasn’t. Besides that, his life is empty and meaningless. He has a couple friends who are also obsessed with suicide. He waits for the telephone to ring. He treats his ex-girlfriend poorly and often thinks about women when he’s not thinking of suicide, but in a demeaning way. But one day he sees another man about to commit suicide, hauls him to the hospital and finds his life changed. All sorts of bizarre events occur over the next few days – his new friend and failed suicide moves in, they fight with railway workers, encounter several prostitutes, are questioned by the police and run into numerous angry, irritating, aimless neighbors, fellow would-be suicides, and strangers.
The translation is smooth and very readable. There is plenty of black humor and some horrible but funny set-pieces – the best one has the narrator’s friend, another man who obsesses over suicide, calling him up to come over to watch him drink himself to death. This morbid situation turns even bleaker but in a darkly funny manner. However, there are plenty of aimless bits and most of the characters are fairly irritating. The narrator’s desire for suicide – or lack of desire – isn’t explored too much. He seems to have adolescent fantasies and is annoyed when his also-suicidal friends marry or get good jobs or move on. The narrator has a rather sexist outlook on life – one could attribute it to him instead of the author, but it was still unpleasant to read. The female characters are pretty much prostitutes or older women whose desire is seen by the narrator as pathetic. Despite that, he relates at length several sexual episodes that end with him being humiliated. The book ends with a darkly ironic turn which is also an appropriate whimper. Interesting, but not a must-read.
Every morning, the narrator of the book climbs out onto the ledge outside his window and hopes that the urge to jump will overtake him. So far it hasn’t. Besides that, his life is empty and meaningless. He has a couple friends who are also obsessed with suicide. He waits for the telephone to ring. He treats his ex-girlfriend poorly and often thinks about women when he’s not thinking of suicide, but in a demeaning way. But one day he sees another man about to commit suicide, hauls him to the hospital and finds his life changed. All sorts of bizarre events occur over the next few days – his new friend and failed suicide moves in, they fight with railway workers, encounter several prostitutes, are questioned by the police and run into numerous angry, irritating, aimless neighbors, fellow would-be suicides, and strangers.
The translation is smooth and very readable. There is plenty of black humor and some horrible but funny set-pieces – the best one has the narrator’s friend, another man who obsesses over suicide, calling him up to come over to watch him drink himself to death. This morbid situation turns even bleaker but in a darkly funny manner. However, there are plenty of aimless bits and most of the characters are fairly irritating. The narrator’s desire for suicide – or lack of desire – isn’t explored too much. He seems to have adolescent fantasies and is annoyed when his also-suicidal friends marry or get good jobs or move on. The narrator has a rather sexist outlook on life – one could attribute it to him instead of the author, but it was still unpleasant to read. The female characters are pretty much prostitutes or older women whose desire is seen by the narrator as pathetic. Despite that, he relates at length several sexual episodes that end with him being humiliated. The book ends with a darkly ironic turn which is also an appropriate whimper. Interesting, but not a must-read.
57MarshaKT
thanks Rebecca for the extensive list - especially Hungarian - My stepson is married to a Hungarian-Serb, and as part of my joy/struggle to learn the language, we've rented a number of Hungarian movies - all very bleak - even the comedies - all set during the late '50's and '60's.
Read about half of George Konrad's "Feast in the Garden" - difficult going - especially without good background knowledge of the history... I'll take a look at some of these suggestions
Read about half of George Konrad's "Feast in the Garden" - difficult going - especially without good background knowledge of the history... I'll take a look at some of these suggestions
58rebeccanyc
Marsha, all thanks should go to DieFledermaus, who set up this thread so brilliantly!
60cushlareads
My first book for this theme read is Ashes and Diamonds by Jerzy Andrzejewski. After finishing Iron Curtain, I decided I wanted to read something Polish and die Fledermaus's list was great - the local library had 3 books by Andrzejewski in the central stack, all 40+ years old.
Ashes and Diamonds made for a great follow-up to Iron Curtain and if you are interested in Europe at the end of World War 2 I recommend it highly. It probably helps to know a little bit about Poland during WW2 because there are a huge number of characters in the book, all connected to each other. Ashes and Diamonds is set in Ostrowiec, a small (fictional) town in Poland, over 4 days in May 1945, just as the war in Europe is ending. The end of the war means little to many of the locals, who are trying to get their lives together after a brutal 6 years.
The Kossecki family is all back in one place – the father has survived Auschwitz but hides in his study all day, the mother just wants everything to come right, Andrew is still in the Home Army, and teenage Alek and his mates are up to something. There’s a big party happening at the Hotel Monopole to celebrate Communist victory in the war, and Andrew Kossecki and a friend of his, Michael Chelmicki, have a job to do for the Home Army. There are Communist Party hacks trying to climb their way up, people getting hammered on vodka, former aristocrats unaware at how bad their lives are going to get pretty soon, a band, a lovely barmaid, survivors of the Warsaw Uprising – just about everyone you can think of except for Jews, because they have all been killed. As usual in books about WW2, this is all about what decisions people made and how they rationalized them. It’s a very readable book and only 240 pages long.
I'm part of the way through a Kindle book by Andrzejewski, Holy Week, which is about the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.
I'm looking forward to exploring a few more countries before the end of March.
Ashes and Diamonds made for a great follow-up to Iron Curtain and if you are interested in Europe at the end of World War 2 I recommend it highly. It probably helps to know a little bit about Poland during WW2 because there are a huge number of characters in the book, all connected to each other. Ashes and Diamonds is set in Ostrowiec, a small (fictional) town in Poland, over 4 days in May 1945, just as the war in Europe is ending. The end of the war means little to many of the locals, who are trying to get their lives together after a brutal 6 years.
The Kossecki family is all back in one place – the father has survived Auschwitz but hides in his study all day, the mother just wants everything to come right, Andrew is still in the Home Army, and teenage Alek and his mates are up to something. There’s a big party happening at the Hotel Monopole to celebrate Communist victory in the war, and Andrew Kossecki and a friend of his, Michael Chelmicki, have a job to do for the Home Army. There are Communist Party hacks trying to climb their way up, people getting hammered on vodka, former aristocrats unaware at how bad their lives are going to get pretty soon, a band, a lovely barmaid, survivors of the Warsaw Uprising – just about everyone you can think of except for Jews, because they have all been killed. As usual in books about WW2, this is all about what decisions people made and how they rationalized them. It’s a very readable book and only 240 pages long.
I'm part of the way through a Kindle book by Andrzejewski, Holy Week, which is about the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.
I'm looking forward to exploring a few more countries before the end of March.
61labfs39
I've wanted to read Ashes and Diamonds for years, and your review has confirmed it. This week I looked in two different bookstores to no avail. This may be a matter for my Amazon gift card.
62StevenTX
Out of Oneself by András Pályi
Two novellas published in Hungarian in 1996 and 2001
English translation by Imre Goldstein 2005
Out of Oneself is a collection that consists of a pair of novellas that explore erotic desire as a force that is both redemptive and destructive.
"Beyond," the first piece, begins with a priest describing his own funeral. He has killed himself but is being given a church funeral because the provost (his uncle) managed to have him declared insane. Now he is a specter not only looking back on the events that led to his demise, but in some strange way reliving them, even making different choices, but seeing them lead over and over to the same end.
His story begins in 1936 when he has just celebrated his first mass and was approached by a beautiful young actress. In private the woman tells him about being troubled by memories of her childhood, but it is obvious that she is strongly attracted to him. He can't deny that the attraction is mutual, and before long they are having an affair. The priest can't find it in himself to believe that their love is wrong, yet each time he relives it, the end is the same. In his mind this endless destruction and resurrection takes on religious symbolism.
The second story, titled "At the End of the World," is set in Budapest in the 1980s. The principal female character is, again, an actress. On the set of a movie she finds herself attracted to the screenwriter. They are both still in their teens, and they have both left the homes of their foster or step-parents feeling as though they were cast out alone and in the rain. The girl has further anxieties from having been sexually molested by her stepfather since she was a small child.
Their attraction for each other is immediately and intensely physical. "Love is like God, we create it and believe in it. The pure moment is something else. Screaming, fear, pleasure, abandon." But the passion which redeems them from their sense of abandonment turns quickly into something they cannot control. "They had gone from slavery to freedom and then back to slavery. How could that have happened?"
The two stories both explore sexual psychology, but with their repetitive cycles of passion and despair they may also be historical allegories as well. The first instance depicting fascism with its antisemitism, the second communism with its class conflict. The male protagonist in each novella has his own prejudices to blame, in part, for his fate.
Earlier authors such as Georges Bataille have explored the linkage between eroticism, death and religion. These novellas are much in the same vein, and Out of Oneself will appeal to anyone who has enjoyed Bataille's work.
Two novellas published in Hungarian in 1996 and 2001
English translation by Imre Goldstein 2005
Out of Oneself is a collection that consists of a pair of novellas that explore erotic desire as a force that is both redemptive and destructive.
"Beyond," the first piece, begins with a priest describing his own funeral. He has killed himself but is being given a church funeral because the provost (his uncle) managed to have him declared insane. Now he is a specter not only looking back on the events that led to his demise, but in some strange way reliving them, even making different choices, but seeing them lead over and over to the same end.
His story begins in 1936 when he has just celebrated his first mass and was approached by a beautiful young actress. In private the woman tells him about being troubled by memories of her childhood, but it is obvious that she is strongly attracted to him. He can't deny that the attraction is mutual, and before long they are having an affair. The priest can't find it in himself to believe that their love is wrong, yet each time he relives it, the end is the same. In his mind this endless destruction and resurrection takes on religious symbolism.
The second story, titled "At the End of the World," is set in Budapest in the 1980s. The principal female character is, again, an actress. On the set of a movie she finds herself attracted to the screenwriter. They are both still in their teens, and they have both left the homes of their foster or step-parents feeling as though they were cast out alone and in the rain. The girl has further anxieties from having been sexually molested by her stepfather since she was a small child.
Their attraction for each other is immediately and intensely physical. "Love is like God, we create it and believe in it. The pure moment is something else. Screaming, fear, pleasure, abandon." But the passion which redeems them from their sense of abandonment turns quickly into something they cannot control. "They had gone from slavery to freedom and then back to slavery. How could that have happened?"
The two stories both explore sexual psychology, but with their repetitive cycles of passion and despair they may also be historical allegories as well. The first instance depicting fascism with its antisemitism, the second communism with its class conflict. The male protagonist in each novella has his own prejudices to blame, in part, for his fate.
Earlier authors such as Georges Bataille have explored the linkage between eroticism, death and religion. These novellas are much in the same vein, and Out of Oneself will appeal to anyone who has enjoyed Bataille's work.
63rebeccanyc
#60, 61 I loved Ashes and Diamonds too, and am looking for more Andrzewjewski. The only thing I found annoying in the translation I read was that the translator "translated" the Polish names into English ones. Also, the edition I read included a section with parts of the text that had been deleted from the original English translation, so if you're looking on Amazon, Lisa, you might want to make sure you get that version. It was published by Northwestern University Press in 1996 and looks like this:
64A_musing
Great sets of reviews! Ferdyduke, which I've been meaning to read forever, has migrated out of the bookshelves to the bedside table, and hopefully I'll soon add something of substance. The Csáth sounds frightening!
65cushlareads
#63 Rebecca, I really hope mine didn't have bits out of it! It was a 1962 Weidenfeld and Nicholson edition. I really enjoyed your review of it.
The other ones by him that I've got out of the library by him at the moment are The Inquisitors and Gates of Paradise (and Holy Week on the Kindle).
The other ones by him that I've got out of the library by him at the moment are The Inquisitors and Gates of Paradise (and Holy Week on the Kindle).
66rebeccanyc
It probably did, Cushla. I'm not at home, but my recollection is that there were two sections where several paragraphs to a page or so were deleted. I'll look at my copy when I get home and post some information about it tomorrow. And I'm glad you enjoyed my review.
67berthirsch
I have always contended that Philip Roth's Writers From the Other Europe series is another reason why he deserves the Nobel Prize for Literature. It was a great vehicle allowing several writers "behind the Iron Curtain" to become better known and recognized; a real contribution!
68MarshaKT
Just started "Another Live" by Erzsebet Galgoczi.
Hungaian revolution crime novel. First dozen pages pretty good. Looking forward to the eeekend when can read it all
Hungaian revolution crime novel. First dozen pages pretty good. Looking forward to the eeekend when can read it all
69MarshaKT
Just started "Another Lovr" by Erzsebet Galgoczi
Hungaian revolution crime novel. First dozen pages pretty good. Looking forward to the eeekend when can read it all
Hungaian revolution crime novel. First dozen pages pretty good. Looking forward to the eeekend when can read it all
71banjo123
Ashes and Diamonds sounds good!
I am half way through with Hunger Angel and really missing plot and character development. But it's good otherwise....
I am half way through with Hunger Angel and really missing plot and character development. But it's good otherwise....
72pgmcc
#70 I will never use my phone for
Posting EVER again
I learnt the same lesson when complaining to the Dublin Writers' Festival about their exclusion of Bram Stoker for their programme in the year of the centenary of his death. My typos tended to weaken my argument.
Posting EVER again
I learnt the same lesson when complaining to the Dublin Writers' Festival about their exclusion of Bram Stoker for their programme in the year of the centenary of his death. My typos tended to weaken my argument.
73rebeccanyc
As mentioned in #66, there were two sections that were left out of the original D. J. Welsh translation that Barbara Niemczyk identifies in the 1990 edition; she includes them in an Errata section at the beginning of the book.
One section is at the beginning of Chapter 10, where Chelmicki is in the graveyard. After the sentence that starts "He stood gazing at the inscription . . ," there is a 2-page segment in which he looks at the grave of a fusilier (a real one?) who died in the first world war. He thinks about him and reads a poem which is inscribed on it, which Niemczyk notes is part of a poem by Cyprian Norwid, and is the poem that gives the book its title. Specifically, that part of the poem reads:
Will only ashes and confusion remain
Leading into the abyss? -- or will there be
In the depths of the ash a star-like diamond
The dawning of eternal victory!
In the rest of this section, Chelmicki meditates on the meaning of these lines as he walks around the graveyard, and thinks about having said goodbye to Christine. Then he sees Szczuka getting out of a car.
The second section is a few pages later, as Szczuka is speaking to the crowd at the grave. After he says "Does it frighten you?," the missing material is the rest of his speech, with deals with the idea that although the war is over the struggle continues.
One section is at the beginning of Chapter 10, where Chelmicki is in the graveyard. After the sentence that starts "He stood gazing at the inscription . . ," there is a 2-page segment in which he looks at the grave of a fusilier (a real one?) who died in the first world war. He thinks about him and reads a poem which is inscribed on it, which Niemczyk notes is part of a poem by Cyprian Norwid, and is the poem that gives the book its title. Specifically, that part of the poem reads:
Will only ashes and confusion remain
Leading into the abyss? -- or will there be
In the depths of the ash a star-like diamond
The dawning of eternal victory!
In the rest of this section, Chelmicki meditates on the meaning of these lines as he walks around the graveyard, and thinks about having said goodbye to Christine. Then he sees Szczuka getting out of a car.
The second section is a few pages later, as Szczuka is speaking to the crowd at the grave. After he says "Does it frighten you?," the missing material is the rest of his speech, with deals with the idea that although the war is over the struggle continues.
74labfs39
#63 Thank you, Rebecca, I will definitely look for that edition. I'm glad I hadn't ordered yet.
I've read the first two stories in This Way to the Gas, Ladies and Gentleman, the title story and A Day at Harmenz. They are both written from the perspective of a prisoner who has attained a minor role supervising other prisoners, which is both unusual (many survivors did not want to admit they had participated in the system) and disturbing, because it blurs the lines between morally right and wrong, collaboration and defiance, self-interest and compassion.
I've read the first two stories in This Way to the Gas, Ladies and Gentleman, the title story and A Day at Harmenz. They are both written from the perspective of a prisoner who has attained a minor role supervising other prisoners, which is both unusual (many survivors did not want to admit they had participated in the system) and disturbing, because it blurs the lines between morally right and wrong, collaboration and defiance, self-interest and compassion.
75rebeccanyc
By the way, the edition I read is still the original translation, but Barbara Niemczyk provides a helpful introduction as well as identifying the missing sections and other errors.
76cushlareads
Thanks, Rebecca. Yep, those bits are missing.
Lisa, looking forward to hearing what you think of the rest of This Way to the Gas because it too is in the library.
Lisa, looking forward to hearing what you think of the rest of This Way to the Gas because it too is in the library.
77DieFledermaus
>60 cushlareads: - Another very good review - it would be great if you could also post it on the work page. Iron Curtain was certainly helpful for this theme read.
>62 StevenTX: - A great review of Out of Oneself - it sounds interesting but the comparison to Bataille makes me somewhat wary.
Interesting about the differences in translations of Ashes and Diamonds. Rebecca, did the intro for your edition mention why those parts were cut from the translation? The one I have is the Northwestern University Press edition.
>62 StevenTX: - A great review of Out of Oneself - it sounds interesting but the comparison to Bataille makes me somewhat wary.
Interesting about the differences in translations of Ashes and Diamonds. Rebecca, did the intro for your edition mention why those parts were cut from the translation? The one I have is the Northwestern University Press edition.
78DieFledermaus
The Door by Magda Szabó
Describing The Door as the story of a friendship between a writer and her housekeeper in no way conveys the baroque, almost Gothic, intensity of the novel. This is mostly due to the housekeeper, Emerence, who, from the moment the narrator meets her, is clearly seen to be no quiet domestic. She has a superhuman competence and strength, a set of religiously firm beliefs (though not actual religious beliefs, which she mocks), and a mysterious past, symbolized by her door, which is closed to all comers. Emerence combines many stereotypes of the old woman – crazy cat lady, judgmental and moralizing, almost out of a folktale – but these traits are often tweaked and she is her own person, an idiosyncratic force of nature. The relationship spans 20+ years and initially it is cool – Emerence rejects the narrator’s desire for a superficial niceness and polite small talk. However, after the narrator’s husband becomes seriously ill and the couple takes in a dog, Viola (Emerence’s name for the male dog), the two women become closer. Even then there are steps forward and back, misunderstandings, occasional bizarre out-of-proportion behavior from Emerence, and angry tiffs and fits of pique. Gradually, Emerence’s secrets are revealed, but usually in an understated, realistic way and there are still some lingering doubts in the narrator’s mind as to whether they are the truth –
“She gave none of us the full picture of herself. Once among the dead, she must have enjoyed a quiet smile at our expense as we struggle to work out the full story, as each of us tried to match his own allotted pieces of information with those granted to the others. At least three vital facts went with her to the grave, and it must have been a source of satisfaction to her to look back and see that we still didn’t have a full account of her actions, and never would.”
The narrator, called by her name, Magda, only at one critical moment, is clearly a semi-autobiographical portrait of the author. Events in the life of the narrator echo Szabó’s biography – a writer, was banned from publishing under the Communist government, won a major Hungarian award. However, the history of Hungary in the 20th c. is only lightly alluded to – likely because of Emerence’s firm rejection of all sorts of prattling politicians, whatever government is in charge, do-gooders and the religious, lawyers and doctors, and meddling bureaucrats. In the opening chapter, the narrator describes her recurring nightmare after Emerence’s death – a death for which she blames herself. In the end, her betrayal of Emerence is not related to Emerence’s actions under the Nazis and Communists, her fraught family history, or her unsuccessful love but something altogether more ordinary.
The book is also an indictment of the narrator who, for all her concern with niceness and friendship and her later guilt, shame and anger, can’t act at crucial moments or guess how her actions – or lack of action – will lead to disaster. Perhaps she unwittingly fulfills Emerence’s judgment of writers being useless and indeed Emerence’s criticism of the narrator – that she is petty, hypocritical, dense and often more concerned with appearances than meaning – hits home. The narrator is operating in the everyday rushed world of work, dentists, and deadlines while Emerence is in another one entirely. The author nicely conveys this mismatch by showing the narrator’s side of the story and her interpretations – which many would agree with – as well as clearly conveying Emerence’s take on events. Her writing sharply depicts the narrator’s changing feelings towards her housekeeper as well as the odd world of Emerence. A very involving book. However, one would hope for the author’s sake that rather more of it was fiction than autobiographical.
Describing The Door as the story of a friendship between a writer and her housekeeper in no way conveys the baroque, almost Gothic, intensity of the novel. This is mostly due to the housekeeper, Emerence, who, from the moment the narrator meets her, is clearly seen to be no quiet domestic. She has a superhuman competence and strength, a set of religiously firm beliefs (though not actual religious beliefs, which she mocks), and a mysterious past, symbolized by her door, which is closed to all comers. Emerence combines many stereotypes of the old woman – crazy cat lady, judgmental and moralizing, almost out of a folktale – but these traits are often tweaked and she is her own person, an idiosyncratic force of nature. The relationship spans 20+ years and initially it is cool – Emerence rejects the narrator’s desire for a superficial niceness and polite small talk. However, after the narrator’s husband becomes seriously ill and the couple takes in a dog, Viola (Emerence’s name for the male dog), the two women become closer. Even then there are steps forward and back, misunderstandings, occasional bizarre out-of-proportion behavior from Emerence, and angry tiffs and fits of pique. Gradually, Emerence’s secrets are revealed, but usually in an understated, realistic way and there are still some lingering doubts in the narrator’s mind as to whether they are the truth –
“She gave none of us the full picture of herself. Once among the dead, she must have enjoyed a quiet smile at our expense as we struggle to work out the full story, as each of us tried to match his own allotted pieces of information with those granted to the others. At least three vital facts went with her to the grave, and it must have been a source of satisfaction to her to look back and see that we still didn’t have a full account of her actions, and never would.”
The narrator, called by her name, Magda, only at one critical moment, is clearly a semi-autobiographical portrait of the author. Events in the life of the narrator echo Szabó’s biography – a writer, was banned from publishing under the Communist government, won a major Hungarian award. However, the history of Hungary in the 20th c. is only lightly alluded to – likely because of Emerence’s firm rejection of all sorts of prattling politicians, whatever government is in charge, do-gooders and the religious, lawyers and doctors, and meddling bureaucrats. In the opening chapter, the narrator describes her recurring nightmare after Emerence’s death – a death for which she blames herself. In the end, her betrayal of Emerence is not related to Emerence’s actions under the Nazis and Communists, her fraught family history, or her unsuccessful love but something altogether more ordinary.
The book is also an indictment of the narrator who, for all her concern with niceness and friendship and her later guilt, shame and anger, can’t act at crucial moments or guess how her actions – or lack of action – will lead to disaster. Perhaps she unwittingly fulfills Emerence’s judgment of writers being useless and indeed Emerence’s criticism of the narrator – that she is petty, hypocritical, dense and often more concerned with appearances than meaning – hits home. The narrator is operating in the everyday rushed world of work, dentists, and deadlines while Emerence is in another one entirely. The author nicely conveys this mismatch by showing the narrator’s side of the story and her interpretations – which many would agree with – as well as clearly conveying Emerence’s take on events. Her writing sharply depicts the narrator’s changing feelings towards her housekeeper as well as the odd world of Emerence. A very involving book. However, one would hope for the author’s sake that rather more of it was fiction than autobiographical.
80wandering_star
Seconded!
82pamelad
Moving south, do Albania and Bosnia fit into the Eastern Europe category? Suggesting Ivo Andric and Ismail Kadare. I've read The Successor, Broken April and The Bridge on the Drina and will look for others from both writers.
This thread is providing great encouragement to read the Eastern and Central Europeans on my shelves: The Pathseeker; The Street of Crocodiles; Ferdyduke;Hordubal; Too Loud a Solitude. Then there are all the others I'm sure to acquire. The Door and Ashes and Diamonds are already on the wishlist.
This thread is providing great encouragement to read the Eastern and Central Europeans on my shelves: The Pathseeker; The Street of Crocodiles; Ferdyduke;Hordubal; Too Loud a Solitude. Then there are all the others I'm sure to acquire. The Door and Ashes and Diamonds are already on the wishlist.
83rebeccanyc
Pam, I think we included Albania and Bosnia when we had the Turkey and the Balkans theme read last year. But I loved The Bridge on the Drina too.
84pgmcc
The Bridge on the Drina is an amazing book.
85DieFledermaus
>79 labfs39:-81 - Thanks!
Agreeing with The Bridge on the Drina comments. I need to read Bosnian Chronicle. I thought all the Kadare books I read were good as well - very nice that so many of his works are available in translation.
Agreeing with The Bridge on the Drina comments. I need to read Bosnian Chronicle. I thought all the Kadare books I read were good as well - very nice that so many of his works are available in translation.
86banjo123
I read The Hunger Angel by Herta Muller. I know it's kind of marginal for this group, since it seems that Muller, though born in Romania, identifies as German. But here is my review, anyway:
Leo Auberg is a seventeen year old, ethnic German, living in Romania, who is sent to a Soviet Labor camp after WWII. The book covers his life before deportation, at the camp, and afterwards. It is mostly a a series of vignettes about life in the camp, and about being very hungry. One of the central themes of the book was the separation between the narrator, and others in the camps, and their families. For Leo, this separation is enhanced by his homosexuality, which would be unacceptable to his family and in a soviet society. This book didn't work very well for me. It is beautifully written, but lacking in plot and character development.
To be fair, constant hunger and life in a Soviet Work camp would starve plot and character out of just about anybody. Last year I read A Day in The Life of Ivan Denisovitch. Solvenheitzen solves this problem by founding the book in the structure of a single day. Muller is comfortable writing with a little less structure.
The writing is wonderful, however. I suspect, from reading the translator's note, that it would be even more amazing in the original. Apparently Muller does new and exciting things with work combinations, etc. Here is an excerpt from the book.:
I saw all of us standing in a giant box. It's top was made of sky, lacquered black by night and decorated with sharply whetted stars. The bottom was lined knee-deep with cotton wool, so that we would fall into softness. And the sides of the giant box were draped with stiff, icy brocade, silken tangles of fringe, endless lace. Toward the back of the box, between the watchtowers, a catafalque of snow was lying on the wall of the camp. And on top of that, as tall as the towers, a stack of bunk beds reached to the sky, a tiered coffin with room for all of us to be laid out, lust like in the barracks. And over the topmost tier was the black-lacquered cover of the night. From the towers at the head and foot of the catafalque, two honor guards dressed in black kept watch over the dead. At the head, nearest the camp gate, the guard lights shined like a candelabra. At the darker foot end, the snow draped crown of mulberry tree made a magnificent bouquet, with all our names on countless paper bows. Snow muffles sound, I thought, almost no one will hear the shooting. Our families are slumbering away, tipsy, unsuspecting, worn out from celebrating New Year's Eve in the middle of the world. Maybe they're dreaming about our enchanted burial in the New Year.
Leo Auberg is a seventeen year old, ethnic German, living in Romania, who is sent to a Soviet Labor camp after WWII. The book covers his life before deportation, at the camp, and afterwards. It is mostly a a series of vignettes about life in the camp, and about being very hungry. One of the central themes of the book was the separation between the narrator, and others in the camps, and their families. For Leo, this separation is enhanced by his homosexuality, which would be unacceptable to his family and in a soviet society. This book didn't work very well for me. It is beautifully written, but lacking in plot and character development.
To be fair, constant hunger and life in a Soviet Work camp would starve plot and character out of just about anybody. Last year I read A Day in The Life of Ivan Denisovitch. Solvenheitzen solves this problem by founding the book in the structure of a single day. Muller is comfortable writing with a little less structure.
The writing is wonderful, however. I suspect, from reading the translator's note, that it would be even more amazing in the original. Apparently Muller does new and exciting things with work combinations, etc. Here is an excerpt from the book.:
I saw all of us standing in a giant box. It's top was made of sky, lacquered black by night and decorated with sharply whetted stars. The bottom was lined knee-deep with cotton wool, so that we would fall into softness. And the sides of the giant box were draped with stiff, icy brocade, silken tangles of fringe, endless lace. Toward the back of the box, between the watchtowers, a catafalque of snow was lying on the wall of the camp. And on top of that, as tall as the towers, a stack of bunk beds reached to the sky, a tiered coffin with room for all of us to be laid out, lust like in the barracks. And over the topmost tier was the black-lacquered cover of the night. From the towers at the head and foot of the catafalque, two honor guards dressed in black kept watch over the dead. At the head, nearest the camp gate, the guard lights shined like a candelabra. At the darker foot end, the snow draped crown of mulberry tree made a magnificent bouquet, with all our names on countless paper bows. Snow muffles sound, I thought, almost no one will hear the shooting. Our families are slumbering away, tipsy, unsuspecting, worn out from celebrating New Year's Eve in the middle of the world. Maybe they're dreaming about our enchanted burial in the New Year.
87labfs39
3. This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen by Tadeusz Borowski
To understand these stories, I think it helps to understand the author's background. Tadeusz Borowski was born in the Soviet Ukraine to Polish parents. As a child, his father was interred in one of the harshest Soviet labor camps, above the Arctic Circle, digging the White Sea Canal. When Borowski was eight, his mother was sent to work in Siberia as well. He lived with an aunt until his family was repatriated to Warsaw in the early 1930s. In 1943, Borowski and his fiance were arrested for their participation in underground publications and sent to Auschwitz. Although both survived the camps and later married, Borowski was unable to reconcile his desire to write the truth with the demands of the communist State on authors. At the age of 29, he turned on the gas in his apartment and committed suicide.
This collection of twelve short stories are inspired by the author's experiences in Auschwitz and Dachau. The first two stories were written and published in Poland right after his release. "They produced a shock," writes Jan Kott in his introduction. "The public was expecting martyrologies; the Communist party called for works that were ideological, that divided the world into the righteous and the unrighteous, heroes and traitors, Communists and Fascists. Borowski was accused of amorality, decadence, and nihilism. Yet at the same time it was clear to everyone that Polish literature had gained a dazzling new talent." Borowski eschewed easy answers and wrote about the moral ambiguities that plagued him. He had survived the camps, but at what cost? Three of his stories are written from the perspective of a deputy Kapo, Vorarbeiter Tadeusz. Young, impressionable, and wanting to survive, Vorarbeiter Tadeusz has a minor position over other prisoners that gives him perks of food and clothes which allow him to survive, but at the cost of moral clarity. Small compromises become everyday, violence and lack of compassion become less uncomfortable, and he survives. But some horrors still have the power to shock, which allows Tadeusz to maintain his humanity.
The stories are horrible to read not only because of the situation, but precisely because there are no heroes, and everyone is both a perpetrator and a victim. Borowski learned this first hand in the camps and lived it afterwards in Communist Poland. The moral ambiguity of his position is, perhaps, what caused him to commit suicide. I found this collection extremely depressing, even more so than other Holocaust literature, and challenging in its unflinching look at the dark side of survival.
89whymaggiemay
>87 labfs39: Nice review. You get lots of credit from me for reading that book at all. I've read lots and lots of Holocaust literature, but I'll think twice about trying this one--as excellent as you make it sound--I'm not sure I could handle it.
91labfs39
Makes me want to read the book and not read it at the same time.
My thoughts exactly after having read it.
My thoughts exactly after having read it.
92EBT1002
>87 labfs39: Oddly, this review leaves me not one bit ambivalent. I'm adding This Way to the Gas, Ladies and Gentleman to my list of books to be sought out. Great review, Lisa.
93labfs39
Thanks, Ellen. I look forward to hearing what you think of it. It's thought-provoking, just depressing as all get out.
94rebeccanyc
I just finished Kornél Esti by Dezsõ Kosztolányi, a Hungarian writer, and here is the review I posted on the book page and my reading threads.
This book grew on me as I read it. In the first chapter, the unnamed narrator decides to visit his estranged childhood friend Kornél Esti, a fellow writer and indeed an alter ego who looks exactly like him and who encouraged him in all his pranks and bad boy activities as a child and young man. He finds Esti somewhat down on his luck and suggests that they "stick together" from that point onwards and collaborate in writing a book about Esti's exploits. After some discussion of how this will work and whose name will be bigger on the cover, they agree that Esti will tell stories of his life to the narrator, stories that may or may not be true, and the narrator will "edit" them slightly.
The rest of the book takes off from there in a series of episodic chapters, more or less in chronological order. Some of Esti's stories border on the realistic, others are fantastic or metaphorical or whimsical or disturbing -- or a mixture of all of these, and Esti does not always present himself as an admirable person. Written in the early 1930s, itself a time of growing turmoil, the book takes place both before and after the first world war, the war which finally toppled the Austro-Hungarian empire and resulted in the loss of a significant portion of what had been Hungary to neighboring countries. Never alluded to directly, this is nonetheless a dividing line in Hungarian history and in Hungarian self-perception.
Many of the stories are delightful (although always thought-provoking) -- for example, there is a story about a town in which everyone always tells the truth (so that a restaurant might advertize "Inedible food, undrinkable drinks"); one about a magnificent hotel with hundreds of staff members, each of whom resembles (or is) a famous person such as Thomas Edison, Rodin, and Marie Antoinette; one in which he struggles to get rid of an inheritance; one in which a friend who says he will only stay for a few minutes ends up staying for hours; and one in which he carries on a conversation with a Bulgarian train conductor although he speaks not a word of the language. Others depict life in the literary cafes of Budapest, or the attitudes of peasants, or encounters on trains. Still others are more grim in their portrayal of people with mental illness or in dire financial straits. One of my favorite chapters is the one in which Esti describes his time as a student in Germany; his understated satire of German behavior is priceless, and perhaps a little pointed in 1933. The book ends with Esti boarding a tram that is both real and metaphorical for an unnamed destination that turns out to be the "Terminus."
All in all, I enjoyed this book a lot. Unlike the only other book by Kosztolányi which I've read, Skylark, it does not tell a straightforward story but is quite modern in its almost metafictional style. I also enjoyed Kosztolányi's (or Esti's) technique of occasionally mixing story-telling with philosophical thoughts, while providing a fanciful yet serious picture of a world which was already slipping away when he wrote.
95DieFledermaus
>86 banjo123: - banjo, I was planning to read some Muller for the group read also - she's one of those cases that you could argue either way. Good review of The Hunger Angel - I've been planning to get that one. Liked the quote also.
Also was planning to get This Way For the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen.
Kornel Esti is on the pile - it sounded like a lot of fun, glad you liked it Rebecca.
Also was planning to get This Way For the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen.
Kornel Esti is on the pile - it sounded like a lot of fun, glad you liked it Rebecca.
96rebeccanyc
It was fun, once I got into it.
97whymaggiemay
Rebecca, it sounds like it's a set of short stories which is connected through the first and last chapters. I'll put it on my list.
98rebeccanyc
Not really short stories, Maggie. Iy's an episodic novel.
99EBT1002
Thanks to encouragement from DieFledermaus, I'm posting my review of The Street of Crocodiles here.
The Street of Crocodiles by Bruno Schulz
This is possibly the strangest novel I have ever completed. I could no more summarize the plot than I could fly to the moon (as my mother used to say). At times it verges on word salad but once I got comfortable with Schulz' cadence and style, I got swept up in this exuberant, wild celebration of metaphor, anthropomorphism, zoomorphism, personification, paralipsis, allegory, allusion, and the magic of language. For example, I adore this description of the emergence of the bicycle:
Trust me, this is not a novel about bicycles, nor is it a novel about lawyers' apprentices, nor is it about mobs. It's about culture and the passage of time. Or something like that. But Schulz' brief tangent made me laugh out loud and fold down the corner of the page for safekeeping.
The novel is, at its most basic level, about the narrator's manic-depressive father and his wild, delusional schemes. The impact on the narrator is clearly disorienting, and to say that in this novel the line between madness and reality is blurred would be a vast understatement.
Schulz uses metaphor with remarkable inventiveness. Describing Mr. Charles' nightly descent into bed after "...the pressure of the hot empty days":
Now that is some restless sleep!
This is a work to be savored, perhaps to be read aloud. At the risk of unparalleled gaucheness, as Nick so eloquently stated in the 1983 Hollywood film, "The Big Chill," don't be too analytical. "Sometimes you just have to let art ... flow ... over you." Or, probably more appropriately, I'll quote Schulz, himself:
Indeed.
The Street of Crocodiles by Bruno Schulz
This is possibly the strangest novel I have ever completed. I could no more summarize the plot than I could fly to the moon (as my mother used to say). At times it verges on word salad but once I got comfortable with Schulz' cadence and style, I got swept up in this exuberant, wild celebration of metaphor, anthropomorphism, zoomorphism, personification, paralipsis, allegory, allusion, and the magic of language. For example, I adore this description of the emergence of the bicycle:
It was not long before the city filled with velocipedes of various sizes and shapes. An outlook based on philosophy became obligatory. Whoever admitted to a belief in progress had to draw the logical conclusion and ride a velocipede. The first to do so were of course the lawyers' apprentices, that vanguard of new ideas, with their waxed mustaches and their bowler hats, the hope and flower of youth. Pushing through the noisy mob, they rode through the traffic on enormous bicycles and tricycles which displayed their wire spokes. Placing their hands on wide handlebars, they maneuvered from the high saddle the enormous hoop of the wheel and cut into the amused mob in a wavy line. Some of them succumbed to apostolic zeal. Lifting themselves on their moving pedals, as if on stirrups, they addressed the crowd from on high, forecasting a new happy era for mankind -- salvation through the bicycle ... And they rode on amid the applause of the public, bowing in all directions.
Trust me, this is not a novel about bicycles, nor is it a novel about lawyers' apprentices, nor is it about mobs. It's about culture and the passage of time. Or something like that. But Schulz' brief tangent made me laugh out loud and fold down the corner of the page for safekeeping.
The novel is, at its most basic level, about the narrator's manic-depressive father and his wild, delusional schemes. The impact on the narrator is clearly disorienting, and to say that in this novel the line between madness and reality is blurred would be a vast understatement.
Schulz uses metaphor with remarkable inventiveness. Describing Mr. Charles' nightly descent into bed after "...the pressure of the hot empty days":
Groping blindly in the darkness, he sank between the white mounds of cool feathers and slept as he fell, across the bed or with his head downward, pushing deep into the softness of the pillows, as if in sleep he wanted to drill through, to explore completely, that powerful massif of feather bedding rising out of the night. He fought in his sleep against the bed like a bather swimming against the current, he kneaded it and molded it with his body like an enormous bowl of dough, and woke up at dawn panting, covered with sweat, thrown up on the shores of that pile of bedding which he could not master in the nightly struggle. Half-landed from the depths of unconsciousness, he still hung on to the verge of night, gasping for breath, while the bedding grew around him, swelled and fermented -- and again engulfed him in a mountain of heavy, whitish dough.
Now that is some restless sleep!
This is a work to be savored, perhaps to be read aloud. At the risk of unparalleled gaucheness, as Nick so eloquently stated in the 1983 Hollywood film, "The Big Chill," don't be too analytical. "Sometimes you just have to let art ... flow ... over you." Or, probably more appropriately, I'll quote Schulz, himself:
...truth is not a decisive factor for the success of an idea. Our metaphysical hunger is limited and can be satisfied quickly.
Indeed.
100cameling
I've just read They Were Counted by Miklós Bánffy
Life in early 1900s Hungary and Romania are dramatically portrayed through the lives of 2 cousins, Balint Abady and Laszlo Gyeroffy. While born to aristocracy, Balint is compassionate, somewhat naive and finds himself in a doomed relationship with a married woman. Laszlo is musically gifted and a tortured soul. Written with dazzling detail, it took me a while to get through all names and descriptions of characters in the first chapter. The dazzling balls, shooting parties, and elaborate dinners bring out the opulence of the period among the aristocracy. The drama of personal affairs among this tight group and their fantastical life is strongly contrasted by the growing unrest on the political stage, which gives us a taste of the change that is about to come. There's a growing middle class with little patience with and great dislike and distrust of the aristocracy.
The rich details make this a wonderful epic novel. It's quietly beautiful passages are written in a style that reminds me of Tolstoy and Pasternak, and I enjoyed letting this play out like a brilliantly colorful movie in my mind. This is the first in the Transylvanian Trilogy and I am looking forward to the others and moving on with this historical tale.
4 stars
This is the first of this author that I've read and I'm very impressed with him. I'm so glad I'm taking up this challenge this year. I have a few more Eastern European authors I've not yet read in my list to read in this first quarter of 2013.
Life in early 1900s Hungary and Romania are dramatically portrayed through the lives of 2 cousins, Balint Abady and Laszlo Gyeroffy. While born to aristocracy, Balint is compassionate, somewhat naive and finds himself in a doomed relationship with a married woman. Laszlo is musically gifted and a tortured soul. Written with dazzling detail, it took me a while to get through all names and descriptions of characters in the first chapter. The dazzling balls, shooting parties, and elaborate dinners bring out the opulence of the period among the aristocracy. The drama of personal affairs among this tight group and their fantastical life is strongly contrasted by the growing unrest on the political stage, which gives us a taste of the change that is about to come. There's a growing middle class with little patience with and great dislike and distrust of the aristocracy.
The rich details make this a wonderful epic novel. It's quietly beautiful passages are written in a style that reminds me of Tolstoy and Pasternak, and I enjoyed letting this play out like a brilliantly colorful movie in my mind. This is the first in the Transylvanian Trilogy and I am looking forward to the others and moving on with this historical tale.
4 stars
This is the first of this author that I've read and I'm very impressed with him. I'm so glad I'm taking up this challenge this year. I have a few more Eastern European authors I've not yet read in my list to read in this first quarter of 2013.
101rebeccanyc
Great review of The Street of Crocodiles, EBT. It reminds me of what I liked about Sanatorium under the Sign of the Hourglass and why I hope to read Crocodiles soon. And the quotes remind me of why Magdalena Tulli is said to be "like" Schultz.
Caroline, I loved the Banffy trilogy too -- such great story-telling!
Caroline, I loved the Banffy trilogy too -- such great story-telling!
102EBT1002
I am in search of a copy of They Were Counted and virtually anything by Tulli. So far, I have been unsuccessful in finding either.
103Rise
- 102
Everyman's Library will republish Bánffy's trilogy in 2 volumes in July, according to a blog I follow. http://seraillon.blogspot.com/2013/01/miklos-banffy-to-moon.html
Everyman's Library will republish Bánffy's trilogy in 2 volumes in July, according to a blog I follow. http://seraillon.blogspot.com/2013/01/miklos-banffy-to-moon.html
104DieFledermaus
>99 EBT1002: - Good to see your review here! I really liked your description of the book
exuberant, wild celebration of metaphor, anthropomorphism, zoomorphism, personification, paralipsis, allegory, allusion, and the magic of language
as well as the "The Big Chill"-inspired advice.
>100 cameling: - Another good review of They Were Counted - I like great epics. Have had this on the list since I read Rebecca's review but haven't seen it in any stores. That's good news about the republication of the trilogy though.
>102 EBT1002: - I ordered three of my Tulli books through Symposium Bookstore in Boston (they always had really good deals on various publishers that I like) but it looks like that location is closed now - sad! There are still a couple more locations but the website is not coming up.
exuberant, wild celebration of metaphor, anthropomorphism, zoomorphism, personification, paralipsis, allegory, allusion, and the magic of language
as well as the "The Big Chill"-inspired advice.
>100 cameling: - Another good review of They Were Counted - I like great epics. Have had this on the list since I read Rebecca's review but haven't seen it in any stores. That's good news about the republication of the trilogy though.
>102 EBT1002: - I ordered three of my Tulli books through Symposium Bookstore in Boston (they always had really good deals on various publishers that I like) but it looks like that location is closed now - sad! There are still a couple more locations but the website is not coming up.
105rebeccanyc
#102 I bought the first volume of the Banffy at my local bookstore, but it was an English import. I ordered the second and the third from the Book Depository, which still has them.* Some of the Tulli books are available at Amazon, but I originally got In Red from my Archipelago subscription and ordered the others I have read directly from the Archipelago web site, www.archipelagobooks.org. Hope this helps.
* ETA On a closer look, it seems they don't have They Were Counted, which may be out of print since they suggest going to ABE Books.
#102 I couldn't tell whether Everyman is publishing the same translation I read. As I noted in my review of They Were Counted, the translator worked with Banffy's daughter, and said in his introduction, not only that he cut parts of the book because it was so long and politically detailed, but also that he realized that "a literal translation in English would give none of the quality of the original and would fail completely to give any idea of the idiom and feeling of the first years of this century in Central Europe . . . anyone tackling it would have to make an English version rather than a literal translation." The Everyman editions are longer than the editions I have, so maybe they have some of the material my translator cut; on the other hand, I believe the version I read to be the only English translation and Everyman certainly has smaller pages than the copies I read.
* ETA On a closer look, it seems they don't have They Were Counted, which may be out of print since they suggest going to ABE Books.
#102 I couldn't tell whether Everyman is publishing the same translation I read. As I noted in my review of They Were Counted, the translator worked with Banffy's daughter, and said in his introduction, not only that he cut parts of the book because it was so long and politically detailed, but also that he realized that "a literal translation in English would give none of the quality of the original and would fail completely to give any idea of the idiom and feeling of the first years of this century in Central Europe . . . anyone tackling it would have to make an English version rather than a literal translation." The Everyman editions are longer than the editions I have, so maybe they have some of the material my translator cut; on the other hand, I believe the version I read to be the only English translation and Everyman certainly has smaller pages than the copies I read.
108cameling
I just finished reading The Queue by Vladimir Sorokin.
Who hasn't eavesdropped on a conversation taking place at the next table, or when standing in line at the post office? This book is an eavesdropper's treasure trove. The entire book is a series of short conversations between people standing in line in Moscow. You don't quite know what they're standing in line for, and it doesn't appear that they people in line do too. But if there's something for sale, people will stand in line for it anyway, just in case.
The snippets of conversations overheard are between a mother and her young son, a man and a young woman who meet while standing in line, an elderly man looking for drink while his wife stands in another line elsewhere, someone doing the crossword puzzle and other people who drift in and out of the line, running errands while others keep their place for them or stopping for a bite to eat in a cafe. It's ordinary conversation with real voices.
I didn't think there could be a story formed through short comments that aren't even written as a screenplay, but it works. It really works. The only part of the book I thought could have been shortened without losing the rhythm was the part when the sales clerk ran through a roll call of names.
But there is an ironical twist at the end which will make the reader chuckle.
3.5 stars
Who hasn't eavesdropped on a conversation taking place at the next table, or when standing in line at the post office? This book is an eavesdropper's treasure trove. The entire book is a series of short conversations between people standing in line in Moscow. You don't quite know what they're standing in line for, and it doesn't appear that they people in line do too. But if there's something for sale, people will stand in line for it anyway, just in case.
The snippets of conversations overheard are between a mother and her young son, a man and a young woman who meet while standing in line, an elderly man looking for drink while his wife stands in another line elsewhere, someone doing the crossword puzzle and other people who drift in and out of the line, running errands while others keep their place for them or stopping for a bite to eat in a cafe. It's ordinary conversation with real voices.
I didn't think there could be a story formed through short comments that aren't even written as a screenplay, but it works. It really works. The only part of the book I thought could have been shortened without losing the rhythm was the part when the sales clerk ran through a roll call of names.
But there is an ironical twist at the end which will make the reader chuckle.
3.5 stars
109cameling
I couldn't find any reasonably priced dead tree copies of The Transylvanian Trilogy so I downloaded the more reasonably priced Kindle versions.
110labfs39
I hadn't heard of The Queue, cameling, but after finishing Ice Trilogy today, I'm going to be looking for some of his other works. P.S., Sorokin is Russian.
Edited to add: By that I mean Russia isn't one of the countries included in the challenge. But I'm glad to read your review!
Edited to add: By that I mean Russia isn't one of the countries included in the challenge. But I'm glad to read your review!
111DieFledermaus
Okay, I know Sorokin isn't technically part of the theme read authors but I was thinking about him lately, partly because of the Booker nomination, but also because I read The Polish Complex (need to review it) which mostly takes place in a line. I also have The Line by Olga Grushin and I knew of The Queue. As lines were a ubiquitous feature of Soviet-bloc countries, I was trying to think if there were other books that had the characters waiting in line as a major plot point.
You do make The Queue sound interesting!
I was hoping someone would translate Sorokin's Blue Lard because it sounded really crazy and inspired protests. The Ice Trilogy is on the pile.
You do make The Queue sound interesting!
I was hoping someone would translate Sorokin's Blue Lard because it sounded really crazy and inspired protests. The Ice Trilogy is on the pile.
112rebeccanyc
I found The Queue fascinating, especially in its experimental style. It is quite unlike Ice Trilogy. I haven't read The Line and would be curious about how it compares.
113rebeccanyc
I've just finished My Century by Aleksander Wat.
Part prison/internal exile memoir, part intellectual history, this compelling and moving book is most fundamentally an exploration of ethics, human dignity, and religious struggle in the face of the horrors of Stalinism, Nazism, and the second world war. Born in 1900, Wat was the son of assimilated, intellectual Warsaw Jews who first became a futurist/dadist poet in the 1920s and, starting at the end of the decade, flirted with communism as the editor of The Literary Monthly. Arrested by the Poles, he was jailed for the first time, but not for long. Later, he rejected communism, largely because of the people who were executed (although he continued to be called a "Jewish communist")." When the Nazis invaded Poland, he and his wife, Ola, and son fled to L'wow, but became separated, although they did eventually find each other. After some time in L'wow, Wat was arrested by the Soviets and began his journey through a variety of prisons, including Moscow's notorious Lubyanka, before winding up "free" in Alma-Ata and the neighboring town of Ili.
The book is based on a series of lengthy interviews with Wat conducted by fellow Polish poet Czeslaw Milosz in Berkeley and Paris in the mid-1960s, shortly before Wat's death; he was in extreme pain even during the interviews and ultimately chose to commit suicide. Thus, except for two chapters which Wat had the opportunity to edit and make more literary, the reader is hearing Wat's voice as he talked to Milosz. And what a voice it is -- perceptive, informed, rigorously honest about human strengths and failings (including his own), unsentimental, at times prejudiced (but aware of that prejudice, e.g., the idea that Poles are superior to Russians, especially "Asian" Russians), warm, and often poetic.
The early part of the book depicts the literary and political scene in Warsaw in the 1920s and 1930s and was filled with the names of Polish and other intellectuals; this was a little heavy going for someone unfamiliar with that scene (although there is a very helpful list of people mentioned at the end of my NYRB edition). But the story picked up as the war started and the Wats fled. Wat's descriptions of the people he met in various prisons, the horrific conditions in many of them, how to adapt to prison life, the different types of interrogators, how bedbugs behave, the different kinds of lice, and much more are both spare and detailed, fascinating and profoundly depressing. Wat was very acute at picking up signs from people and hypothesized that his interrogator in the Lubyanka was no longer interested in his "crime" but was instead picking his brain about the Polish literary and intellectual scene in anticipation of the Soviets taking over Poland in the future. In prison, he worried terribly about what had happened to his family, engaged in in-depth conversations with other intellectuals, pondered (as all do) who are the informers, and underwent a religious experience in which he saw "the devil in history" and converted to Catholocism. When the Germans approached Moscow, the Lubyanka was evacuated and Wat was sent to a variety of prisons further east. Ultimately released, although barely alive, he traveled to Alma-Ata (despite not having papers to go there) to try to find Ola and his son; after heroic efforts, he did.. Everyone was desperately hungry, struggling to find food. Through connections with the delegation of the Polish government (in exile in London) in Alma-Ata, Wat was able for a time to find some work and some access to supplies the delegation received from foreign sources, but it was a very hand-to-mouth existence both there and in the smaller town of Ili where they wind up. The book ends, because the interviews ended, but the NYRB edition includes an excerpt from Ola Wat's memoirs which describes Wat's role in resisting the Soviet government's efforts to force Soviet passports on Polish citizens in Ili, and both their experiences in prisons, hers more terrifying than his.
The best part of this book is Wat's voice, his warmth, his perception, and his ceaseless self-evaluation. But almost equally fascinating is the varied cast of characters who pass through Wat's life, from Warsaw intellectuals to urks (Russian criminals), from NKVD officers with aristocratic manners to people from poorer walks of life who help him (or despise him), from people going mad from imprisonment to people who somehow learn to live with it. One of the interesting aspects is that everyone is acutely aware not only of each other's social status within the community of the cell, but also of their ethnicity or national background. In prison and elsewhere, Jews gravitate to other Jews, Poles to other Poles, and so on, and Wat is quick to point out if someone has a Mongol-type face, or looks like a Kazakh. This makes the challenge of the Stalinist effort to make all the various nationalities "Soviet" come alive. Finally, I found Wat's thoughts about such varied topics as the similarities between communism and Nazism, how to talk to interrogators, nighttime conversations between a former Polish cavalry captain and an Ukrainian peasant based on their shared love of animals, literary works and people, religion and the relationship between Judaism and Christianity, endlessly fascinating.
114labfs39
Just skimmed your review, Rebecca, because I pulled my copy off the shelf and added it to my table pile. Looking forward to it.
116MarshaKT
This sounds like a really terrific read - and so totally diffrent than Skylsark, which was so dark and shadowy.
This on will definitely go on my "to read" list!
This on will definitely go on my "to read" list!
117ipsoivan
Joining very late in the month, but I only just found LT. I'm in heaven. I have a few Eastern European books on my shelf, and since I'm also taking part in ROOTS and need to clear my backlog of TBRs, and have sworn not to buy more books until June 20, I'll be happy to jump in and begin with these as soon as I clear what I'm already reading.
My reads till April, then:
Joseph Roth The String of Pearls, Tarabas
Gunter Grass My Century, Cat and Mouse
Gustav Meyrinck The Golem
Elias Canetti Auto-da-Fé
My reads till April, then:
Joseph Roth The String of Pearls, Tarabas
Gunter Grass My Century, Cat and Mouse
Gustav Meyrinck The Golem
Elias Canetti Auto-da-Fé
118labfs39
Welcome to LT, Maggie! I have been here for a few years now, but I still remember how excited I was when I first joined. I see you've found some good groups. I hope you are having fun.
120tros
A couple of recent, interesting starts are from east-euro:
Lovers for a Day by Klima and Journey by Moonlight by Antal Szerb.
Ivan Klima is an old fav. Try Love and Garbage, if you haven't already.
122labfs39
I left a comment on your page, Peg, but I'll just reiterate her that the quote you choose is perfect for describing the book:
We said that there is no crime that a man will not commit in order to save himself. And, having saved himself, he will commit crimes for increasingly trivial reasons: he will commit them first out of duty, then from habit and finally – for pleasure.
We said that there is no crime that a man will not commit in order to save himself. And, having saved himself, he will commit crimes for increasingly trivial reasons: he will commit them first out of duty, then from habit and finally – for pleasure.
123labfs39
5. Miss Silver's Past by Josef Škvorecký, translated from the Czech by Peter Kussi
Karel Leden is complacent. Once a poet, he now works for the State publishing house, trying to maintain his self-respect while at the same time keeping his job. Supporting anything radical could result in his being fired, or worse. His personal life is filled with a string of women whom he loves only when they seem to lose interest in him. A rather boring but likable cad. But then one day at the beach, he meets the elusive Lenka Silver, the object of his best friend's affection. Karel is immediately drawn to her and plots to get in bed with her. Dumping his ballerina girlfriend, Vera, Karel pursues the mysterious Lenka to no avail. Her disinterest only heightens his ardor. Meanwhile things at work are heating up as a new editor tries to sell Karel's boss on a new author whose book pushes the boundary of what is acceptable to the State. The machinations are intense and petty hatreds are inflamed. Then both Karel's private and work worlds collide at a company party near the lake. By morning someone is dead, and only Karel knows who the killer is.
Josef Škvorecký knew first hand the life of a repressed author working in State publishing. His first novel, The Cowards, was met with great acclaim, but was then banned by the Communist Party. He was fired from his job as editor of World Literature and was lucking to be allowed to work at the State Publishing House of Fiction. Škvorecký was able to leave Czechoslovakia after the Russian invasion which crushed the Prague Spring. Miss Silver's Past was his last book to be published in the country.
Although the novel is typical of East European literature of the time, I was surprised by the inclusion of a murder mystery. Between the twists in Karel's love life, the humorous tone, and the murder, I found myself unwilling to put the book down. Entertaining, if not earth-shattering.
124labfs39
Dancing Lessons for the Advanced in Age by Bohumil Hrabal, translated from the Czech by Michael Henry Heim
Bohumil Hrabal developed a literary technique that he called palavering: gabbing endlessly in a stream of consciousness fashion. Hrabal called palaverers,
people who, thanks to their madness, transcend themselves through experiment and spontaneity, and through their ridiculousness they achieve a kind of grandeur, because they end up where no one expected them or expects them. Quoted from the introduction by Adam Thirlwell
Hrabal took palavering to the extreme in this short novel which lacks a single period. The narrator of this nonstop monologue is a man nearing seventy who is chatting up some women in a pub/brothel. He is by turns reminiscing, trying to entertain the ladies, and losing himself in the past with a touch of dementia. The stories can be laugh out loud funny, nostalgic, folklorish, or all three at the same time. As the novel winds down, so does the narrator, and one senses the beginning of a repetition that will change the narrator from a funny, harmless rake into a sad, senile old man.
I thoroughly enjoyed this story with it's irreverent pokes at Christianity, the monarchy, and sex. The narrator is wildly entertaining and well worth the concentration it takes to follow his rambling, disjointed speech. After finishing, I read the introduction by Adam Thirlwell, which provides a thorough look at palavering in its historical context (Joyce's Ulysses, Hašek's Good Soldier Svejk, etc.). I would recommend not reading the introduction first, however, as it quotes extensively from the novel, which detracts from the freshness of the narrative.
125plt
Hi Lisa,
Thank you so much for your comments re: This Way to the Gas and apologies for the delay in responding. I must say that your excellent review was the push I needed to crack open the book. In the middle of Schnitzler's The Road into the Open right now, but plan on tackling Celestial Harmonies after that.
Thank you so much for your comments re: This Way to the Gas and apologies for the delay in responding. I must say that your excellent review was the push I needed to crack open the book. In the middle of Schnitzler's The Road into the Open right now, but plan on tackling Celestial Harmonies after that.
126StevenTX
I recently finished The Road to Darkness by Paul Leppin, a German-speaking Praguer. The central work in this short collection, a novel titled Severin's Road to Darkness, has passages that could be used as a guidebook for a walking tour of Prague. The city has been for some time #1 on my list of places I would like to see before I die (but probably won't).
127labfs39
>125 plt: I'll look forward to your reviews on both of those books, Peg, as neither has a lot of reviews or information.
128rebeccanyc
I'm going to have to move This Way to the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen up on the TBR, I guess.
129StevenTX
The Road to Darkness by Paul Leppin, a German-speaking Bohemian, is a collection of three short works all set in pre-WWI Prague and highly descriptive of the city. I've never been there, but I suspect that you could use the ramblings of the protagonist of "Severin's Road to Darkness" as a more than serviceable guidebook for a walking tour of the landmarks and historic quarters (at least those still standing) of the Czech capital.
130ipsoivan
Tarabas by Joseph Roth. I'm not sure what I think of this one. The central character is a Russian who is told that he will be both a murderer and a saint, and the novel follows his progress along this spectrum from New York, where he is exiled as a young revolutionary, to the Russian army in WWI, his subsequent success as a local strongman in rural Russia, and finally his downfall, which is also his salvation.
Tarabas is viewed as if through the wrong end of a telescope. His motives and thoughts are sketched in but never felt, nor are any of the other characters fully revealed to us. Surprisingly, however, he does gradually become somewhat sympathetic.
Not a book to cozy up to, but fairly compelling towards the end.
Tarabas is viewed as if through the wrong end of a telescope. His motives and thoughts are sketched in but never felt, nor are any of the other characters fully revealed to us. Surprisingly, however, he does gradually become somewhat sympathetic.
Not a book to cozy up to, but fairly compelling towards the end.
131Rise
The Melancholy of Resistance by László Krasznahorkai, translated by George Szirtes. Review cross-posted and slightly modified.
In László Krasznahorkai's novel, something wicked comes the way of a Hungarian village. The seriousness of the situation is evident from the ambiance of fear and foreboding as Mrs. Plauf travels by train to her home. She can't shake off the feeling that an infinitesimal change in the landscape brought something amiss to the relative peace of the village. That constricting feeling of impending apocalypse suffuses the novel's introductory chapter, titled "An Emergency".
The anarchy comes later in the book, but it happens after much paranoid and apocalyptic proselytizing by its characters. Like the Argentinian novelist César Aira, Krasznahorkai is a proponent of spontaneous realism, where the narratives unfold in real time and almost any scene can be considered in medias res. The characters ride a literal "train of thought", not so much in streaming consciousness, but a branching out of consciousness. They think aloud and they follow no discernible script except what insights their "walking minds" alight on.
After Mrs. Plauf, the paranoid narration is passed on to another character in a manner of a relay race. But this is a relay where, due to the almost standstill pace of real time narration, the baton is almost grudgingly passed on. The snail-paced race is continued by Mrs. Eszter, the ambitious lady who plans on leading the town as a decorated political leader; by Valuska, the half-wit and son of Mrs. Plauf, whose naivety is a contrast to the other characters' worldly cares; by Mr. Eszter, the estranged husband of Mrs. Eszter, who seems to have renounced the world and retreats into his house a physically broken man; and in between by characters who launch into monologues. These major characters perform the race according to their own slow motion and spontaneous meandering. Murphy's law is at work but there is at least one certain thing in the story: apocalypse lies at the finish line of the track and field
There is barely a plot in the story. A traveling circus is in town to showcase a very large whale and other circus oddities. It, along with some strange local occurrences, seems to have elicited the general fear of the town's "backward" populace. There's an undeniable apocalyptic flavor to the goings on behind the circus tent.
Krasznahorkai's whale seems to be a projection of all the uncertainties, pent-up anxieties, and random menace the world (or modern life or existence) is capable of inflicting on the human race. The ominous whale of monstrous proportions offends the sensibility of the provincial villagers. At the same time, the "fifty-metre truck-load" seems to have generated a cult following from the other villages it visited. These doomy attitudes ("an infection of the imagination") of the people ("spellbound mob") are bound to manifest a doomsday of their own. That doomsday is anything but joyful, except that the existential funk and angst of the characters are all too darkly and comically explored within a stylish, dense prose. Kilometric sentences within blocks of text not set off by paragraphs, a profusion of commas and dependent clauses.
The character, Mr. Eszter, is here speaking literally of hammer and nails, as he learns again "to master the art of banging in nails". In the course of this intellectualizing of carpentry, he also shares some of the qualities of the narrative's spontaneous realism. This seamlessly bridging of "the legislating mind and the executive hand" is an appeal to the authenticity of fresh ideas being transcribed as they occur.
The effect seems to be an illusion that nothing is predetermined, that there is a higher intelligence at work governing the fate of plot and story. In the hands of a prose stylist, the extraordinary turns of phrase (and plot) can be pedantically funny and refreshing. It can lend playfulness to the anticipation and perception of events and a spontaneous beauty to seemingly random details "freely" selected from a "range of competing ideas".
The Melancholy of Resistance may be a philosophical novel outlining its own state of nature ("the present state of the area") but not offering a social contract.
The speaker's stance is pessimistic and nihilistic and any resistance to this state of nature is predicted to fail. The failure is here dramatized as a thought experiment, with the novel's apocalyptic scenes leading to self-realization and epiphany of the characters yet nonetheless consuming them. The whale has been likened to Hobbes's Leviathan but Kafka's looming Castle may also be an appropriate template. It is more a symptom of one's inability to comprehend things at a glance. When the idiot Valuska sees the whale, he is at least aware that his perception of it will be hopelessly incomplete.
Perhaps there is something there about the danger of populist/mass thinking, its innate lack of foresight, and its consequent savagery arising from the inability to see the forest for the trees, the whole for the parts.
In László Krasznahorkai's novel, something wicked comes the way of a Hungarian village. The seriousness of the situation is evident from the ambiance of fear and foreboding as Mrs. Plauf travels by train to her home. She can't shake off the feeling that an infinitesimal change in the landscape brought something amiss to the relative peace of the village. That constricting feeling of impending apocalypse suffuses the novel's introductory chapter, titled "An Emergency".
After so much gossip, so much terrifying rumour-mongering, she could now see for herself that 'it was all going down the drain', for she understood that while her own particular immediate danger was over, in 'a world where such things happen' the collapse into anarchy would inevitable follow.
The anarchy comes later in the book, but it happens after much paranoid and apocalyptic proselytizing by its characters. Like the Argentinian novelist César Aira, Krasznahorkai is a proponent of spontaneous realism, where the narratives unfold in real time and almost any scene can be considered in medias res. The characters ride a literal "train of thought", not so much in streaming consciousness, but a branching out of consciousness. They think aloud and they follow no discernible script except what insights their "walking minds" alight on.
After Mrs. Plauf, the paranoid narration is passed on to another character in a manner of a relay race. But this is a relay where, due to the almost standstill pace of real time narration, the baton is almost grudgingly passed on. The snail-paced race is continued by Mrs. Eszter, the ambitious lady who plans on leading the town as a decorated political leader; by Valuska, the half-wit and son of Mrs. Plauf, whose naivety is a contrast to the other characters' worldly cares; by Mr. Eszter, the estranged husband of Mrs. Eszter, who seems to have renounced the world and retreats into his house a physically broken man; and in between by characters who launch into monologues. These major characters perform the race according to their own slow motion and spontaneous meandering. Murphy's law is at work but there is at least one certain thing in the story: apocalypse lies at the finish line of the track and field
There is barely a plot in the story. A traveling circus is in town to showcase a very large whale and other circus oddities. It, along with some strange local occurrences, seems to have elicited the general fear of the town's "backward" populace. There's an undeniable apocalyptic flavor to the goings on behind the circus tent.
Krasznahorkai's whale seems to be a projection of all the uncertainties, pent-up anxieties, and random menace the world (or modern life or existence) is capable of inflicting on the human race. The ominous whale of monstrous proportions offends the sensibility of the provincial villagers. At the same time, the "fifty-metre truck-load" seems to have generated a cult following from the other villages it visited. These doomy attitudes ("an infection of the imagination") of the people ("spellbound mob") are bound to manifest a doomsday of their own. That doomsday is anything but joyful, except that the existential funk and angst of the characters are all too darkly and comically explored within a stylish, dense prose. Kilometric sentences within blocks of text not set off by paragraphs, a profusion of commas and dependent clauses.
He recalled various stages in his frantic efforts and the fact that even then, in what was imposing itself as a general frame of mind, he had suspected that any eventual resolution would not be due entirely to taking rational thought in the matter, a suspicion that had in the meantime become a certainty, for in divorcing the heavy artillery of his intellect (so typical of him) as he was, metaphorically, edging forward, or, in his own words, divorcing the 'ostensible fire-power of a determined general' from 'the chain of practical action and reaction', he had achieved mastery not through the application of a logical experimental process but through constant, wholly involuntary adaptations to the moment-by-moment nature of necessity; a process that no doubt reflected his intellectual bent but took no cognition of it. To judge by appearances, he summarized, the clear lesson was that the serious issue underlying this apparently insignificant task had been resolved by a persistent assault embodying a flexible attitude to permutations, the passage from 'missing the point' to 'hitting the nail on the head' so to speak, owing nothing, absolutely nothing, to concentrated logic and everything to improvisation, to an ever new set of exploratory motions, or so he had thought as he set out on his tour of inspection of the house to check whether any loose boards needed more secure fixing; there was nothing to indicate that the body's command mechanism, that well-oiled part of the human organism focused on the reality principle (he entered the kitchen) had imposed itself between the legislating mind and the executive hand and remained so well hidden that it could only be discovered, as he put it, 'between, if such a thing were possible, the dazzling object of illusion and the eye that perceives that object, a position that entailed conscious recognition of the illusory nature of the object'. It seemed it was the very freedom of choice between the range of competing ideas that actually decided the angle, the height, and experimental path between the top of the arc and the point of the nail.
The character, Mr. Eszter, is here speaking literally of hammer and nails, as he learns again "to master the art of banging in nails". In the course of this intellectualizing of carpentry, he also shares some of the qualities of the narrative's spontaneous realism. This seamlessly bridging of "the legislating mind and the executive hand" is an appeal to the authenticity of fresh ideas being transcribed as they occur.
The effect seems to be an illusion that nothing is predetermined, that there is a higher intelligence at work governing the fate of plot and story. In the hands of a prose stylist, the extraordinary turns of phrase (and plot) can be pedantically funny and refreshing. It can lend playfulness to the anticipation and perception of events and a spontaneous beauty to seemingly random details "freely" selected from a "range of competing ideas".
The Melancholy of Resistance may be a philosophical novel outlining its own state of nature ("the present state of the area") but not offering a social contract.
He had been wrong, he decided a few steps from his house, wrong in assuming that steady decay was the essence of the situation, for that was in effect to say that some element of good persisted in it while there was no evidence of that whatsoever, and this walk had convinced him that there never could have been, not because it had been lost but because 'the present state of the area' never had the slightest shred of meaning in the first place. It was not meant to have a point; if it was meant for anything at all it was expressely (sic) for the purpose of having no point.
The speaker's stance is pessimistic and nihilistic and any resistance to this state of nature is predicted to fail. The failure is here dramatized as a thought experiment, with the novel's apocalyptic scenes leading to self-realization and epiphany of the characters yet nonetheless consuming them. The whale has been likened to Hobbes's Leviathan but Kafka's looming Castle may also be an appropriate template. It is more a symptom of one's inability to comprehend things at a glance. When the idiot Valuska sees the whale, he is at least aware that his perception of it will be hopelessly incomplete.
Seeing the whale did not mean he could grasp the full meaning of the sight, since to comprehend the enormous tail fin, the dried, cracked, steel-grey carapace and, halfway down the strangely bloated hulk, the top fin, which alone measured several metres, appeared a singularly hopeless task. It was just too big and too long, Valuska simply couldn't see it all at once, and failed even to get a proper look at its dead eyes.... (I)t was simply impossible to see the enormous head as an integral whole.
Perhaps there is something there about the danger of populist/mass thinking, its innate lack of foresight, and its consequent savagery arising from the inability to see the forest for the trees, the whole for the parts.
132rebeccanyc
Fascinating review. I have another Krasznahorkai on the TBR for this theme read, War and War, and it seems a little daunting, more so after your review!
133tros
The Melancholy of Resistance sounds like the basis for the film
Werckmeister Harmonies
by hungarian director Bela Tarr
134Rise
- 132
It took me months to finish, Rebecca. But then I didn't keep at it. The writing becomes more and more easy to grasp once you get the hang of it, which in my case happened by the middle of the book.
- 133
That's right. The movie was famous for having only 39 shots. Tarr also adapted Krasznahorkai's Satantango which runs for over 7 hours.
It took me months to finish, Rebecca. But then I didn't keep at it. The writing becomes more and more easy to grasp once you get the hang of it, which in my case happened by the middle of the book.
- 133
That's right. The movie was famous for having only 39 shots. Tarr also adapted Krasznahorkai's Satantango which runs for over 7 hours.
135kidzdoc
Stone Upon Stone by Wiesław Myśliwski, translated by Bill Johnston
Winner, 2012 PEN Translation Prize
Winner, 2012 Best Translated Book Award
Having a tomb built. It's easy enough to say. But if you've never done it, you have no idea how much one of those things costs. It's almost as much as a house. Though they say a tomb is a house as well, just for the next life. Whether it's for eternity or not, a person needs a corner to call their own.
Symek Pietruszka has returned to his home village in late 20th century Poland, after a two year hospital stay that has left him crippled but unbowed. He is in the twilight of his remarkable yet largely unfulfilled life, one spent working indifferently on his parents' farm and in different occupations; attending numerous village parties, where excessive drinking, carousing and fighting were essential to an entertaining evening; exchanging favors for mundane, loveless sex with any woman that he could; and gaining some degree of respect from his fellow villagers for his bravery as a soldier in the Polish Army at the start of World War II, and as an often wounded but never defeated freedom fighter during the German occupation, which earned him the nickname "Eagle". He has always lived in the moment, with little concern for his parents, his three brothers, and the villagers who criticize his irresponsible and wayward behaviors.
Upon his return, Symek finds that his parents' house and farm have been completely ransacked by his neighbors, and everything of any value has been taken, in the manner of a pack of hyenas that have completely feasted on a dead animal. He is devastated, yet he remains undeterred in his plan to build a lavish family tomb, one which will house his late parents, his brothers and their wives, and himself.
Symek engages in frequent flashbacks as he tells his story, and he describes his impoverished childhood in which bread was often a desired luxury, his relationship with his deeply religious but troubled parents, his fantastic experiences and numerous escapes, and his past friends and lovers. He also notes the changes that have taken place during his lifetime, and he bemoans the skilled craftsmanship and individualistic lifestyle that have been replaced by modern equipment and collectivism.
Stone Upon Stone is a sweeping and masterful epic of life in a poverty stricken Polish village during most of the 20th century, whose people struggle to survive and are filled with animosity toward their neighbors and families, yet persevere and occasionally thrive. The narration is simple and filled with rustic wisdom, in keeping with the book's rural setting, and it flows seamlessly, due in large part to the expert translation by Bill Johnston, who was rightfully recognized and rewarded for his effort.
Winner, 2012 PEN Translation Prize
Winner, 2012 Best Translated Book Award
Having a tomb built. It's easy enough to say. But if you've never done it, you have no idea how much one of those things costs. It's almost as much as a house. Though they say a tomb is a house as well, just for the next life. Whether it's for eternity or not, a person needs a corner to call their own.
Symek Pietruszka has returned to his home village in late 20th century Poland, after a two year hospital stay that has left him crippled but unbowed. He is in the twilight of his remarkable yet largely unfulfilled life, one spent working indifferently on his parents' farm and in different occupations; attending numerous village parties, where excessive drinking, carousing and fighting were essential to an entertaining evening; exchanging favors for mundane, loveless sex with any woman that he could; and gaining some degree of respect from his fellow villagers for his bravery as a soldier in the Polish Army at the start of World War II, and as an often wounded but never defeated freedom fighter during the German occupation, which earned him the nickname "Eagle". He has always lived in the moment, with little concern for his parents, his three brothers, and the villagers who criticize his irresponsible and wayward behaviors.
Upon his return, Symek finds that his parents' house and farm have been completely ransacked by his neighbors, and everything of any value has been taken, in the manner of a pack of hyenas that have completely feasted on a dead animal. He is devastated, yet he remains undeterred in his plan to build a lavish family tomb, one which will house his late parents, his brothers and their wives, and himself.
Symek engages in frequent flashbacks as he tells his story, and he describes his impoverished childhood in which bread was often a desired luxury, his relationship with his deeply religious but troubled parents, his fantastic experiences and numerous escapes, and his past friends and lovers. He also notes the changes that have taken place during his lifetime, and he bemoans the skilled craftsmanship and individualistic lifestyle that have been replaced by modern equipment and collectivism.
Stone Upon Stone is a sweeping and masterful epic of life in a poverty stricken Polish village during most of the 20th century, whose people struggle to survive and are filled with animosity toward their neighbors and families, yet persevere and occasionally thrive. The narration is simple and filled with rustic wisdom, in keeping with the book's rural setting, and it flows seamlessly, due in large part to the expert translation by Bill Johnston, who was rightfully recognized and rewarded for his effort.
136kmalbie
New to group. Looking forward to participating!
1. Stone Upon Stone - Poland
2. The White Knight - Romania
3. The Notebook, The Proof, The Third Lie - Hungry
1. Stone Upon Stone - Poland
2. The White Knight - Romania
3. The Notebook, The Proof, The Third Lie - Hungry
138banjo123
The Metamorphosis, In the Penal Colony, and other Stories by Franz Kafka
This collection was translated by Joachim Neugroschel. I think that it’s a wonderful translation, and I especially liked the introduction by Neugroschel.
In the introduction, he talks about the language used by Kafka. He points our that for the Jewish communitites in Europe, there was a rapid change in languages, from the Jewish languages (eg. Yiddish, in Kafka’s case) to non-Jewish Languages and in many cases on to a new language, (Hebrew in Israel.) National boundaries changed wildly during this period. Kafka was born in Prague in 1883 which was part of Austria-Hungary until 1919, five years before Kafka’s death in 1924. During this time, Jews in Prague were discarding Yiddish in favor of German, the language of the dominant culture.
Kafka used Prague German which apparently differed from the German spoken in German lands. Prague German was surrounded by Czech, but not by German dialect, and lacks the colloquialisms that color High German in most areas.
Neugroshel points out that Kafka has been seen as writing as for a universal audience, because he avoided “Jewish parochialism” (John Updike) and not using identifiable Jewish characters. Neugoschel points out how this shows the bias of the dominate culture “which takes itself for granted: it subliminally sees itself as universal and axiomatic while viewing external and smaller cultures as parochial and relative.” He points out that the same view is applied to other marginalized groups like women, gays and racial and religious minorities.
If Kafka had written about Jews, his audience would have been vastly reduced. However, there could be Jewish themes that are disguised within Kafka’s work. Neugroshel tells us that ”The Judgment” was written in an all-night session on the eve of Yom Kippur, which he feels opens the text up to readings on different levels.
As far as the stories go, I found them, well, Kafkaesque. They are easy to read, but mostly they were strange and I didn’t quite understand what Kafka was trying to do. I did really like three of the stories; “Metamorpphosis’; “A Country Doctor”; and ‘The Hunger Artist.”
This collection was translated by Joachim Neugroschel. I think that it’s a wonderful translation, and I especially liked the introduction by Neugroschel.
In the introduction, he talks about the language used by Kafka. He points our that for the Jewish communitites in Europe, there was a rapid change in languages, from the Jewish languages (eg. Yiddish, in Kafka’s case) to non-Jewish Languages and in many cases on to a new language, (Hebrew in Israel.) National boundaries changed wildly during this period. Kafka was born in Prague in 1883 which was part of Austria-Hungary until 1919, five years before Kafka’s death in 1924. During this time, Jews in Prague were discarding Yiddish in favor of German, the language of the dominant culture.
Kafka used Prague German which apparently differed from the German spoken in German lands. Prague German was surrounded by Czech, but not by German dialect, and lacks the colloquialisms that color High German in most areas.
Neugroshel points out that Kafka has been seen as writing as for a universal audience, because he avoided “Jewish parochialism” (John Updike) and not using identifiable Jewish characters. Neugoschel points out how this shows the bias of the dominate culture “which takes itself for granted: it subliminally sees itself as universal and axiomatic while viewing external and smaller cultures as parochial and relative.” He points out that the same view is applied to other marginalized groups like women, gays and racial and religious minorities.
If Kafka had written about Jews, his audience would have been vastly reduced. However, there could be Jewish themes that are disguised within Kafka’s work. Neugroshel tells us that ”The Judgment” was written in an all-night session on the eve of Yom Kippur, which he feels opens the text up to readings on different levels.
As far as the stories go, I found them, well, Kafkaesque. They are easy to read, but mostly they were strange and I didn’t quite understand what Kafka was trying to do. I did really like three of the stories; “Metamorpphosis’; “A Country Doctor”; and ‘The Hunger Artist.”
139rebeccanyc
The City Builder by George Konrád
Originally published 1977 in Hungarian; English translation 1977.
This was a difficult book to read and is a difficult one to write about. Why? Both because of the structure of the novel and because of Konrád's writing style. The narrator is a city planner in an unnamed Hungarian town who has lived through both World War II and the communist takeover. But the reader doesn't know this at first (except from reading the blurb on the back of the book). Instead, the book begins as the narrator wakes up one morning and muses about various topics including the death of his wife. But he muses in what is essentially a stream of consciousness way, and the whole book is like this, occasionally direct and understandable but more often dream-like and even surrealistic. Additionally, Konrád writes by piling phrase upon phrase, image upon image, and it is often not at all clear what he is writing about or how one topic connects to another.
Essentially, the narrator is reviewing his life, but in a nonchronological manner. The reader learns not only about the death of his wife, but about his childhood, his father, how he met his wife, the nature of his work and how it differs from that of his father who was a pre-communism planner and architect, the nature of socialist planning, wartime, prison, torture, God and religion, and more. The novel is also a meditation on the meaning of life and freedom, history and social revolutions, cities and communities, and fathers and sons. But all of this is enveloped in prose that is hard to decipher, although beautifully written. Here is an example, by far not the most obscure.
For me, this city is a challenge, a parable, an interrogation frozen in space, the messages of my fellow citizens dead and alive, a system of disappearing and regenerating worlds to come, the horizontal delineation of societies replacing one another by sperm, gunfire, senility; a fossilized tug of war, an Eastern European showcase of devastation and reconstruction . . . Because by virtue of my practiced clichés I have become one of its shareholders; though beyond the tenuous links of my existence and surroundings, beyond my father's overdecorated gravestone and the haunting shadow of a cremated woman, beyond my hardened and irremediable blueprints, my myopic utopias, and the procession of figures out of an ever-darkening past, I could well ask: what have I to do with this East-Central European city whose every shame I know so well. p.22
The introduction to my Dalkey Archive edition, by Carlos Fuentes, compares the experience and writing style of Central Europeans to those of writers from Central and South America and contrasts them with writers from the west, and especially those from the US who, to oversimplify, he feels are always seeking happiness. I didn't find his thoughts particularly helpful in understanding Konrád or this book, but I see some parallels between Konrád's writing style and that of Fuentes in Terra Nostra although, of course, they deal with very different subjects.
I felt lost through a lot of this novel but, having finished, I almost feel I should start at the beginning again to more fully appreciate what Konrád was doing. I feel I missed a lot the first time through, but I understood enough to realize what an impressive writer Konrád is and what complicated ideas he was exploring.
Originally published 1977 in Hungarian; English translation 1977.
This was a difficult book to read and is a difficult one to write about. Why? Both because of the structure of the novel and because of Konrád's writing style. The narrator is a city planner in an unnamed Hungarian town who has lived through both World War II and the communist takeover. But the reader doesn't know this at first (except from reading the blurb on the back of the book). Instead, the book begins as the narrator wakes up one morning and muses about various topics including the death of his wife. But he muses in what is essentially a stream of consciousness way, and the whole book is like this, occasionally direct and understandable but more often dream-like and even surrealistic. Additionally, Konrád writes by piling phrase upon phrase, image upon image, and it is often not at all clear what he is writing about or how one topic connects to another.
Essentially, the narrator is reviewing his life, but in a nonchronological manner. The reader learns not only about the death of his wife, but about his childhood, his father, how he met his wife, the nature of his work and how it differs from that of his father who was a pre-communism planner and architect, the nature of socialist planning, wartime, prison, torture, God and religion, and more. The novel is also a meditation on the meaning of life and freedom, history and social revolutions, cities and communities, and fathers and sons. But all of this is enveloped in prose that is hard to decipher, although beautifully written. Here is an example, by far not the most obscure.
For me, this city is a challenge, a parable, an interrogation frozen in space, the messages of my fellow citizens dead and alive, a system of disappearing and regenerating worlds to come, the horizontal delineation of societies replacing one another by sperm, gunfire, senility; a fossilized tug of war, an Eastern European showcase of devastation and reconstruction . . . Because by virtue of my practiced clichés I have become one of its shareholders; though beyond the tenuous links of my existence and surroundings, beyond my father's overdecorated gravestone and the haunting shadow of a cremated woman, beyond my hardened and irremediable blueprints, my myopic utopias, and the procession of figures out of an ever-darkening past, I could well ask: what have I to do with this East-Central European city whose every shame I know so well. p.22
The introduction to my Dalkey Archive edition, by Carlos Fuentes, compares the experience and writing style of Central Europeans to those of writers from Central and South America and contrasts them with writers from the west, and especially those from the US who, to oversimplify, he feels are always seeking happiness. I didn't find his thoughts particularly helpful in understanding Konrád or this book, but I see some parallels between Konrád's writing style and that of Fuentes in Terra Nostra although, of course, they deal with very different subjects.
I felt lost through a lot of this novel but, having finished, I almost feel I should start at the beginning again to more fully appreciate what Konrád was doing. I feel I missed a lot the first time through, but I understood enough to realize what an impressive writer Konrád is and what complicated ideas he was exploring.
140DieFledermaus
The Polish Complex by Tadeusz Konwicki
In The Polish Complex, Konwicki mixes the surreal and fantastic with grey Communist Warsaw and the result in an involving, melancholy, odd read. The main plot follows an author named Konwicki who is standing in line at a jewelry store on Christmas Eve. It becomes increasingly clear that the delivery to the store is never going to happen but the group in line finds it hard to leave. There’s a lot of aimless conversations – about the characters’ dull lives, plans that might never happen – that occasionally turn charged. Konwicki as well as a couple of the others allude to their time as Polish partisans during WWII. The surreal elements are often set out in separate stream-of-consciousness thoughts of the narrator, a flashback to the past or a letter but they also enter the main story. There’s some ambiguity about the author’s relation to some of the other characters – was one of the other line-dwellers assigned to kill him? Is the shopgirl his guardian angel?
The setting of a line and the dully grey background would be a recognizably Communist one. Everyone is waiting for something besides the jewelry shipment – for a trip that is talked about but might never come, for the supposed happy Communist future that no one believes in anymore, for Polish independence in the 19th c and for the end of an anonymous regime in a letter to Konwicki. Sometimes the talk can get a little pointless but Konwicki mixes the gloom with some fantastic inventions. The narrator occasionally thinks about role of the writer, the fate of nations and moves out all the way to the indifferent spinning earth in his long, elaborate stream-of-consciousness head monologues, a change of pace in both prose style and scope from the main plot. He has one extended story of a leader of the failed Polish rebellion in 1863 which is compared to the Polish partisans. I wasn’t sure if the author was basing this on a real character and was unfamiliar with the history of that time but the story was involving anyway. Another sideplot is the letter to Konwicki by a Polish friend now living in an unnamed country. His friend bemoans the sad state of their government, which clamps down on freedom and forces everyone to publicly state their love of the party. The friend sadly compares his life to the freedom that he assumes is in Poland, a bit of roundabout criticism by the author.
In The Polish Complex, Konwicki mixes the surreal and fantastic with grey Communist Warsaw and the result in an involving, melancholy, odd read. The main plot follows an author named Konwicki who is standing in line at a jewelry store on Christmas Eve. It becomes increasingly clear that the delivery to the store is never going to happen but the group in line finds it hard to leave. There’s a lot of aimless conversations – about the characters’ dull lives, plans that might never happen – that occasionally turn charged. Konwicki as well as a couple of the others allude to their time as Polish partisans during WWII. The surreal elements are often set out in separate stream-of-consciousness thoughts of the narrator, a flashback to the past or a letter but they also enter the main story. There’s some ambiguity about the author’s relation to some of the other characters – was one of the other line-dwellers assigned to kill him? Is the shopgirl his guardian angel?
The setting of a line and the dully grey background would be a recognizably Communist one. Everyone is waiting for something besides the jewelry shipment – for a trip that is talked about but might never come, for the supposed happy Communist future that no one believes in anymore, for Polish independence in the 19th c and for the end of an anonymous regime in a letter to Konwicki. Sometimes the talk can get a little pointless but Konwicki mixes the gloom with some fantastic inventions. The narrator occasionally thinks about role of the writer, the fate of nations and moves out all the way to the indifferent spinning earth in his long, elaborate stream-of-consciousness head monologues, a change of pace in both prose style and scope from the main plot. He has one extended story of a leader of the failed Polish rebellion in 1863 which is compared to the Polish partisans. I wasn’t sure if the author was basing this on a real character and was unfamiliar with the history of that time but the story was involving anyway. Another sideplot is the letter to Konwicki by a Polish friend now living in an unnamed country. His friend bemoans the sad state of their government, which clamps down on freedom and forces everyone to publicly state their love of the party. The friend sadly compares his life to the freedom that he assumes is in Poland, a bit of roundabout criticism by the author.
141DieFledermaus
Nadirs by Herta Müller
Nadirs is a collection of semi-autobiographical short stories depicting life in a German-speaking Romanian community. Müller’s flat, succinct style is enhanced by her vivid, at times graphic, descriptions of people and places and occasional bouts of surrealism. The title story is very powerful but pretty much every story is extremely bleak and depressing. “Nadirs” takes that to new highs (lows?) as every glimmer of hope or pleasure or beauty is paired with violent or unpleasant imagery. For example, the narrator recalls the fun she has playing with a toy mouse, but it comes just after a section describing in graphic detail how their cats would dismember and eat mice. Pumpkin carving brings to mind her father’s death. Any descriptions of nature are juxtaposed with images of rot, decay and death. The story ostensibly describes the narrator’s childhood in a Banat Romanian village but there are some subtle criticisms of the Communist regime – describing how common death is in the cities and the overall mood of hopelessness.
Most of the other stories are short and also describe village life. Besides “Nadirs”, the best ones are those with flights of surrealism – “The Funeral Sermon” which describes the narrator’s father’s funeral heightened by its unreality, “About German Mustaches and Hair Parts” – about a friend who returns to the village and finds it unrecognizable, and “Workday” which seems to be a flat, straightforward depiction of a day but everything is completely off. I found Müller’s short and flat style, at times a listing of events or descriptions, to be rather hypnotic but could easily see how many would find it off-putting. Also, the extreme grimness and bleak mood makes it hard to recommend – it might be one more admirable than likeable.
Nadirs is a collection of semi-autobiographical short stories depicting life in a German-speaking Romanian community. Müller’s flat, succinct style is enhanced by her vivid, at times graphic, descriptions of people and places and occasional bouts of surrealism. The title story is very powerful but pretty much every story is extremely bleak and depressing. “Nadirs” takes that to new highs (lows?) as every glimmer of hope or pleasure or beauty is paired with violent or unpleasant imagery. For example, the narrator recalls the fun she has playing with a toy mouse, but it comes just after a section describing in graphic detail how their cats would dismember and eat mice. Pumpkin carving brings to mind her father’s death. Any descriptions of nature are juxtaposed with images of rot, decay and death. The story ostensibly describes the narrator’s childhood in a Banat Romanian village but there are some subtle criticisms of the Communist regime – describing how common death is in the cities and the overall mood of hopelessness.
Most of the other stories are short and also describe village life. Besides “Nadirs”, the best ones are those with flights of surrealism – “The Funeral Sermon” which describes the narrator’s father’s funeral heightened by its unreality, “About German Mustaches and Hair Parts” – about a friend who returns to the village and finds it unrecognizable, and “Workday” which seems to be a flat, straightforward depiction of a day but everything is completely off. I found Müller’s short and flat style, at times a listing of events or descriptions, to be rather hypnotic but could easily see how many would find it off-putting. Also, the extreme grimness and bleak mood makes it hard to recommend – it might be one more admirable than likeable.
142labfs39
Hmm, not sure if the Polish Complex is one I'll rush out to read, although I appreciate your review. I also think I'm going to pass on Nadirs. I've read two novels by Herta Müller, and they were both dark and cheerless, Nadirs sounds even worse. I did like The Hunger Angel but a little goes a long way.
143deebee1
Ferdydurke by Witold Gombrowiscz (1937, Poland)
Translated from the Polish by Danuta Borchardt (2000)
This book is, as Susan Sontag in the Introduction says, "an epic in defense of immaturity", and it is like no other. Gombrowicz insists on the word immaturity, and not youth, because it represents something unattractive, something inferior. Thus being, how can such a book grab us? But grab me it did, as I was in turns amused, repelled, entertained, annoyed, mostly provoked by the idea of immaturity as embodied by Joey (can a name be more annoying than this?) and his friends. I read on, more out of curiousity at how much more bizarre and eccentric things can turn, how twistedness and contrariness can continue to be served up without the author exhausting the themes with repetition. But Gombrowicz is not the master for nothing, and the excellent translation captured the nuances and moods, that the reading (including a couple of chapters which were more like essays by the writer on writing), was a pleasure and an experience in itself.
Joey is a 17-year old schoolboy, recently 30-year old writer who was torn between his obsession of projecting an image of serious maturity to the outside world through his writing and his inability to let go of his infantile self.
But I was, alas, a juvenile, and juvenility was my only cultural institution. Caught and held back twice - first by my childish past, which I could not forget, and the second time by the childishness of other people's notions of me, a caricature that had sunk into their souls - I was the melancholy prisoner of all that is green, why, an insect in a deep, dense thicket.
Joey's transformation into his juvenile self occurred as a result of his abduction by a professor Pimko into an absurd world where everything was grotesque, upside down and inside out -- the big was small, the small monstrously big, the shapes unnatural, gestures outrageous, actions manic, and reasoning absurd. Here, he could let himself go; the more infantile one was, the better. Pimko takes him to a schoolyard full of sniveling brats where his idiotic pupa paralyzes him amidst their infantile tricks, violence and teenage braggadocio. (In the translator's notes, "pupa" is described as Gombrowicz's metaphor for the gentle, insidious, but infantilizing and humiliation that human beings inflict on one another, or belittlement.) Here, it is the vilest, most disgusting, and most distorted expressions and behaviour that are rewarded. After a while he realizes he has to run away, lest he fall prey to all this freakishness.
Yet instead of running away I wiggled my toe inside my shoe, and the wiggling paralyzed me and foiled my intentions to run, because how was I to run while I was still wiggling my toe...?...All I needed was - the will to run. But I lacked the will. Because to run one needs the will, but where is the will to come from when one is wiggling one's toe....
Joey's education in this world continues beyond the school confines, to his boarding house where he becomes infatuated with the daughter of his landlady, who represented everything he was not. Between school and home, we see his encounters with contrasts: maturity/immaturity in all its forms, modernity/old fashioned ways; youth/old age; innocence/knowledge; ability/ineptness; awkwardness/sophistication; politeness/impoliteness; faces/counter-faces; composition/decomposition; symmetry/assymetry; artificiality/naturalness; thesis/antithesis; theory/practice.
He journeys with Kneadus, a classmate, into the countryside to look for a farmhand whom they wished to emulate (again the contrast -- cityboy/farmboy), and came to the estate of Joey's aunt and uncle. Here, he finds another world where the lords of the manor and the peasantry entrap and hold onto each other in childishness. He sees more contrasts: city ways/rugged farmhand ways; the city streets/the countryside; lords/servants.
Blind actions. Automatic reflexes. Atavistic instincts. Lordly-childish fancy. I walked as if into the anachronims of a gigantic slap in the face, which was simultaneously a tradition of many centuries and an infantile smack, and it liberated, in one fell swoop, the lord and the child.
After a while, Joey decides to escape from this world where he felt totally infantilized. And again, an abduction takes place which he thought would bring him back to the city...and, we hope, the maturity that has so far eluded him. But really, what hope does he have? At the book's closing, Joey assumes the author's voice taunting, challenging, provoking us, "graceful bundles of body parts, now let it all begin -- come, step up to me, begin your kneading, make me a new mug so I will again have to run from you....Because there is no escape from the mug, other than into another mug...." And ends with, "It's the end, what a gas, And who's read it is an ass!" I can see Joey sticking out his tongue at me, and doing an anti-face grimace. How can it not be.
This was a fun read, and I found some of the situations truly hilarious. There is nothing subtle about them. An example is the face/anti-face contest which was so inane and truly gross, but also so stupidly funny. It struck me that this was not so unreal, as kids actually do it. What I didn't enjoy though was the brutality with servants (hitting the face -- mug/pupa?) though it was regarded common practice by masters, and was accepted without question by, and even was a point of honor among servants. I was also turned off by references to rape of the female servant by Kneadus.
The playfulness of the subject extends to the fantastic wordplay that Gombrowicz employs, which I enjoyed very much. And we do not mind the inanity and grossness that assail us readers, the pokes at our sensibilities -- it is all fun. And why should a mirror into ourselves show only what is decent, mature, and sophisticated? Why can't we look at the mirror of Ferdydurke, see our own pupas and laugh at the same time? We might yet take advice from Joey, in his former 30-year old self, when he reflected:
What is the connection, where is the bond between the king of beekeepers and the inner man, between the man and the youth, between the youth and the boy, the boy and the child that, after all, he once was, what comfort is the king to the little brat in you? A life unmindful of these bonds, a life that does not evolve in unbroken continuity from one phase to another is like a house that is being built from the top down, and must inevitably end in a schizophrenic split of the inner self.
144banjo123
I have finally finished Dark Continent: Europe's Twentieth Century by Mark Mazower. It really highlighted for me that I know very little about European History. My take-away for the book, is that Europe looks all cultured and evolved; but in fact is as much a mess as any part of the developing world. I am not really up to a book review, but the dust jacket explains it "Instead of seeing Europe as the natural home of freedom and democracy, Mazower argues that it was a frequently nightmarish laboratory for social and political engineering, inventing and reinventing itself through war, revolution, and ideological competition."
I think that this book has given me more context for European reading. Here is a part that I thought relevant:
"Eastern Europe has been the unfortunate laboratory for all three of the century's ideological experiments. THe first, that of the liberal democratic victors of 1918, lasted little more than a decade, before collapsing in the aftermath of the world depression. Hitler's New ORder lasted only half as long. Nazi defeat opened the way for Stalin to make a third attempt, and his creations--the People's Democracies --were to prove more durable than any of their predecessors."
I think that this book has given me more context for European reading. Here is a part that I thought relevant:
"Eastern Europe has been the unfortunate laboratory for all three of the century's ideological experiments. THe first, that of the liberal democratic victors of 1918, lasted little more than a decade, before collapsing in the aftermath of the world depression. Hitler's New ORder lasted only half as long. Nazi defeat opened the way for Stalin to make a third attempt, and his creations--the People's Democracies --were to prove more durable than any of their predecessors."
145rebeccanyc
I've finished Laughable Loves by Milan Kundera. Here is the review I posted on the book page and on my Club Read/75 Books threads.
It's been many many years since I read any Kundera, and many many years since this original Writers from the Other Europe edition landed on my TBR. I remember really liking the works by Kundera I read back in the 80s?/90s, but I had mixed feelings about this early volume of short stories, all focused on the sexual games people play. Some I found disturbing, such as "The Hitchhiking Game," in which a role-playing game goes a little too psychologically far, "Let the Old Dead Make Way for the New Dead," in which the lead male character ponders whether it's better to have a delightful memory or a less delightful reality, and "Symposium," a multi-voiced tale with some largely thoughtless cruelty. Some I found playful and thought-provoking, such as "Nobody Will Laugh," about a man who starts out playing a largely innocent joke which then spirals out of control, "Doctor Havel in Ten Years," which shows how our state of mind can affect reality, and "Edward and God," which satirizes both religion and atheism while showing what happens to a character who pretends belief to get a girl. The only one that I found both fun and charming, and my favorite (maybe because of the mood I'm in!) was "The Golden Apple of Continuing Desire," in which the chase is all.
In these stories, Kundera explores not only the largely male sexual psyche but also the implications of playing jokes or pretending to be someone else, probing identity. That's the part I appreciated. I also can't help but feel that some of the obsession of the characters with chasing (and getting) women helps relieve some of the political repression they are subject too (although this is almost, but not entirely, off stage in these stories). Of course Kundera has always focused on sex, mixed with philosophy, which I guess makes the sex high-minded. I think what I'm saying is that I liked Kundera better when I was younger.
It's been many many years since I read any Kundera, and many many years since this original Writers from the Other Europe edition landed on my TBR. I remember really liking the works by Kundera I read back in the 80s?/90s, but I had mixed feelings about this early volume of short stories, all focused on the sexual games people play. Some I found disturbing, such as "The Hitchhiking Game," in which a role-playing game goes a little too psychologically far, "Let the Old Dead Make Way for the New Dead," in which the lead male character ponders whether it's better to have a delightful memory or a less delightful reality, and "Symposium," a multi-voiced tale with some largely thoughtless cruelty. Some I found playful and thought-provoking, such as "Nobody Will Laugh," about a man who starts out playing a largely innocent joke which then spirals out of control, "Doctor Havel in Ten Years," which shows how our state of mind can affect reality, and "Edward and God," which satirizes both religion and atheism while showing what happens to a character who pretends belief to get a girl. The only one that I found both fun and charming, and my favorite (maybe because of the mood I'm in!) was "The Golden Apple of Continuing Desire," in which the chase is all.
In these stories, Kundera explores not only the largely male sexual psyche but also the implications of playing jokes or pretending to be someone else, probing identity. That's the part I appreciated. I also can't help but feel that some of the obsession of the characters with chasing (and getting) women helps relieve some of the political repression they are subject too (although this is almost, but not entirely, off stage in these stories). Of course Kundera has always focused on sex, mixed with philosophy, which I guess makes the sex high-minded. I think what I'm saying is that I liked Kundera better when I was younger.
146wandering_star
Metropole by Ferenc Karinthy
Budai falls asleep during a plane journey on his way to a conference, and groggily makes his way into the city on arrival. But it turns out that the city is not Helsinki, nor indeed anywhere recognisable. Even though Budai speaks bits of dozens of languages, no-one he finds can understand any of them, and there is nothing familiar in the language that he hears around him. Everywhere is crowded, people are too busy to let him try and communicate with them, and the flows of people are such that he can't always get to where he is trying to go. Even his hotel room is hard to find: "He met no one in the corridor as he searched for his room, wandering to and fro, counting forward and back in the attempt to locate room 921. There was always a doorway or a junction that broke the sequence and he could not pick it up again".
What would you do in this situation? Try and find an information counter, or a travel agent, or an embassy - someone with whom you might find a means of communicating. "But how was he to locate any of these agencies? Who was there to ask in the dreadful whirl of traffic where no one had the time to address his problems but left him muttering idiotically to himself? They must speak other languages in banks and financial institutions and, possibly, in various public offices, but where to find such places, how to identify them among the mass of buildings, when he couldn't make the slightest sense of the notices on them?"
This is a brilliant portrayal of a nightmarish situation. The long, run-on sentences drop us right inside Budai's head as he wonders desperately what he can do (but are broken up enough with short, clear sentences so that they don't become overwhelming), and so we can understand his twisted logic as he looks for ever more hopeless ways out - dialling various combinations of telephone numbers which "might be public lines", leaving notes in different languages scattered around the hotel, even trying to work out the local language from a close reading of the phone book or a newspaper. All the time he is striving to hang on to the fact that he does not belong in this city. Because the only way to survive in such an uncaring and hostile society is not to get used to it, not to lose hope, to hang on to your own mental acuity and your individual desires, and to continue to resist, however futile it may seem.
That said, one of the most chilling moments in the book is when Budai finds a tiny scrap of hope - a split-second encounter with another Hungarian - which is then torn away from him. And for a long time Budai does lose his hope, giving up trying to talk to anyone, turning to drink and formless rage. But yet another incomprehensible occurrence in this city of incomprehensibilities reminds him that people need to stay greedy for life.
The book is pitched precisely at the point where the absurdity of the situation is both funny and terrible. For example, there is a running joke about the fact that even with the one person who is prepared to try and communicate with Budai, he is unable to figure out her name, because the sound seems to change each time she says it - so each time he thinks about her she has a slightly different name. This is funny, but at the same time such a stark indicator of his isolation.
I really enjoyed this book (except for a slight dip in interest in the middle, as Budai's situation didn't seem to be evolving). As I was reaching the end my mind was full of possibilities for how the author would be able to bring the narrative to a satisfactory conclusion, none of which seemed entirely satisfying. And indeed, the ending was none of them. I thought it was perfect.
Budai falls asleep during a plane journey on his way to a conference, and groggily makes his way into the city on arrival. But it turns out that the city is not Helsinki, nor indeed anywhere recognisable. Even though Budai speaks bits of dozens of languages, no-one he finds can understand any of them, and there is nothing familiar in the language that he hears around him. Everywhere is crowded, people are too busy to let him try and communicate with them, and the flows of people are such that he can't always get to where he is trying to go. Even his hotel room is hard to find: "He met no one in the corridor as he searched for his room, wandering to and fro, counting forward and back in the attempt to locate room 921. There was always a doorway or a junction that broke the sequence and he could not pick it up again".
What would you do in this situation? Try and find an information counter, or a travel agent, or an embassy - someone with whom you might find a means of communicating. "But how was he to locate any of these agencies? Who was there to ask in the dreadful whirl of traffic where no one had the time to address his problems but left him muttering idiotically to himself? They must speak other languages in banks and financial institutions and, possibly, in various public offices, but where to find such places, how to identify them among the mass of buildings, when he couldn't make the slightest sense of the notices on them?"
This is a brilliant portrayal of a nightmarish situation. The long, run-on sentences drop us right inside Budai's head as he wonders desperately what he can do (but are broken up enough with short, clear sentences so that they don't become overwhelming), and so we can understand his twisted logic as he looks for ever more hopeless ways out - dialling various combinations of telephone numbers which "might be public lines", leaving notes in different languages scattered around the hotel, even trying to work out the local language from a close reading of the phone book or a newspaper. All the time he is striving to hang on to the fact that he does not belong in this city. Because the only way to survive in such an uncaring and hostile society is not to get used to it, not to lose hope, to hang on to your own mental acuity and your individual desires, and to continue to resist, however futile it may seem.
That said, one of the most chilling moments in the book is when Budai finds a tiny scrap of hope - a split-second encounter with another Hungarian - which is then torn away from him. And for a long time Budai does lose his hope, giving up trying to talk to anyone, turning to drink and formless rage. But yet another incomprehensible occurrence in this city of incomprehensibilities reminds him that people need to stay greedy for life.
The book is pitched precisely at the point where the absurdity of the situation is both funny and terrible. For example, there is a running joke about the fact that even with the one person who is prepared to try and communicate with Budai, he is unable to figure out her name, because the sound seems to change each time she says it - so each time he thinks about her she has a slightly different name. This is funny, but at the same time such a stark indicator of his isolation.
I really enjoyed this book (except for a slight dip in interest in the middle, as Budai's situation didn't seem to be evolving). As I was reaching the end my mind was full of possibilities for how the author would be able to bring the narrative to a satisfactory conclusion, none of which seemed entirely satisfying. And indeed, the ending was none of them. I thought it was perfect.
147labfs39
Your review of Metropole reminds me of The Investigation by Philippe Claudel. Have you read it, by chance? An unfamiliar city, being unable to get where one wants to go, language barriers, isolation, and the loss of hope and purpose combined with both humor and pathos. I'm quite intrigued. Metropole was published 40 years earlier than The Investigation, I wonder if Claudel was familiar with the work.
148wandering_star
I hadn't, but I've just downloaded the free first chapter to my Kindle - it sounds intriguing.
149banjo123
The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera
I found this book more enjoyable and easier to read than I had expected. I was under the impression that it was full of philosophy and abstract symbolism. Also, I have seem to have trouble with Eastern European writers, who I seem to find inexplicably weird.
This book has three basic layers. The backbone of this book is Kundera’s philosophy of life. Initially, this was a bit frightening, but actually I found these bits relatively straightforward, and not hard to understand. Another layer involves the events of the Prague Spring and the Soviet occupation. Over the top of the novel, is the story of Tomas and Tereza and their, somewhat unconventional marriage.
The story is not told in a linear fashion, and Tereza’s dreams vie with reality for our attention. This highlights the ways that Tomas and Tereza’s lives intersect with other characters ( most notably Tomas’ lover Sabine) and with different historical times.
There were parts of the book I didn't completely understand. (Why was the dog named Kareninen?) But overall, I enjoyed it. As a side note, the character of the dog, Karenenin and his/her relationship to Tomas and Tereza was very sweet and made me cry.
I found this book more enjoyable and easier to read than I had expected. I was under the impression that it was full of philosophy and abstract symbolism. Also, I have seem to have trouble with Eastern European writers, who I seem to find inexplicably weird.
This book has three basic layers. The backbone of this book is Kundera’s philosophy of life. Initially, this was a bit frightening, but actually I found these bits relatively straightforward, and not hard to understand. Another layer involves the events of the Prague Spring and the Soviet occupation. Over the top of the novel, is the story of Tomas and Tereza and their, somewhat unconventional marriage.
The story is not told in a linear fashion, and Tereza’s dreams vie with reality for our attention. This highlights the ways that Tomas and Tereza’s lives intersect with other characters ( most notably Tomas’ lover Sabine) and with different historical times.
There were parts of the book I didn't completely understand. (Why was the dog named Kareninen?) But overall, I enjoyed it. As a side note, the character of the dog, Karenenin and his/her relationship to Tomas and Tereza was very sweet and made me cry.
150rebeccanyc
I've finishedThe Opportune Moment, 1855 by Patrik Ouřednik, a contemporary Czech author. Here is my review, cross-posted from my Club Read and 75 Books page.
This delightful and thought-provoking novel tells the tale of a "free" settlement of anarchists and others in the Brazilian wilderness in 1855. It starts with a 1902 letter from the now old Italian anarchist who planned these Fraternitas settlements to a woman has always loved; it is full of high-flown language about principles of love and freedom and anarchism, interspersed with some regret. The novel then goes back to 1855 and the diary of an Italian who set off on the journey to the new community.
The diary starts with the two-month sea voyage and the diarist, who we come to learn is named Bruno, is an acute observer of his fellow passengers, who include not only the Italian group but also some French communists, some very poor Germans, and various others, including some Slavs and some "Negro" workers. One of the group is a committed anarchist who believes in complete freedom; another believes they need to have leaders and structure and votes and "reprimands" and lots and lots of meetings. There also is a strong belief in "free love," which more or less amounts to sharing the women in the group, although the women have something to say about this too. Much of this is quite amusing, although fraught, because of the matter-of-fact way in which Bruno reports what's going on. He also becomes interested in a woman on the ship and discusses this most delicately. (Later on, she tells him that she would be willing to sleep with him but is sleeping with someone else because "first she had to get used to it.")
The diary starts again six months into the stay at the settlement, and things have not gone according to plan. Although the reader doesn't realize it ta first, Bruno will tell the story of what has happened and what is happening in several different ways, so the reader doesn't know which is the truth, or if in some way all of them are.
I didn't quite know what to expect when I started this book, but it seems to me that besides being a well-told and intriguing story, it is a meditation on the conflict of ideals and desires -- desires for love, for control, for money -- and a satire as well. And it also could be a comment on some of the more horrific aspects of 20th century history, as when one of the characters thanks "everyone who had voted for the strictest sanction (i.e., execution) and hadn't let themselves be appeased by unconvincing excuses, because humanity is more important than individual human life." And, in one version of what happened to the settlement, Bruno notes that "Individual freedom has been temporarily suspended because it turns out that people aren't ripe for it yet, although it remains our goal in consideration of the fact that it's the first requirement of harmonious development."
But this is the opposite of a dogmatic book. It wears its thoughts lightly and is a fun, if serious, novel.
This delightful and thought-provoking novel tells the tale of a "free" settlement of anarchists and others in the Brazilian wilderness in 1855. It starts with a 1902 letter from the now old Italian anarchist who planned these Fraternitas settlements to a woman has always loved; it is full of high-flown language about principles of love and freedom and anarchism, interspersed with some regret. The novel then goes back to 1855 and the diary of an Italian who set off on the journey to the new community.
The diary starts with the two-month sea voyage and the diarist, who we come to learn is named Bruno, is an acute observer of his fellow passengers, who include not only the Italian group but also some French communists, some very poor Germans, and various others, including some Slavs and some "Negro" workers. One of the group is a committed anarchist who believes in complete freedom; another believes they need to have leaders and structure and votes and "reprimands" and lots and lots of meetings. There also is a strong belief in "free love," which more or less amounts to sharing the women in the group, although the women have something to say about this too. Much of this is quite amusing, although fraught, because of the matter-of-fact way in which Bruno reports what's going on. He also becomes interested in a woman on the ship and discusses this most delicately. (Later on, she tells him that she would be willing to sleep with him but is sleeping with someone else because "first she had to get used to it.")
The diary starts again six months into the stay at the settlement, and things have not gone according to plan. Although the reader doesn't realize it ta first, Bruno will tell the story of what has happened and what is happening in several different ways, so the reader doesn't know which is the truth, or if in some way all of them are.
I didn't quite know what to expect when I started this book, but it seems to me that besides being a well-told and intriguing story, it is a meditation on the conflict of ideals and desires -- desires for love, for control, for money -- and a satire as well. And it also could be a comment on some of the more horrific aspects of 20th century history, as when one of the characters thanks "everyone who had voted for the strictest sanction (i.e., execution) and hadn't let themselves be appeased by unconvincing excuses, because humanity is more important than individual human life." And, in one version of what happened to the settlement, Bruno notes that "Individual freedom has been temporarily suspended because it turns out that people aren't ripe for it yet, although it remains our goal in consideration of the fact that it's the first requirement of harmonious development."
But this is the opposite of a dogmatic book. It wears its thoughts lightly and is a fun, if serious, novel.
151rebeccanyc
Now I've finished War and War by László Krasznahorkai. Here's the review I posted on the book page and on my reading threads.
This is an amazing novel, and unlike anything else I have ever read. It is amazing in its layers of story, its ideas, and its writing style, which consists of sections, often several pages long, each containing only one long sentence.
Korin, through whose mind we see most of the novel, is a former archivist in a town outside Budapest who, for reasons we don't know at first, has come to Budapest as the first leg of a journey to New York City, which he views as the center of the world. He is a man at the very least obsessed -- obsessed with his discovery in the midst of the archives of a manuscript that he believes will change the world, as well as with his own thoughts -- but also possibly quite deranged. His goal, once he gets to New York, is to type the entire manuscript and upload it to the internet so it will live forever, and then kill himself. But that is only the scaffolding on which this novel is hung.
Through Kraznahorkai's writing style, the reader gets inside Korin's mind, as well as the mind of the various other characters he encounters, from a gang of preteen criminals to a former beauty queen flight attendant to a security guard and an interpreter at JFK airport, and more. Mostly, though it is Korin's mind, and the thoughts and ideas just pour out of him in the form of seemingly endless sentences. Much of what he thinks about, and talks about, is the content of the manuscript, chapter by chapter.
And what is this manuscript about? On the surface, it is the story of four companions (Kasser, Bengazza, Falke, and Toót), possibly spies, possibly soldiers, definitely experts in defensive strategies, who appear and reappear in different historical times and places, from Crete on the eve of the volcanic eruption that destroyed Minoan civilization, to Cologne in the late 1800s, on the verge of a war with France, when the building of the cathedral was nearing completion (after having been left unfinished for centuries), to Venice, to Hadrian's Wall at the edges of the Roman empire in Britain (and apparently simultaneously in Portugal in 1493, awaiting the return of Columbus), and more. At each place, a mysterious man named Mastemann appears, and then disappears, seemingly involved in some imminent catastrophe. As I was struggling to figure out what this was all about, I reached this same questioning in Korin's narrative:
and beside that, why, in any case -- Korin's agitation was evident in his expression -- does he describe four characters with such extraordinary clarity then insert them at certain historical moments, and why precisely one moment rather than another, why precisely these four and not some other people; and what is this fog, this miasma, out of which he leads them time after time; and what is the fog into which he drives them; and why the constant repetition; and how does Kasser disappear at the end; and what is this perpetual, continuous secrecy about, and the ever more nagging impatience, increasing chapter on chapter, to discover who Mastemann is, and why each episode concerning him follows the same pattern, as does the narrative too; and, most important of all, why does the writer go completely mad, whoever he is . . ." p.202
As the novel progresses, Kraznohorkai provides a little more, a very little more, of Korin's background, which explains perhaps, his knowledge of history (I, on the other hand, was driven to Wikipedia and Google Translate many times throughout Korin's retelling of the manuscript). It seems that Korin is obsessed by the idea of borders between "civilization" and "barbarians," by the ends of certain phases of history and lost cultures, by the idea of someone evil (the devil?) pulling the strings without being seen, by art as the antidote to money, and by the dangerous idea of money representing goods instead of the goods themselves. But what this all means is as much a mystery to me as it apparently is to Korin.
In Korin's "real" life, as opposed to the fantasy world of the "manuscript" (which comes to seem to be a creation of Korin's imagination), he encounters people who help him (such as the flight attendant in Budapest), but a lot more people who are up to no good, including his mercurial and violent (to his girlfriend) Hungarian landlord; life in the modern world is brutal. He also constantly and endlessly tells otherl people what he is thinking about and what is going on in the manuscript, despite the fact that they completely ignore him (either because they don't understand Hungarian, like the landlord's Puerto Rican girlfriend) or because he appears mad.
Nonetheless, despite all this, Korin is a sympathetic character; he is clearly suffering, as well as mad. When he begins to get some sense of what the "manuscript" is all about, he thinks:
he, in his dense, stupid, unhealthy way had managed to grasp nothing, but nothing of it in the last few days, and the mysterious, cloudy, origins of the text, its powerful poetic energy, and the way it turned its back in the most decided manner on normal literary conventions governing such works, had deafened and blinded him, in fact as good as blasted him out of existence, like having a cannon fired at you, he said and shook his head, although the answer was right there in front of him all the time and he should have seen it, did in fact see it, and, furthermore, admired it, but had failed to understand it, failed to understand what he was looking at and admiring, meaning that the manuscript was interested in one thing only, and that was reality explored to the point of madness, and the experience of all those intense mad details, the engraving by sheer manic repetition into the imagination was, and he meant this literally, Korin explained, as if the writer had written the text not with pen and words but with his nails, scratching the text into the paper and into the mind, all the details, repetitions and intensifications making the process of reading more difficult, while the details it gave, the lists it repeated and the material it intensified was etched into the brain forever . . ." p. 174
Of course, if a book is entitled War and War, one thinks immediately of War and Peace. At first I found this puzzling, because at first there seemed to be no war in this book. But it becomes clearer that Korin perceives the world to be in a state of endless war, although peace is described as "the greatest, the highest, the supreme achievement of man," with the world of beauty represented here and there in the "manuscript" gone forever. In fact, there was a lot of beauty in some of the descriptions. I've only scratched the surface of this remarkable book, and I feel there was a lot that went by me as I read it. It is a challenging book to read, but well worth it.
As a final note, there were a few minor points that annoyed me because they were errors about New York City. For example, nobody arriving at JFK Airport in 1997 had to leave the plane by stairs and take a bus to the terminal as Korin does; the street in upper Manhattan is Fort Washington Avenue, not Washington Avenue; and Puerto Ricans are US citizens and do not have to cross illegally into the US without ID. But these, as I say, are small in the context of the whole.
This is an amazing novel, and unlike anything else I have ever read. It is amazing in its layers of story, its ideas, and its writing style, which consists of sections, often several pages long, each containing only one long sentence.
Korin, through whose mind we see most of the novel, is a former archivist in a town outside Budapest who, for reasons we don't know at first, has come to Budapest as the first leg of a journey to New York City, which he views as the center of the world. He is a man at the very least obsessed -- obsessed with his discovery in the midst of the archives of a manuscript that he believes will change the world, as well as with his own thoughts -- but also possibly quite deranged. His goal, once he gets to New York, is to type the entire manuscript and upload it to the internet so it will live forever, and then kill himself. But that is only the scaffolding on which this novel is hung.
Through Kraznahorkai's writing style, the reader gets inside Korin's mind, as well as the mind of the various other characters he encounters, from a gang of preteen criminals to a former beauty queen flight attendant to a security guard and an interpreter at JFK airport, and more. Mostly, though it is Korin's mind, and the thoughts and ideas just pour out of him in the form of seemingly endless sentences. Much of what he thinks about, and talks about, is the content of the manuscript, chapter by chapter.
And what is this manuscript about? On the surface, it is the story of four companions (Kasser, Bengazza, Falke, and Toót), possibly spies, possibly soldiers, definitely experts in defensive strategies, who appear and reappear in different historical times and places, from Crete on the eve of the volcanic eruption that destroyed Minoan civilization, to Cologne in the late 1800s, on the verge of a war with France, when the building of the cathedral was nearing completion (after having been left unfinished for centuries), to Venice, to Hadrian's Wall at the edges of the Roman empire in Britain (and apparently simultaneously in Portugal in 1493, awaiting the return of Columbus), and more. At each place, a mysterious man named Mastemann appears, and then disappears, seemingly involved in some imminent catastrophe. As I was struggling to figure out what this was all about, I reached this same questioning in Korin's narrative:
and beside that, why, in any case -- Korin's agitation was evident in his expression -- does he describe four characters with such extraordinary clarity then insert them at certain historical moments, and why precisely one moment rather than another, why precisely these four and not some other people; and what is this fog, this miasma, out of which he leads them time after time; and what is the fog into which he drives them; and why the constant repetition; and how does Kasser disappear at the end; and what is this perpetual, continuous secrecy about, and the ever more nagging impatience, increasing chapter on chapter, to discover who Mastemann is, and why each episode concerning him follows the same pattern, as does the narrative too; and, most important of all, why does the writer go completely mad, whoever he is . . ." p.202
As the novel progresses, Kraznohorkai provides a little more, a very little more, of Korin's background, which explains perhaps, his knowledge of history (I, on the other hand, was driven to Wikipedia and Google Translate many times throughout Korin's retelling of the manuscript). It seems that Korin is obsessed by the idea of borders between "civilization" and "barbarians," by the ends of certain phases of history and lost cultures, by the idea of someone evil (the devil?) pulling the strings without being seen, by art as the antidote to money, and by the dangerous idea of money representing goods instead of the goods themselves. But what this all means is as much a mystery to me as it apparently is to Korin.
In Korin's "real" life, as opposed to the fantasy world of the "manuscript" (which comes to seem to be a creation of Korin's imagination), he encounters people who help him (such as the flight attendant in Budapest), but a lot more people who are up to no good, including his mercurial and violent (to his girlfriend) Hungarian landlord; life in the modern world is brutal. He also constantly and endlessly tells otherl people what he is thinking about and what is going on in the manuscript, despite the fact that they completely ignore him (either because they don't understand Hungarian, like the landlord's Puerto Rican girlfriend) or because he appears mad.
Nonetheless, despite all this, Korin is a sympathetic character; he is clearly suffering, as well as mad. When he begins to get some sense of what the "manuscript" is all about, he thinks:
he, in his dense, stupid, unhealthy way had managed to grasp nothing, but nothing of it in the last few days, and the mysterious, cloudy, origins of the text, its powerful poetic energy, and the way it turned its back in the most decided manner on normal literary conventions governing such works, had deafened and blinded him, in fact as good as blasted him out of existence, like having a cannon fired at you, he said and shook his head, although the answer was right there in front of him all the time and he should have seen it, did in fact see it, and, furthermore, admired it, but had failed to understand it, failed to understand what he was looking at and admiring, meaning that the manuscript was interested in one thing only, and that was reality explored to the point of madness, and the experience of all those intense mad details, the engraving by sheer manic repetition into the imagination was, and he meant this literally, Korin explained, as if the writer had written the text not with pen and words but with his nails, scratching the text into the paper and into the mind, all the details, repetitions and intensifications making the process of reading more difficult, while the details it gave, the lists it repeated and the material it intensified was etched into the brain forever . . ." p. 174
Of course, if a book is entitled War and War, one thinks immediately of War and Peace. At first I found this puzzling, because at first there seemed to be no war in this book. But it becomes clearer that Korin perceives the world to be in a state of endless war, although peace is described as "the greatest, the highest, the supreme achievement of man," with the world of beauty represented here and there in the "manuscript" gone forever. In fact, there was a lot of beauty in some of the descriptions. I've only scratched the surface of this remarkable book, and I feel there was a lot that went by me as I read it. It is a challenging book to read, but well worth it.
As a final note, there were a few minor points that annoyed me because they were errors about New York City. For example, nobody arriving at JFK Airport in 1997 had to leave the plane by stairs and take a bus to the terminal as Korin does; the street in upper Manhattan is Fort Washington Avenue, not Washington Avenue; and Puerto Ricans are US citizens and do not have to cross illegally into the US without ID. But these, as I say, are small in the context of the whole.
152Samantha_kathy
DNF: One Moldavian Summer by Ionel Teodoreanu (1 star)
One Moldavian Summer is said to be one of the best books in Romanian literature. I sincerely hope that people are talking about the original novel and that it’s much, much better than the translation I read. If not, I have to wonder of Romania actually has any books deserving of the title literature! My copy was an English translation done by Eugenia Farca. It was published as part of the East European Monographs in cooperation with the Romanian Cultural Foundation Publishing House and distributed by Columbia University Press in 1992. So you would expect a fairly good translation. Alas, such was not the case. Verbs occurring in the wrong tenses, Mrs. instead of Mr. and he instead of she were common errors. Sometimes, words appear to be missing in a sentence. I hope this is just a reflection on the translation and that these errors do not occur in the original text.
But, aside from the translation issue. I did not like this book. The plot – there wasn’t one really – bored me to tears. I did not like two of the three main characters. Danut is a petulant little boy who lives in a dream world. Olguta is a spoiled brat of a girl. Monica might be the only one likeable, albeit because she’s a grey little mouse who’s a follower. But even her behavior started to get on my nerves. The almost telegram style of writing only underscored these issues.
I gave One Moldavian Summer 100 pages to convince me to read it. It failed, badly. I’m not convinced it's worth my time to read, so I gave up on it. I highly recommend any potential reader to pass this book by. It’s truly not worth your time to read it. All in all, a very disappointing experience for me.
One Moldavian Summer is said to be one of the best books in Romanian literature. I sincerely hope that people are talking about the original novel and that it’s much, much better than the translation I read. If not, I have to wonder of Romania actually has any books deserving of the title literature! My copy was an English translation done by Eugenia Farca. It was published as part of the East European Monographs in cooperation with the Romanian Cultural Foundation Publishing House and distributed by Columbia University Press in 1992. So you would expect a fairly good translation. Alas, such was not the case. Verbs occurring in the wrong tenses, Mrs. instead of Mr. and he instead of she were common errors. Sometimes, words appear to be missing in a sentence. I hope this is just a reflection on the translation and that these errors do not occur in the original text.
But, aside from the translation issue. I did not like this book. The plot – there wasn’t one really – bored me to tears. I did not like two of the three main characters. Danut is a petulant little boy who lives in a dream world. Olguta is a spoiled brat of a girl. Monica might be the only one likeable, albeit because she’s a grey little mouse who’s a follower. But even her behavior started to get on my nerves. The almost telegram style of writing only underscored these issues.
I gave One Moldavian Summer 100 pages to convince me to read it. It failed, badly. I’m not convinced it's worth my time to read, so I gave up on it. I highly recommend any potential reader to pass this book by. It’s truly not worth your time to read it. All in all, a very disappointing experience for me.
153StevenTX
A Day in Spring by Ciril Kosmac
Originally published in Slovenian 1954
A Day in Spring is a story in which the cycles of love and war mirror the cycles of the seasons. It takes place on the Istrian peninsula, a region formerly part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire which was ceded to Italy after the First World War despite having a population that was mostly Slavic (Croat and Slovene). This was the author, Ciril Kosmac’s, home. As a young man he joined a Slovene anti-Fascist group. He was arrested by Mussolini’s police, imprisoned, released, and went into exile in Yugoslavia. After the Allied victory in World War II, he returned home. This is also the life story of the unnamed narrator of A Day in Spring.
Homecoming after a forced absence of fifteen years is a bittersweet time of reunion and grief. There are the dead—including the narrator’s beloved father, murdered in a German concentration camp—the embittered, and the lost. The sight of his now almost empty family home takes the narrator back to happier times and to his final parting from his father on the Yugoslav border. There is one person especially whom he wants to meet again, a girl nicknamed “Kadetka.”
Born during the First World War, Kadetka was the daughter of an Istrian village girl and her lover, a Czech cadet (ensign) in the Austrian army. Orphaned in her infancy, Kadetka, a beautiful and free-spirited girl, was raised in the narrator’s household. She became the narrator’s favorite, like a baby sister, and the two would spend many days exploring the rugged and beautiful countryside. When the narrator is finally reunited with Kadetka he finds in her story that the cycle of war and death is accompanied by an equally indomitable cycle of life, hope and renewal.
In this beautiful and moving novel, Kosmac gives us stirring images of his homeland on the banks of the Idrijca River. He also tells us something about the unique sentiment of patriots from small countries and how it is expressed in their art: “Yes, it seems to me that we small nations love our land more dearly than great ones do or at least in a manner different from theirs. Our native land is small, and as we cannot sing of its greatness, we celebrate and sing of its details which are full of beauty. Because beauty is like truth. Truth does not require bulky tomes to make herself plain, nor does Beauty need a wide, boundless space herein to unfold herself, to thrive and blossom. Let Expanse thunder forth its mighty song, true beauty glows in silence. We know our country as we know our mother’s face.”
Originally published in Slovenian 1954
A Day in Spring is a story in which the cycles of love and war mirror the cycles of the seasons. It takes place on the Istrian peninsula, a region formerly part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire which was ceded to Italy after the First World War despite having a population that was mostly Slavic (Croat and Slovene). This was the author, Ciril Kosmac’s, home. As a young man he joined a Slovene anti-Fascist group. He was arrested by Mussolini’s police, imprisoned, released, and went into exile in Yugoslavia. After the Allied victory in World War II, he returned home. This is also the life story of the unnamed narrator of A Day in Spring.
Homecoming after a forced absence of fifteen years is a bittersweet time of reunion and grief. There are the dead—including the narrator’s beloved father, murdered in a German concentration camp—the embittered, and the lost. The sight of his now almost empty family home takes the narrator back to happier times and to his final parting from his father on the Yugoslav border. There is one person especially whom he wants to meet again, a girl nicknamed “Kadetka.”
Born during the First World War, Kadetka was the daughter of an Istrian village girl and her lover, a Czech cadet (ensign) in the Austrian army. Orphaned in her infancy, Kadetka, a beautiful and free-spirited girl, was raised in the narrator’s household. She became the narrator’s favorite, like a baby sister, and the two would spend many days exploring the rugged and beautiful countryside. When the narrator is finally reunited with Kadetka he finds in her story that the cycle of war and death is accompanied by an equally indomitable cycle of life, hope and renewal.
In this beautiful and moving novel, Kosmac gives us stirring images of his homeland on the banks of the Idrijca River. He also tells us something about the unique sentiment of patriots from small countries and how it is expressed in their art: “Yes, it seems to me that we small nations love our land more dearly than great ones do or at least in a manner different from theirs. Our native land is small, and as we cannot sing of its greatness, we celebrate and sing of its details which are full of beauty. Because beauty is like truth. Truth does not require bulky tomes to make herself plain, nor does Beauty need a wide, boundless space herein to unfold herself, to thrive and blossom. Let Expanse thunder forth its mighty song, true beauty glows in silence. We know our country as we know our mother’s face.”
154rebeccanyc
A Day in Spring sounds lovely, Steven; sorry One Moldavian Summer was such a disappointment, Samantha-Kathy.
155rebeccanyc
Well, I started this before the end of the quarter . . .
The Issa Valley by Czeslaw Milosz
What a poetic novel this is, perhaps not surprisingly so since Milosz is a poet, and a Nobel Prize-winning one at that. At least partly autobiographical, the novel is at once a coming-of-age story, a paean to nature, a study of character, a history of Lithuania, and a portrait of a rural, largely pre-industrial world that was soon to be utterly destroyed. Milosz was born in Lithuania (then part of the Russian empire) in 1911, but his family had for several generations spoken Polish, and while he was fluent in both languages (as well as several others), he considered himself a Polish poet and wrote in Polish.
In the novel, young Thomas has been sent to live with his maternal grandparents in the Issa Valley, a remote area in Lithuania that is filled with lakes and forests, as his father is fighting with some army (either the Russians or the Poles, who are fighting each other) and his mother is stranded over the border; his paternal grandmother is also living there. He is probably about 9 or 10 when the novel begins, but his age isn't specified until much later. The family was previously better off than it is now, but they own a "manor" house and quite a bit of land, including forests. Later on, this puts them slightly at odds with some of the local population who, inspired no doubt by what little bits of information they have heard about the Russian revolution, are itching for land distribution.
It is probably a lonely time for Thomas, and he first finds comfort in his grandfather's library, discovering books that had been gathering dust on the shelves for decades. Later he becomes completely enamored by nature, learning first about plants and then about birds, loving both his observations of them in their habitats and their names and the whole Linnean naming system. Eventually he meets a neighboring landowner who initiates Thomas into hunting. At first, Thomas is very proud to be included with the grown men, and is fascinated by how hunters creep through the woods, call to birds, and set their dogs to work. Everything about the way Milosz describes the forests and the animals is utterly lyrical. Ultimately, Thomas finds it difficult to kill the birds and other animals they are hunting.
But this novel is about much more than Thomas, and the voice of the novel is not Thomas's but someone who is able to see all of the society of the little town of Gine and its surroundings. The reader sees many of the inhabitants of the area, including the priest who is having an affair with his housekeeper (who comes back to haunt the town), a tormented forester, a bitter and cruel but persuasive poor boy, the local priests, and many others, and gains some knowledge of their histories and characters. Thomas's family is also explored: his maternal grandfather tells him about Lithuanian history, his paternal grandmother meditates on her own life story and her husband and sons, and his mother's sister, his aunt Helen, enjoys some extramarital adventures. The portrait Milosz paints of Thomas's paternal grandmother is particularly rich, and the scene where she is dying is one of the most beautiful and insightful I have read. At the same time, the novel is rich with the spirits, both good and evil, that people still believe guide the residents of the Issa Valley. All in all, this novel is poetry in prose, with much left unsaid.
I was eager to read Milosz after I read My Century, in which Milosz interviews Aleksander Wat, a Polish poet of an earlier generation, and Lisa (labfs39) recommended this novel. I'm glad she did, I'm glad I read it, and I will look for more of Milosz's work.
The Issa Valley by Czeslaw Milosz
What a poetic novel this is, perhaps not surprisingly so since Milosz is a poet, and a Nobel Prize-winning one at that. At least partly autobiographical, the novel is at once a coming-of-age story, a paean to nature, a study of character, a history of Lithuania, and a portrait of a rural, largely pre-industrial world that was soon to be utterly destroyed. Milosz was born in Lithuania (then part of the Russian empire) in 1911, but his family had for several generations spoken Polish, and while he was fluent in both languages (as well as several others), he considered himself a Polish poet and wrote in Polish.
In the novel, young Thomas has been sent to live with his maternal grandparents in the Issa Valley, a remote area in Lithuania that is filled with lakes and forests, as his father is fighting with some army (either the Russians or the Poles, who are fighting each other) and his mother is stranded over the border; his paternal grandmother is also living there. He is probably about 9 or 10 when the novel begins, but his age isn't specified until much later. The family was previously better off than it is now, but they own a "manor" house and quite a bit of land, including forests. Later on, this puts them slightly at odds with some of the local population who, inspired no doubt by what little bits of information they have heard about the Russian revolution, are itching for land distribution.
It is probably a lonely time for Thomas, and he first finds comfort in his grandfather's library, discovering books that had been gathering dust on the shelves for decades. Later he becomes completely enamored by nature, learning first about plants and then about birds, loving both his observations of them in their habitats and their names and the whole Linnean naming system. Eventually he meets a neighboring landowner who initiates Thomas into hunting. At first, Thomas is very proud to be included with the grown men, and is fascinated by how hunters creep through the woods, call to birds, and set their dogs to work. Everything about the way Milosz describes the forests and the animals is utterly lyrical. Ultimately, Thomas finds it difficult to kill the birds and other animals they are hunting.
But this novel is about much more than Thomas, and the voice of the novel is not Thomas's but someone who is able to see all of the society of the little town of Gine and its surroundings. The reader sees many of the inhabitants of the area, including the priest who is having an affair with his housekeeper (who comes back to haunt the town), a tormented forester, a bitter and cruel but persuasive poor boy, the local priests, and many others, and gains some knowledge of their histories and characters. Thomas's family is also explored: his maternal grandfather tells him about Lithuanian history, his paternal grandmother meditates on her own life story and her husband and sons, and his mother's sister, his aunt Helen, enjoys some extramarital adventures. The portrait Milosz paints of Thomas's paternal grandmother is particularly rich, and the scene where she is dying is one of the most beautiful and insightful I have read. At the same time, the novel is rich with the spirits, both good and evil, that people still believe guide the residents of the Issa Valley. All in all, this novel is poetry in prose, with much left unsaid.
I was eager to read Milosz after I read My Century, in which Milosz interviews Aleksander Wat, a Polish poet of an earlier generation, and Lisa (labfs39) recommended this novel. I'm glad she did, I'm glad I read it, and I will look for more of Milosz's work.
156labfs39
I love The Issa Valley
157rebeccanyc
I recently read Lucifer Unemployed by Aleksander Wat and thought I would add a review of it to this thread even though the quarter is over.
Wat published this book of short stories in 1927. The Great War (not yet World War I) was over. Nazism had not yet started, and Stalin hadn't reached his murderous heights. Wat, according to his fascinated memoir, My Century, was a futurist and a dadaist, movements which, as far as I can tell, rejected traditional forms in an attempt to reflect the changes in the post-war world and distaste for bourgeois conceptions of art. In these stories, ideas play the central role, along with playfulness and satire, not character or plot.
For example, the title story, which is the last story in the volume, takes the idea that the devil has been put out of business by the modern world, and poor unemployed Lucifer goes around talking to people in various lines of work who illustrate for him why the devil is no longer needed. In the first story, "The Eternally Wandering Jew," Jews take over the Catholic church and start these new Catholics go on to oppress the now ex-Catholics in the same way the church and society formerly oppressed Jews. In "Kings in Exile," the former crowned heads of Europe are exiled to a remote island, where they attempt to recreate the world as they had known, and end up regressing through the stages of civilization. In one of my favorite stories, "The History of the Last Revolution in England," a soccer ball intrudes on a fight between the revolutionaries and the military, and they end up setting themselves up as soccer teams instead. In several of the stories, such as "Has Anyone Seen Pigeon Street?," Wat turns the idea of reality on its head -- with a trick at the end.
In some ways the stories are prescient. Although the worst horrors of the 20th century, horrors that ended up enveloping Wat, were yet to happen, a reader (or maybe only a reader now, who knows what happened next), can feel something ominous hanging over some of the stories. They can be playful, but they are serious, and they don't embrace the modernity they represent.
Wat musing on history and the future:
"Does it always have to be true in human history that the simple, safe, small, insignificant, worthless things excite more passion, kindle more courage, animosity, and heroism; arouse more interest and encourage greater effort than than the dangerous, harmful, great, dignified, deadly things? So be it -- we will say with great solemnity. If that is how things really are, we should be happy, for there are so many harmful and explosive and annihilating things that one should wish that humanity should devote as little attention to them as possible." From "The History of the Last Revolution in England," p. 37.
A quote I appreciated as an editor:
" 'Here I am to offer you my collaboration,' he said to the editor. 'I know all the secrets of creation, and I will reveal things to you no one else knows.'
'Why, that's impossible,' the editor replied. 'We know everything already. To know everything is our raison d'ȇtre. As it is, we have more contributors than subscribers. Maybe some other time.'" From "Lucifer Unemployed," p. 95.
Wat the poet making fun of poets and language:
"Poets and snobs congregated here: poets and snobbery go together as nicely as a thrown rock and ripples in water. This is the place where the wisemen who sucked wisdom out of the pacifier of words got together. What a shame! What a shame that for so long we have lacked a nurse of revelation! Words are tubercular, syphilitic, and preserve in their countless tissues swarming colonies of ambiguous microbes. By means of the same words some pave the way for European Buddhism, others propagate Orthodoxy and Catholicism. The latter are blood brothers to the inventors of deadly dynamite, all of course in the name of pacifism. And even if one finds healthy words in some out-of-the-way place, words securely fastened to the earth, even then poets would unchain them and punch them into the empty, vacant sky. What a shame! What a shame! And it's not as if they were mad dogs. They were only the colored bubbles of words." From "Lucifer Unemployed," pp. 105-106
I had mixed feelings about this book. I admired Wat's language, his wit, and his ideas, but I found it hard to get into the stories themselves.
Wat published this book of short stories in 1927. The Great War (not yet World War I) was over. Nazism had not yet started, and Stalin hadn't reached his murderous heights. Wat, according to his fascinated memoir, My Century, was a futurist and a dadaist, movements which, as far as I can tell, rejected traditional forms in an attempt to reflect the changes in the post-war world and distaste for bourgeois conceptions of art. In these stories, ideas play the central role, along with playfulness and satire, not character or plot.
For example, the title story, which is the last story in the volume, takes the idea that the devil has been put out of business by the modern world, and poor unemployed Lucifer goes around talking to people in various lines of work who illustrate for him why the devil is no longer needed. In the first story, "The Eternally Wandering Jew," Jews take over the Catholic church and start these new Catholics go on to oppress the now ex-Catholics in the same way the church and society formerly oppressed Jews. In "Kings in Exile," the former crowned heads of Europe are exiled to a remote island, where they attempt to recreate the world as they had known, and end up regressing through the stages of civilization. In one of my favorite stories, "The History of the Last Revolution in England," a soccer ball intrudes on a fight between the revolutionaries and the military, and they end up setting themselves up as soccer teams instead. In several of the stories, such as "Has Anyone Seen Pigeon Street?," Wat turns the idea of reality on its head -- with a trick at the end.
In some ways the stories are prescient. Although the worst horrors of the 20th century, horrors that ended up enveloping Wat, were yet to happen, a reader (or maybe only a reader now, who knows what happened next), can feel something ominous hanging over some of the stories. They can be playful, but they are serious, and they don't embrace the modernity they represent.
Wat musing on history and the future:
"Does it always have to be true in human history that the simple, safe, small, insignificant, worthless things excite more passion, kindle more courage, animosity, and heroism; arouse more interest and encourage greater effort than than the dangerous, harmful, great, dignified, deadly things? So be it -- we will say with great solemnity. If that is how things really are, we should be happy, for there are so many harmful and explosive and annihilating things that one should wish that humanity should devote as little attention to them as possible." From "The History of the Last Revolution in England," p. 37.
A quote I appreciated as an editor:
" 'Here I am to offer you my collaboration,' he said to the editor. 'I know all the secrets of creation, and I will reveal things to you no one else knows.'
'Why, that's impossible,' the editor replied. 'We know everything already. To know everything is our raison d'ȇtre. As it is, we have more contributors than subscribers. Maybe some other time.'" From "Lucifer Unemployed," p. 95.
Wat the poet making fun of poets and language:
"Poets and snobs congregated here: poets and snobbery go together as nicely as a thrown rock and ripples in water. This is the place where the wisemen who sucked wisdom out of the pacifier of words got together. What a shame! What a shame that for so long we have lacked a nurse of revelation! Words are tubercular, syphilitic, and preserve in their countless tissues swarming colonies of ambiguous microbes. By means of the same words some pave the way for European Buddhism, others propagate Orthodoxy and Catholicism. The latter are blood brothers to the inventors of deadly dynamite, all of course in the name of pacifism. And even if one finds healthy words in some out-of-the-way place, words securely fastened to the earth, even then poets would unchain them and punch them into the empty, vacant sky. What a shame! What a shame! And it's not as if they were mad dogs. They were only the colored bubbles of words." From "Lucifer Unemployed," pp. 105-106
I had mixed feelings about this book. I admired Wat's language, his wit, and his ideas, but I found it hard to get into the stories themselves.
