Finally – my new website is up and running – here it is: the fourth instalment of László Krasznahorkai’s novel cycle, or as he described it: ‘I’ve said a thousand times that I always wanted to write just one book. Now, with this novel, I can prove that I really wrote just one book in my life. This is the book – Satantango, Melancholy, War & War, and Baron. This is my one book.’
So far – I am halfway through this monstrous book – it reminds me of Bela Tarr’s Satantango movie, again focusing on the absurdities of provincial Hungarian life, which of course transcends into a wider meaning of the absurdity of life in general.
W G Sebald described Krasznahorkai very aptly: ‘Far surpasses all the lesser concerns of contemporary writing.’
Here a short summary of this Kafkaeske plot:
Nearing the end of his life, Baron Bela Wenckheim has decided to return to the provincial Hungarian town of his birth. Having escaped from his many casino debts in Buenos Aires, where he was exiled, he wants to be reunited with his high-school sweetheart Marika. An endless storm of gossip, con men and local politicians follows, depicting the small town’s drab and absurd existence. Death and the abyss loom, until finally doom is brought down on the unsuspecting residents of the town.
Not particularly bedtime reading, but a fascinating exploration of the human existence. Reminiscent of Dostojevski, where the big questions of life are investigated.
