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4.13 AVERAGE
4.13 AVERAGE
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Loveable characters:
No
This isn't one of my favorite books I've read lately. The story of these two women and their complicated relationship was hard for me to identify with, but maybe that's the point since we all bring our own experiences and impressions of the situation with anyone who becomes important to us.
This is the most beautiful and honest book I have ever read. Each door and each person holds secrets and truths waiting to deep through the cracks in the frame. This book will hold a piece of my heart forever.
This is a very unusual book. It is very introspective and it takes place in the mind and memories of the narrator. The characters are very imperfect, human, and beautiful. Each layer of the characters is revealed over time as if the writer is establishing trust with us just like Emerence is establishing trust with her.
I spent a lot of time angry at the writer and thinking how stupid she was behaving, especially near the end. But I realized also that it's fine and well for me to judge her, but how good a daughter am I? Would I do anything so differently and be perfect? Perhaps I wouldn't have left Emerence to do an interview or buy her a TV or go to Athens. But I am imperfect too and maybe I don't appreciate my elders as much as I could.
Emerence made me think of my mother, her mortality and my own. I feel I got a glimpse into what it must feel like to age and I feel very changed after reading this.
I really liked this NY Times review of the book and highly recommend it: http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/02/08/books/review/the-door-by-magda-szabo.html?referer=http://www.bing.com/search?q=magda+szabo+the+door&qs=AS&pq=magda+szabo&sk=AS1&sc=5-11&sp=2&cvid=2FBB9927D0B240B0B2001B82112CA21E&FORM=QBLH
I spent a lot of time angry at the writer and thinking how stupid she was behaving, especially near the end. But I realized also that it's fine and well for me to judge her, but how good a daughter am I? Would I do anything so differently and be perfect? Perhaps I wouldn't have left Emerence to do an interview or buy her a TV or go to Athens. But I am imperfect too and maybe I don't appreciate my elders as much as I could.
Emerence made me think of my mother, her mortality and my own. I feel I got a glimpse into what it must feel like to age and I feel very changed after reading this.
I really liked this NY Times review of the book and highly recommend it: http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/02/08/books/review/the-door-by-magda-szabo.html?referer=http://www.bing.com/search?q=magda+szabo+the+door&qs=AS&pq=magda+szabo&sk=AS1&sc=5-11&sp=2&cvid=2FBB9927D0B240B0B2001B82112CA21E&FORM=QBLH
emotional
mysterious
sad
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This is a translation of a Hungarian novel about the relationship between a novelist and her elderly and hardened housekeeper that was rated one of the 10 best books of 2015 by the NYT. The book reviews use words like 'unsettling' and 'haunting', but I'd go more for 'puzzling'. These are some of the strangest characters that I've run across in a while, in the sense that they have bewildering emotional reactions to each other. We find out on page 1 that there will be a guilt-inducing death, which creates a growing sense of dread for the reader. But some of the other emotional underpinnings seemed odd and forced. The characters reacted to each other in ways that didn't make sense to me, which left me to wonder if something was lost in translation, either in the language or in cultural knowledge (despite being very well-reviewed). The housekeeper was secretive, cynical, and quick to lose her temper while the novelist was basically a toddler, flying into a rage (at least inwardly) at silly things and expecting the housekeeper to be like her in her emotional expression. In one scene the housekeeper brings the novelist trinkets from garage sales and the novelist is infuriated (which in turn enrages the housekeeper). I suppose I might be annoyed at having to display objects I hadn't chosen myself, but a rage seems a bit much. Despite such (and many) incidents, they held each other on pedestals, although neither realizing it. The climax of the story was indeed unsettling and haunting, but the emotional build-up to it perplexed me. And the emotional build up is the whole story really; the plot doesn't kick in until the end. There were some parts where I found the story gripping and others where I thought it dragged. I'm glad I read it, if for no other reason than I've never read a Hungarian novel before, but I have mixed feelings about it and am left a bit puzzled.
3.5
I wish I had liked it more, as I loved Abigail, but still recommended - it’s certainly a memorable book.
I wish I had liked it more, as I loved Abigail, but still recommended - it’s certainly a memorable book.
Review of the Naxosbooks Audiobook English language translation edition (2016) of the Hungarian language original [b:Az ajtó|1096647|Az ajtó|Magda Szabó|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1429387751l/1096647._SX50_.jpg|485644] (1987)
She was like Jehovah. She punished for generations.- The Door.
The Door was the March 2020 Group Read at the Goodreads Best 100 Women in Translation Group
I felt sick reading this, sooo many complicated emotions
The Door by Magda Szabó.
So many more people need to read this book. Why haven't more people read this book?
I absolutely loved it. And I want to write about it. But I can't. It's just one of those books that you have to read.
The two main people that this book evolve around will forever be in my DNA.
So many more people need to read this book. Why haven't more people read this book?
I absolutely loved it. And I want to write about it. But I can't. It's just one of those books that you have to read.
The two main people that this book evolve around will forever be in my DNA.