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3.33 AVERAGE
3.33 AVERAGE
marc129's review
1.0
I remember how this book was glorified, back in 1988, when the Dutch translation was published. The next year the Iron Curtain fell and Konrad was the fame of the day. Earlier I read 'the Visitor' and was very charmed by it. But this book was a disappointment. This novel is centered around the Hungarian capital Budapest and its surrounding, under communist regime. Konrad presents a number of "voices", including his own as a writer, looking back on his life. These are the interesting parts. But the other voices (including a sarcastic old man and a woman obsessed by suicide) are really awful. I think, in the end, it was the disengaged writing style, very descriptive (you can find it with a lot of Central European writers) that put me of and made me close the book about halfway. I noticed Konrad's glory has totally faded; it says enough that I'm even the first one to write a review on Goodreads.