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4.19 AVERAGE
4.19 AVERAGE
I can’t tell you the last time it’s taken me this long to finish a book. I don’t think I’d give it a fair rating, so I’m leaving that portion blank. This strikes me as a book I’d like to read for a class rather than for a casual read. I feel like I missed a lot of key plot points and symbols because I was trying to continually parse the sentence structure. Maybe I’ll try again another day on my Kindle?
At this point personally I've read all of his books, so nothing is going to change my mind, this writer is a genius who creates dense scenes that generally end badly, this one is a little bit more accessible and not quite as dark as previous stories, but I think that is awesome. Read all of his books!
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
"...there’s no other way to express it, this wording is, of course, arbitrary, but every wording is always arbitrary in the fullest measure; if anything exists at all...
... the world is nothing more than an event-lunacy..."
I spent a good deal of time trying to get "ahead" of this book (i.e., predict where it was going, literally project overlapping narrative or physical encounters between characters that would never actually happen, etc.). It was almost like I was fighting the very lack of control it foisted upon me as a reader. And it's been long enough since I read any Krasznahorkai that I forgot how easily he disorients and disarms me as a reader. Frequently, I'm left feeling like something has actually happened to me (a trace of a mysterious brush with evil)---it's like the characters themselves are left outside while I'm sheltered during a night when the Angel of Death passes through.
My immediate reaction upon finishing was that of having just read an allegory in which every level of society fails (science abandons the people, the government is corrupt, the police are in bed with outlaws, the press is dedicated to sensationalism, and the infrastructure is crumbling; culture is in the past, the economy is a joke, and the streets are overwhelmed by the homeless and strangers). It is the end of days complete with a plague of toads and death by fire.
All this gloom and doom is made more than palatable by absurdity and darkly comedic characters and circumstances (con men, eccentrics, incompetents, idiots, sycophants, gloryhounds, etc.). The entire book is built upon the return of a simpleton whose own expectations of the love and place he left are as equally removed from reality as the expectations of the hometown as they anticipate a kind of salvation-through-massive-financial-gift upon his return. One gets the sense that in Krasznahorkai's world, the end times would likely be postponed by the current war in Ukraine, supply chain issues, and the optimal media moment, but those petrol trucks will inevitably roll into town...
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Great review here: https://www.musicandliterature.org/reviews/2019/9/23/lszl-krasznahorkais-baron-wenckheims-homecoming
(link courtesy of Paul Fulcher’s insightful review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2655083271 )
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DID I MENTION THERE'S A BIKER GANG?!! THEY HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH THESE WORDS I WANT TO LOOK UP
János Kádár | opprobrium | bocet | hora mortului | Attila József | Georg Cantor | ushanka | Tanakh
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If forced to liken this to a musical experience, I would choose Messiaen's Quartet for the End of Time: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYpBHc8px_U&t=2844s
(Do you ever get forced to liken something to a musical experience? If not, you're hanging out with the wrong type of terrorists/torturers.)
dark
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
funny
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Nu ma asteptam la asa ceva: Cosmin Contra intr-un roman de László Krasznahorkai.
Unpleasantly pedantic. How can anyone write a sentence that goes on for 6+ pages? (I respect it, though; I'd do the same if I were an eccentric yet 'profound' author.)
challenging
dark
funny
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes