H IS FOR HUNGARY
A book that makes you work, a slow read and a slow burn, that makes finishing all the more satisfying. A searing study of decay within and without: dark, funny, unrelenting, maddening, beautiful, a hymn to paltry things, and a satire of pettiness. The circular pattern that is known as Satantango’s main device makes the prospects more and less bleak simultaneously, and it’s this duality that makes it so mighty. Faulkner, Bresson, Beckett all come to mind as inspirations, but instead of imitating, Krasznahorkai just continues.
Satantango by László Krasznahorkai
Translated from Hungarian by George Szirtes
Published by New Directions in 1987
