Satantango

By: László Krasznahorkai

Narrated by: Grover Gardner

From the winner of the 2015 Man Booker International Prize

A dark, haunting masterpiece by the author of The Melancholy of Resistance and Seiobo There Below

Now in audio, Satantango, the novel that inspired Béla Tarr’s classic film, is proof that the devil has all the good times. Set in an isolated hamlet, the novel unfolds over the course of a few rain-soaked days. Only a dozen inhabitants remain in the bleak village, rank with the stench of failed schemes, betrayals, failure, infidelity, sudden hopes, and aborted dreams. “Their world,” in the words of the renowned translator George Szirtes is “rough and ready, lost somewhere between the cosmic and tragic, in one small insignificant corner of the cosmos. Theirs is the dance of death.”

Into this world comes, it seems, a messiah....

©1985, 2012 László Krasnahorkai and George Szirtes (P)2020 New Directions Publishing Corp.

Arguments to the tune of Kafka?

This book started off good, seemed interesting.

Then it devolved in to a confusing story(?) with a range of characters that just argued a lot. Like constantly.

Returned.

Tone. Sound. Psychology. Humor.

Tone. Sound. Psychology, Humor. Stunning and original. In conversation with existential writing like Beckett and others.

Very very challenging

First the narrator is exceptionally excellent. The book is extremely challenging. The plot is difficult and the theme depressing. It deals with dis aspirations and the decay of socialist order.

Not one ray of sunshine

I am over one hour into this book and its characters are as miserable as its weather. I still have no clue what’s going on. It’s one of these gems where you rather do the dishes. I will continue though, hoping for the AHA moment.