Satantango

略悶

Hm!

Something was in the water in 85 to generate both Blood Meridian and this novel... Both vivid depictions of the apocalypse of human morality. “Autumnal horseflies were buzzing around the cracked lampshade, describing drowsy figures of eight in its weak light, time and again colliding with the filthy porcelain, so that after each dull little thud their bodies fell back into the magnetic paths they themselves had woven, to continue this endless cycle, albeit on a tight closed circuit until the light went out...” While fiercely negative in its view of humanity, its a gripping read, the relentless narrative is masterfully executed/translated, to where the book becomes a vision beamed directly to the reader. I can't think of a more unsettling or deeply depressing chapter than “Unraveling”. It was curious to me Mrs. Halics was so obsessed with Revelation when Ecclesiastes better describes the events of the novel: “ also the heart of the sons of men is full of evil, and madness is in their heart while they live, and after that they go to the dead”

I have no words for how much I admire this novel. Krasznahorkai manages to drag apocalyptical karmic fears of biblical proportions through the mud (literally) of the static miserable lives of Hungarian peasants during the country's Communist regime. It is far from just a political period piece, however, its scale is timless and deals with deep universal concerns of humanity at large. It is an amazing artistic feat to seamlessly balance abstract existential ideas with gritty darkly comedic realism. More specifically, its main themes are chaos (or Satan's incomprehensible order), emptiness and degeneration, human weakness, and how everything is connected and entangled, and how lives and events are endlessly repeated. It is pitch-black, but the edge is smoothed out by dark humor and with both the concern and disdain for the tangible lives and hopes of the book's subjects.
Stylistically it is also brilliant, with long meandering sentences, unique to each character, full of commas and digressions that still ends up lucidly comprehensible. It certainly doesn't feed you with a silver spoon, and I have to admit I was quite confused at parts in the beginning, but once you get used to it, most other novels will seem anemic by comparison. You know it is a special reading experience once you are absorbed by the narrative and characters, struck by its grand apocalyptical themes and metaphors, intrigued by sheer inventiveness and when you're also able to heartily laugh at the same time, often all within once sentence.
I'm looking forward to reading the rest of his novels, Krasznahorkai is an unparalleled and unique genius.