Satantango (novel)
.png) First edition cover (Hungary) | |
| Author | László Krasznahorkai |
|---|---|
| Original title | Sátántangó |
| Translator | George Szirtes |
| Language | Hungarian |
| Publisher | Magvető |
Publication date | 1985 |
| Publication place | Hungary |
Published in English | 2012 |
| Pages | 333 |
| ISBN | 9631403831 |
Satantango (Hungarian: Sátántangó, tr. "Satan's Tango") is a 1985 novel by the Hungarian writer László Krasznahorkai.[1] It is Krasznahorkai's debut novel.[2] It was adapted into a widely acclaimed seven-hour film, Sátántangó (1994), directed by Béla Tarr. The English translation by George Szirtes won the Best Translated Book Award (2013).[3]
Structure
[edit]The novel is postmodernist and is narrated from multiple perspectives. The structure of the book's chapters resembles a tango, with six "steps" forward followed by six backward. Every chapter is a long paragraph which does not contain line breaks.[4] The twelve parts are titled as follows (in the original Hungarian and in English translation).
- I. A hír, hogy jönnek [News of Their Coming]
- II. Feltámadunk [We Are Resurrected]
- III. Valamit tudni [To Know Something]
- IV. A pók dolga I. [The Work of the Spider I]
- V. Felfeslők [Unraveling]
- VI. A pók dolga II (Ördögcsecs, sátántangó) [The Work of the Spider II (The Devil's Tit, Satantango)]
- VI. Irimiás beszédet mond [Irimiás Makes A Speech]
- V. A távlat, ha szemből [The Distance, As Seen]
- IV. Mennybe menni? Lázálmodni? [Heavenly Vision? Hallucination?]
- III. A távlat, ha hátulról [The Distance, as Approached from the Other Side]
- II. Csak a gond, a munka [Nothing but Work and Worries]
- I. A kör bezárul [The Circle Closes]
Plot
[edit]Most of the action occurs in a run-down Hungarian village ("estate") which is in a vicinity of an unnamed town but the inhabitants are almost isolated from the outside world. The main character, Irimiás, a con man posing as a savior, arrives at the estate, achieves an almost unlimited power over the inhabitants, gets them to give him all their hard-earned money, convinces them to move to another abandoned "estate" nearby, and then brings them to the town, where he disperses them around the country.
Reception
[edit]Jacob Silverman of The New York Times reviewed the book in 2012, and wrote that it "shares many of [Krasznahorkai]'s later novels' thematic concerns — the abeyance of time, an apocalyptic sense of crisis and decay — but it's an altogether more digestible work. Its story skips around in perspective and temporality, but the narrative is rarely unclear. For a writer whose characters often exhibit a claustrophobic interiority, Krasznahorkai also shows himself to be unexpectedly expansive and funny here."[5]
Theo Tait in The Guardian praised the novel and, in particular, said that it is "possessed of a distinctive, compelling vision". He underscored the perceptible influence of Franz Kafka and Samuel Beckett on the novel.[6]
External links
[edit]See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ Lea, Richard (24 August 2012). "László Krasznahorkai interview: 'This society is the result of 10,000 years?'". The Guardian. Retrieved 25 August 2012.
- ^ NHQ (The New Hungarian Quarterly) 1990: "Laszlo Krasznahorkai's first novel, Sátántangó ("Satan's Tango", 1985: NHQ 100 contains an extract) was about hope, his second one is about hopelessness."
- ^ Chad W. Post (May 6, 2013). "2013 BTBA Winners: Satantango and Wheel with a Single Spoke". Three Percent. Retrieved April 28, 2014.
- ^ Tait, Theo (2012-05-09). "Satantango by László Krasznahorkai – review". The Guardian. Retrieved 2018-11-08.
- ^ Silverman, Jacob (2012-03-16). "The Devil They Know". The New York Times. Retrieved 2012-03-18.
- ^ Tait, Theo (2012-05-09). "Satantango by László Krasznahorkai – review". The Guardian. Retrieved 2018-11-08.
Works by László Krasznahorkai | |
|---|---|
| Novels and novellas |
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| Short fiction |
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| Screenplays |
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