A Book of Memories
Encyclopedia
A Book of Memories is a 1986 novel by the Hungarian writer Péter Nádas
. The narrative follows a Hungarian novelist involved in a romantic triangle in East Berlin; interwoven with the main story are sections of a novel the main character is writing, about a German novelist at the turn of the century.
An English translation by Ivan Sanders and Imre Goldstein was published in 1997 through Farrar, Straus and Giroux
. The novel won the French Prix du Meilleur Livre Étranger
in 1998.
Under Socialism", Eva Hoffman
reviewed the book for The New York Times
. She wrote that "in A Book of Memories, Peter Nadas ... has accomplished a remarkably interesting feat: he has transposed the novel of consciousness to the Socialist universe, and closed the gap between prewar modernism (inflected here by post-modern psychoanalysis) and Eastern Europe." Hoffman wrote that the novel has a style of details in "magnified, hot close-up", and that "Longueurs can have their plaisirs, as we know from Proust; but some passages in A Book of Memories are drawn out to the point of tedium or silliness, and the novel within the novel is marred by occasional affectation. Still, these are minor flaws in a work that offers a lot of incidental as well as major pleasures: quirky chapter titles, in the manner of Robert Musil
("A Telegram Arrives" and "Slowly the Pain Returned"); an astonishing scene in which two boys help a sow deliver her litter; a rare honesty about the conflicts of homosexual romance; and the colloquial freshness of the language."
The American literary theorist Susan Sontag
called A Book of Memories "the greatest novel written in our time, and one of the great books of the century."
Péter Nádas
Péter Nádas is a Hungarian writer, playwright, and essayist.- Biography :He was born in Budapest as the son of László Nádas and Klára Tauber. After the takeover of the Hungarian Nazis, the Arrow Cross Party on 15 October 1944, Klára Tauber escaped with her son to Bačka and Novi Sad, but returned...
. The narrative follows a Hungarian novelist involved in a romantic triangle in East Berlin; interwoven with the main story are sections of a novel the main character is writing, about a German novelist at the turn of the century.
An English translation by Ivan Sanders and Imre Goldstein was published in 1997 through Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Farrar, Straus and Giroux is an American book publishing company, founded in 1946 by Roger W. Straus, Jr. and John C. Farrar. Known primarily as Farrar, Straus in its first decade of existence, the company was renamed several times, including Farrar, Straus and Young and Farrar, Straus and Cudahy...
. The novel won the French Prix du Meilleur Livre Étranger
Prix du Meilleur Livre Étranger
The Prix du Meilleur Livre Étranger is a French literary prize created in 1948. It is awarded yearly in two categories: Novel and Essay for books translated in to French.- Prix du Meilleur livre étranger — Novel :* 2010: Gonçalo M...
in 1998.
Reception
Under the headline "The Soul of ProustMarcel Proust
Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust was a French novelist, critic, and essayist best known for his monumental À la recherche du temps perdu...
Under Socialism", Eva Hoffman
Eva Hoffman
Eva Hoffman is a writer and academic. She was born Ewa Wydra July 1, 1945 in Cracow, Poland after her Jewish parents survived the Holocaust by hiding in the Ukraine. In 1959, during the Cold War, the thirteen years old Eva, her nine years old sister "Alinka" and her parents immigrated to Vancouver,...
reviewed the book for The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
. She wrote that "in A Book of Memories, Peter Nadas ... has accomplished a remarkably interesting feat: he has transposed the novel of consciousness to the Socialist universe, and closed the gap between prewar modernism (inflected here by post-modern psychoanalysis) and Eastern Europe." Hoffman wrote that the novel has a style of details in "magnified, hot close-up", and that "Longueurs can have their plaisirs, as we know from Proust; but some passages in A Book of Memories are drawn out to the point of tedium or silliness, and the novel within the novel is marred by occasional affectation. Still, these are minor flaws in a work that offers a lot of incidental as well as major pleasures: quirky chapter titles, in the manner of Robert Musil
Robert Musil
Robert Musil was an Austrian writer. His unfinished long novel The Man Without Qualities is generally considered to be one of the most important modernist novels...
("A Telegram Arrives" and "Slowly the Pain Returned"); an astonishing scene in which two boys help a sow deliver her litter; a rare honesty about the conflicts of homosexual romance; and the colloquial freshness of the language."
The American literary theorist Susan Sontag
Susan Sontag
Susan Sontag was an American author, literary theorist, feminist and political activist whose works include On Photography and Against Interpretation.-Life:...
called A Book of Memories "the greatest novel written in our time, and one of the great books of the century."