Janice's Reviews > War & War

War and War is the story of Korin, an archivist from a small Hungarian town, crippled by his passivity and his jejune life. Through his work, he randomly encounters an impenetrable manuscript that recounts the tale of the same four men appearing in various points in history, and observations about civilization and art. Korin becomes transfixed by the abstruse manuscript; his obsession incites him to sell all of his worldly possessions and abandon his life in Hungary, to come to New York City -- the center of the world -- and transcribe the manuscript so that it may be read by all on the internet, for all eternity. The manuscript serves as the catalyst for Korin’s descent into madness (or was he mentally ill to begin with?) as Korin is repeatedly thrust into terrifying scenarios in the pursuit of his goal.

Reading this is a demanding and often disorienting experience. The structure is such that it is easy to let the mind wander and completely lose track of the narrative thread. Each chapter is divided into sub-chapters, and each sub-chapter consists of one sentence; one sentence that will often meander for pages and flow into different thoughts or parts of the story. Thus, it requires adopting a very specific reading pace or way of focusing on the text, in order to adequately retain anything. Reading this was reminiscent of one of those Magic Eye 3D posters from the 90s, in that way. If you focus too hard, or observe it from the wrong angle, it is unlikely you will be able to view the illusion.



Like its predecessor, Satantango, War and War was able to tear down my emotional iron curtain and provoke a wide range of emotions with startling intensity. There were times where I was filled with rage by the blighted world Korin inhabited. Other times I was profoundly sad, knowing that Korin’s story would end with his suicide (this is not a spoiler, this is on the back of the book), and inexplicably hopeful that something good would happen to him (this is a Krasznahorkai novel, after all). But then, after a brief honeymoon, I became frustrated by the novel’s density, especially the parts of the narrative where Korin’s story intertwined with his descriptions of the manuscript (which is the point, as Korin retreats further into the many worlds of the manuscript and away from his cruel reality). But these parts of the novel required a lot of heavy lifting, and left me feeling exhausted and unsatisfied, and like I was constantly missing something, but I didn’t find the manuscript interesting enough to care about it (even though I cared about Korin, and Korin only cared about the manuscript).

War and War was published in 1999, after Krasznahorkai had achieved a significant amount of success and critical acclaim; most notably for his earlier novels, Satantango and The Melancholy of Resistance, both adapted for the screen by Béla Tarr. Having read Satantango, his first novel, not too long ago, qualifies me for drawing some comparison between the two works. It felt as if there was a cocksure swagger to War and War that was absent from Satantango. And I don’t mean this in a complimentary way. (And this is not sour grapes because a lot of this book went over my head.) I felt like the excessive density of the prose had a bitter, masturbatory quality to it. Like LK was saying, “Fuck you, I know I’m brilliant and amazing. I want to alienate all you fuckers,” thus turning his readers into unwitting participants victims in a degrading, ritualistic bukkake.

Finally, let’s talk about ratings here. I am strangely obsessed with rating books appropriately (or, maybe it’s because ratings correspond well with the obsessive compulsive part of my personality). I question the veracity of the almost universal high ratings on this. I can’t be the only person that felt this way about this book. Are people being honest with themselves? Is no one else willing to admit that this made them feel stupid? Or maybe this is an illustration of the famous JD Salinger quote from The Catcher in the Rye; “All you have to do is say something nobody understands and they’ll do practically anything you want them to.” Including characterizing this book as amazing, when at least half of the time it was incomprehensible.