Nate D's Reviews > War & War

Language, languages, architecture, and how these things construct the consciousness. Peace, war, the advent of money-based trade systems, and the end, personal or apocalyptically global. And much more, across most of human history and half the globe. There's a whole lot here, more than I can get a proper handle on. I still have some serious unpacking to do, and I don't mean from the month-long road trip I read this over the course of.

Actually, suddenly, thinking about what meaning the book attempts to or is able to transmit to me, and about my understanding and ability to understand, I'm suddenly thinking that this might be the prime content of the novel. The solitude of epiphany and the supreme difficulty of transmitting significant meaning to others. Maybe? This is definitely the core of Korin's struggle and it drives the entire confused-monologue structuring of the story. Like I said, lots more unpacking.

A note on format. Much can be said of the book's chapter structure. Each is a single winding (sometimes comma-splicing) sentence. Many go on for pages. Many are beautiful. All are pretty readable for all that. As above, the format totally works with the content.

A note on extra-textual punchlines. This one is inevitably tragic and sort of hilarious.

A note on Lazlo K. Hungarian speakers please translate more of his novels. (I just saw that we're getting a translation of Satantango, which Bela Tarr turned into a 7 hour film. Which, I mean, dang.)

A note on Mihaly Vig. I really kinda love the cameo from Bela Tarr's soundtracker and his band Balaton at a concert where Korin takes shelter early on in Budapest. It keeps things in the family. Hence the link back up there at the top of the review (since gone because the original site is gone and I can't recall which song seemed to fit at the time).