War & War (New Directions Paperbook) [Paperback]

László Krasznahorkai (Author), George Szirtes (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 17, 2006

A novel of awesome beauty and power by the Hungarian master, Laszla Krasznahorkai. Winner of a 2005 PEN Translation Fund Award.

War and War, Laszla Krasznahorkai's second novel in English from New Directions, begins at a point of danger: on a dark train platform Korim is on the verge of being attacked by thuggish teenagers and robbed; and from here, we are carried along by the insistent voice of this nervous clerk. Desperate, at times almost mad, but also keenly empathic, Korim has discovered in a small Hungarian town's archives an antique manuscript of startling beauty: it narrates the epic tale of brothers-in-arms struggling to return home from a disastrous war. Korim is determined to do away with himself, but before he can commit suicide, he feels he must escape to New York with the precious manuscript and commit it to eternity by typing it all on the world-wide web. Following Korim with obsessive realism through the streets of New York (from his landing in a Bowery flophouse to his moving far uptown with a mad interpreter), War and War relates his encounters with a fascinating range of humanity, a world torn between viciousness and mysterious beauty. Following the eight chapters of War and War is a short "prequel acting as a sequel," "Isaiah," which brings us to a dark bar, years before in Hungary, where Korim rants against the world and threatens suicide. Written like nothing else (turning single sentences into chapters), War and War affirms W. G. Sebald's comment that Krasznahorkai's prose "far surpasses all the lesser concerns of contemporary writing."

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Krasznahorkai's second English translation follows György Korin, an arguably insane former clerk from outside Budapest who arrives at JFK airport with his life savings in his coat lining, determined to put a manuscript he discovered onto the internet (and thus preserve it for eternity), and then to kill himself. The manuscript's authorship is mysterious, and Korin's narration of its contents resembles his concerns, which he unleashes on unsuspecting strangers: "We pass things without any idea what we have passed, and he didn't know, said he, whether his companion knew the feeling." Though Krasznahorkai's sentences can run on for pages, a subversive aim underlies the rambling: many characters who swiftly dismiss Korin as insane, though better at affecting normalcy, are themselves vile. A sudden, brutal murder makes Korin seem more prescient than paranoid. This lucidity, however, is tempered by an epilogue that portrays Korin as more unreliable than anything prior suggests; Krasznahorkai aims for unsettling irresolution and nails it in a way reminiscent of Kafka.
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Review

A layered, freewheeling, amazingly persuasive tour of living human consciousness, in various states of self-awareness. -- Newsday, Chris Lehmann

The contemporary Hungarian master of the apocalypse who inspires comparisons with Gogol and Melville. -- Susan Sontag

The portrait of a character almost terminally worn out, in a world of dissolution and disarray. -- ReadySteadyBook, Paul Griffiths

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 279 pages
• Publisher: New Directions; First Edition edition (April 17, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0811216098
• ISBN-13: 978-0811216098
• Product Dimensions: 5.1 x 0.6 x 9.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #75,800 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 21 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Like Thomas Bernhard's more optimistic little brother. July 26, 2008

By M. Haber

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

"War & War" is the first novel I've read by Hungarian author Krasznahorkai (only two have been translated into English so far). I was very impressed by the style of the writing and the dark humor. The main character, Korin, is an ex-archivist who flees from Hungary to New York - the center of the world - in hopes of sending a package, or text, he's discovered at his work. Of course the only sensible way to share the work with the world and make it immortal is the internet. Wah lah!

The text is dense and intentionally repititive and reminded me, in style, of Thomas Bernhard. The dialogue is sparse and is usually told internally or after-the-fact. However,Krasznahorkai's style, though dark, isn't as black as Bernhard's; there is no railing against Austria or humanity, at least directly.

I enjoyed the book immensely and anyone interested in an original, well-thought story would enjoy the read. I won't say how the book ends or what could be in the 'text' that Korin found at his work.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Perhaps the most maddeningly impenetrable book I have ever read. April 16, 2012

By Digital Rights

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I feel like I can breathe again after finishing Laszlo Krasznahorkai's "War and War" despite many fits and starts.

Afterwards I spent time googling reviews and abstracts as I was left wondering if I "got it"; if there was in fact something to get. In reading other very intelligent comments I take comfort in that Krasznahorkai is sufficiently vague allowing broad interpretation and I conclude that there are three main things one needs to be prepared for before delving in; the style, the plot and the "what is he really talking about?".

The style is distinctive and somewhat reminiscent of Thomas Bernhard with long, rambling sentences and characters that are neurotic and likely mad. But I think the differences with Bernhard are more notable. TB takes an idea and works it in a 100 different ways that it tightly wound then he gradually then moves to a second point that is similarly repeated reanalyzed and reinforcing. It's lyrical and I was often left with my jaw down impressed by the way he could look at a subject so many ways and with such great use of language. In my mind looked like balls of twine tightly wound and bunched up and tied again in another ball.

LK is more linear. His rambles are every bit equal to Bernhard and the writing is good (I'll say I like the english translation). The problem is that the reader can lose attention as the sentences do not re-enforce and remind one of the prior passages. If I had to re-read 20% of a TB book I had to re-read 50% or more of "War and War". To combat that I tried every which way to better focus; more coffee, less coffee, no music, soft music, good posture, sprawled out and all kinds of lighting and scenery. But still there were parts where I just accepted to turn the page and hope for the best.

The plot centers around a Hungarian archivest - sort of an uber librarian, that has come across an old manuscript that overwhelms but confuses him with it's seeming importance and magnificence. Korin relays parts of this text to us through long dialogues with the odd assortment of characters he meets along his path. He is compelled to take the manuscript to New York and somehow release it and thus save it for all time. His mode is to get up on the World Wide Web.

The story in the manuscript is about 4 wanderers moving through time and place from ancient Greece to Hadrian's Wall in Roman times to Renaissance Italy. We never get much substance to identify the 4 as individuals beyond their names. They tend to show up at times of conflict and they seem to be peaceful travelers. Perhaps they are prophets or saints or savants. But part of Krasznahorkai's style is to leave it ambiguous.

Korin's travels from Hungary to New York, his life there and his travels onward are full of largely horrible characters that contrast with the peacefulness of the four travelers in his manuscript.

Like Bernhard, LK seemingly cares not if you read his book or what you might think of it. As one progesses through the book there are multiple near tipping points where the story could come out of the clouds and yet Krasznahorkai stops or move away. Frequently Korin is obsessing over the manuscript to one person or another. He is thinking through chapter one or five or six both recounting it to the reader and interpreting it. Just when he seems closer to a discovery or delving into the characters he is brought back to the present by some immediate distraction.

My assumption is that this is LK's way of sliding away from anything concrete. As a writer of the late communist and early post wall generation perhaps he's locked in a world where symbols, metaphors and allegory had to suffice to pass the censors. One critique made the observation that LK recognized that realism was a failure in that a writer could not objectively depict his own environment and that what LK is doing here is showing the uselessness of trying. If that's true than it would explain Korin's mania and ultimate failure to see objectively and in a sense escape instead of being crushed.

This is a hard book to love. It's complex, frequently meanders and I had to put it down or re-read passages often. The first 30 pages were so good that I felt a bit let down that he went in a different direction than I expected but it's clearly told on multiple levels that left me intrigued about his other works and willing to re-read this again at some point when perhaps I have more perspective. And he does have the coolest name in literature.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Labyrinth of Words June 30, 2012

By M.J. Boone

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

This novel is Krasznahorkai's masterpiece.

Krasznahorkai's writing feels ancient. He is an primeval architect of narrative, of perspective, of vast sentences...There are rarely, if ever, direct experiences-- someone, usually Korin, the protagonist, but often the people he runs into, is always speaking to someone else about something that just happened to them. Usually the people he encounters are talking to their friends or husbands or girlfriends a couple days later about how crazy, pathetic, or strangely irresistible Korin ends up being as he spouts his entire story time and again.

There's a great melancholy in the story, too, as most people he speaks to, for pages and hours on end, don't understand a word he is saying as he is trying to communicate his grand realization about the march of history.

Of all the indirecty recounted stories, the one that is most captivating is that of the manuscript he finds, which narrates a story as mysterious, yet strangely irresistible as the larger novel. In fact, much of how Korin describes the manuscript actually describes the novel as a whole.

All that said, this book is not for everyone. It's not light beach reading; it will require the whole of your attention. It's not a book you read in one sitting, or at least it shouldn't be... You will have to take time to think in between sections (each section being one sentence long, with sentence lengths ranging from two lines to seven pages) and chapters. It's not just a narrative-- Krasznahorkai is grappling with some major ideas here.

This book is a future classic. This book is a labyrinth.

It's maddening, it's heartbreaking, and it's beautiful.