Customer Reviews

War & War (New Directions Paperbook)

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"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.

If you loved Dostoyevsky's Notes from the Underground and its short size left your hungry for more, then Laszlo Krasznahorkai's War & War will be a good treat for you. It has a similar air of deranged mischievousness and dark humor. Yes, the sentences are extremely long (many are page-long), but, rather than being a gimmick, this choice of style is meant to go hand-in-hand with the spirit of the protagonist. He has so much to say and no idea where to start or stop. Nonetheless, he ends up telling us a lot of good stuff, with a level of physiological insightfulness that, again, is reminiscent of Dostoyevsky. I look forward to reading Mr. Krasznahorkai's future books.

An interesting and well written book that never connected to me at any point. I hope to find a point to hook me and make me care but from the intriguing beginning when the main character fends off a band of boys that try to rob him by muttering seemingly random stuff that make him appear insane to his preparing for travel and on and on, I just did not care about the novel and it ultimately read like empty words.