‘Satantango’ by László Krasznahorkai (Review – IFFP 2013, Number 16)

When the longlist for the 2013 Independent Foreign Fiction Prize was released, I frantically scanned the list, working out what I needed to do to get through it in time.  I had already finished four of the titles (all review copies) at some point in 2012, and I was able to obtain a further review copy fairly quickly.  The next stop was The Book Depository, where I bought the French-language version of Alain Mabanckou’s Black Bazaar, leaving the bulk of the heavy lifting to my wonderful local library system.

While the majority of the books came in fairly quickly, one remained stubbornly in the hands of a library patron in the north of the state – and as that was the only copy in our consortium of libraries…  After weeks of constantly checking online, I began to lose hope, until one day I got the text message I’d been waiting for – Satantango had finally arrived 🙂

But was it worth the wait?

*****
Satantango by László Krasznahorkai (translated by George Szirtes – from Tuskar Rock Press)
What’s it all about?
Krasznahorkai’s classic novel dates from 1985, but only appeared in English for the first time last year.  It’s a dark, demanding tale, a novel set in the Hungarian backwaters of an abandoned estate, where a small group of villagers have been hanging around for years, waiting for someone or something to rouse them from their torpor and lead them to happiness.  Deserted by the rest of their group, the remaining families pass their time drinking and sleeping with the neighbours, while all around them nature swiftly takes back what civilisation had carved out of the wilderness.

Just as it appears that some of the characters have summoned up enough energy (and cash) to make a run for it, a rumour reaches the village, news of the return (or resurrection…) of a man long thought dead.  The charismatic Irimiás is on his way back to the village, and thoughts of flight are immediately shelved.  The poor, deluded villagers are prepared to put all of their trust and belief, not to mention their hard-won cash, into the hands of the prodigal son.  While the hope they invest in Irimiás is understandable, given the circumstances, you sense that it’s a decision they’ll come to regret.  You see, Irimiás is no angel – unless it’s one of the fallen variety…

Satantango is highly allegorical, of course, a story of people rotting amongst the ruins of a failed forced agriculture project in Hungary.  It consists of twelve chapters divided into two parts, labelled I-VI and then VI-I, making up a story which, while moving forwards, also turns in a circle, bringing us back to where we started.  It also plays with narrative viewpoints, with the first half of the book consisting mostly of the same day and events told by several different voices – in fact, the occurrence promised in the first few pages of the book doesn’t eventuate until we are well past the half-way mark…

Most reviews of Satantango address the style, and Krasznahorkai’s way of writing is certainly noteworthy.  Satantango is made up primarily of lengthy, one-paragraph chapters, with long, long sentences spiralling off into the distance:

“His imagination was bewitched, almost to the point of paralysis by the notion that this estate with its rich, generous soil was, only a few million years ago, covered by the sea…that it had alternated between sea and dry land, and suddenly – even as he conscientiously noted down the stocky, swaying figure of Schmidt in his soggy quilted jacket and boots heavy with mud appearing on the path from Szikes, hurrying as if he feared being spotted, sliding in through the back door of his house – he was lost in successive waves of time, coolly aware of the minimal speck of his own being, seeing himself as the defenseless, helpless victim of the earth’s crust, the brittle arc of his life between birth and death caught up in the dumb struggle between surging seas and rising hills…”
p.58 (Tuskar Rock Press, 2012)

Apologies – my aching fingers just couldn’t quite make it to the end of that sentence 😉

The novel is deliberately obscure, confusing and unsettling.  There’s an epigram from Kafka’s The Castle at the start, and this is rather apt for what follows, as the reader spends much of the book in a Kafkaesque muddle, unsure as to what is actually happening (and why…).  The second chapter, where we meet Irimiás, has particular shades of Kafka, set as it is in a bureaucratic nightmare, with stairs leading off into the distance, offices leading into further offices and hours spent waiting for appointments.  There’s another similarity with Kafka here – if you think you understand what the writer is trying to do, you’re only kidding yourself…

Of course, there’s so much more to Satantango than a stylistic homage to The Castle or The Trial.  The slow pace allows for some great characterisation, and Krasznahorkai spends time sketching out a cast of wonderful creations.  As the story progresses, each of the characters becomes more fleshed out, and the links between them become more established, allowing us to almost predict how a person is likely to react, and what they might say when events take a turn for the worse.

More than the descriptions of the villagers though, it is Krasznahorkai’s portrayal of the environment which is most striking.  Satantango takes place amid a winter of mild discontent, and the reader can feel the cold, the wet, the mud, the rot and the decay:

“The Schmidts hadn’t used the room since spring.  Green mildew covered the cracked and peeling walls, but the clothes in the cupboard, a cupboard that was regularly cleaned, were also mildewed, as were the towels and all the bedding, and a couple of weeks was all it took for the cutlery saved in the drawer for special occasions to develop a coating of rust, and what with the legs of the big lace-covered table having worked loose, the curtains having yellowed and the lightbulb having gone out, they decided one day to move into the kitchen and stay there, and since there was nothing they could do to stop it happening anyway, they left the room to be colonized by spiders and mice.” (p.7)

In describing how nature has invaded the village, taking back what was once torn from its grasp, Krasznahorkai shows the extent to which the villagers have given up, retreating into themselves and waiting for an unlikely change.

Enter Irimiás…  The star of the show is an enigmatic figure, and it takes a while to find out just who he is (and we never find out exactly what he is doing).  There is a lot of talk in the book about networks, establishing connections to insulate the villagers from the realities of the outside world – and this is something echoed by the vast networks of webs spun by the mysterious spiders at the bar.  However, what he’s really up to is swindling money from the villagers.

What’s surprising though is just how easy it is for him to do it, especially in such a short time.  He even tells them that there is a good chance that they can lose all the money they eagerly place on the table in front of him.  Devoid of hope and desperate for a way out, the jealousy and infighting leaves the villagers easy prey.  Mrs. Schmidt’s lust, Mrs. Halics’ faith, the men’s greed…  They want to believe, sheep needing to be led.

In fact, Irimiás hypnotises them, to the extent that they are prepared to burn all their bridges, smashing furniture before their supposed impending departure from the village.  However, the greater the drunken (mass) delusion, the more painful the wake-up call:

“It was as if they were just now emerging from some evil spell.  They were sober at a stroke but they simply couldn’t understand what had happened to them in the last few hours: What demonic power had taken possession of them, stifling every sane and rational impulse?  What was it that had driven them to lose their heads and attack each other “like filthy pigs when the swill is late”?  What made it possible for people like them – people who had finally managed to emerge from years of apparently terminal hopelessness to breathe the dizzying air of freedom – to rush around in senseless despair, like prisoners in a cage so that even their vision had clouded over?” (p.237)

It’s a case of fools fooling themselves…

It seems churlish to look for negatives in a book like this, but there were a few things I didn’t like.  The dialogue was noticeably Americanised in places, especially in the early chapters, peppered with expressions like ‘buddy’, ‘pal’, ‘asshole’, ‘sonofabitch’, and ‘dumb ass’, and this jarred (perhaps deliberately so) with the style of the descriptive sections.  There was also a rather odd convention where seemingly normal expressions were enclosed in quotation marks, drawing attention to themselves for no real reason.  In addition, I wasn’t overly convinced by the ending; it all seemed a little too convenient and perhaps unworthy of the book as a whole…

The title?  Well, it has to do with both a pivotal scene mid-way through the book, one where the drunken villagers decide to dance while waiting for the ‘devil’, and the structure of the novel.  You see, the way Krasznahorkai has constructed his work apparently reflects the steps in a tango – six steps forwards, six steps back…

*****

Do you think it deserved to make the shortlist?
Of course, I do.  While I may have discussed a few minor issues with the book, the reality is that I’m not judging this to see if it’s good or not, but on the level of whether it deserves to be crowned best in (Shadow) show.  It’s a wonderful book, and one which I’d love to try again some time.

Why didn’t it make the shortlist?
I have two theories…

One – The panel had just written down the six names on the shortlist (of which Satantango was one) and sealed it in an envelope, when the five of them suddenly froze in mid movement.  An alien appeared from nowhere, opened the envelope, erased Satantango from the list with some kind of sonic device, replacing it with Bundu.  After resealing the envelope, the alien then disappeared, and the panellists went on their way (none the wiser), only realising what had happened when the envelope was opened and the news was made public – alas, too late to rectify the error.

Two – The five panellists, having read the sixteen books on the longlist, decided that Bundu was a better novel than Satantango, one which would stand the test of time much better than Krasznahorkai’s work.  Then they all went off for tea.

Yeah, I know – theory two does seem a little far-fetched…

*****
Well, that’s it – sixteen books read and reviewed.  Very soon, my colleagues and I will begin deliberations to see which of the six works on our shortlist will take out The Shadow Panel prize.  Keep an eye out for our verdict…

…oh, and we’ll see if the real panel can come up with a worthy winner too 😉

21 thoughts on “‘Satantango’ by László Krasznahorkai (Review – IFFP 2013, Number 16)

  1. I am longing to read each of the titles in the long list, and have only succeeded in reading most of The Detour by Gertrand Bakker which also made it to the short list. I will never finish the list by May 20 when the IFFP is announced, but at least I have a list from which to choose for my reading to come. I am envious of the availability you, Gary and Stu (as well as others) seem to have of the titles. Our library has heard of naught! I remember someone saying they loved Satantango best, so I really want to read it even though the obscurity you point out intimidates me. 🙂

    As to the Japanese Literature Challenge 7 that will begin in June. I need to update my Mr. Linky membership so that we don't lose the links as in the JCL6. Also, I'd love to have more information than simply links to reviews and titles. You did such a wonderful job on posting about Japanese authors' biographies, as well as obtaining guest posts. I did that in the JCL2 or 3, but I want to encorporate that again. xo

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  2. Bellezza – I have the same issue with the BTBA. I wanted to try a few from this year's shortlist, but my library (which, as mentioned, provided me with ten of the sixteen IFFP-longlisted books) had virtually none of them… In this area, at least, it seems that Australia is still very much tied to the mother country 😉

    Looking forward to JLC7 – your comment about Mr. Linky has me worried as I'm not sure what will happen to the links from 'January in Japan' (or whether I'll be able to add another linky next time…).

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  3. seraillon – You may like it, you may not, but it's one that most people interested in serious translated literary fiction should read. As for my theories, I have plenty, but no money for lawyers 😉 The alien idea narrowly won out over an alternative where Mr. T pities the fools on the panel for choosing 'Bundu' over 'Satantango' (I even had some ideas involving 'quit your jibber-jabber' on hand…).

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  4. I enjoyed it and my post on it was meant almost entirely tongue in cheek (who, what, when, etc.)…you can't really summarize it in that or any standard format. Although I hope that having a few of the basics down, especially names, will help someone in reading the novel for the first time.

    Your note on how easy it was to swindle the villagers is one of the key points for me. Although were they really swindled? Regardless, it helps explain why hope was in Pandora's jar with the other evils.

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  5. “There was also a rather odd convention where seemingly normal expressions were enclosed in quotation marks, drawing attention to themselves for no real reason.”

    Just because you cannot think of a reason does not mean that there is no reason. And since the author does this thing in many of his books one should think that he has good reason for it, no? Furthermore, many reviewers took the time to think about possible motivations for this peculiarity (it is strange to call this a 'convention'). See here
    http://quarterlyconversation.com/satantango-by-laszlo-krasznahorkai
    and
    http://quarterlyconversation.com/the-ottilie-mulzet-interview
    for some ideas.

    “In addition, I wasn't overly convinced by the ending; it all seemed a little too convenient and perhaps unworthy of the book as a whole…”

    I think that from a structural point of view the ending fits perfectly.

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  6. Dwight – For me, 'Dublinesque' was the one that defied a conventional review 🙂 I think the swindling was an allegory for how people want to believe in something rather than nothing – which explains why they'll put up with so much for so long…

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  7. Birne – I can think of many reasons, none of which would improve the text in my opinion (which is what this is, my opinion). I have no doubt that it is deliberate – that doesn't mean I have to agree that it's successful. I don't like it, and I don't think it added anything to the text. Others may disagree – obviously you do.

    As for the ending, I thought it was a bit of a cop-out, an unoriginal end to a very original piece of writing. I have to say that while I was initially interested in the way Krasznahorkai wrapped things up, I quickly moved to thinking that it was a bit of a mistake, a cheesy way to finish off a great book. Of course, it makes sense structurally, but that doesn't make it right.

    As I said in my post though, these are minor quibbles about a great work.

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  8. Hey Tony, I am not sure if my words sounded a bit harsh maybe, I typed them down rather quickly just before I had to leave home. In any case I forgot to say that I like your review, in particular your theories about why it did not make the IFFP shortlist 😉

    About the passages in quotation marks, lets quote from the Ottilie Mulzet interview linked above, she mentions some interesting ideas:
    “There are, as well, several other factors that pull these texts towards the universal. One is the intersubjectivity of characters, the way in which the voice of the narrative almost imperceptibly shifts between a generalized narrator and the thoughts of different characters, as well as their own words, almost always in the form of indirect reported speech. This process will seem “familiar” to readers of Krasznahorkai’s earlier works, inasmuch as it is inherently destabilizing. (As well, the Hungarian critic Edit Zsadányi sees the indirectly reported speech-fragments in Satantango as indicative of the extreme marginalization of the inhabitants of the estate: the narrator has to “lend” his own voice for them to be “heard.”)”

    and from the review by Jessie Ferguson from above:
    “While Krasznahorkai’s multi-page sentences have drawn plenty of critical commentary, a more significant stylistic practice in this work (and others) is his embedding of quoted phrases in sentences without attribution (e.g. “Irimiás would be here soon ‘to shake things up good and proper’”). The technique seems to serve disparate purposes for different characters. On some occasions, they function as one would expect: as boilerplate or cliché, referring not to a single utterance or speaker but to routine usage. In the doctor’s narrative, however, the quoted phrases are more particular and could plausibly be lifted from his diary entries. For Esti, the quoted text consists of recalled statements that others have made in her hearing, and her despair is described as pursuit by a chorus of terrible voices. But in every instance, the narration of an individual’s thoughts and actions is interrupted, jarringly, by phrases from other times or other minds. It upsets the integrity of each character, subjecting their thoughts to external pressure in a way that echoes Irimiás’ image of the senseless network of dependencies.”

    I still do not understand what exactly you do not like about the ending. When I first read the book like two years ago in a different translation I was first annoyed at bit by the ending. I considered it a somewhat dated postmodern device. But then I took into account that the book was originally published in the 80s. I think the ending perfectly illustrates the universality of the novel. We humans sit in the shit constantly and are unable to make life better for us. And it has always been like this and will ever be. It is a pessimistic worldview for sure. This basically requires the circularity of the novel, in particular if seen in connection with the dance structure. Yes, I like it, even it can be considered as a somewhat cheap postmodern trick at first glance.

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  9. Birne – I see what you're saying, and I'm not denying that there is a point to the writer's use of unexpected quotation marks. It's just that personally I don't like the way the story then reads. That may change if I read other works of his – on this reading it was more annoying than anything else.

    What I dislike about the ending is that it's a bit of an easy way out. Yes, it fits the cyclical nature of the book and explains this character's role in it, but… It was too obvious, too easy, and I was expecting something more. To be honest, I would ahve preferred a much more ambiguous ending, one where we never quite work out what he was doing.

    Again, this is not to say that I don't like the book. Faults can befound in any book you read, and in these IFFP posts I am actively looking for faults in a way, anything which will help me decide where to rank the works – and this one ranks pretty highly 🙂

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  10. Love your theories on why it slipped through the IFFP net. Well, at least it won the BTBA! I thought it was an exceptional book – quite unlike anything else I've read. It seemed to capture that feeling of the villagers teetering between salvation and damnation. I loved the writing too. It seemed to have a hypnotic quality at times. And those spider webs!

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  11. Hello Tony, the last few days I have watched the movie “Satantango” directed by Bela Tarr, that is made from the book. Reading your review of the book makes me understand the movie better. The movie is really wonderful. I nearly skipped it after half an hour, but I’m very glad that I managed to view it till the end, all seven hours. The movie is shot in beautiful black and white, with not much dialogue and mesmering music and sounds. I just saw it for the first time, but I consider this movie one of my ten favorite movies of all time, and I have seen quite a lot. I don’t know wether you regurlarly watch movies, but this one is certainly not to be missed.
    On the International Movie Data Base this movie is watched by around 7.000 people and got a rating of 8,5 which is exceptionally high considered the fact that this is obviously not a movie made for the masses. Greetings, Erik

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    1. Erik – I have to say that I don’t think I’d be able to follow your lead; seven hours is a lot of movie! I’m glad you enjoyed it, though 🙂

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