MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Literary The Door by Magda Szabó, NYRB Classics edition

Billi · 12-05-2016, 04:05 PM

Overall I enjoyed the book very much. Thanks Bookworm_Girl for suggesting this book. I haven't read
anything before by Magda Szabo (or by any other Hungarian writer). I think it is a very well
constructed and written book.

My sympathy was clearly with the person of Emerenc. Somehow she was the personification of the "fool/jester" who could do or say everything and criticise everyone without fearing any consequences. And she was the personification of the goodness, she intuitively knew what was good or right.

I had some (and only minor) problems with the person of the authoress. From time to time we have here at MobileRead discussions about first-person-stories and for me this book is another prove how difficult first-person-stories are to tell. It is really very difficult to criticise oneself convincingly! At least for my taste, the authoress acted too much like a drama queen in the time of the crisis. On the other hand, from a constructional point of view I think it was a very good idea to tell the story from one side with the other and main person as some kind of adversary.

So thanks again for suggesting this book.

12-05-2016, 04:05 PM	#12
Billi Wizard Posts: 3,388 Karma: 14190103 Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Berlin Device: Cybook, iRex, PB, Onyx	Overall I enjoyed the book very much. Thanks Bookworm_Girl for suggesting this book. I haven't read anything before by Magda Szabo (or by any other Hungarian writer). I think it is a very well constructed and written book. My sympathy was clearly with the person of Emerenc. Somehow she was the personification of the "fool/jester" who could do or say everything and criticise everyone without fearing any consequences. And she was the personification of the goodness, she intuitively knew what was good or right. I had some (and only minor) problems with the person of the authoress. From time to time we have here at MobileRead discussions about first-person-stories and for me this book is another prove how difficult first-person-stories are to tell. It is really very difficult to criticise oneself convincingly! At least for my taste, the authoress acted too much like a drama queen in the time of the crisis. On the other hand, from a constructional point of view I think it was a very good idea to tell the story from one side with the other and main person as some kind of adversary. So thanks again for suggesting this book.