Tranquility by Attila Bartis

Tranquility by Attila Bartis

Hungarian fiction

Original title – A nyugalom

Translator – Irme Goldstein

Source – Personal copy

I have had this on my shelves since it won the best-translated book prize in 2008. It is a book I got and then just kept pushing back sometimes I find myself worrying that books are above me well not above me but the way IO process and talk about the books this is less than it was years ago as now I don’t really care what other people think as I feel now I have carved my own niche in the blogging world. So when this was mentioned in the recent Mookse podcast and there was a new book coming out after 14 years I thought I might pull this book down from the shelves. So when I saw Attila Bartis had been compared to Thomas Bernhard on the back cover I thought why had to wait Sio long in the time it had sat on the shelves it had also been made into a film he had written another novel the one that is coming out later this year he is also a photograph and playwright. Have you ever had books you think are above you then get to and think why did I wait so long.

There was no need for an obituary because for a decade and a half, she had had no acquaintances, and I didn’t want anybody, except Eszter, to come to the cemetery. I hate death notices; there were about thirty of them in Mother’s desk drawer. They forgot to remove her name from a few mailing lists and the mailman brought one even the year before last, which she kept reading for days,”Poor little Winkler, how cleverly he portrayedHarpagon; isn’t life just awful, even to great actors like him, and there are no exceptions? Terrible. Simply terrible. Don’t forget Son, today Winkler, tomorrow you. In this, there are no exceptions.”

A sign if how long his mother had been his Burden most of his adult life.

It is hard not to compare this to Bernard as Andor our main character in their book. He lives in a cramped apartment at the constant beck and call of his mother Rebecca a former stage actress who has now become a shut in living the world via her children this is Andor’s other problem he has a sister Judit who had managed to escape her mother and is a hugely successful musician on the Violin and had managed to escape Hu nary and lived in exile. Leaving Andor in her shadow as he tries to live his life. the book is formed of vignettes almost that jump in time the book opens as he is burying his mother/ He the recounts their lives together and how when he finally found a girl how hard to was for him to try and introduce her to his Mother and how Mother was going to react to ESTER this is a story full l of dark humour and characters ion the edge a woman stuck in a house for to extended living on her glamorous past. A man trapped between his mother and lover adds to a cleverly timed and darkly comic work.

The barmaid has grown used to my sitting in the corner for hours, often without ordering anything. Occasionally she’d empty the ashtray, and once she brought me some peanuts.

“What’s up, the wife kicked you out?” she asked.

“I have no wife,” I said.

“But you look exactly as if she did,” she said and went back behind the counter.

Andor I had a real picture of him here I’ve seen many a loner like him in the pub over the years.

I get the Bernhard comparison Andor is a writer and has a level of bile in his life that is similar to Bernard’s characters. He is also a writer which is another nod to Bernhard’s characters. But for me, I kept thinking of Andor as a sort of Hungarian Ronnie Barkers Timothy for people to young or not familiar with this character from the sitcom Sorry in the UK he lived with an overbearing mother who at every turn tried to scupper Timothy Devolping as a person, especially in his love life. This is the same with Andor and his mother it is a very stifling relationship for him he isn’t trapped in the flat but trapped in a vicious cycle of being her son and carer. This is a compelling read I hate putting it down I just want to read on every time I was dropped into his world. I can’t wait for the next book and I tell you it will take less than 14 years to read and be on the blog. Have you read this or have a favourite Hungarian writer?

Winstons score – +A if you love Bernhard and Sorry you will love this book !!