Magda Szabó

Magda Szabo

The Door (Az Ajto, 1987) by Magda Szabo is a strong novel about the growing relationship between two women - Magda, a writer, and Emerence, her housekeeper - in the panorama of twentieth century Hungary. Emerence chooses to work for Magda, and a force of literature encounters a force of nature. Emerence truly has the strength of ten because her heart is pure. But Emerence has secrets - many secrets. Gradually Magda pries open the doors of Emerence's past. What she finds there is horrifying and astounding. Yet there is genuine humor, too, as the very different women interact with each other and with the dog they adopt.

A Novel

The Door

One of The New York Times Book Review's "10 Best Books of 2015" An NYRB Classics Original The Door is an unsettling exploration of the relationship between two very different women. Magda is a writer, educated, married to an academic, public-spirited, with an on-again-off-again relationship to Hungary’s Communist authorities. Emerence is a peasant, illiterate, impassive, abrupt, seemingly ageless. She lives alone in a house that no one else may enter, not even her closest relatives. She is Magda’s housekeeper and she has taken control over Magda’s household, becoming indispensable to her. And Emerence, in her way, has come to depend on Magda. They share a kind of love—at least until Magda’s long-sought success as a writer leads to a devastating revelation. Len Rix’s prizewinning translation of The Door at last makes it possible for American readers to appreciate the masterwork of a major modern European writer.

maia

Once after she'd been introduced to the tape recorder in apartment and told that you could play back a text or a piece of music, she talked about what it would be like if someone's life were recorded and put on tape, to be rewound, stopped and replaced at will. She said she'd accept her own life the way it was; or rather, as it would be up to her death, but with the proviso that she might rewind it to any point she chose. I didn't dare ask where she would stop the machine, and still less, why there. I didn't think she'd tell me anyway.

One of The New York Times Book Review's "10 Best Books of 2015" An NYRB Classics Original The Door is an unsettling exploration of the relationship between two very different women. Magda is a writer, educated, married to an academic, public-spirited, with an on-again-off-again relationship to Hungary's Communist authorities. Emerence is a peasant, illiterate, impassive, abrupt, seemingly ageless. She lives alone in a house that no one else may enter, not even her closest relatives. She is Magda's housekeeper and she has taken control over Magda's household, becoming indispensable to her. And Emerence, in her way, has come to depend on Magda. They share a kind of love--at least until Magda's long-sought success as a writer leads to a devastating revelation. Len Rix's prizewinning translation of The Door at last makes it possible for American readers to appreciate the masterwork of a major modern European writer.

aywen

She didn’t understand that it was because of our mutual love that she went on stabbing me till I fell to my knees, that she did it because I loved her, and she loved me. Only people truly close to me can cause me real pain. She might have grasped that long ago, but she understood only what she wanted to.

You pay back everybody who upsets you, even me. If only you’d shout and scream — but all you do is smile. You’re the most vengeful person I ever met. You sleep with a knife under your pillow, and you wait till the time comes to stick it in. If it’s something really bad you don’t just scratch — you kill.

had to let this novel marinate a bit bc μέν i genuinely feel like it’s a new favourite book δέ i think i was led by the luminous prose into believing that i was inside a story and headed into a third arc that ultimately did not materialize. so. we’re at a stalemate. 

die on is that this is one of if not the best translation work i have read… jay rubin has competition idk we might have to let these octogenarians fight it out

had to let this novel marinate a bit bc μέν i genuinely feel like it’s a new favourite book δέ i think i was led by the luminous prose into believing that i was inside a story and headed into a third arc that ultimately did not materialize. so. we’re at a stalemate. 

a hill i will die on is that this is one of if not the best translation work i have read… jay rubin has competition idk we might have to let these octogenarians fight it out

Maria

"When I made her open her door, her whole world was overturned, and she had been buried under it."

this didn't let out until the very end, my god. it hugs you and stabs you and caresses you and then stabs and stabs until the last second, but it never loses itself, never betrays itself for the sake of sentimentality. if i could give this 6 stars i would. it's such a simple story, but so gutting in its simplicity. the complicated, delicate ways in which we try to show our love, or fail to. how hard it is to reach out to someone, how hard it is to understand them when they live locked behind a closed door. how easy it is to fail them when they finally crack that door open and let you in, all in the name of helping them. such a good character study of both emerenc and the narrator, of two women of different ages, of different backgrounds, with different world views, who try and struggle to understand and love one another. sometimes it is a mercy to let someone slip away instead of forcing them to reveal their shame and misery to the world. 
this will stay with me for a long time, and it might be for personal reasons, but even so, objectively, few books have moved me like this; i cried every other chapter, either because it made me sad, or simply because i was moved by its love and compassion. it’s a very realistic story and it sticks its landing, never forgets to remind us that this is just life and this is how people are. it’s very easy for us, as the reader, to look at the character’s decisions and pass judgement and think we know better, but it ultimately is a realistic representation of people, and how somehow we make the wrong decisions for the right (or what we deem are the right) reasons. 
i will say, though, i think this translation could have benefitted from some footnotes. the author makes certain references to various hungarian cultural or historical details, that although can generally be researched online, the authorial intent and context is somewhat lost. it's not a huge issue, and most i think can be grasped, or if not, don't necessarily take from the text, but i think it would have elevated the reading experience even more. but regardless, this is simply such a good translation, it deserves its own separate praise.

made me reappraise my entire conception of love—platonic, maternal, or otherwise 

Nasia

marlisa

trish

rachel

Kaede

A kabel 

Alithea

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Laurin C Guthrie

Emerence is a domestic servant – strong, fierce, eccentric, and with a reputation for being a first-rate housekeeper. When Magda, a young Hungarian writer, takes her on she never imagines how important this woman will become to her. It takes twenty years for a complex trust between them to be slowly, carefully built. But Emerence has secrets and vulnerabilities beneath her indomitable exterior which will test Magda’s friendship and change the complexion of both their lives irreversibly. Elegant, pocket-sized paperbacks, VINTAGE Editions celebrate the audacity and ambition of the written word, transporting readers to wherever in the world literary innovation may be found.

Szabó Marianna

"A young writer, struggling for success, employs an elderly woman called Emerence to be her housekeeper.From their first encounter it is clear that Emerence is no ordinary maid.Although everyone in the neighbourhood knows and respects her, no one knows anything about her private life or has ever crossed her threshold. Only a great drama in the writer's life prompts Emerence to unveil glimpses of her traumatic past a past which sheds light on her peculiar behaviour. The Door brilliantly evokes the development of the bond between these two very different women, and the tragic ending to their relationship."

Amna A.

Abisatyayay

Will Vunderink

Taylor

Trevor Berrett

Guillermo Suarez

A busy young writer struggling to cope with domestic chores, hires a housekeeper recommended by a friend. The housekeeper's reputation is one built on dependable effeciency, though she is something of an oddity. This is the story of the relationship between the two women over a period of 20 years.

The Door A Novel

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