Name: The door
Rating: 4.119047619047619 (21 reviews)
ISBN: 0880333049

Szabó, Magda

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.

Phil

I started out very unsure about this book as I was initially confused by it. Also, some parts, including historic and ancient references, were difficult to follow or understand. However, I really warmed up to it and it started to seep into me. It is a profoundly moving and emotional novel that intentionally raises thorny, ambiguous moral questions. The structure of the tale, two very different women from very different backgrounds who come to care deeply for each other, has the potential to be sappy, and sentimental. In the deft hands of Hungarian author Magda Szabo it is fresh and original in the telling. There is a hard, unforgiving look at how friends not only disappoint but betray those they love most dearly. One of the things I found so rewarding is Emerence herself. She is an extraordinary, highly individual character: paradoxical, funny, frightening, generous, infuriating, mysterious and morally complicated.<br /><br />Some messages I took from the book: (1) Loving someone does not give you the right to decide what is best for them. (2) Dignity can matter more to a person than life itself. (3) People can love each other profoundly without knowing how to love each other properly. (4) We should not confuse intelligence, education, or sophistication with moral superiority. (5) Trauma shapes people in ways that outsiders can never completely see. (6) Guilt is not necessarily something that can be resolved. (7) Human beings are morally complicated enough that sometimes there is no completely innocent party—only people doing their best within an impossible situation.

Humanity in all of its complexity in this novel. Throghtout reading it, it feels like it is asking the question of what makes a good person, and those so by juxtaposing Emerance's "innate" goodness and Magda's "learnt" such. And, in my experience, you will meet many such people in real life, to whom empathy comes so naturally that it is at time incomprehensive (the way Emerance's empathy extends to individuals on all sides of history who are equally as powerless in the face of the grand social process), and such people, to whom it is inevitably tied to their own intellectualisation.

This novel on how to try and understand each other feels so painfully relevant today.

Humanity in all of its complexity in this novel. Throghtout reading it, it feels like it is asking the question of what makes a good person, and those so by juxtaposing Emerance's "innate" goodness and Magda's "learnt" such. And, in my experience, you will meet many such people in real life, to whom empathy comes so naturally that it is at time incomprehensive (the way Emerance's empathy extends to individuals on all sides of history who are equally as powerless in the face of the grand social process), and such people, to whom it is inevitably tied to their own intellectualisation.

This novel on how to try and understand each other feels so painfully relevant today.

simply incredible storytelling… the ethical dilemma had me thinking for days about what I would’ve done in the writer’s position. this was compounded by the fact that i have an Emerence of my own in my life – immense physical strength, inclination to housekeeping, numerous cats and all. 

The door a novel

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