[Zugaxxsn]

Today I finished "Fiasko", a German translation of his novel "a kudarc". It has not, as far as I know, been translated into English yet. It's remarkable. Genius. Possibly overlong, but looking back on it I don't know what I'd cut. A novel within a novel. A writer can't publish his book about the shoah, and stops writing for a while, until he starts to write a novel called "Fiasko" which is about the odyssee of a man through a socialist nightmare country (kafkaesque if I ever saw one), who writes a novel and fails to get it published. The conceit isn't the amazing thing, it's that everything fits. allusions, wordplay, and the harrowing shadow of the Shoah. The first part, before the novel comes, is incredibly well written, shapeshifting, thoughtful, brilliant. The novel within disappointed me at first, it's slower, subtler, it even bored me at times, but lord was I wrong to be disappointed.

[Styparty]

Portugal is sadly lagging behind when it comes to translate new Imre K?rtesz novels. This one sounds quite interesting: Kafkaesque narratives written by talented writers is always a must.

So why can't the author publish the original Shoah novel? Don't worry spoiling it.

[Zugaxxsn]

The reference is plainly Kertesz' own "Fatelessness", which is singular in Shoah novels in that it appears to be completely non-judgmental, detached almost. The editors tell the writer that this is not the way that a Shoah novel should be. He is at liberty to revise it, but the way it is, it's unacceptable. This is said early on, it's not one of the points of the novel.

The novel is about 1) how to cope with a rejection of a novel, into which one has put one's whole self. It's referred to as *his* novel, the novel of his life. It has made him a writer. He has never wanted or thought to be a writer, doesn't consider himself talented, (s*: "Senile Selbstbefriedigung": Kert?sz ?ber Kunst) but writing that novel was a necessity and its rejection a "Fiasko". 2) The oppressiveness of a creative, nonconformist life under a socialist regime.

Fiakso/A kuderc is incredible. At first I wished the novel within, which makes up roughly 3/4ths of the novel, was as fast paced as the first 1/4th, but the further I progressed and especially once I finished, I retracted that opinion. It's fine the way it is.

[iceleliewBync]

Complete Reviews says, in a somewhat noncommital manner:
A kudarc has not been translated into English, but will apparently eventually appear as The Failure

Knopf would be the publishers, but their latest Imre release, earlier this year, was Detective Story so I suppose readers in English will have to wait a while more for The Failure.

[Giselle]

This is a really peculiar novel, one that I had never read before, and that maybe will never find again. And this is good, because if the novel loses its originality, the just a little is left about it. The pace of the novel is slow, very slow, and this is important to know so you can know the exact time for reading it. The first part is the story of the old man who is a writer (because he doesn't know how to be someone else) and his novel is rejected by the reasons Mirabell already explained in post 3. This part is really good, intelligente, full of deepfull thoughts and analysis of profound situations that makes it delightful. The structure of the parenthesis used by the authors gives you and impression of going inside a person's mind and detecting all the branches that get open when a thought is elaboreted in our brains. This is an excellent technique I had never witnessed before. Only in Saramago I could say there is a hint about what this could be done using it.
After this first part finishes, the novel starts, a even though it's refreshing at the beggining (a whole new different level for the novel starts) it goes tedious at the time, and there are parts that are just difficult to follow since the author does not engage you in the situations he describes. Then it goes on and it simply because too long, too predictable and it falls down little by little into the void of simplicity. At the end, the last three pages rescue a lot from the novel, wraping it up in a good way, but at the end it cannot take away the long and at times nonsense novel within the novel.

[Zugaxxsn]

what I love about the second section is how it ties in the horrors of the shoah, which linger over the whole book, which drive the silent desperation that makes the fiasco such a, well, fiasco, with the totalitarian, kafkaesque society the character lives in.

[Giselle]

Truth, there is heaviness over everyone shoulder's, still carrying the past and surviving the present. I liked the way Kert?sz managed this thru the total control of the State over K?ves occupations.
I really felt bored the moment Berg was reading to K?ves, guess that was the worst part of the book for me. There's where he could have cut.