present for me: tranquility by attila bartis

On February 19, Three Percent announced the 2009 Best Translated Book Award. I have been reading my way through the long list since it appeared in December, but have yet to make my way round to the winner, Tranquility by Attila Bartis, translated from the Hungarian by Imre Goldstein. The mailman brought my present to myself today (I love the mailman yet I suspect he hates me for the haul of paper products he is forced to deliver to my house). The overview from Three Percent convinced me I had to have this this dark beauty. Now when to read it? Have you had a chance yet? Fill me in? Or maybe you want to read that post that prompted my purchase?

"Plot summaries rarely do a book justice, but in short, this novel is about Andor Weer, a thirty-six-year-old writer who lives with his mother (a formerly gorgeous stage actress) who hasn’t left the house in fifteen years. She’s bitter, a bit deranged, and pretty aggressive, especially towards Andor’s girlfriends. The two of them are trapped in a incredibly wicked Oedipal mess. On top of this, Andor’s sister Judit defected from Hungary to pursue her music career (this defection brought about the downfall of Rebeka’s stage career), leading their mother to literally bury a casket with all of Judit’s things in the cemetery. 

In short, this is a dark, twisted book, and one that’s incredibly gripping and very well written and well translated. (No surprise—Imre Goldstein’s one of the best.) Told is a looping, achronological fashion, the horrors of Andor’s life are revealed bit by bit with a hint of dark humor and a sense that the world (at least for Andor) is total shit." (Chad Post)