The Melancholy of Resistance

After László Krasznahorkai won the Nobel Prize in Literature, I thought I should pick up one of his books. Due to availability I ended up going for The Melancholy of Resistance, but I do have my eye on Satantango. Overall, this was a very difficult book to read, just due to how much it rambles on, there are no paragraphs. You gotta fight your way through the text.

The book opens up with a nightmarish train ride that sets the tone of more anarchy to come. The first scene has stayed cemented with me over time, especially the vivid descriptions of the passengers and state of the train and its infrastructure. After the train ride, we arrive in an unnamed Hungarian town, set during the communist era. The passenger we follow notices a circus is coming into town, how fun? Later on, we find out the key exhibit being hauled into town is a giant spectacle of a stuffed whale.

The circus drives people to congregate, but in the dreadful town that is succumbing to more and more madness, this leads to more chaos. The giant decaying whale doesn’t help the situation. There’s a ‘Prince’ who is feeding hollow psychology that sways the mob to destructiveness. Meanwhile, there are those who are exploiting the chaos to grab power for themselves and their fascist agendas.

Don’t read this if you want something easily readable. This book will frustrate you and challenge you. I’m not even sure its fully worth it. I did think as a whole its a terrific piece of work. There are nuggets, ideas, symbols, etc.. that I want to say are profound and worth the challenge to read this, but I’ll leave that up to you.