?With the monumental novel Parallel Stories?Péter Nádas lays a capstone on the totalitarian 20th century and forges the way, literarily, for the 21st century ? through an aesthetic of calculated confusion and an unbounded language of the body,? Andreas Breitenstein wrote in the paper.
The critic said Nádas was unmatched in his ambition to process in writing the entirety of Eastern Europe in the 20th century.
?The span of the 1,728-page novel, masterfully translated by Christina Viragh, stretches from WWI until the fall of communism.?
Breitenstein said Nádas did not offer his readers ?the comforts of a sofa? but laid down a principle of ?ordered confusion? to get to the heart of the matter.
?Chaos and chance are used as a principle of knowledge.?
Even though Nádas breaks the rules of chronology and dramaturgy in conventional literature, he offers a ?firm narrator?s voice? that keeps readers involved, be it in unfeigned dialogue or deep philosophical discussion.
?The labyrinth that is his book is both terrible and beautiful,? Breitenstein said.
Parallel Stories was published in Hungarian in 2005.
Source: Hungarian News Agency (MTI)
