Les mouettes, par Sándor Márai

Les personnages de ce roman font des monologues tellement longs que je me suis endormie plusieurs fois pendant la lecture. Pas recommandé sauf comme somnifère.

L'Étrangère, by Sándor Márai

This is a story about a man who is searching for the ultimate meaning of life in all the wrong places, to the point where his life spirals out of control, and he falls into despair, if not insanity.  I did find it too slowly paced at times (too much description about the protagonist's random musings and surroundings). Poor guy would have benefited greatly by reading St. Augustine's <i>Confessions</i>, I think, but then Marai wouldn't have had anything to write about if he had.

But then again, maybe Márai might have made a more interesting, complex and better story out of this man's turning his life around and with more material he could have cut out some of the random musings and surroundings that bogged me down.

Portrait of a Marriage, by Sandor Marai

This novel is an account of the formation and demise of a marriage told from three points of view: the wife's, the husband's, and the husband's mistress's. The writing and situations were realistic and convincing enough, but there was too much focus on class differences in the book: the husband could be described as upper middle class, the wife lower middle, the mistress (who was the housekeeper in the husband's mother's home), is working class. Since they all knew each other's background before choosing to get involved with each other, I did find it tiresome that they kept on feeling so self-conscious about it, even after getting married. If class differences are that important, why not marry someone else? And I didn't find any of the three main characters likable, so I didn't enjoy the book as much as I could have.

Divorce à Buda, by Sandor Marai

This book has many similarities to Embers in that it's also the story of a love triangle with two men in love with the same woman, and the story is told in the form of a conversation between the two men, old friends, after the woman has died. While it lacks the theatrical setting and characters of Embers its storyline has an otherworldly side to it in the idea of a divine pattern thwarted by chance and the long term effects of decisions that seemed inconsequential at the time they were made.

I think Embers is better, but this was pretty good too.

Esther's Inheritance, by Sandor Marai

This was an interesting story, albeit not as good as Embers, as far as characters and storyline go.  Like Embers, it is a story told through the memories of people who lived through the events long ago.  In this case, the protagonist is Esther, a woman in her forties, who was betrayed twenty years ago by Lajos, the man she loved, and her sister Vilma.  Lajos is basically a charlatan who is used to getting his way by telling people what they want to hear and talking them out of their money and property while pretending to care nothing about material things at all.  And after twenty years, two children, Vilma’s death, and having to skip town because he talked his father in law into losing most of his assets in fraudulent investments, Lajos is coming back—to take from Esther what little property she has left (the family house and land), which is all she has to live on.

Embers, by Sandor Marai

Love triangles have got to be among the oldest storylines out there, but this one is very beautifully told. An old aristocratic General living in a remote Hungarian forest receives a visit from a long lost friend, and they reminisce about their childhood, their days at military school and military service... and about the General's long dead wife. The setting and time of the story (interwar Europe) give it a dramatic, almost otherworldly atmosphere, and the story is told obliquely. Situations and emotions are revealed through small details, observations, and remarks in conversation rather than straightforward narrative, which makes it very realistic.