November meetup - The Melancholy of Resistance by László Krasznahorkai

For new attendees: Please text me at 469-449-7023 to be added to the WhatsApp group chat where we vote on future selections, find each other during meetups, etc.

'The Melancholy of Resistance, László Krasznahorkai’s magisterial, surreal 1989 horror fantasy novel, depicts a chain of mysterious events in a small Hungarian town. A strange circus arrives in the dead of winter, prompting bizarre rumors. Word spreads that the circus folk have a sinister purpose in mind, and the frightened citizens cling to any manifestation of order they can find — music, cosmology, fascism.'

'The American critic Susan Sontag crowned Krasznahorkai contemporary literature’s ‘master of the apocalypse’, a judgement she arrived at after having reading this book. Here, in a feverish horror fantasy played out in a small Hungarian town nestled in a Carpathian valley, we find ourselves entering a dizzying state of emergency. Ominous signs abound. Crucial to the dramatic sequence of events is the arrival in the city of a ghostly circus, whose main attraction is the carcass of a giant whale. This mysterious and menacing spectacle sets extreme forces in motion, prompting the spread of both violence and vandalism. Meanwhile, the inability of the military to prevent anarchy creates the possibility of a dictatorial coup. Employing dreamlike scenes and grotesque characterizations, László Krasznahorkai masterfully portrays the brutal struggle between order and disorder. None may escape the effects of terror.'

Krasznahorkai won the Nobel Prize in Literature for his work in 2025.

320 pages.

Free online text (PDF):
https://drive.google.com/file/d/18Dhcz8yCufOJIxLwb8lqNVDweypck9AP/view?usp=drivesdk