delirium clemens

“Péter Nádas’ Parallel Stories is actually a hugely ambitious, breathtakingly inventive and at times maddeningly dense novel intent on obliterating historical, geographical, literary and structural borders. ‘Parallel’ doesn’t really begin to describe how these stories interact with one another. They converge and diverge; they overlap; they crisscross, loop around and double back on one another, resulting in a defiantly nonlinear novel that attempts the daunting feat of recreating the fragmented, and perhaps even shell-shocked experience of living in Hungary during the 20th century.”
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> full text by Adam Langer; photo: Barna Burger (c) NYT, 2011