Hari Kunzru on Krasznahorkai's Hipster following

Hungarian novelist becomes fashionable among aspiring NY writers

Housing Works, New York

Writing for The Guardian, Hari Kunzru describes New York's literary hipsters at a Krasznahorkai reading in New York (link via Susan Tomaselli): 'The other day I attended a reading by the Hungarian novelist László Krasznahorkai. The venue was Housing Works, a charity bookstore in New York's SoHo. The 58-year-old author is, it's fair to say, relatively unknown in the English-speaking world. His first novel, Sátántangó (the third of his works to be translated by the poet George Szirtes), written in the 80s, has just appeared in a handsome edition published by New Directions press. He deals in despair and metaphysical stasis, one part Kafka, one part Beckett, plus a dollop of earthy comedy. In the film world he has received acclaim for his collaborations with the director Béla Tarr, whose work (including a seven-hour adaptation of Sátántangó) often attracts the adjective "uncompromising". In short, this wasn't the sort of event where you'd expect to have to arrive an hour early to get a seat.' [Read More]

Also at A Piece of Monologue:

• The Mythology of László Krasznahorkai
• László Krasznahorkai and Max Neumann, Animalinside