Embers -- Sándor Márai

I have just closed the covers of Sándor Márai's Embers, translated from Hungarian by Carol Brown Janeway. The novel was originally written in 1942 and so the setting was at the time it was written current, though now it reads as a period piece. Márai was obscure, unknown, until the recent burst of interest in his writing, and this is the first of a planned run of new translations.

The entire plot unfolds in a day and a night, though riddled with reminiscences. Two friends, separated for 41 years, reunite to settle the unfinished business that led to their estrangement. The embers of the title have burned steadily, and provide enough heat to bring about one last fire. When Konrad returns to the General's decaying castle, it is clear both have remained alive through war and disease in order to have this greatly deferred conversation.

After the initial set-up of 75 pages, the remaining 12o or so of this short novel recount the conversation between the friends -- boyhood companions, regimental fellows. But for a few sentences, though, the conversation is a cold monologue, with each image, each phrase, overly considered through the 41 years of waiting. The guest is still and nearly silent. Great questions build, gaining force page after page.

If the mysterious cause of their feud is not a great surprise, if many questions go unanswered, this is well beside the point, by the end. The deep wounds have little to do with the particulars of this or that betrayal. They cut not because of their effects but because of their source.