Embers

Rating:
Summary: Just embers, no fire....
Review: I can only partly understand the high ratings and very positive reviews of this book !! Of course it is a major accomplishment to write a book as intricate and lovingly detailed as this one about the topics that we all experience at least once in our lifes: friendship, love, betrayal !! Given the beautiful style of Marai, the staging and the moment in time it all happened all ingredients for a perfect reading.... but a classic ?
While reading I more than once got lost in the very intricacy of the style. Than at a certain point "the embers seemed to light up" and a catching storyline started, unfortunately to be lost very soon after. I reread this section often and still cannot find where it got lost. Slowly the story, which is by itself one of the better monologues in modern literature, wanders to its end, without revealing to us the big secret at which is hinted when reading the first chapters. So let's pu this book into perspective: it is a great read, but it's not the classic you might expect from the other reviews. If you want classics read Kafka's "The Castle", or Makine's "Dreams of my Russian summers", Mann's "Magic Mountain". And valued up to those books I can only give three stars for this book.

Rating:
Summary: Glowing embers
Review: Every once in a blue moon we come across a book that we will love and it will haunt us forever, no matter what else you read this story will be in your mind, and every now and then you will think of its characters, its events, the feelings you had when you read it. Sándor Márai's Embers is one of those books for me.

After having this novel recommended so many times I decided to read it-- and what was my surprise if not it it is one of the finest narratives ever. Everything is subtle, the words are crafted, the magic it brings is unforgettable. After a 41 years-old break tow great friends are about to meet again for a dinner. Between them there are unfinished business, questions that one depends on the other to know the answer-- if such thing is possible. And a woman that may --or may not-- have led them to fall apart. Half of the book or so, tells the events while General Henrik is getting prepared for meeting his friend Konrad --and flashbacks tell how they become friends and what happened afterwards.

Márai is smart enough as writer not to provide answers, they would be to simple and plain. Rather than that, he raises up many questions, and leaves a lot of room for our imagination. What really happened is impossible to know, but does we really care about the truth? Anything is possible, but now, 41 years later, nothing makes any difference, both Henrik and Korad have lived in shadow of those events, and it is not possible to change things that happened. It is to late for atone anything. By the way, this book will please those --just like me-- who enjoyed Ian McEwan's Atonement. Both books are superb, well written and unforgettable.

Rating:
Summary: There is much more than "friendship" at stake ...
Review: The title "Embers" makes this reader think of a smoldering fire -- one either ready to die out-- or ready to be reawakened -- into a full blazing *fire*. Indeed, the metaphor fits ... the unexpected shock of *what* it is that could erupt into a flame ... and why the title fits, becomes cystal clear about half-way thorugh the book. Similar to Franz Kafka, Marai builds a personal tension that becomes an existential experience, a psychological conundrum -- for the General (Henrik). The General has lived with certain questions... questions he needs answered. The book begins with the General describing his boyhood friendship with Konrad. The friendship began in military school during the Austro-Hungarian empire. The General was of an upper class background, Konrad's parents sold their land and lived on the edge of poverty to provide their son, an advantage in life. The General's father made an observation about Konrad, the first time he visited their home. Konrad was playing a Chopin piece with Henrik's mother, when Henrik's father made a very telling observation about Konrad, "He is different kind of man". This observation sets up the mystery which the book gradually ... very gradually reveals. It is the reason why the book is so intriguing and fascinating. The reader wants to discover ... why is Konrad 'different'. Just what does this mean?

The General is preparing his castle for Konrad's visit. The friends are going to reunite after 41 years of separation. Although, they remained on the best of terms as the closest of friends for 24 years ... something happened ... it made Konrad leave, without a word. The General needed to know, why did Konrad take off ... no word of good-bye ... to explore the world. Konrad often stayed at the General's castle and dined with the General and his wife, Krisztina. This reader suspected that somehow Krisztina held the key ... to his unexpected and unexplained departure. However there is a deeper unexplained ... primitive ... dark secret ... waiting to be unraveled. It is revealed in elegant prose. The book is deeply moving and filled with suspense ... a mesmerizing experience. Erika Borsos (erikab93)

Rating:
Summary: 3 1/2 stars. A taut tale of friendship, love and obsession
Review: Marai, a prominent novelist in 1930's/40's Hungary was all but forgotten until the recent rediscovery of this novel. In it, he tells the sombre story of two childhood friends, the aristocratic General and his constant companion Konrad, who grew up together "as twins" until Konrad up and left one day without explanation. The General has been waiting for his friend's eventual return and finally, 41 years later, Konrad does return and comes to the castle for dinner. The general, who has spent the last 41 years secluded in one room of his castle, obsessing about their sudden falling out and assessing the reasons for Konrad's disappearance, spends the day of the visit painstakenly recreating their last evening together so that everything in the house is exactly as it was 41 years before. During the course of the evening, The General delivers an unemotional detailed summary of their years of together, essentially putting Konrad on trial for the betrayal of their friendship. There is very little action here, the majority of the book is a discourse between these two old friends, mostly delivered by The General. That, actually, is the one weakness I found with this book, that Marai has the General deliver what mostly amounts to a monologue instead of involving the reader in a conversation between the two main characters. I wanted to hear more from Konrad, I was interested in the voice of this character and we don't get to hear it much. The book would have presented a much more volatile experience for the reader that way, IMO. Still, there's great atmosphere and skill in the telling of this story of friendship, love and obsession.

Rating:
Summary: A Lost Masterpiece Rediscovered
Review: What a magnificent novel this is, and how ironic that it lingered in obscurity for two generations after it was published! "Embers" is an entire world in miniature, a slim volume in which the author boldly takes on some of the largest questions facing humanity: what are the true meanings of words such as loyalty and friendship? And revenge...

41 years after their last fateful meeting, two old friends eat dinner together in a Hungarian castle that is a relic of another age, when Vienna was the centre of Europe and young men waltzed with their girls to the hot new tunes of Strauss the younger. A world war has ended that age forever, and a second and even more terrible conflict has just begun. But for these two men, the world around them means little. Far more important is the reality of what happened four decades earlier, and whether a terrible act of betrayal took place. The author uses the devices of swift scene paintings and extensive monologue to expertly conduct the reader through the story, and the result is a truly unforgettable work of fiction. The translation by Carol Brown Janeway is admirable.

Rating:
Summary: You Have To Give Konrad Some Credit
Review: EMBERS takes place in 1939 Hungary on a country estate near Budapest. The story begins with the arrival of a letter. In this letter, Henrik, a former Austrian general, learns that he is going to receive a visit from his childhood friend and onetime fellow officer, Konrad, the man who once betrayed Henrik with Henrik's beautiful wife, Krisztina and who Henrik has not seen in forty years.

Krisztina has been dead for thirty-two years and since that time, with the exception of the servants, Henrik has been the estate's only inhabitant. Once he learns of Konrad's impending arrival, he immediately begins making preparations for the visit, seeking to recreate, down to the candles, silver, flowers and food, the last dinner he, Krisztina and Konrad shared together. This dinner followed a long day of hunting that changed the lives of all three persons forever.

Before Konrad's arrival, however, we learn about Henrik's childhood and his first meeting with Konrad at the Imperial Military Academy. It is, in fact, Konrad who introduces Henrik to the beautiful Krisztina.

Henrik believed that he, Konrad and Krisztina comprised an inseparable threesome until the day he is betrayed by both friend and wife, a betrayal he discovers only when Krisztina fails to control herself and utters two revealing words.

Henrik's world falls apart. He retreats to his hunting lodge and he and Krisztina never see each other again; she dies eight years later. Henrik severs his friendship with Konrad, not speaking to him for forty years.

On the night of Konrad's visit, however, Henrik certainly makes up for his forty-year silence. EMBERS is almost a monologue-a rant even-as Henrik unleashes all his long pent up fury and rage. I found this "almost monologue" far too long-winded and melodramatic. I feel the book would have been vastly improved had Marai let Konrad speak instead of writing a long diatribe directed against him. I could understand Henrik's rage, but, my goodness, it's been forty years, I felt like telling him, get over it. Konrad did betray Henrik's trust and friendship but Konrad certainly deserves credit for staying the night and listening to the bitterness of an old man who can't get over the injustices of life and the foibles of love.

While Marai writes elegant, lovely prose, I really can't understand the popularity of this book. The story is terribly predictable and the ranting bitterness of Henrik gets to be "too much." I really wouldn't recommend EMBERS, but if you do read it and, like me, don't like it, be comforted. It's a short book and it really won't take up much of your time.

Rating:
Summary: There is much more than "friendship" at stake ...
Review: The title "Embers" makes this reader think of a smoldering fire -- one either ready to die out-- or ready to be reawakened -- into a full blazing *fire*. Indeed, the metaphor fits ... the unexpected shock of *what* it is that could erupt into a flame ... and why the title fits, becomes cystal clear about half-way thorugh the book. Similar to Franz Kafka, Marai builds a personal tension that becomes an existential experience, a psychological conundrum -- for the General (Henrik). The General has lived with certain questions... questions he needs answered. The book begins with the General describing his boyhood friendship with Konrad. The friendship began in military school during the Austro-Hungarian empire. The General was of an upper class background, Konrad's parents sold their land and lived on the edge of poverty to provide their son, an advantage in life. The General's father made an observation about Konrad, the first time he visited their home. Konrad was playing a Chopin piece with Henrik's mother, when Henrik's father made a very telling observation about Konrad, "He is different kind of man". This observation sets up the mystery which the book gradually ... very gradually reveals. It is the reason why the book is so intriguing and fascinating. The reader wants to discover ... why is Konrad 'different'. Just what does this mean?

The General is preparing his castle for Konrad's visit. The friends are going to reunite after 41 years of separation. Although, they remained on the best of terms as the closest of friends for 24 years ... something happened ... it made Konrad leave, without a word. The General needed to know, why did Konrad take off ... no word of good-bye ... to explore the world. Konrad often stayed at the General's castle and dined with the General and his wife, Krisztina. This reader suspected that somehow Krisztina held the key ... to his unexpected and unexplained departure. However there is a deeper unexplained ... primitive ... dark secret ... waiting to be unraveled. It is revealed in elegant prose. The book is deeply moving and filled with suspense ... a mesmerizing experience. Erika Borsos (erikab93)

Rating:
Summary: Not Quite Classic Status
Review: EMBERS is an excellent novel, and Marai was obviously an accomplished story teller, but I can't concur that this work ranks with the likes of Kafka, Mann or even Zweig, as the Die Ziet reviewer enthuses in one of the cited reviews. There is merit in the crtic's comparing Marai to Joseph Roth, however. I would even venture to guess that Roth's The Radetzky March had some bearing on Marai's depiction of the old General who is the central character in the novel. There is also the common theme of the death throes of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the rigid, yet elegant social standards it represented.

The General is like Roth's Grandfather Trotta, as he represents the old military code, that first and foremost demanded strict and total subservience to the Emporer and his cause. One's every thought and every waking breath was dictated by tradition and unbroken order. Pitted against him in Marai's work are his best friend and his young wife, who represent spontaneity, passion and modernity. The General comes to the insight that he was the complacent, self assured stalwart slave to convention and that Krisztina and Konrad were "different," and part of the subtext of the story is an almost Derrida like treatment of "the other."

What prevents- this from being a work of the first rank is Marai's partial failure in providing a compelling narrator. The General is just too long winded and formal a figure to sustain the narrative in any truly convincing manner. I did enjoy the way in which Marai unfolds information, however, and thought that the plot was handled masterfully. It reminded me of an Egoyan movie, in which the culminating revelation slowly and gradually comes into focus, while the audience remains in suspense.

I definitely recommend the read. It doesn't take long, and Marai's prose is indeed as elegant as a display of Viennese dressage. I'm happy that the book was rediscovered and adequately translated. I look forward to the promised future Knopf editions of Marai's works.

BEK

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: I think the many high reviews for this book have more to do with what it promises than what it actually delivers. The title, itself, calls up wonderful images and the story line is, in theory, fine material. The actual experience of reading the book was frustrating, though. I simply got bored by the oblique narrative style and the dolorous atmosphere of the book. Marai shoots for a very sophisticated and roundabout way of introducing the facts of the narrative, but he doesn't quite pull it off. Two novels which do a better job of playing out the same basic story line (i.e., recalling youthful friendships later in life, in a European historical context), are Olaf Olafsson's Absolution and Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited.

Rating:
Summary: Outstanding
Review: Embers is the kind of book you can't put down-even when you've finished. I kept it by my bedside for weeks after reading it, hoping the incredible images wouldn't fade from my brain. A woman riding into a new life through the winter wastes of Hungary, a half-abandoned castle in the woods, two boys forging a lifelong friendship at a school for officers of the empire. Marai weaves these seemingly prosaic setpieces into a spellbinding tale that you just don't want to end. A true masterpiece, tragic only in that the author-and the age-are gone.