Satantango #
Author László KrasznahorkaiDate August 31, 2026Rating 5/5
I am perhaps lucky to be reading this book in the late summer and early fall, I think had I waited a few months and read this in the deep winter, I would feel each sentence like another chill in my bones. Krasznahorkai has managed to make me feel unsettled and put off not through specific acts or happenstances, but through people, and their own mechanations.
Some chapters were truly horrific to read, some were merely unpleasant, the movement between these passages is something to behold. Everything feels so dirty, so full of mud, like the doctor’s coat soaking up the heavy rain, weighing you further and further down. Probably not the most pleasant read, but quite a bare look at people.
I haven’t read very many novels of this style before, but this one, at least, is surprisingly quick to read, it definitely changes my perception of what a postmodern novel can be like to read. Regardless, I, too, am unsettled.