''The End of a Family Story'' ( hu, Egy családregény vége) is a 1977 novel by the Hungarian writer
Péter Nádas
Péter Nádas (born 14 October 1942) is a Hungarian writer, playwright, and essayist.
Biography
He was born in Budapest into a Jewish family, the son of László Nádas (originally Nussbaum) and Klára Tauber. After the takeover of the Hunga ...
. The narrative follows a boy who grows up in Hungary in the 1950s, and whose grandfather tells him stories about their family's past. The prose frequently shifts in form and perspective. An English translation by Imre Goldstein was published in 1998 through
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Farrar, Straus and Giroux (FSG) is an American book publishing company, founded in 1946 by Roger Williams Straus Jr. and John C. Farrar. FSG is known for publishing literary books, and its authors have won numerous awards, including Pulitzer ...
.
Reception
Ken Kalfus
Ken Kalfus (born April 9, 1954 in New York City) is an American author and journalist. Three of his books have been named ''New York Times'' Notable Books of the Year.
Early life and education
He was born in the Bronx, and grew up in Plainview, ...
reviewed the book for ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', and wrote that its "tediousness is as profound as the themes it seeks to engage." Kalfus continued: "The difficulty -- no, impenetrability -- of this novel probably cannot be laid to the translator, Imre Goldstein, who collaborated on the more lucid translation of ''
A Book of Memories
''A Book of Memories'' ( hu, Emlékiratok könyve) is a 1986 novel by the Hungarian writer Péter Nádas. The narrative follows a Hungarian novelist involved in a romantic triangle in East Berlin; interwoven with the main story are sections of a n ...
''. Here Nadas's method of telling -- or not telling -- a story does not seem to be dependent on the translator's choice of words. Regardless of whose words they are, the structure that encloses them fails to intensify their emotional charge."
See also
*
1977 in literature
This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1977.
Events
*February 20 – An episode of '' Doctor on the Go'', co-written by Douglas Adams and Graham Chapman, marks the beginning of Adams' career as a writer ...
*
Hungarian literature
Hungarian literature is the body of written works primarily produced in Hungarian,
References
1977 novels
Hungarian novels
Novels by Péter Nádas
Novels set in Hungary
Novels set in the 1950s
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