From the Bookshelf of The Roundtable…

The Door

Magda Szabó,

Len Rix (Translator)

Discussion: Themed Reads

Discussion leader: Petra

Why we're reading this: The theme for February is Eastern European Literature. This is just one example of the books that were me…more
[close] The theme for February is Eastern European Literature. This is just one example of the books that were mentioned.

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Themed Reads

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last updated Aug 06, 2016 06:17PM

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What Members Thought

Aug 12, 2016 Viv JM rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: author-female, read-in-2016, women-in-translation, fiction-literary

I found The Door to be an unexpectedly moving and profound story. It tells the story of the relationship between an eminent writer and her somewhat cranky cleaning woman. For much of the book, not much actually happens, but the last third just tore me apart emotionally. It raises ethical issues in relation to friendship, love, death and dignity that have no easy resolution. I have rated this five stars, not so much on how much I enjoyed the book so much as how much it got under my skin. I will b ...more

44 likes · Like · see review

Sep 19, 2013 Petra rated it it was amazing

Wonderful story and so well told. Emerence is a character not soon forgotten. The friendship and love that develops between these two women is beautifully told and unfolds slowly as they get to know each other......but still so many of the doors remain closed.
This is a story of secrets, respect, love, privacy, community, aloneness. Just how many secrets are good to keep? Does keeping them enrich anyone (the keeper or the outsider)? Does keeping them harm anyone? How much do friends owe each othe ...more

13 likes · Like · see review

May 15, 2016 Irene rated it really liked it

This is the account of a relationship between two women. But the older woman is an enigma, a woman of contradictions and mysteries that puts people under her spell as she keeps them at a distance. The writing was excellent. I felt as if I knew these women and felt their inner struggles. I anticipate that this novel will haunt me for some time.

11 likes · Like · see review

Jun 22, 2017 Christopher rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, 20th-century, eastern-european

I bought my first house, a charming cape cod with scrollwork fascia, and moved in with my new wife. Our neighbors on one side were a policewoman, her landscaper husband, and two teenage girls. On the other side was an old man with two loud dogs.

A few days after we moved in he knocked on our door and I saw a doppelgänger of Jerry Garcia. His messy, long grey hair and beard signified a man who did not care what others thought of him. He wore a tattered shirt with holes in the sleeves, red and bla ...more

10 likes · Like · see review

Feb 14, 2015 Julie rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: europe, read-in-2015

The complicated relationship between the narrator and Emerence and Emerence's mysterious character, made this a very interesting read. ...more

6 likes · Like · see review

Jun 22, 2017 Lauren rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: ate-2017

This probably would have been a 5-star read if I hadn't just read Iza's Ballad by the same author, which was a more profound reading experience for me. Magda Szabó is a tremendous talent, and her characters are unique and true to life. ...more

3 likes · Like · see review

Oct 03, 2016 Elise rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: translated, fiction, women, read-in-2016, 1980s, club

The narrator and her housekeeper Emerence endure an odd, hostile sense of duty to each other. Still under the shadow of WWII, Emerence displays dour, truculent, seemingly comedic eccentricities which have origins in tragic events of the past and which the narrator routinely, sometimes solipsistically, misinterprets. The ultimate consequences of not being able to figure out the essence of another person are broadcast from the start of the book, slowly pushing the reader toward the revelation of a ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Apr 01, 2023 Wendy rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: in-translation, nyrb, 2023, women-and-the-void

Emotionally uncomfortable, yet riveting. The relationship between the narrator and her elderly housekeeper, with its pendulum swings from intimate to dysfunctional, reminded me of My Brilliant Friend. ...more

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