From the Bookshelf of The Roundtable…

Iza's Ballad

Magda Szabó,

George Szirtes (Translator)

Start date: June 1, 2017

Finish date: June 30, 2017

Discussion: Around Europe 2017

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What Members Thought

Jun 04, 2017 El rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 20th-centurylit-late, library-borrow, eastern-central-european-lit

When Ettie's husband dies, her daughter, Iza, encourages her to leave the family home and move to live in Budapest with her. The story is a heartbreaking yet beautiful one. While the story begins out from Ettie's perspective, each of the characters get a chance to tell their story, and therein lies the real beauty and craft of Szabó's writing. She gets us in the minds of each of the characters and what seems to be a very simple, yet sad, story turns out to be much more complex than initially app When Ettie's husband dies, her daughter, Iza, encourages her to leave the family home and move to live in Budapest with her. The story is a heartbreaking yet beautiful one. While the story begins out from Ettie's perspective, each of the characters get a chance to tell their story, and therein lies the real beauty and craft of Szabó's writing. She gets us in the minds of each of the characters and what seems to be a very simple, yet sad, story turns out to be much more complex than initially appears.

As I am now at that age where my parents are beginning to seem especially old, and my father just retired from his job, requiring them both to adjust their mindsets and expectations sooner than they had originally hoped, this book sort of hit me in all of the feels. I have now witnessed the lost of all by one of my grandparents, and on both sides of the family have encountered the problems which tend to arise whenever there is a death in the family and the surviving family members have to put the pieces back together when they cannot even decide how things should be done. I dread the moment my brothers and I will need to make actual decisions on behalf of our parents, but it's a part of life that I know will come our way, though hopefully not anytime soon.

I am one of the few people who did not read the other popular book by Magda Szabó translated into English from Hungarian, The Door, though reading this beautiful and emotionally-destroying novel makes me want to get to it sooner rather than later. But not right away because my feels still hurt a bit after reading this one.

I want to give this a full five stars, but find I cannot because ultimately I found myself confused during my reading as far as who each of the characters were, their relationships to one another, and, at times, even their gender. While these things don't inherently matter, I found myself uncertain how to read some of the characters. Because this is a slowly unfolding novel, I think this stylistic approach was purposeful on the author's part, but it took me a few to really get a grip on how I was trying to read the novel. This may not be an issue for every reader, but it was difficult for me at first. ...more

12 likes · Like · see review

Jun 17, 2017 Julie rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: europe, group-read-roundtable, read-in-2017

Much of this book was 5 star worthy for me. I loved the way the characters and their feelings were portrayed. I dropped a star though, because the way the book was written (to slowly reveal things about who people were and what happened) was kind of confusing and awkward.

4 likes · Like · see review

Mar 03, 2018 Joey Anderson rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

This is just one great novel where Szabo turns the conventional idea of how parents control the lives of their children to one of how children control their aging parents.

In order to combat the fear she has about her aging mother and her desire for no conflict in her life, Iza, the daughter, takes her mother from her country home where she has lived most of her life and places her in her modern urban apartment and expects her to be happy.

Nothing will be further from the truth, for no one is ha ...more

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Jun 09, 2017 Lauren rated it it was amazing

Shelves: ate-2017

This is a heartbreaking book. The author has a profound understanding of the inner lives of her characters.

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Jun 09, 2017 Pamela rated it liked it · review of another edition

When Iza's father dies, she sweeps her mother away to live in Pest with her. However, the old lady finds it hard to adapt to modern city living, and to her daughter's brisk and domineering ways.

This is beautifully written, although I found it dragged a bit in the middle. The character development was good, especially of the old lady and of Iza's ex-husband Antal. It also had a lot of important points to make about the true nature of love and how selfishness can lie hidden beneath caring gesture ...more

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