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The Door

Magda Szabó,

Len Rix (Translator)

Discussion: Europe

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What Members Thought

May 29, 2016 Jenny (Reading Envy) rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: location-hungary, read2016, around-the-world, translated, nyrb, women-in-translation

Last night, I finished this book, and had no idea what to say about it. Somehow it took me longer to read than I expected, because events unfold very slowly while you just know everything points to a specific event that is mentioned in the prologue.

I kept hearing comparisons with this book and that kind of thing drives me crazy. Can anyone describe a book anymore without immediately saying it is like something else? The novel centers around the relationship between the female narrator who often Last night, I finished this book, and had no idea what to say about it. Somehow it took me longer to read than I expected, because events unfold very slowly while you just know everything points to a specific event that is mentioned in the prologue.

I kept hearing comparisons with this book and that kind of thing drives me crazy. Can anyone describe a book anymore without immediately saying it is like something else? The novel centers around the relationship between the female narrator who often feels unnamed (her name is Magda but she is addressed infrequently), although we know she is married, has no children, but has had enough success she needs to devote herself to writing full-time and therefore can't manage her own household* and this is where Emerence comes in. She does much of the domestic work required to run several households, but on her own damn time. Nobody tells her what to do; she tells others what to do. She prepares meals that you'd better like, she brings gifts that you'd better keep... are we really supposed to understand the connection underlying this behavior? I would kick someone to the curb who treated me this way. So it became difficult to understand how these two women at such odds had developed a trust relationship that would have an impact on later events.

Emerence is veiled in many ways - she never shows her hair despite not having any religious beliefs (in fact openly scoffing those who do, including Magda), nobody is allowed inside her house, and for the most part she does not talk about her past, which includes several periods in Hungary's tumultuous history. The stories she reveals made me wish she hadn't! I'll never see lightning the same way again. I know I'm supposed to be thinking about "can a person ever be known" and "what is betrayal" but I'm still stuck on "what is the bond bringing these characters together?"

This book is at least thirty years old in Hungary, and has been translated into English around ten, but this is the first time it was really known to me. Thanks to NYRB Classics for that.

*Somehow this hasn't been a good enough excuse for the state of my household ;) ...more

36 likes · Like · see review

Feb 17, 2015 Marieke rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2015

This book is going to stick with me. It was a timely read, too, since my 96-year old grandmother is struggling against the inevitable with the rapid decline of her independence. I don't know what else to say about this book except maybe to say something about its beauty and the humanity of the story; I loved how quietly it unfolded. It is a solid example of the importance of translated literature...not many people besides Hungarians would otherwise get to enjoy it. ...more

14 likes · Like · see review

Feb 01, 2015 Claire rated it really liked it

Shelves: around-the-world-2016, translated, fiction, around-the-world, hungarian-literature

The Door is an overwrought, neurotic narrative by "the lady writer" describing her 20 year relationship with Emerence, the older lady who interviews her prospective employer to see if she'll consider accepting the cleaning job on offer.

No formal agreement dictated the number of hours Emerence spent in our house, or the precise times of her arrival. We might conceivably see nothing of her all day. Then, at eleven at night, she would appear, not in the inner rooms, but in the kitchen or the pantry

No formal agreement dictated the number of hours Emerence spent in our house, or the precise times of her arrival. We might conceivably see nothing of her all day. Then, at eleven at night, she would appear, not in the inner rooms, but in the kitchen or the pantry, which she would scrub until dawn.

Are they dependent on one another or do they despise each other? Is Emerence an altruistic soul, or a cunning manipulator? Is the lady writer narcissistic or consumed with guilt?

The entire novel hovers with each event between opposing emotional states as they appear to get the measure of the other only for the behaviour to completely change. Emerence will do anything and everything for everyone, she is loved by all, but has never opened the door to her home to a soul, her charges make it to her porch and no further. No one knows anything about her private life and she shuts down anyone who dares to pry.

Later, only very much later, in one of the most surreal moments I have ever experienced, I wandered amidst the ruin of Emerence's life, and discovered, there in her garden, standing on the lawn, the faceless dressmaker's dummy designed for my mother's exquisite figure. Just before they sprinkled it with petrol and set fire to it, I caught sight of Emerence's ikonstasis. We were all there, pinned to the fabric over the dolls's ribcage: the Grossman family, my husband, Viola, the Lieutenant Colonel, the nephew, the baker, the lawyer's son, and herself, the young Emerence, with radiant golden hair, in her maid's uniform and little crested cap, holding a baby in her arms.

Seen through the prism of the writer, we observe Emerence only through her eyes, often confused, sometimes suspicious, occasionally neurotic.

It is a slow developing relationship and narrative that entwines these two women's lives together, creating a delicate trust, the implications of which lead to its tragic denouement.

...more

13 likes · Like · see review

Feb 06, 2009 Daisy rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: hungary, favorites-of-all-time, to-re-read

This is one of my favorite books of all time. I forget where or how I found it but I guess what drew me to it was the Hungarian aspect. I have a Thing about Eastern Europe. But anyway.
This is about a writer and a woman she employs to clean her house. It deals with independence and privacy and pride and aging and there are cats in it.

5 likes · Like · see review

Jan 12, 2014 KayG rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites, keeper-shelf, 6-stars, read-2014, my-recs

Absolutely wonderful!

3 likes · Like · see review

Feb 26, 2016 Lydia rated it it was amazing

Ach, harrowing and fraught. Reminded me of Elena Ferrante in its first person depiction of a complicated, passionate friendship branded by class, history and culture almost as much as by personality. I was fascinated and horrified by the relationship between our lady writer narrator and her honorable but bonkers housekeeper, and the way they are both drawn into its emotional excesses. I don't know a lot about Hungary but I'd wager that there are metaphors and allegories, since the themes include ...more

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