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It is 1900, give or take a few years. The Vajkays--call them Mother and Father--live in Sárszeg, a dead-end burg in the provincial heart of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Father retired some years ago to devote his days to genealogical research and quaint questions of heraldry. Mother keeps house. Both are utterly enthralled with their daughter, Skylark. Unintelligent, unimaginative, unattractive, and unmarried, Skylark cooks and sews for her parents and anchors the unremitting tedium of their lives. Now Skylark is going away, for one week only, it's true, but a week that yawns endlessly for her parents. What will they do? Before they know it, they are eating at restaurants, reconnecting with old friends, attending the theater. And this is just a prelude to Father's night out at the Panther Club, about which the less said the better. Drunk, in the light of dawn Father surprises himself and Mother with his true, buried, unspeakable feelings about Skylark. Then, Skylark is back. Is there a world beyond the daily grind and life's creeping disappointments? Kosztolányi's crystalline prose, perfect comic timing, and profound human sympathy conjure up a tantalizing beauty that lies on the far side of the irredeemably ordinary. To that extent, Skylark is nothing less than a magical book.… (more)
User reviews
After a couple of days without their daughter, they come to an atrocious realization, something that haunts their psyches. The father especially is sensitive to the awareness that Skylark is a burden. This week without her makes both parents question the character of their lives and who they could be if ugly Skylark was married and they were empty-nesters. They are stifled by Skylark's presence and personality.
As the days go by and Skylark's imminent return nears, their suppressed emotions erupt after the father returns home intoxicated late at night after an episode of drinking and card-playing. He tells the mother about his feelings toward their daughter. The mother is incredulous but secretly wonders about her life without her daughter. The next day, they are set to meet Skylark at the train station but the train is long-delayed. They fret and worry about her safety and whereabouts. When the train finally arrives, they are grateful and overwhelmed with emotion. Regardless of what could have been, they are happily resigned to return to their bland, predictable lives with their daughter.
Looking to read a European novel for a change of pace, I was pleased with my choice from the get-go. I loved the adventure format and the momentum. I was enamored with the writing. Kosztolányi has a knack for describing mundane happenings and finding their heart and importance. It is the little things in life that often turn out to be the biggest deals. His descriptions of provincial Austro-Hungarian life are an insightful snapshot of history.
The Vajkays don't live
Nothing of great consequence happens in this short novel. The action is mostly internal. Even the minor characters are interesting. While on the surface this is a lighthearted novel and there are several humorous scenes, the underlying mood is one of melancholy, disappointment, and resignation, with a tinge of apathy. The main weakness of the book is that the author leans a little too much toward “telling” rather than “showing”.
My edition tells me that two of the author's other works are available in English translation. I've now added two more TBRs to my mushrooming list. Recommended warmly, especially to readers of literature in translation.
This wasn't my kind of book, but it wasn't bad. The author did a good job of setting the atmosphere -- a sense of dull gray hopelessness pervaded every scene. However, I was puzzled by one particular detail: weight. The father in the story visibly gained weight, then lost it and returned to being gaunt by the end of the book. Skylark, when she came back from vacation, had also become noticeably fatter. That ain't gonna happen in a week. I suppose probably the weight gains/losses are a metaphor for something else, but since the rest of the book was strictly realistic fiction, this obviously impossible detail was jarring.
So first I'll say that the writing was very enjoyable, that I came to really like characters that I thought at the beginning
So there is a small family. An "ugly" daughter--a spinster at 35, and her two adoring parents. She maintains the house and their lives. The parents adore her. She is to go on a short trip to the country. They are all devastated. What in the world will they do for the whole week? The answer turns out to be, have a freakin life.
According to the introduction, Kosztolányi found it pretty much impossible to write about anything but the fact that we are dying. The examples of personal suffering are poignant, no one in the book is NOT suffering the daughter's fate as all of their hearts break along with hers. But myself, free from the 20th-century Magyar's baggage and saddled with my own American millennial mindset was so angry at them for not doing something to make things better. Don't get me wrong, I didn't want or expect her to get a makeover or marriage prospects. (I would have been way more angry at the end.) I just want them to do something to make their lives better instead of suffering so much, but I guess, realistically or fatalistically, that's generally not how life is.
PS - We are all dying. Thanks, Kosztolányi.
The book is funny,
This review is from: Skylark (New York Review Books Classics) (Paperback)
The novel opens with a family preparing for their daughter going away to stay with relatives. It's only for a week, but as the
This novel focuses not on Skylark's holiday but on the week her parents spend. The family usually live quietly, economically. Their daughter does the cooking - good, plain food. But how will things go when they must manage alone?
Enjoyable, comic in places but very sad too.
Toward the end
This is a delightful book, but also a bittersweet book, funny and sad at the same time. We had a great discussion on Litsy. I have 2 more books by Kosztolanyi on my shelf, and hope to get to them soon.
Highly recommended.
4 stars