/lit/ - Literature

>Skylark by Dezso Kosztolanyi

"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."

>http://www.mediafire.com/?62tq8gk1grdd631

>>2182706
I want to rec Dezso Kosztolanyi's work for you, capsguy. All of it is pre-1950. He's a Hungarian author, and one of his books was published by NYRB Classics, so that's a good vouching for him. I recommend both Skylark and Kornel Esti highly.

And here's a blob of what I'm probably planning to read soon. Library check-outs at the top, owned books on bottom:

>Howling at the Moon and Blue by Hagiwara Sakutaro
>Angel Riding a Beast by Liliana Ursu
>Fingers Pointing Somewhere Else by Daniela Fischerova
>An Attempt at Exhausting a Place in Paris by Georges Perec
>Nineteen Ways of Looking at Wang Wei
>Zenobia by Gellu Naum
>Camel Xiangzi by She Lao
>Teach Us to Outgrow Our Madness by Kenzaburo Oe
>Nadja by Andre Breton
>In Light of Shadows by Izumi Kyoka
>The Sufferings of Prince Sternenhoch by Ladislav Klima
>Blaugast by Paul Leppin
>The Gentleman From San Fransisco by Ivan Bunin
>The Melancholy of Resistance by Laszlo Krasznahorkai
>I Am a Cat by Natsume Soseki
>The Golem by Gustav Meyrink
>View With a Grain of Sand by Wislawa Szymborska
>Waves: Stories by Bei Dao
>Vain Art of the Fugue by Dumitru Tsepeneag
>Aurelia and Other Writings by Gerard de Nerval
>The Bald Soprano and Other Plays by Eugene Ionesco

Well, depending on your answer to >>1906247, I was going to try and recommend you another Tanizaki book. If you enjoyed the manipulation of the relationship and the desperation, try his Naomi. If you liked the diary format and the deterioration/old age aspects, maybe try his Diary of a Mad Old Man (it comes paired with The Key in some editions). If you didn't like it at all, well, I dunno.

>after the quake - Haruki Murakami
Thought it was alright; the only one that stood out to me was "Super-Frog Saves Tokyo."
>Skylark - Dezso Kosztolányi
Loved it - the humor and the small town nostalgia especially. Old couple descending into vice was really interesting to me.
>The Invention of Morel - Adolfo Bioy Casares
Definitely enjoyed it, mostly the more adventure/discovery/survival-oriented first half.