[biography] - [quotes] - [publications]
"...all they did was follow me, faster when I quickened
my steps, slower when I slowed down, of course making not the slightest
noise, their huge pads sinking silently into the sand; and I had long
ceased to experiment with stopping, because if I did they'd stop, too,
turn their snouts toward me and just watch; their look, their eyes,
were the most terrifying things about them - excited, keyed-up, yet
completely impassive, eyes like two pretty balls, and at the same time
you could see that under their thick fur the muscles were wound up like
coils, ready to spring; and not only did they not emit a sound - no
yelp or growl - they didn't even pant harder /.../ anyway, it was Pista
who said that this was when the dogs were most dangerous, and one should
never take one's eyes off them; it didn't matter that they had been
trained for any eventuality, in fact, the more rigorous their training,
so the trainers had said, the more unpredictable their nervous system
would become; they knew and understood everything, Kálmán reported,
but were nervous wrecks, the trainers themselves feared them /.../ even
within the compound they were led about on leashes, and it was impossible
to befriend them; they would not accept food or candy from any one,
wouldn't even sniff at it, it was as though you weren't there, they
looked right through you; and if anyone tried to provoke them by kicking
the fence, something that would make any other dog go crazy, they would
simply bare their teeth as a warning; they were trained not to get riled
up needlessly; when they made a mistake, however, they were beaten mercilessly
with sticks and leather straps; if you did nothing but look into their
eyes, without moving, they wouldn't know what was happening or how to
react, and that's when you could see they were nervous wrecks; they
might be beaten for jumping unnecessarily, but they couldn't always
control themselves and they'd jump, catch their victim from behind,
go straight for the nape of the neck; so they kept following me - to
be more precise, after a few steps abreast of one another, it seemed
I was following them; they were trotting on their sandy strip one step
ahead of me; /.../ with their tails up, the dogs led the way, and if
I behaved, that is to say if I didn't hurry or fall behind, if fear
did not make me break into a run /.../ if in spite of all my shame and
humiliation, hatred and urge to rebel, I complied with their demands,
if I did not stop, run, slow down, or speed up, and was even careful
not to breathe too loudly, and if I managed to suppress any gestures
and emotions they might construe as obtrusive, just as they tried to
curb their nervousness and, as a result, the tension of our mutual suspicion
became stabilized, then, after a while, our relationship became more
refined, not so threatening: I did what I was expected to do, and the
dog, becoming almost indifferent to me, did what it was supposed to
do /.../"
(From: A Book of Memories, tr. by I. Sanders and I. Goldstein)
"Communist Eastern Europe has not usually been seen
as a subject for Proustian reflection ... But in A Book of Memories,
Péter Nádas, one of Hungary's pre-eminent literary figures, has accomplished
a remarkably interesting feat: he has transposed the novel of consciousness
to the Socialist universe, and closed the gap between prewar modernism(inflected
here by post-modern psychoanalysis) and Eastern Europe."
(The New York Times Book Review, Eva Hoffman )
[biography] - [quotes] - [publications]
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