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In the Key of Freedom: A Profile of Imre Kertész
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22953 |
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BOOK WORLD
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3 / 2003 |
3,238 Words |
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Lee Congdon
Lee Congdon writes regularly on modern literature. He teaches
eastern European history at James Madison University. |
It came as no surprise to those who still care about serious writing that the 2001 Nobel Prize in literature went to V.S. Naipaul. In part, if only in part, because he writes in English, the Trinidadian-born master had already established an international reputation. The same cannot be said of Imre Kertész, the 2002 laureate. When the Swedish Academy announced its surprise decision on October 10, 2002, the people of Budapest, Kertész's native city, could scarcely believe their ears or contain their excitement; no Hungarian writer had ever been so honored. To be sure, Hungary is home to a rich literary tradition, but it is one closed to those who do not read Hungarian, a Finno-Ugric language unrelated to the Indo-European family. As a result, few lovers of literature have even heard of Gyula Krśdy, Dezsö Kosztolányi, Mihály Babits, Gyula Illyés, or Sándor Márai, each of whom possessed Nobel qualifications.
More recently, three Hungarian writers--Péter Esterházy, Péter Nádas, and György Konrád--have been widely translated. Konrád, who has been shortlisted for a Nobel, has a particularly loyal following in the English-speaking world. But only two of Kertész's novels have thus far appeared in English, and those in limited editions at a small academic press. Even more astonishing, he was until now relatively unknown in Hungary. "Wonderful news," many on Budapest's streets exulted, "but who is Imre Kertész?" As part of his effort to preserve an oasis of freedom in the desert of dictatorship, Kertész held aloof not only from communist Hungary's literary establishment but from the dissident circles that formed during what he calls the "liberal totalitarianism" of János Kádár's rule (1956--1988).
To be sure, Kertész paid a high price for freedom
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