| Skylark Contributor(s): Kosztolanyi, Dezso (Author), Esterhazy, Peter (Introduction by), Aczel, Richard (Translator) |
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ISBN: 1590173392 ISBN-13: 9781590173398 Publisher: New York Review of Books OUR PRICE: $15.26 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: March 2010 |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Fiction | Classics - Fiction | Literary - Fiction | Family Life - General |
| Dewey: FIC |
| LCCN: 2009035693 |
| Series: New York Review Books Classics |
| Physical Information: 0.52" H x 5.02" W x 8.06" (0.53 lbs) 240 pages |
| Themes: - Cultural Region - Eastern Europe |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: It is 1900, give or take a few years. The Vajkays--call them Mother and Father--live in S rszeg, 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? Kosztol nyi'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. |