Tranquility

By Attila Bartis

Tranquility is a living seismograph of the internal quakes and ruptures of a mother and son trapped within an Oedipal nightmare amidst the suffocating totalitarian embrace of Communist Hungary. Andor We r, a thirty-six-year-old writer, lives in a cramped apartment with his shut-in mother, Rebeka, who was once among the most celebrated stage actresses in Budapest. Unable to withstand her maniacal tyranny but afraid to leave her alone, their bitter interdependence spirals into a Sartrian hell of hatred, lies, and appeasement. Then Andor meets the beautiful and nurturing Eszter, a woman who seems to have no past, and they fall wildly in love at first sight. With a fulfilling life seemingly within reach for the first time, Andor decides that he is ready to bring Eszter home to meet Mother. Though Bartis's characters are unrepentantly neurotic and dressed in the blackest humor, his empathy for them is profound. A political farce of the highest ironic order, concluding that freedom is a condition unsuitable for humans, Tranquility is ultimately, at its splanchnic core, a complex psychodrama turned inside out, revealing with visceral splendor the grotesque notion that there's nothing funnier than unhappiness.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0980033004
• ISBN13: 9780980033007
• Release Date: September 2008
• Publisher: Archipelago Books
• Length: 292 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.2" x 7.2"

Customer Reviews

Great

My copy of this book was in great condition and was sent in a timely manner.

'Beautifully written'

Perhaps like most people on this site, I read a lot. Often I'm left wondering why as so many books are disappointing. Fear not. Bartis' 'Tranquility' is engrossing, beautifully crafted and a delight to read. His descriptions are sublime, unique and poetic. The book itself is fine. From the size of it, the way the writing is spaced, the texture of the pages, it all presents a sensual delight for the fingers and eyes. If you like books about and for the human condition, our awful rawness, our lies and deceptions, our truth and the way we love and hate, our society and climate, how it effects who we are, if you enjoy beautifully woven words and an intense comand of language, this is the book for you. It is one of my all time favourites.

Upsetting Tranquility

In brief: a young man tries to cope with the love-hate relationship that binds him to his narcissistic and dominant mother and determines his entire life. Highly recommended. I've read the Hungarian original and Goldstein's rendering won the Best Translated Book Award in 2008 so I hope that this masterpiece will be widely read by English speakers - it really deserves attention.