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Skylark (Nowy Kanon)

by Dezső Kosztolányi, Richard Aczel (Translator), Péter Esterházy (Introduction)

3.86 of 5 stars 3.86 · rating details · 458 ratings · 80 reviews

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, unimagi...more

Paperback, 222 pages

Published March 2nd 2010 by NYRB Classics (first published 1924)

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Feb 14, 2012 Paul rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: novels

Well, some things remain truths universally acknowledged. Certainly this has been and still is held to be true here in Nottingham, England :

He had much to report... who had been drinking wine, or champagne, or schnapps, and how much of each had been consumed by whom; and finally who had been sick and how many times. For in Sarszeg this served as the surest measure of a good time. Those who were sick twice had had a better time than those who were only sick once. Yesterday some had even been sick...more

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Sep 29, 2011 Daniel rated it 4 of 5 stars

Some writers capture an instance of human endeavor--be it play, work, strife, exploration, love--in prose that conveys this experience with a singular fidelity. Here is Akos Vajkay, carousing with friends on a late night:

"Akos suddenly picked up the tumbler full of schnapps they had set before him and downed it in one. The alcohol warmed its way through his body and lifted him to his feet. There was an enormous knocking in his old brain and he felt such delight that he really wouldn't have minde

...more Some writers capture an instance of human endeavor--be it play, work, strife, exploration, love--in prose that conveys this experience with a singular fidelity. Here is Akos Vajkay, carousing with friends on a late night:

"Akos suddenly picked up the tumbler full of schnapps they had set before him and downed it in one. The alcohol warmed its way through his body and lifted him to his feet. There was an enormous knocking in his old brain and he felt such delight that he really wouldn't have minded in the least if there and then, in this moment of giddy ecstasy, when he felt his whole being, his whole life, was in his grasp, he were to fall down and die on the spot. (147)"

I love it when a story from decades back takes me to a moment that could happen in my own life. The many years and historical events between now and then blur like a slew of chemicals, and from this mixture results a precipitate in the form of human beings who are much like ourselves. Such is the alchemy that author Dezso Kosztolanyi works in "Skylark," and being subject to its effects was a wonderful experience; the climactic scene, in which Akos confronts a deep well of misgivings and guilt, had me riveted.

Probably this story can be analyzed in a variety of contexts--the eve of the 20th Century; the changing face of the Hungarian state; the uncertainty prevalent in Europe between the wars, etc--and, probably, I am lazy reader for being (quite) content with a literal perspective. "Skylark" is certainly fat with connotations, and these stretch the dimensions of the story like secret closets in a big house. More than anything, though, I was absorbed by the Vajkay's increasing amount of social activity in their daughter's absence and the glimpses of personalities and habits that once contributed to a sense of well-being that, absent as it was in the story's beginning, is all the more remarkable for its tentative, and elusive, nature.

Human histories are complicated, and human emotions messy, inchoate, and subject to an anti-logic that makes the novel such a daunting and fantastic premise. "Skylark" is one of those novels that fascinates in its depiction of inner lives that stir with tectonic potential, threatening to rupture beneath the conventions and rhythms that otherwise occupy our attentions. It also offers an underdog protagonist that I couldn't help but cheer for--the kind of individual who has succumbed for so long, yet still retains a sliver of adventure just waiting to be exercised. When this adventurous streak had its moment, "Skylark" sunk in deep and took me along.(less)

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Aug 31, 2011 S. rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: love-the-cover, nyrb, read-in-2011

To be completely superficial let me start by saying that for a book concerning ugliness, this has a beautiful cover. The colors are gorgeous and fine -dark ochre and robin's egg blue- and the sans serif type and Hungarian accents top it off like fragile, delicate bones.

But looks aren't everything. I was also bowled over by the story, which is both heartbreaking and very funny. It's set in a distinctive time and place, but what's portrayed is accessible to anyone.

Before going into it, it’s impor...more To be completely superficial let me start by saying that for a book concerning ugliness, this has a beautiful cover. The colors are gorgeous and fine -dark ochre and robin's egg blue- and the sans serif type and Hungarian accents top it off like fragile, delicate bones.

But looks aren't everything. I was also bowled over by the story, which is both heartbreaking and very funny. It's set in a distinctive time and place, but what's portrayed is accessible to anyone.

Before going into it, it’s important to know that this book has a lot of laughs. I laughed out loud at the theater scene. I laughed at how the writer poked fun at the characters’ sentimentality. I laughed at the drunken “ride” in the chair, the father’s confrontation with a man he’d hoped would wed his daughter, the funny title headings, and at many exchanges between the couple. It’s the humorous touch and the irony that makes it surprising how sad this book is.

The story is about a couple and their 35-year old unmarried daughter, Skylark, who is their life's focus and its albatross. Because Skylark suffers, they suffer. Because Skylark has no way to escape her sad, uneventful life, they resolve to a sad and uneventful life, cutting themselves off from the community and friends and everything else that brings sensual or intellectual pleasure - the theater, good food, cigars, music.

This self-imposed deprivation is painful for the characters, but tedium in its sameness is a great soother, and the alternative would throw Skylark's situation into stark relief. That's what happens when she goes away for a week to visit relatives, leaving her parents alone. They loosen up, and the thought of Skylark loses its grip, until they are confronted with her return.

Skylark seems an average, able person; unfortunately she lacks any gifts, talent or any particular characteristic that would make her attractive, or enrich her inner life, like a keen mind or a love of music, say, or poetry. Significantly the father’s only pastime is studying genealogy, as his own family tree is about to stop branching.

Skylark’s ugliness comes across almost as a disability, as when we first encounter her in the garden in the posture that is “best” for her, or when she walks flanked by her parents. Although she never really seeks to manipulate anyone, Skylark’s presence is oppressive. The family doesn’t eat in restaurants because she has a sensitive stomach. Her frugality means they use only one bulb in a four-bulb chandelier. Her parents love her dotingly in an effort to ease her loneliness, and they hate her because they are powerless to change it.
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May 22, 2010 Jimmy rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: male, novel, nyrb, hungary, and-a-half-stars, year-1920s

Skylark is a woman in her mid-30's, an "old maid", living with her mother and father. They've fallen into such a groove that they have become pathetically dependent on each other. Skylark is also butt ugly, which has given her family much shame in not being able to marry her off. They still save up for her dowry, but try not to harbor any hope for her marrying off, as they have been disappointed many times before.

In the beginning of the book, Skylark leaves for a week to go visit a relative. We...more

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Jul 16, 2012 Andrew Walter rated it 4 of 5 stars

A powerful and quiet novel that's uncomfortably real in the way it depicts families.

After the sad ending, I couldn't help that Skylark and her parents could have reached some sort of reconciliation with the way they unconciously coddle each other-if they just talked it through. Of course, that's easier said than done when it comes to families with adult children, and if it's tainted with embarrassment and awkwardness now, I suppose it would have been a lot worse in provincial 1920's Hungary. Or...more

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Feb 12, 2013 Janet rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: hungarian

Yesterday I caught the tail end of an interview on NPR citing a study arguing that people who lie to themselves tend to be not only happier but more successful than those mired in reality. These are the people who on a level playing field manage to get the girl, get the promotion, get the good night’s rest, get the fill-in-the-blank. They are the individuals wandering in the desert with an empty canteen they refuse to believe is less than half full. Unfortunately, Skylark is no Shackleton.

Koszt...more Yesterday I caught the tail end of an interview on NPR citing a study arguing that people who lie to themselves tend to be not only happier but more successful than those mired in reality. These are the people who on a level playing field manage to get the girl, get the promotion, get the good night’s rest, get the fill-in-the-blank. They are the individuals wandering in the desert with an empty canteen they refuse to believe is less than half full. Unfortunately, Skylark is no Shackleton.

Kosztolanyi’s novel is an understated ironic masterpiece starting with its title. This Skylark is in her mid-30s, lives with her parents and spends her time making “lovely tablecloths and doilies”. The story spans a single week in which Skylark leaves town to visit relatives and her parents experience untold liberties. They dine at a restaurant! They attend the theatre! Mother buys a handbag! Father visits his men’s club! Inevitably their breathless giddiness turns to remorse. Or is it resentment?

It’s interesting to note that while the story centers on Skylark she remains effectively off-stage for over 90% of it. She may be unattractive and unmarried but she’s the by-product of her parents’ low expectations. Who could overcome this father’s description? “He pitied his daughter, and took his pity out on himself. He watched her intently, almost offensively, still unable to get used to her face, at once both plump and drawn, the pudgy nose, the flared horsy nostrils, the severe, masculine eyebrows and the tiny watery eyes which somehow reminded him of his own. He had never really understood women, but knew only too well that his daughter was ugly.” Or the description of her sole suitor: “He had at one time undoubtedly met with the Vajkays’ highest approval. They could never have wished their daughter a more appropriate suitor. They had always dreamed of a decent, homely type who’d wear unironed broadcloth trousers and a painfully knitted brow; who’d sweat a little and blush when he spoke. Geza Cifra was just such a man.”

Skylark is metaphor and scapegoat for her parents’ moribund lives. The book’s final few pages will break your heart.

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Dec 04, 2012 Shirley rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012

An old couple's spinster daughter goes away for a week for the first time. The couple are devastated at first but gradually discover pockets and then entire landscapes of color and joy in "unnecessary" experiences such as going to the opera and eating at a restaurant - so much so that they dare wonder if they are actually happier without her. This is painful and rings with honesty as it explores the taboo questions, what would your life be without your children? And might it actually be better?...more

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Sep 14, 2011 Trish rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: classics, europe, fiction, totally-unexpected

Set in Hungary at the turn of the twentieth century, Skylark is the story of a family: father, mother, and daughter. They live together in the family home on a ramshackle street in a provincial town. The father was once an archivist, and is an expert on genealogy—his own and his townspeople's. He has followed his own family line back to royalty, and considers himself a better class of citizen than most of his fellows. Now he feels old, and plans for his death, often fussing over the placement of...more

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Jan 25, 2012 Jim rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 20th-century-lit, fiction, hungary

Some works of fiction are nothing less than magic. Their authors have seen to the core of life and shroud the most mediocre settings with some sort of pixie dust. Such is the provincial city of Sarszeg (sar- is a Hungarian root meaning "mud," just as in French President Nicolas Sarkozy's last name) in the year 1899. Like all of Hungary, it is jokingly referred to as "Kakania" by the Magyars, a disparaging reference to the Dual Monarchy of Austria-Hungary. On one hand, you have the universal mean...more Some works of fiction are nothing less than magic. Their authors have seen to the core of life and shroud the most mediocre settings with some sort of pixie dust. Such is the provincial city of Sarszeg (sar- is a Hungarian root meaning "mud," just as in French President Nicolas Sarkozy's last name) in the year 1899. Like all of Hungary, it is jokingly referred to as "Kakania" by the Magyars, a disparaging reference to the Dual Monarchy of Austria-Hungary. On one hand, you have the universal meaning of "kaka"; on the other, it refers to the German initials K. u. K., which stood for Kaiser und Königlich -- "imperial and royal."

Nothing could be simpler than the plot. The aging Vajkays have one lone child, a 35-year-old girl whom they call Skylark. Her prospects for marriage are, to say the least, nonexistent. In addition, she is a wet blanket, big time. At the beginning, she leaves for a one week trip to relatives up north. With Skylark gone, Mother and Father Vajkay, who had been leading a dry as dust existence, suddenly shine forth, going to restaurants and to the theater; and in one classic scene, Father Akos attends a drunken revel of the Panthers, an all-male club which features drinking, gambling, tobacco, and gypsy music. After one of their outings, they run into the local journalist and would-be poet, through whose eyes we see the Vajkays as if in a flash:

He could hear rummaging from inside the house, the old couple preparing for rest. And he could see quite clearly before him the wretched rooms, where suffering collected like unswept dust in the corners, the dust of lives in painful heaps, piled up over many long years. He shut his eyes and drank in the garden's bitter fragrance. At such times Miklos Ijas [the poet/journalist] was 'working.'

He stood for some minutes before the gate with all the patience of a lover waiting for the appearance of his beloved. But he was waiting for no one. He was no lover in a worldly sense; the only love he knew was that of divine understanding, of taking a whole life into his arms, stripping it of flesh and bone, and feeling into its depths as if it were his own. From this, the greatest pain, the greatest happiness is born: the hope that we too will one day be understood, strangers will accept our words, our lives, as if they were their own.

As soon as I read that, I felt exactly as if I had bumped into the author, Dezso Kosztolanyi, in the flesh. It is hard to think of a more imaginative summing up of a life.

Eventually, Skylark returns to Sarszeg. Do Papa and Mama continue their recent "skylarking" (please excuse the pun), or do they settle back into a humdrum existence in which their spinster daughter, in effect, calls all the shots? I refuse to say, because I think this obscure 1924 Hungarian novel is perhaps one of the greatest works of 20th Century European Literature, and definitely deserving of your attention.
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Sep 30, 2011 Sasha Martinez added it

Shelves: books-read-in-2010, nyrb-classics

My first ever read from NYRB Classics.

SKYLARK is the story of the Vajkays–there’s mother, father, and fat and ugly spinster daughter Skylark. There’s a fable-like quality to this premise, to how simplistic it seems. Skylark is to leave home for a week, to visit her relatives. The elder Vajkays try to cope–Skylark has not been away from home this long before–and it’s all a staggering loss. That staggering loss, yes–the Vajkays weep at the street hours after their daughter’s departure–but then the...more My first ever read from NYRB Classics.

SKYLARK is the story of the Vajkays–there’s mother, father, and fat and ugly spinster daughter Skylark. There’s a fable-like quality to this premise, to how simplistic it seems. Skylark is to leave home for a week, to visit her relatives. The elder Vajkays try to cope–Skylark has not been away from home this long before–and it’s all a staggering loss. That staggering loss, yes–the Vajkays weep at the street hours after their daughter’s departure–but then they’re wary at this new-found freedom, then a reluctant ease, then a reflective bewilderment over the feelings they’ve long held inside. Still, so many hints at an unfortunate attachment to a burden they don’t even try to name as such. And, well, maybe, just maybe, they’re really liking how things are going, sans-Skylark. Oh, they love Skylark, of course they do. But in the week that Skylark’s away, they discover many things about themselves, especially in their roles as parents of a socially unwanted child.

In Esterhäzy’s introduction, he insists, “Skylark’s ugliness is not a symbol. This ugliness is the unnameable anxiety which we would dearly love to forget, to dispel, but it is not possible, it always comes back, is always with us, relentless, just like a daughter with her father.”

It all looks like a quaint little story–fable, fairy tale. But there’s so much depth even in the playfulness of the scenes, the doggedness of the language’s focus. And then there are those moments that just silence you with their sadness.

The simplicity is deceptive. There are so many subtleties in the what at first seems like standard comedy-of-errors scenes. And the silences, those silences. Speaking of things long kept hidden.

I was torn. Torn between weeping–what else is the first instinct upon seeing a good, stoic man break down, and in love for another person. And then, that other side, the intellectual side: The awareness that Kosztolányi so perfectly wrote the best response Mother could have said. She couldn’t have said, “Oh, Father.” She couldn’t have fallen silent and said, “No, no!” That was the wrong thing to say between them, but it was the perfect thing for the author to write. I’m emotionally skewered and geeky all at the same time. Only the best writers do that. Writers I’ll grow to love.

And then, what I most love about this book: The story not told, the story that is Skylark’s. Though the first we see of her is through her parent’s eyes–a homely child, a hopeless child–but Kosztolányi gives us the most telling glimpses into Skylark’s character. Very few glimpses, glimpses where we just long for more. For example, the first shred of emotion we see in Skylark–the first interesting thing Skylark did–it had to do with tears. So many tears. In all the world she had never thought there could be so many tears. Oh, goodness. That’s the story not told, and Kosztolányi knows what to withhold for now, and what to never ever reveal.

But this was her, something, someone whose life she really lived. She was this I, in body and in soul, one with its very flesh, its memories, its past, present and future, all of which we seal into a single destiny each time we face ourselves and utter that tiny, unalterable word: “I”.

Oh, Skylark. I just love this book. Really really love this book. I didn’t expect to like it as much as I did, didn’t expect it would resonate. Note that a day or two after reading this, I went to the pages I’d marked. I reread them. I loved them all over again, I loved it more. Fine me for overuse of the word “love.” I don’t much care.

He stood for some minutes before the gate with all the patience of a lover waiting for the appearance of his beloved. But he was waiting for no one. He was no lover in a worldly sense; the only love he knew was that of divine understanding, of taking a whole life into his arms, stripping it of flesh and bone, and feeling into its depths as if they were his own. From this, the greatest pain, the greatest happiness is born: the hope that we too will one day be understood, strangers will accept our words, our lives, as if they were their own.

Happy reading, all.(less)

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Sep 07, 2011 David rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: misery-loves-company, nyrb

Wow. The last fifty pages or so of Skylark are pretty damn brutal. You know how there are a whole bunch of really ugly truths about life that we generally just brush off or lie to ourselves about? This book confronts some of them head-on. And the honesty is actually a little harrowing at times. Here's my own real-life point-of-comparison: when I was a teenager and worked at a movie theater this one guy used to come in a lot (always alone) to see movies. Not so unusual, right? Well, the reason I...more Wow. The last fifty pages or so of Skylark are pretty damn brutal. You know how there are a whole bunch of really ugly truths about life that we generally just brush off or lie to ourselves about? This book confronts some of them head-on. And the honesty is actually a little harrowing at times. Here's my own real-life point-of-comparison: when I was a teenager and worked at a movie theater this one guy used to come in a lot (always alone) to see movies. Not so unusual, right? Well, the reason I still remember him twenty years later is that he had severe burns all over his face. Without too much exaggeration of metaphor, he resembled a melted-down pink candle. Now, the duties of polite society—as I interpreted them—are not only that I try not to seem shocked or fascinated by his deformity, but also that I automatically regard him as 'brave' or 'normal' or any number of adjectives that are expressly positive—or, at the very least, neutral. What propriety and compassion tacitly forbid me to think or to say is that he's ugly or revolting, that he'll probably have a lonely life, that he'll be stared at everywhere he goes, that many of his relationships with other people will be corrupted by pity. And in most everyday instances, I think kindness is a good tradeoff for honesty. And yet... these ugly truths can't be completely ignored or erased. They linger, just at the periphery, coloring our understanding of the world we live in. We may not articulate them in words precisely, but they're always there, haunting our perceptions and emotions. And that's exactly what Dezső Kosztolányi's Skylark is about. It centers on an aging couple living with their unattractive spinster daughter (nicknamed Skylark) in a provincial city in Hungary in 1899. The family is a case study in codependence. The parents dote on and shelter their unfortunate daughter from the cruelties of the world, and in recompense Skylark does everything—cooks, sews, cleans, etc.—for her parents. All of a sudden, Skylark decides to go away for a week to stay with relatives, and this separation results in some honest but harsh realizations in all three of them about their precarious relationship. Mostly (believe it or not) the book is comic, in a very wry sort of way, but at the same time it aggressively flirts with tragedy—until the end, when it finally seals the deal. A tough pill. Go ahead and swallow it, why don't ya?(less)

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Aug 12, 2011 Sławek rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

We can envy Kosztolanyi's perspicacity and knowledge of human nature. With these two and also with a little bit of irony, he is serving us a novel still current, even timeless.

Here we are with the image of ourselves trapped in the scheme, adjusted to the surrounding reality - rather playing a role in it, than creating it.

Deep in our souls we are denying the existence of this reality (if we even know about it) or we simply don't bother. Eponymous Skylark is this reality, which Kosztolanyi made ug...more

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May 08, 2011 eva rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: book-club-2, fiction

i was slightly apprehensive about reading this for book club, because i was afraid it would turn out to be just cruel mocking of an ugly girl. but i voted for it anyway, and am glad i did. i liked how he handled the characters - skylark & family as well as the supporting cast: biting and darkly funny, but with a morose sympathy underneath. he was also quite nuanced in portraying both the positives & negatives of the parents' stuffy, comfortable home life as well as their crazy skylark-fr...more

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Oct 24, 2010 Meaghan rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: adult-novels, read-in-2010, historical-novels

A sort of slice-of-life novel about a middle-aged couple and their grown daughter in a dull Hungarian provincial town at around 1900. The couple has always depended on their daughter, Skylark, to be there and run things and take care of them, and they're at a bit of a loss after Skylark goes to visit relatives for a week. But they actually become a lot more outgoing in her absence, meeting old friends, going to the theater, etc. However, once Skylark comes back you get the impression that things...more

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Jun 21, 2010 Amy rated it 3 of 5 stars

Though by the time I finished the last page, I was enjoying myself with this book, overall I found it to be slow and plodding. It had just enough going on that it held my attention for awhile, until I found myself dozing off, only to wake up and read a few more pages. Maybe I shouldn't have tried reading it at night.
My impressions of this book:
I would have liked to learn more about Skylark. Throughout the book, I thought of her as bumbling and oblivious. She obviously had her views on things, an...more Though by the time I finished the last page, I was enjoying myself with this book, overall I found it to be slow and plodding. It had just enough going on that it held my attention for awhile, until I found myself dozing off, only to wake up and read a few more pages. Maybe I shouldn't have tried reading it at night.
My impressions of this book:
I would have liked to learn more about Skylark. Throughout the book, I thought of her as bumbling and oblivious. She obviously had her views on things, and even pressured her parents in some ways, but mostly I got the impression that she either didn't know or didn't care about how she was perceived. Then something happens on the last page or two of the book that changed my perception of her. So I had to sit there for a good 10 minutes or so after finishing the book to think back on it and think of her in this new light. It really changed my entire perception of the book itself, which is pretty amazing.
The parents, although not entirely likable, were definitely pitiable. I really felt for them and their empty lives, although they never realized, or let themselves realize, just how empty their lives were until Skylark goes away on vacation. Their gradual reawakening was fun to watch, much like someone awakening after a long, deep sleep. I think the point at which Father realized his dependence on Skylark's moods and thoughts was when he ordered his first meal at the restaurant, and realized instead of ordering something he liked, he ordered something he knew Skylark would approve of. After that realization, he could think of nothing more than going back to the restaurant and trying something new. I cheered for him when he finally gave in and began ordering new things left and right.
One of the main things that came across to me in the book is how much Skylark's parents felt responsible for her and her happiness. I can't decide whether Skylark was lucky to have them or not. On the one hand, other parents would not have put up with as much as they did; they might have kicked her out as soon as she was old enough and left her to fend for herself. On the other hand, that might have been just what Skylark needed to jump start her life and try to be something other than the epitome of an old maid.
My impression of this book seems to change each time I think about it. When I reached the end of the book and realized that things were going to be right back where they were at the beginning, I felt cheated. I had been allowed to watch this amazing, albeit slow, transition in Mother and Father's lives; only to have it right back to where it was, as if it had never happened. But would they have been better off if they'd never had their week alone, if they never realized the way their life was going? I don't think so. I like to think that Mother and Father thought about that week from time to time with pleasure, and that it helped them to get through the rest of their days. As for Skylark? I guess I like to think that her week away made her realize what a rut she was in, and how great was the need to change things up. But in reality, I just don't think Skylark will ever change. And that makes me sad.(less)

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Mar 24, 2010 Erik Simon rated it 3 of 5 stars

Remember that scene in THE COLOR OF MONEY when Paul Newman got hustled by Forest Whitaker? Here he was, the quintessential hustler, and after all these years, he got hustled himself. Well, that's how this book makes me feel.

I've suspected for some while that just about everyone in the entertainment world is on the take. My most revelatory "Et tu" moment came a few years ago when I saw Melanie Griffith on Broadway in CHICAGO. At the time, I was teaching in Bed-Stuy, and I was taking various stude...more Remember that scene in THE COLOR OF MONEY when Paul Newman got hustled by Forest Whitaker? Here he was, the quintessential hustler, and after all these years, he got hustled himself. Well, that's how this book makes me feel.

I've suspected for some while that just about everyone in the entertainment world is on the take. My most revelatory "Et tu" moment came a few years ago when I saw Melanie Griffith on Broadway in CHICAGO. At the time, I was teaching in Bed-Stuy, and I was taking various students to various Broadway shows for various educational purposes. One group really wanted to see CHICAGO, and I had no qualms with that--it's a great musical--but at the time, Melanie Griffith was playing the lead, and I did have qualms with that. Then, lo and behold, Frank Rich wrote a review of her saying that she was terrific. "Really?" I thought. But it was Frank Rich, the one columnist besides Paul Krugman who spent the entire Bush administration actually seeing and telling the truth. In fact, for the past nine years, Frank Rich has been dead on on just about everything in society and politics. So if Frank said she was good, then she must be good.

She was bad. Ridiculously bad. She didn't even dance. Whenever a dance number came, they brought out a chair, put her in it, and everyone danced around her. I'm not kidding: The lead role in CHICAGO didn't dance. So why, I thought, did Frank lie? He's not stupid. He knew she was bad. He lied, I guessed, because it was after 9-11, when business on Broadway was hurting, and it was August, which is a terrible time for Broadway, so he lied just to get people in the doors, at least through August. Commendable, but a lie nonetheless. (Broadway non-sequitir: have I mentioned how bad the Nathan Lane and Bill Irwin GODOT was? Just wondering.)

Frank Rich was the final straw. Mind you, I'd gotten wind of how bad "the take" was before. My favorite instance came when a scion of the NY Times family won the Pulitzer for his dreadful novel, MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA. Could it have been any more blatant? And I loved how the former editor of the Washington Post got a Pulitzer for her memoirs. And never trust a blurb written by an author who shares the same publisher as the book he or she is blurbing. So I've been pretty hip to the take for a while. And usually it's just an I-scratch-your-back-you-scratch-mine kind of thing, which isn't inherently evil, but it is dishonest.

Enter, this book. I thought it was . . . okay. Frankly, I thought it was kind of boring. Not as boring as that godawful Robert Walser book that everyone but me and David seems to love, but boring. And that surprised me, because Deborah Eisenberg, whose stories I admire, wrote an incredible review of this book. In fact, the review was so effusive in its praise that that's what compelled me to go out and buy it. And it was just okay. Then it hit me: Where did Eisenberg write this review: in the "New York Review of Books," my favorite rag. And who published this book? Why, the "New York Review of Books." One plus one. Everybody is on the take. Anyone want to take bets on how effusive the NYRB review will be on Eisenberg's next book?

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Jan 26, 2012 Julka rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 52-books-2012, general-fiction

Rodzina Vajkayów mieszka w małym, węgierskim miasteczku. Rodzice Antonina i Akacjusz oraz ich 35-letnia córka, nazywana pieszczotliwie Ptaszyną wiodą spokojne życie. Nie wychodzą nigdzie z wyjątkiem kościoła i nie prowadzą życia towarzyskiego. Pod koniec lata jednak coś się zmienia. Ptaszyna wyjeżdża na tydzień do rodziny na wieś. Rodzice początkowo oddają się rozpaczliwym rozmyślaniom i tęsknocie, potem jednak coś się jednak w nich przełamuje. Małe banalne wydarzenia, chociażby wyjście do resta...more Rodzina Vajkayów mieszka w małym, węgierskim miasteczku. Rodzice Antonina i Akacjusz oraz ich 35-letnia córka, nazywana pieszczotliwie Ptaszyną wiodą spokojne życie. Nie wychodzą nigdzie z wyjątkiem kościoła i nie prowadzą życia towarzyskiego. Pod koniec lata jednak coś się zmienia. Ptaszyna wyjeżdża na tydzień do rodziny na wieś. Rodzice początkowo oddają się rozpaczliwym rozmyślaniom i tęsknocie, potem jednak coś się jednak w nich przełamuje. Małe banalne wydarzenia, chociażby wyjście do restauracji czy do teatru dodają blasku ich codziennej egzystencji.

"Tak czy inaczej, znaleźli się w nurcie ogólnych myśli, interesów i ludzkiej wspólnoty ; odświeżyło to ich, rozproszyło duszną otępiałość, która przeżarła ich ciała, ubrania meble."

Akacjusz kocha swoja córkę. To co, że jet brzydka, że brak jej radości z życia, dalej jest jego jedyna córką. Ptaszyna najlepiej czuje się, kiedy jest zajęta pracą. Dlatego utrzymuje mieszkanie w pedantycznym porządku, cały wolny czas poświęca robótkom ręcznym i wprawia się w oszczędzaniu na wszystkim.

"Ptaszyna była dobrą córką, bardzo dobrą córką, jedyną radością w życiu ojca. Akacjusz zawsze to powtarzał, przypominał sobie i innym".

Ptaszyna stroni od ludzi. Rodzice, żeby nie robić jej przykrości, dostosowują się do jej trybu życia. I nagle oto Ptaszyna wyjeżdża na tydzień. Zanim wróci, rodzice targani wyrzutami sumienia będą w panice ustawiali meble na poprzednich miejscach, chowali bilety do teatru i nowe zakupy.

"Ptaszyna" jest niezwykłą powieścią, która po jej przeczytaniu dalej karze nam się zastanawiać nad sensem całej tej historii. Na koniec zacytuje jeszcze co o "Ptaszynie" napisał hrabia Péter Esterházy, węgierski pisarz i eseista:

"Brzydota Ptaszyny to nie symbol, lecz nienazwany niepokój, o którym wolelibyśmy zapomnieć.(...)Szpetota Ptaszyny, jej rozlazła tusza, tępota, agresywna dobroć – to my. (…) Ptaszyna jest wieczna. Nie ma przed nią ucieczki".
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Sep 13, 2011 Nicholas During rated it 4 of 5 stars

A beautiful little book. In places hilarious, depressing, moving, and though-provoking, this book made me think about the alternate realities. The parents of Skylark have sacrificed their lives and fun to stay home with their notoriously ugly daughter and console her with unyielding love. When she goes away for a week-long trip they rediscover the joys of socializing and going out. Skylark herself has hidden her misery to save the feelings of her parents, and they both continue to move forward w...more

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Jan 12, 2012 Malcolm rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction-east-central-europe

This is a novel in which not much takes place, but an awful lot happens; a couple’s unmarried adult daughter goes on holiday for a week and they rediscover many of the things about their local town – its restaurants, theatre and old friends, all of which they had drifted away from as they became increasingly inward looking at the family.

In the course of the week Ákos Vajkay and his unnamed wife eat out, meet up with old friends (in Ákos’s case including a riotous all-nighter with the old club)...more

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Sep 10, 2011 Jenny rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: nyrb, location-hungary, read2011

Some of this book feels folkloric - the public crying, the walks through the town, the roles of children and their parents; all of this moves throughout the story with many unique townspeople in the background adding color.

As the story progresses, there are these moments where a scene seems pretty typical but all of the sudden a character will reveal a thought that is either profound or so incredibly honest that it is almost gut-wrenching. My favorite moment for this is when "Editor Ijas" is out...more

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May 15, 2012 Kerry rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: classics, translations

This is an exquisitely quiet novel about the Vajkay family: Father, Mother, and Skylark, their unmarried, adult daughter. The live a melancholy life of disappointment, for Skylark has no marriage prospects and little to physically recommend her as a mate. None of the three sees opportunity for change. When Skylark is invited for a week in the country, the tightly knit family is both hopeful and fearful that things will change. Father only bids her goodbye at the railway station with difficulty.

T...more

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Sep 24, 2011 Peg rated it 3 of 5 stars

This one was tough for me. I found it brilliant at times and at times profoundly dull. The plot is very simple but peels back layer after layer of the characters' psyches, revealing the depths of pain just beneath the surface. The theme of choices, self-sacrifice, and the lies people tell themselves in order to simply keep going is quite powerful. The characters are well drawn and are much like people we all encounter in our daily lives, maybe much like ourselves. They are drawn with attention t...more

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Jul 28, 2011 Cheryl rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, literary, world-lit, european-literature, hungary, literature

A one day read, a little over 200 pages. Translated from the Hungarian. The author lived 1885 to 1936. Takes place in 1899. An old couple’s old maid of a daughter goes away for a week, to visit family. The old couple, at first bereft at the absence of their unexciting and uninteresting daughter, soon surprise themselves by discovering a social world outside of their reclusive home. They rediscover old friends, restaurants, the theatre. It is a comic novel — his descriptions of the daughter in pa...more

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May 03, 2010 g rated it 3 of 5 stars

I finished this several days ago and have been puzzling over what I want to say about it. Skylark is Mother and Father's homely, thirty-something, only child, with whom they enjoy an insular and regimented daily existence in a small town in Hungary. Hovering about is a feeling of sad resignation about the fact that Skylark's marriage prospects, never strong, have long faded altogether. Her parents, desperate to give her some small happiness, arrange for her to visit relatives for a week in the c...more

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Sep 27, 2011 Seana rated it 5 of 5 stars

I recently read this book for the NYRB book group here at Good Reads. Great discussion on this short novel. Feel free to join us!

Here's my own review of the book:

The story begins in a moment of nervous anticipation. Skylark, the daughter of two aging parents, is leaving for a week in the country with relatives. The threesome has never really been apart before. Skylark, despite the lighthearted quality of her name is the unmarriagable spinster daughter in a provincial outpost of the Austro-Hunga...more

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Jan 21, 2012 John Pappas rated it 4 of 5 stars

Kosztolanyi's short novel Skylark is an entirely convincing portrayal of a small family living in a remote town in the Austro-Hungarian empire. Entirely dependent on each other, the family is thrown into anxious disarray when Skylark, the old maid daughter, is invited to visit family in the country for a week. What happens next for the mother and father, used to a mundane life, begins as a mild saturnalia and ends in a stark and terrible realization of the state of their individual lives. Koszto...more

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Jul 28, 2007 Christine rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Incredibly depressing, but I'm grateful to have been introduced to Kosztolanyi's phrasing, intrepid descriptions, and beautiful use of words. Even in English, I think it comes through.

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Jun 14, 2011 Cornelis Broekhof rated it 5 of 5 stars

An elderly couple suffers because of their plain, unmarriable daughter Leeuwerik (Lark). Their life changes when she goes to stay with family in the country for a week. When she returns, they resume their previous existence, although each is more aware of their suffering than before. A sad story, but with some delightful scenes, for instance when the father returns to his company of friends - a group that call themselves the Panthers, a gentlemen's club founded for the sole purpose of getting as...more

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Jan 07, 2012 Lauren Mangold rated it 4 of 5 stars

Even in translation (the book was originally composed in Hungarian), there is an unmistakable color to the prose of Skylark. It is slyly devastating, for being so comedic, so forlorn, so understated, and so bold. The plot is not so much a storyline-- more of a quiet sea change-- but a perfect enmeshing of characters, from the familiar father Akos, to the jejune daughter Skylark, to the cipher of beautiful opera singer Olga Orosz. This is a book to sit with, to chew on, to enjoy longer than its m...more

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Oct 22, 2011 Davytron rated it 3 of 5 stars

Skylark didn't end as I expected it to. I imagined it to be a little more tragic from some of the other reviews I had read - granted it was tragic in a mundane sort of way. It's tragic in the sense that, in the end, life for the Vajkays goes on as it always has despite all that is revealed. It's hard to explain. I was really hoping for something awful to happen, like, the town branding Skylark a disfigured monster and burning her alive while chanting Hungarian curses at the Vajkays. Well, maybe...more

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About Dezső Kosztolányi

Dezső Kosztolányi was a famous Hungarian poet and prose-writer.

Kosztolányi was born in Szabadka (Subotica) in 1885, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, but which now lies in northern Serbia. The city serves as a model for the fictional town of Sárszeg, in which he set his novella Skylark as well as The Golden Kite. Kosztolányi studied at the University of Budapest, where he met the poets Mih...more

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Books by Dezső Kosztolányi

Nero, a véres költő ; Pacsirta ; Aranysárkány ; Édes Anna

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Quotes from Skylark

“When people go away they vanish, turn to nothing, stop being. They live only in memories, haunting the imagination.” — 5 people liked it

“He was no lover in a worldly sense; the only love he knew was that of divine understanding, of taking a whole life into its depths as if they were his own. From this, the greatest pain, the greatest happiness is born: the hope that we too will one day be understood, strangers will accept our words, our lives, as if they were their own.” — 2 people liked it

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