Embers

Sandor Marai

Marai, a prominent novelist in 1930's/40's Hungary was all but forgotten until the recent rediscovery of this novel. In it, he tells the sombre story of two childhood friends, the aristocratic General and his constant companion Konrad, who grew up together "as twins" until Konrad up and left one day without explanation. The General has been waiting for his friend's eventual return and finally, 41 years later, Konrad does return and comes to the castle for dinner. The general, who has spent the last 41 years secluded in one room of his castle, obsessing about their sudden falling out and assessing the reasons for Konrad's disappearance, spends the day of the visit painstakenly recreating their last evening together so that everything in the house is exactly as it was 41 years before. During the course of the evening, The General delivers an unemotional detailed summary of their years of together, essentially putting Konrad on trial for the betrayal of their friendship. There is very little action here, the majority of the book is a discourse between these two old friends, mostly delivered by The General. That, actually, is the one weakness I found with this book, that Marai has the General deliver what mostly amounts to a monologue instead of involving the reader in a conversation between the two main characters. I wanted to hear more from Konrad, I was interested in the voice of this character and we don't get to hear it much. The book would have presented a much more volatile experience for the reader that way, IMO. Still, there's great atmosphere and skill in the telling of this story of friendship, love and obsession.