The Door

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An internal door - Rated
The Door by Magda Szabo is a detailed, intimate account of a relationship between two women. Paradoxically, it was the distance between them that generated the intimacy. Presented with behaviour and attitudes she could not identify with or recognise, a young writer tries to analyse her maid's motives, to rationalise her strangeness, to explain her unconventional behaviour.

It is clear from the start that the new maid, Emerence, has had a fundamentally different kind of life from her employer. And, as the relationship develops, details of that life are slowly unearthed to be shared. Memories and reflections unfold like a gently opening flower, each miniscule change adding to what has gone before. Eventually these individually small incremental revelations complete a picture of a life that even the imagination of a writer could not have created.

The Door is rarely a vivid book. Its tone and style are always measured. Details are picked apart and analysed, their consequences examined under a microscope that seeks out motive, honesty and guilt. Paradoxically - perhaps as a consequence of this concentration on the psychological - there is no greats sense of place or setting. In fact, so deeply do the characters enter into the psychological aspects of their lives that they sometimes appear to have their gaze directed inwards on themselves. And eventually, an enduring reaction to the book is its constant consciousness of the distance between people, despite both intimacy and proximity.

The book's style is quite dense. There is very little dialogue, and what is offered is often stunted and awkward. Magda Szabo employs longs long paragraphs, whose content often meanders through different strands of the character's emotions. It is not a stream of consciousness form, however, and always avoids the poetic, never obfuscates, does not try to cloud issues to create a false sense of significance. In some ways, this is a criticism of the book, since the overall effect tends to be somewhat one-paced, with the different characters' perspectives inconclusively delineated.

Magda Szabo's book is still a rewarding read, especially if taken slowly, when the nuances of character and their relationships can be savoured. There are grand events between its covers, but they remain mainly domestic. It's the detail that counts.

What's behind the door? - Rated
The Door is an unlikely tale of a professional writer (also called Magda) and the relationship that develops with a much older cleaning lady, Emerence.

It's not an obvious choice for a story, but I was curious to see what would come of it. For me it appeared part fable, part peculiarly East European fairytale. Written entirely from the writer's perspective, the tale focuses on Emerence, an enigma, part fairygodmother-figure capable of great feats, part witch with vitriolic anger to vent.

I found this novel dense, wordy and at times, hard-going. It is divided into little chapters - focusing on events in Emerence's life, her friends and acquaintances and the dog Emerence encourages the writer (named only once in the book) to adopt - which helps, but I found myself relieved to have made it to the end of each chapter rather than engaged by their content.

This book has some beautiful language, but I just never quite got where it was going or why it was going there. It just didn't work for me.

A brilliantly written book - Rated
This is a well constructed book taking us through the development of the relationship between an old cleaning lady and her young employer. As they get to know each other, lttle by little, the old lady gradually talks of the events of her life. Their unlikely friendship moves forward slowly and by the end of the book I felt real empathy with the old lady and I felt devastated by the tragic ending. Well worth reading.

Magda Szabo - The Door - Rated
With being monumentally busy with uni work and other commitments, I hadn't read a book for about a month. So, I needed something really special to kick me off again. This book - the story of the relationship between a relatively affluent writer and her elderly, stubborn cleaner - looked as if it might fit the bill. It did. Published almost 20 years ago and only now translated into English, The Door by one of Hungary's most famous writer's, Magda Szabo, is a superb novel.

The book tells the story of the ever-changing relationship between a writer - Magda (yes, there's more than a hint of biography here) - and her domestic help, Emerence. Magda hires Emerence when she, struggling for success and recognition, can cope with all her domestic tasks no longer. A friend reccomends the enigmatic Emerence, who arrives for an interview and departs saying she will let them know as soon as she's attained some references about them. In time Emerence gets back to Magda: yes, she will take the job.

Emerence is a hypnotic enigma, much loved by her neighbours but little known. She has a hidden past, a home she will let no one into, is sparse in her communication but, in the end, is fiercely loyal and warm-hearted. Only when her mistresses husband falls ill does Emerence begin to shed the veil of secrecy she surrounds herself with, and cast light on her sometimes tragic past. This sets up a relationship that binds both women immensely strongly. Emerence demands as much loyalty as she herself gives, and Magda finds herself tested massively. As the novel progresses, and as their relationship gradually shifts and undergoes at least two massive tremors, events are unfolding that will end in tragedy.

This is an absolutely fabulous work of fiction. I was so glad that I'd stumbled across a press review of it. It sounded a bit special, and it turned out to be just that. The Door is several things: a tale of life in a politically vaguely suspect nation (at the time of events); a tale of life in a, more importantly, proud nation; an examination of the complex relationship between two women who come from different places in life but end up sharing the same one, and forming a strong bond. Obviously, this relationship, vaguely unbalanced and never entirely equal, is the heart of the novel, and is where much of the book's power comes from. The changes - subtle and not so - are fascianting, and Emerence herself deserves to be one of the classic characters of fiction. Sometimes she absolutely grabs at the heart, sometimes she is endlessly frustrating, but she is always entrancing. She and the relationship are the triumph of the book. I reccommend this to everyone who likes a little more from their fiction than incompetent writers like Dan Brown can provide. In shines a light on things not many books do. There are scenes here so powerful they almost physically knock you down. Get it.

A fascinating and charismatic novel - Rated
At a first glance the novel seems to be simple: the book is about the relationship between two women: an author and her housekeeper. However, if you stuck strictly to this statement you'd be oversimplifying the book and what it is about. As you go through the pages events of the past in flashes come to the surface, making the end shocking and dramatic.

Magda Szabo is one of the most charismatic writers of our time: her books are highly popular in Hungary and abroad. Her books have been translated into more than 20 languages.

Her charisma can be strongly felt in her novels as well. reading her books is like putting the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle together: at the end all pieces come to their place and the reader is left breathless with the dramatic and cruel fate the characters are bound to face. It is fate looming over people, unavoidable in Szabo's books, arising from the circumstances and personality of the characters.