Fire and Knowledge

by Péter Nádas

Book Overview

A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice

The U.S. publication of A Book of Memories in 1997 introduced to our shores the work of an extraordinary novelist, P ter N das. Now, in Fire and Knowledge, a superb collection of short stories, essays, and literary criticism, we discover other aspects of N das's major presence in European life and letters: as a trenchant commentator on the events that have transformed...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312427514
• ISBN13: 9780312427511
• Release Date: July 2008
• Publisher: St. Martins Press-3PL
• Length: 400 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.6" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

Astonishing mind, language, and scope.

Nadas' essays on culture change and boundedness are as stimulating as the best in the best-taught seminars of US colleges and universities. (His novels have different virtues and challenges.) The essays bear study and rereading in the ways great plays reward repeat visits. The paradigms, as in Fate and Technique are as rich, persuasive, and powerful as any in Western culture. The essay on some Russian stage productions of Hamlet is deeper, richer, and more vivid than any I read in years of theater study. It is astonishing that translator Imre Goldstein could convey the wit, vocabulary, and range of language usage of the author writing sometimes from a child's viewpoint, and at others as a rival to the great 20th century and current critics of culture and politics. Like great film and stage directors who inspire great production work from collaborating artists, Nadas has attracted the best collaborator and translator here, (as he did, too, in Peter Forgacs screen adaptation of his "Own Death." FSG's printing is top rate.