The Door

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A busy young writer struggling to cope with domestic chores, hires a housekeeper recommended by a friend The housekeeper s reputation is one built on dependable efficiency, though she is something of an oddity Stubborn, foul mouthed and with a flagrant disregard for her employer s opinions she may even be crazy She allows no one to set foot inside her house she masks herself with a veil and is equally guarded about her personal life And yet Emerence is revered as much as she is feared As the story progresses her energy and passion to help becomes clear, extinguishing any doubts arising out of her bizarre behaviour A stylishly told tale which recounts a strange relationship built up over 20 years between a writer and her housekeeper After an unpromising and caustic start benign feelings develop and ultimately the writer benefits from what becomes an inseparable relationship Simultaneously we learn Emerence s tragic past which is revealed in snapshots throughout the book. Best Read [ The Door ] author [ Magda Szabó ] – kino-fada.fr How on earth could the telling of the life and character of an aged Hungarian cleaning lady feel so eerily uncanny Because, do not be mistaken, this is not a mystery book This is a novel about the relationship between two women an illiterate servant and her considerably younger employer, a writer The latter narrates the story, which is set in Hungary around the 1960s 80s So, how could this be such a memorable story Magda Szabo 1917 2007 proves in The Door to be an astounding writer Afte How on earth could the telling of the life and character of ...The Door by Magda Szabo is a fictionalized autobiography of the author s relationship with her octogenarian housekeeper named Emerence Szerebas A goodreads friend from Hungary recommended this novel to me because she sees that I enjoy reading women authors from around the globe Szabo wrote many prize winning novels during the course of her career, including both this book and the one depicted in it During the course of this award winning novel, the readers experience post life in post Holocau The Door by Magda Szabo is a fictionalized autobiography of the author s relationship with h...I still don t know how she fitted so much living into one life.Hope and despair go hand in hand whenever I try to form a rather fragmentary sketch of a far off Hungarian landscape It is one place which has become an essential part of my past as well as prospective literary sojourns and whenever I decide to visit there, to meet another storyteller and to hear onehypnotic tale, there s always a throbbing anticipation to receive a treasured souvenir made out of unfamiliar lives but exceptioI still don t know how she fitted so much living into one life.Hope and despair go hand in hand whenever I try to form a ...I know now, what I didn t then, that affection can t always be expressed in calm, orderly, articulate ways and that one cannot prescribe the form it should take for anyone else. What an unusual sort of book and a very peculiar relationship examined therein between Magda, the narrator of The Door, and her housekeeper, Emerence This novel really grabs you from the start right away the reader knows that there is some mystery surrounding these two disparate women Magda is a writer, privilegedI know now, what I didn t then, that affection can t always be expressed in calm, orderly, articulate ways and that one cannot prescribe the form it should take for anyone else. What an unusual sort of book and a very peculiar relationship examined therein between Magda, the narrator of The Door, and her housekeeper, Emerence This novel really grabs you from the start right away the reader knows that there is some mystery surrounding these two disparate women Magda is a writer, privileged and becoming something of a public figure in her home country of Hungary Emerence is uneducated, hard working and tireless The difference in social class between these two would certainly se...L AMICA GENIALE Magda Szabo gioca con il lettore spargendo nella narrazione fragili elementi autobiografici il marito della protagonista uno scrittore proprio come era Tibor, il marito della Szabo Szabo e suo marito subirono l ostracismo e la messa al bando, a lei fu addirittura ritirato un premio appena consegnato, e dur per anni, dal 1949 al 1956 Poi ci fu la riabilitazione e il ritorno alla scrittura a tempo pieno E allora una domestica entr effettivamente in casa Szabo Szobotka.Helen L AMICA GENIALE Magda Szabo gioca con il lettore spargendo nella narrazione fragili elementi autobiografici il marito della protagonista uno scrittore proprio come era Tibor, il marito della Szabo Szabo e suo marito subirono l ostracismo e la messa al bando, a lei fu addirittura ritirato un premio appena consegnato, e dur pe...Johannes Brahms can make autumn leaves dance in one of nature s most graceful circle The chill in the air was about to birth the season s very first snowflake The clatter of rusty shovels being removed equated to the asinine banters of old women gossiping on the porch After the death of its final leaf, the trees lay barren like a country that had abruptly lost its people There were no birds to be seen, yet I heard them chirp a summer song The fervent barking of a mongrel was followed by a p Johannes Brahms can make autumn leaves dance in one of nature s most graceful circle The chill in the air was about to birth the season s very first snowflake The clatter of rusty shovels being removed equated to the asinine banters of old women gossiping on the porch After the death of its final leaf, the trees lay barren like a country that had abruptly lost its people There were no birds to be seen, yet I hear...Magda Szabo really makes the reader work hard with this book and I for one found the characters and the story unconvincing The Door is a novel by Hungarian writer Magda Szabo The novel documents two decades of life in Budapest after the Communist takeover in 1948, The novel tells the story of a developing and complicated relationship between a young Hungarian Writer and her housekeeper and is partly autobiographical.Having visited Hungary only last year I was up to date on the history and was g Magda Szabo really makes the... In modern postwar Hungary, an old woman who is now a famous author recalls a nightmare herself as a young woman The novel begins after she has passed through a politically frozen time and started to be able to write again and to be publicly lauded for it She and her husband move up a step on the social ladder They hire an old woman, Emerence, as a servant Or is it the other way round I don t wash just anyone s dirty linen, Emerence says, coming to see their flat in her ceremonial he In modern postwar Hungary, an old woman who is now a famous author recalls a nightmare herself as a young woman The novel begins after she has passed through a politically frozen time and started to be able to write again and to be publicly lauded for it She and her husband move up a step on the social ladder They hire an old woman, Emerence, as a servant Or is it the other way round I don t wash just anyone s dirty linen, Emerence says, coming to see their flat in her ceremonial headscarf and taking her time deciding whether they will suit her before she takes over the household, turns up for work whenever she feels like it, and bonds with the dog in a way no one else can Emerence i...I found the atmosphere of this novel to be full of darkness and despair The friendship between two woman, one an up and coming author, the other an older woman revered on the street Emerence is a character I will not soon forget, a woman who has seen much, sheltered unbiasedly different people throughout the war, a hardworking woman of the utmost ho... An uncomfortable look at the barriers that we put up to protect ourselves, and the price that is paid for that self protection Does it ever really work Magda Szabo wrote this in the original Hungarian in 1987, but it is now translated and available in English It tells the story of the relationship between two women Magda, a writer, living with her husband, and Emerence, an older peasan...

The Door
  • English
  • 19 February 2018
  • Hardcover
  • 272 pages
  • 1843431939
  • Magda Szabó
  • The Door