‘The Notebook’ by Agota Kristof (1986) – 183 pages            Translated from the Hungarian by David Sheridan

‘The Notebook’ has some of the most brutal perverse scenes I have read in a novel. It is painful to read but original, blunt, and powerful. It takes place during 1944 and 1945 in I suppose Hungary whose people welcomed the Germans, but now they are waiting for the invading Russians who will stay there for many decades.

If ever there was a place of Hell on Earth it was Hungary during the last days of the war. The Germans and some of the Hungarians, upset about their losing the war, started murdering the Jewish people in earnest, murdering and destroying whole camps in order to cover their evil tracks. The civilian population, realizing that the war is ending and they lost, either welcome their rampaging Russian liberators or descend into theft, violence, or insanity.

During this time, life is perverse for everyone, not just the soldiers. Life is hard for rural folk, but the situation is even more desperate in the cities.

A mother from the city where there is no food sends her two twin boys to live with their grandmother who lives in a small town and is called the Witch by her neighbors. She is cruel and stingy with the little money she gets through selling vegetables in the town. The grandmother takes the boys whom she calls “sons of a bitch” since the mother agrees to send her money. The grandmother is rumored to have murdered her husband many years ago.

The twin boys always act in unison throughout and are never differentiated from each other. They learn to dispense a rough form of justice during these brutal times. They must do what it takes to survive and will retaliate against those who are cruel to their neighbors. One of these neighbors is a desperately poor woman and her daughter Harelip. The daughter went to the local priest for money just to survive, and the priest would give a little money to the girl if she let him see her slit. When the boys find out about this, they blackmail the priest into providing regular payments to Harelip and her mother.

There are scenes in this novel would make a sailor blush. Along with a rough sense of justice there is a stark sense of honesty here.

At one point there is the following exchange.

A man says:

“You shut up. Women have seen nothing of the war.”

A woman says:

“Seen nothing? Idiot!! We have all the work and all the worry: children to feed, wounds to tend. Once the war is over, you men are all heroes. The dead: heroes. The survivors: heroes. That’s why you invented war. It’s your war. You wanted it, so get on with it – heroes my ass!”

The chapters in ‘The Notebook’ are all very short and are made up of short and choppy sentences. It is difficult to read more than a few pages at a time. However this rugged crude style is entirely appropriate for this harsh and blunt account.

I plan to read the other two novels, ‘The Proof’ and ‘The Third Lie’, in this trilogy by Agota Kristof after I recover from ‘The Notebook’.

Grade:      A