Im Wahn der Anderen: Drei Erzählungen

by László Krasznahorkai

Drei Erzählungen von dem Meister der literarischen Halluzination László Krasznahorkai

New York ist ein vertikaler Albtraum. Doch Manhattan ruht auf einem gewaltigen Felsen aus Granit, einer Horizontale, die alles trägt und verbindet. Die Menschen vergessen Hier, in der 26th Street, lebt ein Bibliothekar, der sich auf den Spuren Herman Melvilles verliert. Aber betritt er den Wahn des Anderen oder schließt ihn sein eigener immer dichter ein? In einer anderen Geschichte endet eine labyrinthische Verfolgungsjagd mit Zug und Fähre quer durch Europa auf einer abgelegenen Insel. Doch hier lauert keine Rettung, sondern eine Falle.

Die Erzählungen von László Krasznahorkai in »Im Wahn der Anderen« entfalten eine hypnotische Wirkung. Oft entwickelt sich der atemlose Sog im Dialog mit Zeichnungen des Malers Max Text und Bilder greifen ineinander und entdecken eine Dimension der Realität, die weiter greift als Tag und Nacht, Schlaf und Traum.

Genres: Fiction, Hungary, Hungarian Literature, Literature, Suspense, Contemporary, Novels

220 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 6, 2019

About the author

László Krasznahorkai is a Hungarian novelist and screenwriter who is known for critically difficult and demanding novels, often labelled as postmodern, with dystopian and bleak melancholic themes. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2025.

He is probably best known through the oeuvre of the director Béla Tarr, who has collaborated with him on several movies.

Apart from the Nobel Prize, Krasznahorkai has also been honored with numerous literary prizes, among them the highest award of the Hungarian state, the Kossuth Prize, and the 2015 Man Booker International Prize for his English-translated oeuvre.

Reviews

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a delightfully clever little book, challenging our expectations at every turn. For most of the story, the narrator is on the run from unnamed pursuers as he flees down Croatia’s Adriatic coast. The English translation presents the narration in first-person, which adds immediacy to the chase and layers a confessional element to the frequent interludes. Chapter 9, a meditation on the meaning of life, is particularly compelling. The heart of this work, though, is its dialogue with Homer’s Ulysses. The interplay between the two works becomes more explicit at the end as the narrator searches for Calypso’s grotto, bewitched and enchanted like his literary forebear.

[Marc Lamot · Rating 2 out of 5]

Rating 2.5 stars. I read this two weeks ago, and I must admit that when I started to write this review, I actually didn’t remember the punch line. In other words, this novella (barely 50 pages of text) wasn’t really gripping. Yes, it does have to do with Homer, and no, the ‘manhunt’ is not what you think it is. I won’t give away the punch line, but it came as as surprise, so perhaps that was a success. Through his feverish prose, Hungarian grandmaster Krasznahorkai certainly manages to evoke an atmosphere of oppression, just like in his great novels. And the meta-fictional, pictorial and musical elements tumble over each other (you have to read this combined with the paintings by Max Neumann, at the start of each chapter, and with the music of Miklos Szilveszter through added QR codes). Perhaps I dishonor Krasznahorkai, but for me this had a high “Look, Mama, what I can do!” content. I wouldn’t dare call this more than a teaser, albeit perhaps a virtuoso teaser.

[Alan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Delightful experience. As the inside front cover says:

Fiction by László Krasznahorkai
Art by Max Neumann
Music by Szilveszter Miklós

Each chapter begins with a QR code. When you scan the code, you are brought to the New Directions page that houses each of the pieces. They’re drum-heavy, tribal, and suffocating. I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to be listening to the pieces before reading or during reading, but I do not read fast enough to make music last the entire chapter – especially not this type of prose, one that I am getting increasingly used to with Krasznahorkai. So I just listened to the pieces prior to reading the chapters. Then I stopped doing even that at around chapter 4 or 5. Each chapter also comes with a painting, the abstract minimalism of which is often mixed with the prose style and content to make for a haunting experience.

But then comes said prose style. I keep using spiraling, and I have no shame. That’s what it is. James Wood calls it “reality examined to the point of madness”, and I have never seen a more apt description. I had the sense that I was walking a mile in the shoes of someone with paranoid delusions at times, psychotic episodes at others. Here are a few quotes I enjoyed:

“The decisions I make must be the utterly wrong ones, always, without exception, that’s how I can confound my pursuers, and similarly, in everything I do I must avoid all proper procedures, avoid any semblance of regularity, or reasonableness, or deliberate strategy - only chaotic movements, accidental decisions, only helter-skelter sudden, unexpected, unplanned moves that run counter to all logic can save me, so that’s how I have to proceed.”

Insanity is a question suspended in limbo, the answer to which must exist, but it would be like am ute person saying something to a deaf person.

The past doesn’t exist for me, only what’s current exists, I’m a prisoner of the instant, and I rush into this instant, an instant that has no continuation, just as it has no earlier version, and I have to tell myself - if I had the time to think about this between two instants - that I have no need for either past or future because neither one exists.

But in fact, I have no time between instants.

Since there’s no such thing as two instants.

[Lark Benobi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ok, I have read, seen, listened.

Goodreads asks: 'What did you think?'

Maybe a better question to begin with though is "What did I feel?"

Answer: curiosity. anxiety. impatience.

In this way Chasing Homer was a triangular sort of read, where my feeling gravitated toward one of those three corners of feeling--curiosity, anxiety, impatience--and back to another one as I read along, and it never bust out of that triangle and into some greater connected feeling or purpose.

This book felt a little emotionally bare and simple, in other words. In its style, it also suffered from my recent read of Interstate by Stephen Dixon, an author who writes in a very similar breathless, paragraph-less style, and yet somehow manages to evoke an entire spectrum of emotions in me.

And now, I'm specifically asking myself how I feel about the inclusion of percussive audio tracks which are online and available to listen to as I read each chapter, and accessible by QR code. At first I was quite excited and intrigued. The percussion definitely added an interesting dimension. And then I began to think about how the book has been made less timeless, less of a book, by the inclusion of digital links out into a file stored out there somewhere beyond the book.

The most amazing thing about a print book is that it has every possibility of surviving 1000 years. Nothing we read, hear, see on the internet will last 1000 years. Or even 100 years. So I was thoughtful about that--that QR codes have made this solid immutable thing, a book, a thing capable of surviving against the wrackful siege of battering days, has been made mutable. I also felt interrupted by my phone and fiddling with my phone in a way that felt a little sad, like, my screen time is poking itself into my book time quite literally in the case of this book.

So I don't really feel this counts as a Krasznahorkai novel. It's more like an interesting experiment. And as such I think I'm essentially still Krasznahorkai-less.

[Meike · Rating 3 out of 5]

Now Winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature 2025
Includes
1. Animalinside (my review)
2. Spadework for a Palace (my review)
3. Chasing Homer (my review)
Illustrations by Max Neumann.

You can hear us discuss the book on the podcast (in German) here: https://papierstaupodcast.de/allgemei...

[Chris Via]

Video review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrmrv...

[Kuszma · Rating 4 out of 5]

Réges-régen, egy messzi, messzi galaxisban.

- Szia Klárikám! Itt vagyok a könyvesboltban.
- Igen, Gyuri. És?
- Holnap lesz a Marci bácsi születésnapja, valamit venni kéne neki, könyvre gondoltam.
- Akkor vegyél könyvet, Gyuri.
- De mit szokott a Marci bácsi olvasni, Klárikám?
- Mit tudom én, Gyuri. Bonyolultakat. Hosszú mondatok vannak bennük, én még a címüket se értem. Kortárs irodalom, úgy hívják.
- De akkor mit csináljak? Van itt vagy tízezer könyv, Klári! Én meg nem értek a művészethez, egyszer voltam veled színházban, akkor is csak azért, mert eldugtad a távirányítót.
- Kérdezzél meg egy eladót, Gyuri. Biztos dolgozik ott valaki.

(…)

- Na, Klárikám, megint én vagyok. Találtam itt egy fiatalembert, azt mondta, van ez a Krasznahorkai. Nagyon híres író, nyert külföldi díjakat is. Baromi hosszú mondatai vannak, tényleg. Békéscsabáig leér a végük.
- Jól van, Gyuri, vedd meg a legújabbat. Miről szól?
- Azt mondja a fiatalember, hogy, idézem: a tömegember magány utáni szomjúhozásának kivetülése, egyfajta paranoid mélyfúrás (bár pont Krasznahorkaitól láttunk mélyebbet is - ezt így halkan vetette közbe, Klárikám, de én meghallottam), erős ógörög áthallásokkal. Vannak benne képek is, bár nem világos, mit ábrázolnak. Meg appok.
- Mi az az app, Gyuri?
- Ilyen okostelefonos izé.
- Jól van, Gyuri, vedd meg. Mennyibe fáj?
- Négy ezresbe.
- Belefér. Úgy emlékszem, ő a te születésnapodra ötért vett valamit. Vegyél hozzá egy üveg bort is, aztán rendben vagyunk.
- Jól van, Klári. Viszhal!

(…)

- Szia Klárikám! Itt vagyok a borszaküzletben.
- Hagyjál, Gyuri.

[Paul Fulcher · Rating 4 out of 5]

From the winner of the 2025 Nobel Prize in Literature

and yes, this is what I've been doing for decades, or at least for years, I've lost count of whether it's been decades, or years, but never mind what any rational calendar might indicate, maybe it's been merely months, or only weeks, I feel it's been years, possibly even decades that I've been on the road, but really what difference does it make if it's been only months, or just a few weeks, in fact I can even imagine that it's only moments ago that they handed down my sentence, its purport is perfectly clear to me, I haven't the slightest doubt that there's reason enough for the judgment, the only thing that's not yet clear is what that reason is.

Chasing Homer (2021) is John Batki's translation of László Krasznahorkai's Mindig Homérosznak (2019).

The text is narrated in the first person (although oddly this is changed from the 3rd person original) by a fugitive who has been fleeing for an unclear length of time (decades or moments?) from some killers determined (for unclear reasons) to execute a judgement and to bring his life to a violent end, or at least so he believes.

During the time of the novel he travels, trying to be as random in his movements as possible, along the Croatian Adriatic coast, eventually finding, he hopes, refuge in the cave where Calypso imprisoned Odysseus, according to Homer's Odyssey, which Krasznahorkai situates (as does local legend) on the island of Mljet.

See here for a picture of the cave

all the same, it could be that they're specifically targeting moments of weakness, yes, they might be aiming exclusively at my weak moments, perhaps that's all they want, to catch me at just such an instant, and the whole thing would be over, because of course they're out to get me and It's ridiculous to quibble over words, not only ridiculous but downright unacceptable to be splitting hairs here, it's cowardly, this kind of wordplay, it doesn't make any sense, when all along I'm perfectly aware that they're out to kill me, that's the long and the short of it, It's a game of patience, a deadly hunt they're conducting from a position of superiority, though it's also quite possible that they're actually set on making a cat and mouse game of it, they certainly have the requisite patience, they've been and still are ever so persistent, no, never for a minute do they seem exasperated, which would tell me that, yes, fine, up till now they've only been amusing themselves, but now enough of that, and at last they'll grab me, hang me, and gut me, disembowel me, decapitate me, out my heart out, anything, just to finish me off, but no, in fact I never feel they have any impatience of that sort, but rather the exact opposite, though I know that they'll never relent, It's as if their orders aren't to make quick work of me, not to bring matters to a speedy conclusion, but rather to keep pursuing me forever, to never lose sight of me, and Instead of focusing on the end result, the day when they'll finally have me in their claws and finish me off, they've been instructed to focus on making no mistakes, just keeping me in sight, shadowing me ceaselessly, staying on my trail so that always be aware of what my life's like, nothing but a constant state of persecution until in the end this life, my life, will be ripped away from me—If they can catch me.

Jeremy's excellent review (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...) contains the brilliant and insightful line on the novel's strengths, on which I simply can't improve: "krasznahorkai's protagonist is like a scintillating amalgamation of a pessoan heteronym and bernhardian temperament, afflicted by a kafkaesque ordeal all the while conveying a ruminative, reflective character and chronicling the clever stratagems necessary to avoid detection and stay alive."

The text itself consists of 20 brief chapters, often a single, breathless sentence. But beyond the words on the page, this is a multi-media work of art. The text is interspersed with paintings by Max Neumann, who has colloborated with Krasznahorkai before on Animalinside, and their are QR code links athte start of erach chapter to percussion music by Szilveszter Miklós (which can be found here https://www.ndbooks.com/chasing-homer/).

However, I have to say this aspect didn't really work for me, and I emphasise for me. In Animalinside the paintings and text were clearly in dialogue, but I didn't really see that here. And the music was rather lost on me (and indeed I stopped listening to it after the first few chapters) and again, other than a reference in Chapter 14 to the tone of a ship's engines, I didn't pick up any direct relation.

Anna's wonderful review sets the work in the context of Krasznahorkai's wider work and contains insightful comments on the translation choices: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Overall - for me a very good 4 stars. The text although well written didn't rise to the author's finest. And, which may well be more my failing, although interesting in their own right, I didn't find either music or paintings added to my appreciation of the text.

[Leyla Eskandarnejad · Rating 4 out of 5]

خوندن این کتاب برام پر از تناقض بود. نمیفهمیدم چه اتفاقی داره میفته اما باهاش ارتباط برقرار میکردم، گیجم میکرد اما با حرفاش همذات پنداری میکردم. در کل تجربه‌ی عجیبی بود.
کلیت داستان یه تعقیب و گریز رو روایت میکنه. راوی _که ما حتی نمیدونیم اسمش چیه، اصلا آدمه؟ یه حیوونه؟ نماده؟ _ دائما در حال فرار کردن از کساییه که ما باز هم نمیدونیم کین؟ چین؟ چرا دنبالشن؟ اصلا وجود دارن یا توهم راوی‌ان؟
در طول این تعقیب و گریز هم راوی یه سری دستورالعمل بهمون میده برای چطور فرار کردن و گیر نیفتادن و لابه‌لاش حرفای سنگینی از زندگی، فلسفه، معنا و پوچی میزنه.
کتاب نثر پیچیده ای داره، پر از جملات بلند و پیوسته، تکرار و پرش های ذهنیه، همونطور که ذهن یه آدم آشفته و مضطرب کار میکنه. این سبک خاصش به اضافه‌ی موسیقی متنی که بارکدش اول هر فصل برای اسکن کردن هست، کاملا اون اضطراب راوی رو بهمون منتقل میکنه، در نتیجه اصلا کتابی نیست که برای آرامش و سرگرمی خونده بشه.
خوندنش برای من که عاشق فضاهای سورئالیستی و نثر آشفته و مالیخولیایی هستم تجربه‌ی جالبی بود و شاید بعدها دوباره بیام سراغش.

[Anna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Now worthy winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature 2025

Who chases Homer?

If AnimalInside, Krasznahorkai’s previous collaboration with Max Neumann, resulted in a bone-chilling portrayal of existential menace from the aggressor’s point of view, Chasing Homer gives us the reverse: an exploration of the raw experience of being persecuted by the faceless hunters. While this formal comparison with AnimalInside is irresistible, the protagonist in Chasing Homer insists that his

“flight in no way mirrors my killers’ actions, there’s no equivalence at all, such logic is unjustifiable, and implying some connection is a line of reasoning containing something deeply, atrociously immoral, immoral in the sense of speaking of killer and victim in the same breath, as if the one could not exist without the other”.

This asymmetry, in my reading, is a reaffirmation of the uniqueness of life. The fact that the protagonist, just as his persecutors, is nameless and faceless does not serve to enhance the ominous sense of impersonality, but rather the opposite. It plumbs depths that are so extremely personal to the human being that they require no naming. The fear, the seconds of hesitations, strategy and then the paradoxical strategic abandonment of strategy, “flight’s technical details” that are only known to the person in flight, are described in the first half of the book. In the English translation, this sense of isolation in one’s own mind is enhanced by the translator’s choice to use the first person, although the original Hungarian is written in the third person.

The scarce and efficient plot is surprisingly easy to follow. Half-way, the protagonist reaches some safe haven on an island from where he can access another, more mysterious island known as the place where Calypso held Odysseus captive. The descriptions of this sense of apparent peace reminded me of Baron Wenckheim’s joy over realizing that “his question — why did he have to live, and so forth — simply wasn’t a question, but was itself the answer, this was the answer to his question, thought the Baron, his question was the answer”, only for his realization to be –if you ask me, only apparently – rendered useless by the ensuing accident.

This little multimedia book is Krasznahorkai’s reckoning with Homer’s inevitable legacy. This is more evident in the positive note in the Hungarian title, “Mindig Homérosznak”, which literally translates as “always for Homer”, but in the context, it is closer to “always in the direction of Homer”.

The Homeric myth serving as the framework of this narrative is not accidental: Odysseus refused the immortality offered by Calypso, preferring to return home and to whatever mortality implied:

“I, the fugitive, am forced to sojourn in precisely the very world from – and because of – which I’m fleeing”.

I regret what is lost in translation here. The Hungarian sentence here uses the auxiliary verb “kell” (must), suggesting necessity not necessarily as external coercion, but also the (valiant) compliance with an inner moral compulsion. But then the English title deftly recovers what may have been lost in the translation of this specific credo sentence: the hunted himself becomes a hunter – chasing Homer.

After his temporary experience of heaven-like safety he does share Wenckheim’s fate (albeit by different means). This denouement, more than a potentially envious revenge on protagonists who find a sense of meaning and peace is another instance of my favorite author’s way to embrace the paradox of human life in the tension between the nothingness – the no – it has been called from and the yes that the human creature builds by culture and civilization.

[jeremy · Rating 5 out of 5]

a place of shelter will be ruled by terror and miscalculation, whereas out here in the open, i keep reminding myself even as i keep looking quickly over my shoulder, that that's out of the question, out here—facing forward again—it's just a state of constant, ceaseless, ever-present vigilance.

an absolutely magnificent work of paranoia and pursuit, lászló krasznahorkai's chasing homer (mindig homérosznak) finds the hungarian master interpolating the classic greek author (odysseus, calypso) in a taut tale of tense foreboding and meticulous evasion. on the run for decades ("or at least for years, months, weeks now"), the novella's nameless narrator is being chased by killers hellbent on hunting down their elusive prey. krasznahorkai's protagonist is like a scintillating amalgamation of a pessoan heteronym and bernhardian temperament, afflicted by a kafkaesque ordeal all the while conveying a ruminative, reflective character and chronicling the clever stratagems necessary to avoid detection and stay alive.

[...]and so your relation to your own insanity is best characterized by a perpetual ambiguity, wherein you yourself, as well as your insanity, exist in a permanent, billowing state of potentiality, exactly as you yourself, willingly bearing it and embodying it, do question it, because your insanity has not yet emerged from its haziness[...]

krasznahorkai's newest is also a multimedia work enriching the textual with both audial and visual elements. chasing homer includes haunting, abstract color paintings by german artist max neumann (see also krasznahorkai's animalinside) and the eerie percussion-based music of hungarian jazz drummer szilveszter miklós (with a short piece for each chapter accessible via qr code and/or a publisher-hosted url).

no, i despise questions, for after all, and this cannot be repeated enough, i despise answers as well, the only thing that exists for me is the spontaneous, the unpremeditated, the bewildering act and its concomitant terror, and the wherefore of getting away, that's all there is, to be quicker than those who are after me in order to douse me with gasoline in revenge for the length of time it took them to capture me, grinning as they bring the lighter's flame very slowly closer and closer to my body, so that i could say, under duress, that when you stand there paralyzed and stinking, doused with gasoline, and see the flame of that lighter getting closer and closer, and when you still just manage to feel yourself being slightly lifted by the propulsive force of the explosion, only to have your small body spatter into tiny fragments before it's consumed, go ahead and try querying then about such things as: what is life.

*translated from the hungarian by john batki (krúdy, józsef, et al.)

[Christopher Robinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Chasing Homer is a fast-paced, witty, funny, clever and maddening novella about a man being pursued, and all the while ruminating on the act of being pursued and evading capture. The sentences are sprawling and frenzied, a form perfectly-suited to depicting the effects of long-term constant paranoia upon a person. Riddled with tension as it is, however, I found it an absolute joy to read.

Krasznahorkai, as usual, is marvelous. But factor in the beautiful artwork by Max Neumann and the stark, tense soundtrack (accessed via QR codes at the start of each chapter!) by the incredible Hungarian free jazz drummer Szilveszter Miklós and the end result is a seriously immersive, one-of-a-kind reading experience, one I’ll not soon forget and very likely be returning to in the very near future.

Highly recommended. As ever, I’m eagerly awaiting whatever’s next from Krasznahorkai.

[Michael Finocchiaro · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a really short book written at a frenetic pace with a percussion soundtrack that makes it quite unique. There is a certain poetry to the paranoid flight down the Croatian coast towards Calypso's Cave, and the writing is poetic and compelling. I wonder what it was like in the original Hungarian.

[Javad Azadi · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5


یکی از دوستان در یک ریویو توصیفات جالبی راجع به این رمان کوتاه داشته. چیز خیلی زیادی نمیشه بهش افزود. با این وجود باید بگم که فضای کتاب به اندازه کتاب اخرین گرگ مو به تن سیخ نمیکرد اصلا. به نظرم خیلی جا داشت این تعقیبِ مداوم و نمادین و پایان تلخ و پوچ، مو به تن سیخ کنه.

[Jamie Newman · Rating 2 out of 5]

.5 stars for writing
.5 stars for plot (I think?)
.5 stars for characters
.5 stars for setting
0 stars for liking it

You know as soon as Laszlo won the Nobel, I hopped online to see what I should read. Sadly, the only novel I had of his was this one (which folks did NOT recommend starting with). It's a super interesting concept, the soundtrack and the art are curious and unnerving, but it doesn't meet my criteria for reading and I only finished it because it was short. I neither learned anything, became wiser, more thoughtful, a better human, nor did I have a roaring good time.

Also, I'm already tired of the lit bros and their rude comments to people who don't care for Laszlo's work. Listen, it's ok to not like things. It's ok that other people don't like the things that you love (trust me, I love War and Peace). I could gag on that cliche, avant-garde, horse's backside, bullcrap about how "you don't get it because you're not as smart as I am, and the author and I get it, and you do not and that makes you an idiot." If you're gatekeeping reading-you probably need to read more widely, because your reading made you a small-minded petty person.

I'm sure Laszlo is brilliant...because better minds than mine say so. He's not for me (at least based on this novel). I'm glad I read it. I'm glad he won the Nobel. I'm not glad that it let the art snobs out from whatever rock they crawled out from under.

[Negar Noshadi · Rating 4 out of 5]

‌
از ابتدای تعقیب هومر، ميدانيم كه با جهانى كافكايى رو به روييم.
راوى، كه نامش را نميدانيم، در حال فرارى مدام است.
اما هويتِ آنكه ازش مى گريزد، و چرايىِ اين فرار مشخص نيست.
درست مانند يوزف کِ كافكا، كه نميداند چرا و از سمت چه كسى محكوم است.
كراسناهوركايي مشخصا بعد از كافكا، تحت تاثيرِ بكت است.
با خلق شخصيتى سرگشته با ضعفِ جسمى، در ساختارى ضد پيرنگ، و در مكانى ازلى ابدى.

راوى فرار را يك الزام میداند.
فعاليتى مستمر كه با لذت هاى فريب گونه ى زندگىْ نبايد از آن غافل شد.
او صرفا فرار ميكند، از غافله، از گذشته، از سرپناه، از سايه ى مطلقِ مرگ كه هميشه پشت سرِ اوست، از هر عواقبى كه ريشه در دغدغه هاى “انسان گونه” دارد.
گريزِ او گاهى شمايلِ فرديت گرايى به خود ميگيرد.
گويى كه او از توده ميگريزد، تا فرديتش را بازنمايى كند. از مردمى كه همگن شدنشان، هويت و تشخص را از او ميگيرد.
‌

در میانه‌ی داستان، با اشاراتی به هومر و سفرِ اوديسه اش،
اين گمان شدت ميگيرد كه همه‌ی ما انسانها سفری اوديسه وار را مانند راوی در سرگشته‌گی و فرارى دائم تجربه ميكنيم.
ما ميراث دارِ هومر هستيم.
با وعده‌ی آزادى، اما احاطه شده از سمت جبرهاى تقدير.
به سمت مأمنى كه سكونِ ما باشد.
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کافکا میگوید: «تو آزادى، براي همين است كه گم شده اى!»
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راویِ اين داستان نيز چنين موقعيتى دارد.
انسانى مشغولِ گریز به سمتِ آزادى و انزوايى كه با تصور آن بتواند به دور از اين جبر، تقديرش را شكل دهد و بياسايد.
اما آزادى و وانهادگى در هم تنيده اند.
و بواقع، او به همان ميزانِ “آزادى” اش، “گم” شده است.
و آن جان پناهى كه بشر در انتهاى مسير میبيند
چه بسا كه مغاك و پرتگاهِ بعدى نباشد.
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از ديدِ لسلو دنبال كردن هدفْ بى معناست. زندگي صرفا گذر از فرايندي به فرايند ديگر است كه به شكل رنج آلود و طبيعى روندش را طى ميكند. اين رنج خودِ زندگی‌ست و چيز ديگري قرار نيست درميان باشد. به باورِ او زندگي بيشتر از آنكه يك هدف باشد، يك پيامد است.

اما میشود در انتهاى مسيرِ تعقیب هومر، با تمام سرگشتگى اش، فارغ از آزادى هاى محدود شده و مأمنِ دست نيافتنىِ انسان، به اهميتِ مسير و فعلِ «رفتن» پى بُرد.
و رجوع كرد به گفته‌ی نقل شده از الهه ى كاليپسو به هومر:‌

«اي مرد اندوهگين، غم گساري بس است.
نگذار روزهايت تباه شوند. چراكه سرانجام آزادت گذاشتم كه بروى.»
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*در انتهاى هر فصل از كتاب، نقاشى اى از مكس نويمن قرار دارد.
#تعقیب_هومر
#لسلو_کراسناهورکایی

[Seth Austin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm generally most receptive to Krasznahorkai when he's operating in a contemplative space, but the more I read from him, the more I come to appreciate his talents as a pitch-black (and pitch-perfect) comedian. CHASING HOMER reads to me like someone laughing at the absurdity of their own panic attack. While it's possible the avante-garde grandiosity applied to the text by way of Neumann's art and Miklos' music dulls the punch of the humor, I can't help but appreciate this novella most as a Kafkaesque satire of subjugation. A satire that all but begs the question: who's the aggressor and who's the victim? That's for you to wrestle with in your own time.

[Ryhne · Rating 1 out of 5]

"فکرش را هم نمیکنی"

چرا عزیزم؛ از همون فصل اول فکرش رو میکردم؛ اما امیدوار بودم وقتم رو برای کتابی انقدر بی سر و ته و احمقانه خرج نکرده باشم.

عبرتی شد برای تحت تاثیر تبلیغات قرار نگرفتن!

[Amirhossein · Rating 3 out of 5]

به احتمال 99 درصد(اگر باز وسوسه نشم) این آخرین کتاب 2024 بود. بیاید دعا کنیم که وسوسه نشم تو این ایام امتحانات. هی به خودم میگم این دیگه آخریه ولی از اون موقع 3-4 تا کتاب خوندم.

اولین و آخریت واکنش من نسبت به کتاب، تعجب ناشی از ندونستن بود. ندونستن از این طریق که کتاب واقعا چی میخواد بگه. چه چیزی رو داره با زبون بی زبونی بیان میکنه که من نمیفهممش. همونطور که مترجم گفت خواننده در مواجهه با آثار کراسناهورکایی فقط یه حس مبهم و عجیبی بدست میاره. حقیقتا کتاب گنگ بود. یه حس ترسناک. از اون حس ها که اصلا دوست نداشتم. مثل اینکه واقعا با شخص ناشناس کتاب همراه بودم و داشتم فرار میکردم. اون هم از چیزی که اصلا نمیدونم وجود خارجی داره یا نه. شخص داره بهمون میگه برای اینکه یه فرار موفقی داشته باشیم چیکار باید بکنیم. مثل یه کتاب راهنما بود. جملات تامل برانگیزی داشت کتاب. فصل های کوتاه با نقاشی های عجیب و غریب. شخصا فصل "زندگی" و "ایمان" رو دوست داشتم. جز بخش هایی بودن که میدونستم راوی داره در مورد چی صحبت میکنه.

کتاب که تموم شد، همش از خودم میپرسیدم خب من به عنوان یه خواننده از این کتاب خوشم نیومد، ولی آیا واقعا تونستم کتاب رو بفهمم؟ به این فکر میکردم که هرکسی میتونه این کتاب رو بخونه ولی آیا هرکسی میتونه مثل این کتاب بنویسه؟ واقعا نوشتن در این موارد و تبدیل اون به یک خط داستانی مبهم( شاید تو نظر کلی پوچ به نظر بیاد) واقعا کار سختیه. فرض کنید دارید توی خواب، یه توهمی زدید و صبح پاشدید اونو بنویسید. بنظرم بهترین جمله ای بود که راجع به کتاب میتونستم بگم

[SurDiablo · Rating 5 out of 5]

A surprisingly clever book that I wasn't sure what to make of at first, but then something clicked and it changed my entire perception. Heck, I even re-read the whole thing because of it and I never re-read. It's a stream-of-consciousness novella of a paranoid individual that captures the constant unease remarkably well, while also dabbling in random philosophy and other topics humorously. It comes with some interesting art and a playlist to listen to which you can skip, but I think everything fits together nicely if my interpretation of a certain character aspect is right. if you are not interested in the kind of books where nothing really happens for the most part, then this might not suit you, but I found it oddly engaging with a great ending that had me questioning everything.

[Varga Zsolt · Rating 3 out of 5]

...Nekem ez a könyv üres volt, közhelyes, érdektelen, minden világirodalmi utalása ellenére önmagába zárt szöveg, amit sem a képek, sem a hivatkozott zenék nem tudtak megnyitni. Oké, látszik rajta, hogy Krasznahorkai dolgozott rajta, megcsinálta, de minek?...
https://vargarockzsolt.blog.hu/2019/1...

[Shabnam_wr · Rating 4 out of 5]

چون شرایطم اصلاً جوری نیست که مجاز باشم به امیدهای واهی دلخوش شوم ، امیدی واهی که مثلاً اینجا یا بالاخره جایی ، زمانی بتوانم لحظه‌ای بیاسایم، آن هم به پشتوانه این خیال خام که شاید این خطر جدی لحظه‌ای پس بکشد.
تعقیب هومر یک راوی دارد که درحال فرار است از دست قاتلان و نه قوها .ما حتی شکارچیان را هم خوب نمیشناسیم.فقط راوی برایمان می گوید که چگونه باید فرار کرد.
راوی فراری است و چاره ای ندارد جز اقامت موقتی در دقیقاً همین دنیایی که از آن و به خاطر آن فراری است.
او نمی خوابد چرا که باور دارد خوابیدن اثبات ضعف است.
به نظرم شروع خیلی خوبی داشت و مخاطب رو باخودش همراه می کرد. ولی میانه داستان برای من یذره روند کند شد و یذره حوصلم داشت سر میرفت ،ولی باز ریتم داستان نجات پیدا کرد و واقعا در پایان منظور جمله اول کتاب رو متوجه شدم .جمله اول میگه:فکرش را هم نمیکنی.
جذاب ترین قسمت برام اونجایی که میرسه به اودیسه و هومر
اطلاعاتی که شاید لازم هست راجع به این کتاب بدونی که شاید راحت تر بتونی این کتاب رو انتخاب کنی:
+ نویسنده اثر لاسلو کراسناهورکایی هست
+ که این کتاب رو  آقای نیکزاد نورپناه ترجمه کرده
+ و قطع جیبی هست(مورد علاقه منه واقعاً)
+  از نشر خوب
+ ۱۱۲ صفحه
و ته کتاب بارکد داره که میتونید موسیقی های مخصوص به هر فصل کتاب رو گوش کنید.بعضی موسیقی ها به نظرم خیلی هماهنگ انتخاب شده بود و قشنگ حس و حال اون فصل رو توصیف می کرد.
و خفن تر از همه نقاشی های آخر هر فصل هست که من عاشق کتاب هایی هستم که اینطوری هستن.به نظرم حتما به نقاشی ها دقت کنید.

[Markus]

(3+5+4)/3=4;

[Sven · Rating 4 out of 5]

Als hätten sich Borges & Beckett zusammengetan. So liest sich die Idee einer hermetisch abgeriegelten Idealbibliothek, wie sie vom Türhüter-Bibliothekar der Erzählung Kleinstarbeit für einen Palast ersonnen wird. Der Erzähler, ein gewisser herman melvill, der abschweift und durch die Stadt ausschweift, kommt an einer Stelle auf die Kunst zu sprechen. Er spricht an, wie Kunst eine andere Wirklichkeit schafft, blitzartig eine außergewöhnliche Atmosphäre schafft und etwas verändert. Das ist letztlich das, woran sich der Text versucht. Er will Raum für etwas ganz Anderes öffnen - Leseerfahrung als Durchgangspunkt.

Ohne den Gedankengang weiter auszuführen, unterbricht der Erzähler sich und seine Ausschweifungen abrupt mit »lassen wir das«. Dieses »lassen wir das« und Abwandlungen wie »aber egal« tauchen häufiger auf. Eine feste Formel wie Bartlebys »I would prefer not to« ist das zwar nicht und es wirkt sehr salopp. Und doch sind viele Stellen interessant, an denen die Formulierung auftaucht. Ich behaupte mal, dass es sich lohnt, auf diese Wendung zu achten. Auf mich wirkte es wie eine Art Markierung.

Die Erzählung Animalinside habe ich gelesen wie eine Variation von Kafkas Der Bau. Mit dem Unterschied allerdings, dass es hier um einen Ausbruch geht. Und dass die ganze Bewegung (und diese Erzählung ist im Wesentlichen: eine Text-Bewegung) auf diesen Ausbruch hin drängt. Das Buch hat mich insgesamt dann auch an den Film Birdman erinnert. Zum einen wegen der Schlagzeugeinspielungen, die als Ergänzung zur dritten Erzählung per QR-Code abrufbar sind. Durch Animalinside. Und weil eine Sache absolut klar ist: Wirklich über den Weg trauen kann man der Wahrnehmung dieser Erzähler nicht. Wir bewegen uns Im Wahn der Anderen.

[Bbrown · Rating 3 out of 5]

With an accompanying sound track placed into the text using QR codes, paintings, an abnormal font, and László Krasznahorkai's signature page-long sentences, Chasing Homer is not a novella but a fever dream multimedia experience. The improvisations of jazz drummer Szilveszter Miklós mirror the intentionally varied and “wrong” movements of the narrator as he flees from the killers (not swans) that may or may not be actually pursuing him, and the fast, irregular drumbeats magnify the tension of the narrator's flight. The abstract paintings of Max Neumann, often filled with dark figures or rough, colorless faces, are by turns ominous and otherworldly, perhaps representative of the narrator's nebulous pursuers. Krasznahorkai's writing style is perfect for depicting a paranoid odyssey, and the lengthy sentences furthermore embody the narrator's central belief that time is not a series of instances, but only a single instant. In that single instant the narrator believes that there is no time to sleep, or eat, or think, or figure out if you're insane, there is only time enough to flee, mindlessly, because to have a plan is to accept your own doom. Eventually the narrator's escape is transformed from something driven by fear into an internal compulsion, resulting in an end that I frankly did not understand.

This is not Krasznahorkai's first work to integrate material outside of the text itself, but it does so far more wholeheartedly than in his previous novel War & War, where the additional material was purely optional. In Chasing Homer, the pieces apart from the text are not just gimmicks but central to the work as a whole. This novella is even shorter than its page count would suggest, given the pages taken up by artwork, and so the work does not overstay its welcome (something it could easily do, as not everyone who buys a book also wants to listen to an hour of improvisational jazz drumming). It’s easily finished in a single sitting, and I have a hard time imagining a fan of Krasznahorkai disliking that sitting.

That being said, while I found Chasing Homer to be a fun experimental work, it’s not among my favorite works by Krasznahorkai. Putting his novels aside, even comparing Chasing Homer to his other short works I prefer Krasznahorkai’s The Last Wolf, chiefly because it tells a compelling story even apart from its stylistic novelty. The story of Chasing Homer, with a narrator of questionable sanity jumping between different topics (some as disparate as a tangent about his disgust at seeing a lab mouse transitioning into prayers to Zeus and Athena), just wasn’t as satisfying, even with the travel narrative that stitches the work into a cohesive whole. And, as previously mentioned, I didn’t really understand the ending, so if there is depth there and I missed it then that’s a failure on my part. In terms of the ending, is the narrator being compelled to the cave like a person under Calypso’s spell? But then in his death why does he take the form of a rat? He’s been talking to people and drinking coffee so he must not have been a rat before, and Calypso doesn’t transform men into animals, that’s Circe, so I guess if there was mythological significance to the story’s ending I missed it.

Chasing Homer is a fun, unique experience, where all the parts play off of each other and magnify the work as a whole, and it’s easy to recommend on that basis so long as you are okay with the cost-to-length ratio. All that being said, it only had the basic framework of a story, not one with substance. I doubt that Chasing Homer, as different as it was to read, will stick with me for long. 3/5.

One last note, frequently when I read a Krasznahorkai work newly released by New Directions I notice errors that should have been picked up during editing. This time I noticed no such errors. Good job New Directions!

[Milad Taghizadeh · Rating 1 out of 5]

بدترین کتاب عمرم بود.

[Taha Amrani · Rating 5 out of 5]

Few books capture the thrill of introspection so very well like this one, like the tunnel, notes from the underground, the blind owl or l'amour dure trois ans. The seduction of being invited to look inward through characters who are neurotically self aware to a fault. To step into their private thoughts, into the intimate ache of their existence, to see the shared frailty of our humanity and feel the exhilaration from the risk of being caught in the reflection, of being made to feel things you might usually avoid. Took me 2 weeks to finish, because i kept starting over each time, thats how good it is.

[Zahra Naderi · Rating 3 out of 5]

حرف های مرتضی این کتاب و برام معنی دار تر کرد. من بهش به چشم یه زنجیر در هم تنیده نگاه می‌کردم، سرگشتگی و دیوانگی بین دو راه موازی. مرتضی به چشم عبور و رهایی بهش نگاه می‌کرد، گذر از نیستی به هستی، از پوچی به معنی.

[Nesellanum · Rating 5 out of 5]

This novella is an experimental, existential, paranoia-filled stream of consciousness that has moments of profound insight and emotion. Then, at a certain point, clarity is achieved and a curtain is lifted... revealing an extraordinary narrative sleight of hand that had me rereading nearly the entire thing in awe. Absolutely loved it. Fantastic writing and execution.

[Erika Fábián · Rating 3 out of 5]

A félelem megeszi a lelket... Ez jut eszembe az állandó menekülésről, szóval hatott rám a könyv. De vajon lehet-e előkészítés nélkül átéreztetni a rettegést? Vagy az csak szimpla üldözési mánia?
Krasznahorkai kiváló író, egy ilyen magas színtű, mondhatni veretes szöveget bármikor meg tud írni - de emlékezni inkább Estikére fogok a Sátántangóból, ott állt össze Krasznahorkai világképe és még hozott képek sem kellettek hozzá...