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The Tragic Fate of Moritz Toth: Peter Owen World Series: Serbia
Part of the Peter Owen World Series: Serbia
Moritz Tóth is a former punk rocker working for no one. Tobias Keller is an Adviser for Moral Issues working for the Man upstairs. Both their lives are changed when Moritz receives an unexpected offer from the local Employment Office to become a prompter with the Budapest Opera. As a strange series of divinely-inspired events sees a morose Moritz re-acquaint himself with his old violin, Tobias is facing trial for having applied 'the faculty of his free will with the intention of exerting his influence on subject Moritz Tóth'.
Dana Todorovic's novel is a tale of celestial bureaucracy and the restorative power of Puccini. With notes of Kafka and Bulgakov's Master and Margarita, welcome to the strange, thrilling and tragic fate of Moritz Tóth.
138 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2008
1 person is currently reading
329 people want to read
About the author
Dana Todorović
9 books13 followersDana Todorović was born in Belgrade in 1977 to an American mother and Yugoslav father. Aspiring to continue her family’s long-standing acting tradition, she studied drama in New York and Indianapolis and obtained a B.A. in Drama Studies in London. Following her studies, she spent six years working as a translator for the UN and continued to nurture her acting ambitions by taking on occasional roles in films, until she finally discovered writing as her greatest passion.
Dana writes very, very slowly. She likes to let her sentences "simmer quietly over a low heat", while putting her whole heart into the process. She is, above all, grateful to the art of fiction writing for having discovered in it the perfect medium to express her innermost convictions in a way that is allegorical, unobtrusive, and in her opinion, all the more effective. She believes in a heart-based existence, and intends to keep the message of kindness and compassion as a key ingredient in her thought-provoking, philosophical fiction.
Dana writes very, very slowly. She likes to let her sentences "simmer quietly over a low heat", while putting her whole heart into the process. She is, above all, grateful to the art of fiction writing for having discovered in it the perfect medium to express her innermost convictions in a way that is allegorical, unobtrusive, and in her opinion, all the more effective. She believes in a heart-based existence, and intends to keep the message of kindness and compassion as a key ingredient in her thought-provoking, philosophical fiction.
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August 11, 2021• THE TRAGIC FATE OF MORITZ TOTH by Dana Todorović, translated from the Serbian by the author, 2013.
TRAGIC FATE is a #womenintranslation title that intrigued me from the description: a metaphysical dual narrative with a clever twist. Unfortunately it didn't deliver much of any of that for me, and seemed rather like a mess 😬
I could see the story in brief glimpses - and it kind of reminded me of a rudimentary version of the Marvel LOKI show with an overarching Authority kind of entity that works to influence and control people's lives and actions.
I wondered if it was a "miss" for me because the author translated her own work... That maybe that closeness caused the problem? Still figuring that out. Several other readers appear to have had a better experience with this one than I did... So who knows. Disappointed in this one, but perhaps it was a timing thing.
📚 Thoughts on writers translating themselves?
TRAGIC FATE is a #womenintranslation title that intrigued me from the description: a metaphysical dual narrative with a clever twist. Unfortunately it didn't deliver much of any of that for me, and seemed rather like a mess 😬
I could see the story in brief glimpses - and it kind of reminded me of a rudimentary version of the Marvel LOKI show with an overarching Authority kind of entity that works to influence and control people's lives and actions.
I wondered if it was a "miss" for me because the author translated her own work... That maybe that closeness caused the problem? Still figuring that out. Several other readers appear to have had a better experience with this one than I did... So who knows. Disappointed in this one, but perhaps it was a timing thing.
📚 Thoughts on writers translating themselves?
September 27, 2017
3.5 stars. Unusual and entertaining double narrative that takes on some large philosophical themes. The language is, unfortunately, a little heavy on cliched metaphors, but this is a first novel. Review to come. Find my full review here: https://roughghosts.com/2017/09/27/al...
February 7, 2013
I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review.
I was attracted to this book in part because I've lived in both Serbia (the author is Serbian) and Hungary (where the story takes place), and simply because the main character is my namesake (Moritz/Morris). None of that was important to following the story.
There's a certain Eastern European authorial tradition that feels that opacity, when mixed with a touch of drama, produces Literature. In part, that may be because in so many countries, writers were compelled to use allegory and implication to avoid the censors. Unfortunately, some of today's writers have kept the top layer of obfuscated allegory, but forgotten to include the deeper layers of meaning. The result is both portentous and confusing, like a word search puzzle where they've forgotten to put in the words. Even celebrated writers seem sometimes to have forgotten to tell an interesting story.
To be fair, Todorovic's book is not quite in that category; it has neither the cynicism of Srjdan Valjarevic, nor the heavy-handedness of Gyula Krudy. It does have layers of meaning, but it also relies on narrative that is needlessly opaque, and drama that is mysterious, but never quite explained. The book is a two-track affair that follows both Moritz Tot (and here the name seems mainly to be just the common Hungarian name, and not a reference to the German word) a punk-ish opera prompter, and Tobias Keller (and again, the name seems not to bear dual meanings), a bureaucrat working for a distant and mysterious supreme being. Moritz' story mostly concerns his strange preoccupation with a man he sees from his window. Keller's story describes his trial for breaching rules by interfering in the mundane world and Moritz' life.
The concept of the book is interesting, if not highly original, and much of the line by line writing is good. Unfortunately, the pieces simply don't hang together well (for one thing, the initial shift between sections is not obvious). Moritz is obsessed by the man he sees, but his reactions are irrational, and he comes across as paranoid, leavened slightly by details about his life that never resolve into meaning. For example, the book starts with his new job as an opera prompter. I'm not an opera fan, so perhaps a whole layer of subtext passed me by, but the job aspect just faded away in later chapters, and never really seemed relevant. Moritz and others generally act in ways that normal, reasonable people simply would not do. It's never explained, and it prevented me from ever really immersing myself in his world.
Keller's world is more interesting. The trial mechanics are too self-consciously Kafka-esque for my taste - Kafka did this already. The mysterious supreme being is more interesting, as are the moral and ethical dilemmas posed in Keller's thoughts. The resolution, such as it is, is ambiguous. I could have accepted that, but in the context of the Moritz story, the whole left me dissatisfied.
Todorovic has done the English translation herself. In many ways, that's a good thing - who could be more sure of getting the meaning correct? Unfortunately, while her English is excellent, it's not perfect, and there's a pretty fair helping of incorrect tenses scattered throughout. It doesn't mix well with the opaque text, sending the reader out of the story to wonder whether it's a complex hint, or just an error. My reading suggested error. Kudos for the language skills (how many English speakers could translate their work into Serbian?), but the book would have benefited from a final copy edit by a native speaker. The larger problem, however, is not with the translation, but the style. A fair example from mid-book: "For this reason, by believing in the abovementioned idea, I was also obliged to hold on to other beliefs which, instead of facilitating the fruition of my original idea, ended up being an aggravating factor."
All in all, an interesting book, but not one that I felt paid off. As noted, I've found a large proportion of the region's Literature to have similar flaws, so if you're already a fan of East European writers, by all means try this book out. If you're new to this tradition, I wouldn't advise this as the place to start.
I'd say it's a 2.5, but I rounded up to give translation flaws the benefit of the doubt.
I was attracted to this book in part because I've lived in both Serbia (the author is Serbian) and Hungary (where the story takes place), and simply because the main character is my namesake (Moritz/Morris). None of that was important to following the story.
There's a certain Eastern European authorial tradition that feels that opacity, when mixed with a touch of drama, produces Literature. In part, that may be because in so many countries, writers were compelled to use allegory and implication to avoid the censors. Unfortunately, some of today's writers have kept the top layer of obfuscated allegory, but forgotten to include the deeper layers of meaning. The result is both portentous and confusing, like a word search puzzle where they've forgotten to put in the words. Even celebrated writers seem sometimes to have forgotten to tell an interesting story.
To be fair, Todorovic's book is not quite in that category; it has neither the cynicism of Srjdan Valjarevic, nor the heavy-handedness of Gyula Krudy. It does have layers of meaning, but it also relies on narrative that is needlessly opaque, and drama that is mysterious, but never quite explained. The book is a two-track affair that follows both Moritz Tot (and here the name seems mainly to be just the common Hungarian name, and not a reference to the German word) a punk-ish opera prompter, and Tobias Keller (and again, the name seems not to bear dual meanings), a bureaucrat working for a distant and mysterious supreme being. Moritz' story mostly concerns his strange preoccupation with a man he sees from his window. Keller's story describes his trial for breaching rules by interfering in the mundane world and Moritz' life.
The concept of the book is interesting, if not highly original, and much of the line by line writing is good. Unfortunately, the pieces simply don't hang together well (for one thing, the initial shift between sections is not obvious). Moritz is obsessed by the man he sees, but his reactions are irrational, and he comes across as paranoid, leavened slightly by details about his life that never resolve into meaning. For example, the book starts with his new job as an opera prompter. I'm not an opera fan, so perhaps a whole layer of subtext passed me by, but the job aspect just faded away in later chapters, and never really seemed relevant. Moritz and others generally act in ways that normal, reasonable people simply would not do. It's never explained, and it prevented me from ever really immersing myself in his world.
Keller's world is more interesting. The trial mechanics are too self-consciously Kafka-esque for my taste - Kafka did this already. The mysterious supreme being is more interesting, as are the moral and ethical dilemmas posed in Keller's thoughts. The resolution, such as it is, is ambiguous. I could have accepted that, but in the context of the Moritz story, the whole left me dissatisfied.
Todorovic has done the English translation herself. In many ways, that's a good thing - who could be more sure of getting the meaning correct? Unfortunately, while her English is excellent, it's not perfect, and there's a pretty fair helping of incorrect tenses scattered throughout. It doesn't mix well with the opaque text, sending the reader out of the story to wonder whether it's a complex hint, or just an error. My reading suggested error. Kudos for the language skills (how many English speakers could translate their work into Serbian?), but the book would have benefited from a final copy edit by a native speaker. The larger problem, however, is not with the translation, but the style. A fair example from mid-book: "For this reason, by believing in the abovementioned idea, I was also obliged to hold on to other beliefs which, instead of facilitating the fruition of my original idea, ended up being an aggravating factor."
All in all, an interesting book, but not one that I felt paid off. As noted, I've found a large proportion of the region's Literature to have similar flaws, so if you're already a fan of East European writers, by all means try this book out. If you're new to this tradition, I wouldn't advise this as the place to start.
I'd say it's a 2.5, but I rounded up to give translation flaws the benefit of the doubt.
May 11, 2019
Although I know I can't do justice to explaining this book, other than what would be on the flyleaf or the back of the paperback. A former punk rocker, Moritiz Toth is given a job as a prompter for at the opera house in Budapest, Hungary, when hearing the music of Puccini, he remembers his love for the violin (which he sold for an electric guitar). A parallel story is of Tobias Keller is brought up on charges of changing Toth's life path. In the end these two stories converge.
November 19, 2013
Following in the tradition of Kafka and Camus, this debut novel is the mindscape of an obsessive character feeling his way through the mire. But, like Kafka and Camus, the character reveals just as much as the author as about the human condition. For example, the feeling that you're being watched by two opposing forces, the one a tragically broken man and the other something like a guardian angel, could be a commentary on our common paranoia about our privacy being threatened and our every move tallied up, judged, or leading to an inevitable death. This is a timely theme considering the current state of affairs in America and elsewhere where common folk are under the scrutiny of an ever present eye. However, Todorovic's watchers are personal and sympathic, revealing that the author has a secret hope that all who watch are not enemies. She never criticises her characters for their behaviour, but rather let's them stumble through until they've found their own path, leaving it up to the reader to judge the very real emotions of Moritz. The author writes Moritz' struggle between his own sensitive nature and an untrustworthy world with tempered elegance, careful to not "pull the string of the bow back too far," thus avoiding a rambling diatribe on obsessiveness, but instead writing a sharp love letter to every high energy thinker.
I doubt Todorovic intended to make a swepting statement about humanity's wasted energy on self-importance and fear. Or maybe she did. In any case, I would be hard pressed to find someone who didn't harbor a secret hope that there is a patient friend watching over us from another dimension, even the most cynical of readers.
I would recommend to anyone who thinks in order to overcome.
I doubt Todorovic intended to make a swepting statement about humanity's wasted energy on self-importance and fear. Or maybe she did. In any case, I would be hard pressed to find someone who didn't harbor a secret hope that there is a patient friend watching over us from another dimension, even the most cynical of readers.
I would recommend to anyone who thinks in order to overcome.
December 16, 2017
Not unique in contemporary Serbian fiction, the unremarkable main character, Moritz Toth, believes himself to be at the centre of a conspiracy that is escalating to the point that his life is in imminent danger. In actual fact, Moritz's entire life path is being observed by Tobias Keller, an advisor to the great overseer. In his story, he finds himself in front of a disciplinary hearing for directly (or indirectly, in a way) influencing in Moritz's life path, something that is only permissible with prior authorisation. The book works in that it is suspenseful and creates the necessary paranoia in Moritz's story and equally frustrating in the bureaucratic nature of Tobias' proceedings. Frustratingly, the accumulation of both stories lacks the necessary payoff, as the true identify of "Ezekiel" comes up short and Tobias' intervention, that which supposedly drives forward all the events of the book, does not have compelling motivation behind it. If simple apathy were cause for "divine" intervention, surely there would have been a whole lot more of it.
January 6, 2018
There are two distinct but related threads to this book, one fantastical and one grounded in the real world. Unfortunately, I found the fantastical story of the celestial bureaucrat Tobias more believable and grounded than the title character's travails in Hungary.
The cosmetic use of Moritz's move to and from Punk to classical musician seemed like little more than a costume change, with no hint of any anarchy or punk ethos.
At times this felt more a like a thought experiment or philosophy thesis than a novel, with an examination of causality and free will being of far more interest to the writer than characterisation or credible plotting.
Having said all that there were flashes of beauty and while it did feel that the translation was doing the prose no favours, there were moments where it shone.
The cosmetic use of Moritz's move to and from Punk to classical musician seemed like little more than a costume change, with no hint of any anarchy or punk ethos.
At times this felt more a like a thought experiment or philosophy thesis than a novel, with an examination of causality and free will being of far more interest to the writer than characterisation or credible plotting.
Having said all that there were flashes of beauty and while it did feel that the translation was doing the prose no favours, there were moments where it shone.
November 6, 2017
Dana Todorovic Orvel.
November 24, 2019
Das interessanteste an diesem Buch sind die beiden Erzählstränge, die gewissermaßen auf unterschiedlichen Daseinshierarchien in gänzlich unterschiedlichen Ebenen parallel laufen. Einerseits der Punkrocker Moritz Tóth, der in Ermangelung von Geld als Souffleur in der Oper bei Turandot arbeiten muss. Andererseits eine technisch-empyreische Ebene mit dem Aufseher Tobias, die bürokratische Form eines Engels, der pflichtverletzend Stunde um Stunde vor seinen Überwachungsprojektoren sitzend Mitleid empfand und in das Schicksal Moritz' eingriff, um diesen aus seinem tristen Alltag zu helfen. Nicht nur der göttliche Akt, sondern auch seine nicht vorhergesehenen Folgewirkungen sind in aller Einfachheit wohl an den berühmten Schmetterlingeffekt angelehnt; chaotisch erscheint ohnehin das Leben des Menschen.
Für Moritz hat die ausgelöste Ereigniskette nichts engelsgleiches. Zwar ist der himmlische Bezug durch das Erahnen eines Hinweises auf den Propheten Hesekiel gegeben; doch dieser wirkt nicht als Inspirator, sondern als Apokalyptiker, der das Leben Moritz' aufs tiefste zu erschüttern vermag. Den Blick auf sich spürend entwickelt sich bei Moritz' wohl eine Psychose, die die Lektüre ausgewählter des Buches Hesekiel nicht besänftigt. Schließlich dient dies quasi auch als Klassiker von weit von der Realität wegführenden Theorien wie dem der Prä-Astronautik, die Vision vom Thronwagen Gottes klang in Erich von Dänikens Vorstellungen zumindest stark danach. Als Alternative durchklingend wäre vielleicht ein, trotz postsozialistischer Realität, ein Geheimdienst als Verursacher vorstellbar; einer Lesart die auf das dem Buch zugrundeliegenden Muster verweisen kann.
Die Folgen der Tat, unbedacht wie sein mögen, sind nur Teil der Verhandlung zur Amtsenthebung und Versetzung Tobias Kellers. Schlußendlich geschieht eben das auch, da sich die Ereignisse ganz anders entwickeln als gedacht. Rehabilitiert werden die Beteiligten am Ende, durch die Ansätze zur Aufklärung der Ereignisse, immerhin bedingt. Für die Idee des Buches spielt aber das keine Rolle mehr; schließlich lebt es von dem aus dieser Situation erwachsenen Absurdität - ebenso wie von seinem skurrilen Humor.
Für Moritz hat die ausgelöste Ereigniskette nichts engelsgleiches. Zwar ist der himmlische Bezug durch das Erahnen eines Hinweises auf den Propheten Hesekiel gegeben; doch dieser wirkt nicht als Inspirator, sondern als Apokalyptiker, der das Leben Moritz' aufs tiefste zu erschüttern vermag. Den Blick auf sich spürend entwickelt sich bei Moritz' wohl eine Psychose, die die Lektüre ausgewählter des Buches Hesekiel nicht besänftigt. Schließlich dient dies quasi auch als Klassiker von weit von der Realität wegführenden Theorien wie dem der Prä-Astronautik, die Vision vom Thronwagen Gottes klang in Erich von Dänikens Vorstellungen zumindest stark danach. Als Alternative durchklingend wäre vielleicht ein, trotz postsozialistischer Realität, ein Geheimdienst als Verursacher vorstellbar; einer Lesart die auf das dem Buch zugrundeliegenden Muster verweisen kann.
Die Folgen der Tat, unbedacht wie sein mögen, sind nur Teil der Verhandlung zur Amtsenthebung und Versetzung Tobias Kellers. Schlußendlich geschieht eben das auch, da sich die Ereignisse ganz anders entwickeln als gedacht. Rehabilitiert werden die Beteiligten am Ende, durch die Ansätze zur Aufklärung der Ereignisse, immerhin bedingt. Für die Idee des Buches spielt aber das keine Rolle mehr; schließlich lebt es von dem aus dieser Situation erwachsenen Absurdität - ebenso wie von seinem skurrilen Humor.
October 8, 2013
An intelligent and entertaining novel which follows some very interesting characters through a perfectly interwoven dual plot. It is fascinating the way the two plots are hinged to one another in the events of a single moment. The phenomenon of causality is a prominent theme throughout, and is expertly explored in a variety of entertaining ways: most notably in the mechanical manner of the sci-fi-reminiscent organization known as the Causal Authority, and most often in the personal manner of the characters' tendency to at any time engage in self-reflection regarding their own intentions. These characters are highly intelligent, as is obviously the author, and as a result the novel is filled with moments of wisdom and insight. In fact I have never read fiction which so seamlessly integrates philosophy into itself. Also I was surprised to discover that this is a translation, for not only is the writing style very enjoyable, but the conveyance of thoughts and actions is spot-on.
April 17, 2014
I am writing this review as I was awarded the book through GoodReads' FirstReads. I am posting the review here and on LibraryThing:
A quirky piece of work. Its reminiscent of Kafka and Camus. Its a bit unpolished, and going from an 'I' perspective to a narrative of Tobias every-other-chapter is a bit jarring, and I'm not particularly fond of it (I always have the view of if you use 'I' chapters anywhere in a novel; the entire novel should be first-person outside of journal/diary/note entries).
I enjoyed the novel and am eagerly awaiting more from Dana.
A quirky piece of work. Its reminiscent of Kafka and Camus. Its a bit unpolished, and going from an 'I' perspective to a narrative of Tobias every-other-chapter is a bit jarring, and I'm not particularly fond of it (I always have the view of if you use 'I' chapters anywhere in a novel; the entire novel should be first-person outside of journal/diary/note entries).
I enjoyed the novel and am eagerly awaiting more from Dana.
August 6, 2016
Read for CCLap//review to come.
May 11, 2015
Couldn't get into the author's writing style.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews