Catherine Mustread’s Reviews > The Door > Status Update

"... he didn’t grasp my meaning either; or perhaps he couldn’t. We were dealing in such different currencies. Emerence’s dictionary featured filth, scene, scandal, laughing stock of the street and shame. His contained law, order, solutions, solidarity, effective measures. Both phrasebooks were accurate, it was just that they were in different languages."

"In my student days, I detested Schopenhauer. Only later did I come to acknowledge the force of his idea that every relationship involving personal feeling laid one open to attack, and the more people I allowed to become close to me, the greater the number of ways in which I was vulnerable."

"The only thing I want is the crypt. Just leave me in peace, and don’t try to educate me. I know quite enough already. I wish I knew less. Those who want something from the country are welcome to have it, since you tell me it’s so full of opportunities. I don’t need anyone or anything. Understand that once and for all.”

"If she’d had enough of life, no-one had the right to hold her back. I told her exactly what she should write for the police and she copied it down: ‘I, Polett Dobri, spinster, because of sickness, old age and above all loneliness, have of my own free will ended my life. I leave my belongings to be disposed of by my friends Etel “Sutu” Vámos; Adél, widow of András Kürt; and Emerence Szeredás.’"

"Thus far I have lived my life with courage, and I hope to die that way, bravely and without lies. But for that to be, I must speak out. I killed Emerence. The fact that I was trying to save her rather than destroy her changes nothing."

From the preface::. Magda Szabó’s novel is a study of survival tactics, of finding voice out of silence, and of the ways in which authenticity dismisses fakery at every turn not just in art and culture but in a life truly lived, and truly ended.