Hungary - Metropole - Ferenc Karinthy
Just googling Hungarian science fiction authors. Can't remember why I pick Hungary to Google, probably because I visited Budapest 12 or 13 years ago with my other half for Christmas and had a lovely time, and because I'm focused more on ticking off all the European countries at the moment. Metropole kept popping up and if got a mixed bag of reviews but it was a pretty popular book so I got a 2 d hand copy online.
The physical book:
Standard paperback, ok quality, the cover was fairly uninspired. Not something that would have lept out and shouted "read me!"
I had fairly low expectations for the book, it was an Eastern European dystopian story with dull looking cover. This smacked of a being a bit of a slog, especially as I was reading this straight after reading the beautifully luxurious Red Sword.
But i was wrong, I couldn't put this book down and I'm not quite sure why. Their wasn't much of a story, nothing was really happening. But I was hooked into following the story of this man who got on the wrong plane ended up in a mega busy city, not understanding the language, and just pottering around trying to understand where he is and how to get home. The book is so engaging, I just wanted to know more and more, and how he was going to decipher his predicament.
He does get involved in small scale capers, with the lift operator, visits a church, a prostitute, and an abbatoir. They were all weird little side stories, very surreal but believable and totally alien to him and any travel experience I've had.
The second half of the book builds in intensity, weirdness and excitement. Our hero gets kicked out of his hotel, becomes a homeless vagrant, and manages to get involved in some sort of city military coup that last one day, and is completely tidied away and swept under the carpet the next day!
As the book got closer and closer to the end I tried to predict the ending and within the final few pages their was a soft ending which I was fairly happy with, but if you want to find out, then read it for yourself.
Conclusion:
I really enjoyed this book and read it at every possible opportunity until I finished it. I really enjoyed the mystery and weirdness off the city he found himself in, and really enjoyed the in-depth introspective conversations on language history and evolution. I was put off by sex and beating scene, and found that uncomfortable and wish it hadn't been in the book.
I would recommend this book, it's weird, a completely different look at dystopia. Not massively 'sci fi' but a great rrad i would happily loan out to my science fiction friends and any one who likes to read something I usual.
Book history
-Need to reseach