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Community comment are the opinions of contributing users. These comment do not represent the opinions of Okanagan Regional Library.
manoush
May 17, 2015
A thoroughly original, absorbing novel in an excellent, unobtrusive translation. On the surface, The Door reads like a tightly-focused domestic drama about a woman writer and her stormy relationship with her unruly housekeeper Emerence. But a close reading reveals layers of Greek, Christian, and Hungarian mythology in Szabo's unforgettable portrait of Emerence. Szabo transforms a modest, solitary laborer like Emerence into a mythical figure, with all the mystery, heroism, and otherworldliness we'd expect of a deity. The scene where the "lady writer" is finally (and just once) allowed into Emerence's sanctuary is transcendent in its power and beauty. The Door is unlike any novel I have read, a true work of love and art.