Book Review: Satantango by László Krasznahorkai

What happens to a community when it has been abandoned? What happens to abused individuals when they are ignored by society? “Sátántangó”, László Krasznahorkai’s 1985 debut novel, grapples with these questions in its bleak and darkly comedic portrayal of a derelict community of failures trapped in an isolated Hungarian hamlet, revealing how abandonment breeds both cruelty and desperate hope.

An abandoned Hungarian hamlet inundated with torrential rain and mud is the backdrop for a misfit cast of characters obsessed with hopes of escape. The novel, which is split into two parts representing a tango–six steps forward and six steps back–disrupts the linear narration, forcing the reader to revisit events from shifting perspectives as Krasznahorkai gradually untangles the story’s web. The villagers, suspicious of one another and fixated on a small stash of money, cling to the hope of leaving their meager existence behind. When the mysterious and seemingly Christ-like figure of Irimais returns, his arrival sets off a chain of events which exposes the community’s profound alienation, desperation, and susceptibility to manipulation.    

Alienation and Abandonment – The young Esti is the most tragic figure of the novel. About Esti, Krasznahorkai says in a 2012 interview with Mauro Javier Cárdenas, “[Esti] is the purest, simplest victim, because she believes everything that’s promised to her from whom she loves.” She is alienated from her family who abuse and ignore her, with her brother Sanyi treating her the worst of all.

According to Krasznahorkai, people like Esti have only one fate, “to lose themselves.” Due to the extreme alienation that she feels from her family and her young age and innocence, she is ripe to be manipulated. The few times her brother treats her kindly has Esti willing to do anything to stay in his good graces.

“…she understood that till she proved herself deserving of her brother’s irrational good mood, she was risking losing his trust, and, furthermore, that this was her first, and possibly last, opportunity of gaining it.” Page 116

She thus decides to kill the family cat to showcase her determination to “winning.” This chapter wherein we see Esti battle with the cat and with the logic of her universe, is the most heartbreaking chapter of the novel. As she chases the cat around the barn attic, Esti is inundated with the overwhelming sense of power that she holds over the cat. This power transforms her universe into one where she is in the center–for the first time in her life.

However, in the reflection of the cat’s luminous eyes, Esti sees her old self–weak, despairing, helpless–reflected onto herself.

“…she understood the terror, the despair that might almost make another being turn against itself; the helplessness whose last hope was to offer itself up as prey on the chance that that way it might yet escape.” Page 119.

This revelation shatters her newfound sense of self, and she starts to feel shame and regret for her actions. She realizes that the “victory” that she so craved, will be forever sullied by the power imbalance between herself and the cat.

“…because the most shameful element of the desperate struggle was not that she remained on top, but that there was no chance of defeat.” Page 121

However, these revelations do not stop her actions, and she ends up drowning the cat in its own milk bowl. Excitedly, she runs to her brother with the spoils of her victory. Upon finding him, she sees that he has reverted to his normal self–cold, uncaring, mean–and he tells her off. Her attack on the cat and her destruction of herself were meaningless. Distraught, she runs away into the uncaring arms of the Doctor. He rebuffs her attempts to seek solace in his arms as he is preoccupied with his own problems.

Esti–who has completely lost herself in her futile quest to get into her brother’s good graces and connect with others in her community–takes off with the dead cat in her arms. Her death, she decides, will make her useful, and so, she drinks the rat poison she used to kill the cat and lays down in the fetal position, thumb in her mouth.

Esti’s death is as much a product of the oppressive, decaying environment of the hamlet as it is of the actions of each of the members of her community. Irimais in his return speech even highlights everyone’s culpability in her death–to the chagrin of the townspeople who would much rather focus on their own lives. By ignoring, abusing, and neglecting her, the townspeople have created an environment where a young innocent child chooses to take her own life. Every attempt that Esti made to connect with other people was met with hostility or complete indifference.

Isolation, and Abandonment -According to Krasznahorkai in a 2012 interview with The Guardian, “the deepest loss is the loss of a culture of poverty–the ability to “sing wonderful songs when we are poor”. The town and people of Satantango perhaps best represent this sentiment. They bicker, they cheat, they lie, and they’re all suspicious of each other. There is no sense of community. The town and everything in it are in varying stages of decay. They desperately want to leave but are too afraid to take the first steps towards change.

“Ever since the works had been split up, since people had been in as much of a rush to get away as they had been to come here, and since he [Futaki]—along with a few families, and the doctor, and the headmaster who, like him, had nowhere else to go—had found himself unable to move, it had been the same, day after day, tasting the same narrow range of food, knowing that death meant getting used to, first the soup, then to the meat dishes, then, finally, to go on to consuming the very walls, chewing long laborious mouthfuls before swallowing, slowly sipping at the wine rarely enough set in front of him, or the water.” Page 9-10

Futaki’s inner monologue above shows to what extent he and the other villagers have given up hope.

Thus, when Irimais shows up in town preaching salvation and a better future, everyone is enraptured. Irimais speaks of a new Eden, thus invoking a Christ-like image of himself in the minds of the villagers. When they hear of his return, Mrs. Halics shouts “resurrection,” thus, solidifying the image of Irimais as Christ. His real goal, however, is to swindle them all out of their money. The ease with which he is able to do this is astounding. Why are they so easily deceived? Irimais on his way to the village says of the villagers:

“Servants is what they were and that’s what they’ll remain until they die. They’ll be sitting in the kitchen, shitting themselves in the corner, taking the odd look out of the window to see what the others are doing… They’re waiting patiently, like the long-suffering lot they are, in the firm conviction that someone has conned them. They are waiting, belly to the ground, like cats at pig-killing time, hoping for scraps. They are like servants that work at a castle where the master has shot himself: they hang around at an utter loss as to what to do . . .” Page 42.

Though cruel, Irimais touches on the heart of the matter; the townspeople are lost, they have given up hope, and their desperation is palpable. The townspeople are like Esti in a sense, in that they are both willing to do anything to show their commitment to their “savior’s” grand plan. How is Irimias’ promise of a better future different from Sanyi’s promise of a money tree? How is the naiveté of the estate’s inhabitants different from little Esti’s? It’s not. In their quest for a new Eden following the ideas of Irimais, they all (except Futaki) destroy their homes and possessions. At this point, they have given themselves over completely to Irimais and would do anything for the chance to follow him and his plan.  

The villagers do not care for each other as they should and instead try to swindle each other out of money. They ignore the most vulnerable member of their society, Esti, and when confronted with her death, try to deny their culpability.

Rating: 3.75/5 stars