STONEDIAL

Konrád, a former President of PEN International, is the Hungarian author of such near-classic introverted political fiction as The Case Worker (1974) and The Loser (1982). His newest novel, a companion and partial sequel to A Feast in the Garden (1992), soberly explores the psyche of Janos Dragomán, a celebrated author (and furtive seducer) whose return to his native village and renewed friendship with three old acquaintances triggers memories of both WWII and the 1956 revolution, and precipitates further violence that throws into vivid relief the deeply conflicted nature of this (probably partially autobiographical) story’s intriguing antihero. A grinding, hectoring, occasionally sluggish novel of ideas that demands and, for the most part, repays close attention.