Tranquility

Tranquility is a living seismograph of the internal quakes and ruptures of a mother and son trapped within an Oedipal nightmare amidst the suffocating totalitarian embrace of Communist Hungary. Andor Weér, a thirty-six-year-old writer, lives in a cramped apartment with his shut-in mother, Rebeka, who was once among the most celebrated stage actresses in Budapest. Unable to withstand her maniacal tyranny but afraid to leave her alone, their bitter interdependence spirals into a Sartrian hell of hatred, lies, and appeasement. Then Andor meets the beautiful and nurturing Eszter, a woman who seems to have no past, and they fall wildly in love at first sight. With a fulfilling life seemingly within reach for the first time, Andor decides that he is ready to bring Eszter home to meet Mother. Though Bartis’s characters are unrepentantly neurotic and dressed in the blackest humor, his empathy for them is profound. A political farce of the highest ironic order, concluding that "freedom is a condition unsuitable for humans," Tranquility is ultimately, at its splanchnic core, a complex psychodrama turned inside out, revealing with visceral splendor the grotesque notion that there’s nothing funnier than unhappiness

oppressive Brilliant Comic Downward Spiral From One Of Hungary's Most Acclaimed And Daring Young Authors.

publishers Weekly

starred Review.

the First Work By Bartis To Be Translated Into English Follows Ander Weer Through 15 Years Dominated By His Oedipal Relationship With His Agoraphobic Mother, Rebeka, While, Outside, Hungary Transitions From Soviet Satellite To Independent State. Star Of Hungarian Stage And Screen, Rebeka Is Humiliatingly Demoted From Lead Actress To Supporting Role In An Underhanded Bid To Pressure Her Into Convincing Her Daughter, A Concert Violinist, To Return To Hungary. Instead, Rebeka Declares Her Daughter Dead And Retreats Into Her Apartment, Where She Remains Until Her Death. Ander Becomes Complicit In His Mother's Isolation And Fuels The Growing Oddity Of Their Relationship By Writing Brief Letters To His Mother As Though They Were Written By His Sister. Meanwhile, His Girlfriend, Eszter, Grows Increasingly Unstable As Ander Refuses To Leave His Mother For Her. Oddly Beautiful And Unsettling, The Novel Boldly Illustrates The Lengths People Go To In Securing Their Own Private Hells.
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"When the narrator's twin sister emigrates during an international violin competition, his mother, a well-known actress, is denied future roles. As a result, she exiles herself to their apartment for the remainder of her life. Despite the toll her increasing insanity takes on him, he dutifully cares for her. He is a tortured soul, at times narcissistic and cruel, compassionate and generous. Ultimately, he comes to believe that freedom, which he defines as "the kind of condition in which nothing ties us to the world," is a condition unsuited to humans"--Provided by Library Journal