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East Side Book Club at the Pub

We read (hopefully) great books and get together at pubs on the east side of the river once a month to chat about them.

The Door (NYRB Classics)

One of The New York Times Book Review's "10 Best Books of 2015"

An NYRB Classics Original

The Door is an unsettling exploration of the relationship between two very different women. Magda is a writer, educated, married to an academic, public-spirited, with an on-again-off-again relationship to Hungary’s Communist authorities. Emerence is a peasant, illiterate, impassive, abrupt, seemingly ageless. She lives alone in a house that no one else may enter, not even her closest relatives. She is Magda’s housekeeper and she has taken control over Magda’s household, becoming indispensable to her. And Emerence, in her way, has come to depend on Magda. They share a kind of love—at least until Magda’s long-sought success as a writer leads to a devastating revelation.

Len Rix’s prizewinning translation of The Door at last makes it possible for American readers to appreciate the masterwork of a major modern European writer.

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288 pages

Average rating: 7.57

35 RATINGS

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Community Reviews

Anonymous
Nov 18, 2024
6/10 stars
3.75

While the book is a fine specimen of a literary thriller, Emerence's character felt achingly archetypical and almost non-human, making it difficult to engage with her development of a relationship with the protagonist. The use of first person pov exacerbated this issue, as it highlighted the disconnect, unreliability and ultimately didn’t suit the narrative well.
renxgs
Feb 24, 2024
10/10 stars
Amazing book, I will think about Emerance for many years to come. The book touched a part of my heart I didn’t even know was there, I feel like I am better able to understand people and see points of view I hadn’t thought of before.

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