''Chasing Homer'' () is a 2019 novella by the Hungarian writer

László Krasznahorkai László Krasznahorkai (; born 5 January 1954) is a Hungarian novelist and screenwriter known for difficult and demanding novels, often labeled postmodern, with dystopian and melancholic themes. Several of his works, including his novels '' Sat ...

. It is about an unnamed man on the run from mysterious pursuers along the

Adriatic The Adriatic Sea () is a body of water separating the Italian Peninsula from the Balkans, Balkan Peninsula. The Adriatic is the northernmost arm of the Mediterranean Sea, extending from the Strait of Otranto (where it connects to the Ionian Se ...

coast. The book was published with original illustrations by and a music score by Miklos Szilveszter.

Plot

The story is told by an unnamed man who says that neither past nor future exist, only the present. The only detail revealed about his past is that he has studied "

Old High German Old High German (OHG; ) is the earliest stage of the German language, conventionally identified as the period from around 500/750 to 1050. Rather than representing a single supra-regional form of German, Old High German encompasses the numerous ...

and

Ancient Persian Ancient history is a time period from the History of writing, beginning of writing and recorded human history through late antiquity. The span of recorded history is roughly 5,000 years, beginning with the development of Sumerian language, ...

and Latin and Hebrew" as well as "Mandarin and Japanese of the Heian era". He is on the run from men who want to kill him, but the identities and motives of the pursuers are never explained. The man describes his survival techniques and episodes where he nearly was caught, but got away by hiding or moving in an unexpected direction. Along with the chase stories are musings on subjects such as experiments on mice, mathematics and

crowd manipulation Crowd manipulation is the intentional or unwitting use of techniques based on the principles of crowd psychology to engage, control, or influence the desires of a crowd in order to direct its behavior toward a specific action. Historical analy ...

. The man's travels along the

coast takes him to a guided tourist trip on the island of

Mljet Mljet () is the southernmost and easternmost of the larger Adriatic islands of the Dalmatia region of Croatia. In the west of the island is the Mljet National Park. Population In the 2011 census, Mljet had a population of 1,088. Ethnic Croats mad ...

in Croatia, which according to local legend is the island of Calypso in

Homer Homer (; , ; possibly born ) was an Ancient Greece, Ancient Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Despite doubts about his autho ...

's ''

Odyssey The ''Odyssey'' (; ) is one of two major epics of ancient Greek literature attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest surviving works of literature and remains popular with modern audiences. Like the ''Iliad'', the ''Odyssey'' is divi ...

''.

Publication

Magvető Magvető is a Hungarian book publishing company based in Budapest. It primarily publishes domestic and international works of literary fiction. History Magvető was established in 1955 as a publisher of the Magyar Írók Szövetsége (now the ...

published ''Chasing Homer'' in Hungarian as ''Mindig Homérosznak'' on 8 October 2019. Each of the 19 chapters comes with an original illustration by and a track from a

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a percussion mallet, beater including attached or enclosed beaters or Rattle (percussion beater), rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or ...

-based

soundtrack A soundtrack is a recorded audio signal accompanying and synchronised to the images of a book, drama, motion picture, radio program, television show, television program, or video game; colloquially, a commercially released soundtrack album of m ...

composed by Miklos Szilveszter, accessible through a QR code at the chapter's start. The book was translated to English by

John Batki John Batki is an American short story writer, poet, and translator. Life Batki was born in Hungary in 1942, and has been living in the United States since 1957. He has taught at Harvard University Harvard University is a Private universi ...

and published by

New Directions Publishing New Directions Publishing Corp. is an independent book publishing company that was founded in 1936 by James Laughlin (1914–1997) and incorporated in 1964. Its offices are located at 80 Eighth Avenue in New York City. History New Directions ...

on 2 November 2021.

Reception

Ágnes Bonivárt of ' said ''Chasing Homer'' showcases Krasznahorkai's ability to make things appear easy before becoming complicated a few sentences later. She described the story as a framework that receives more intensity from Neumann's pictures and Szilveszter's music. References to Homer add another layer and function as "more of a collapsed pillar than a support". In ''

World Literature Today ''World Literature Today'' (''WLT'') is an American magazine of international literature and culture, published at the University of Oklahoma. The magazine's stated goal is to publish international essays, poetry, fiction, interviews, and book ...

'', Elaine Margolin called the book entrancing, described Neumann's paintings as melancholic and hard to decipher, and said the music adds to the text's "apocalyptic tension". She wrote that the one reference to old languages may represent "the faintest drops of some sort of latent elitism for an earlier time". ''

Publishers Weekly ''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of ...

'' described the book as a cross between a

Jean-Claude Van Damme Jean-Claude Camille François Van Varenberg (, ; born 18 October 1960), known professionally as Jean-Claude Van Damme (, ), is a Belgian martial artist and actor. Born and raised in Brussels, his father enrolled him in a Shotokan karate schoo ...

film and the works of

Samuel Beckett Samuel Barclay Beckett (; 13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) was an Irish writer of novels, plays, short stories, and poems. Writing in both English and French, his literary and theatrical work features bleak, impersonal, and Tragicomedy, tra ...

and

Franz Kafka Franz Kafka (3 July 1883 – 3 June 1924) was a novelist and writer from Prague who was Jewish, Austrian, and Czech and wrote in German. He is widely regarded as a major figure of 20th-century literature. His work fuses elements of Litera ...

, writing that the English translation "exquisitely captures the grace underlying the hero's frenetic mindset". ''

Kirkus Reviews ''Kirkus Reviews'' is an American book review magazine founded in 1933 by Virginia Kirkus. The magazine's publisher, Kirkus Media, is headquartered in New York City. ''Kirkus Reviews'' confers the annual Kirkus Prize to authors of fiction, no ...

'' called the book "a postmodern study of alienation and exile" and "a brilliant work that proves the adage that even paranoiacs have enemies".

References

External links

Hungarian publisher's website

American publisher's website
{{László Krasznahorkai 2019 novels 2010s novellas Homer Hungarian novellas Magvető books Novels set in Croatia Works by László Krasznahorkai