BOOK REVIEW: ‘THE ILLITERATE’ BY AGOTA KRISTOF
“I write. It is like a disease.”
Those are the uncanny first words of ‘The Illiterate’, a poignant memoir by Hungarian writer, Agota Kristof. It is the story of one woman’s love affair with words and how that consuming passion anchors her through a tumultuous period in history, when she has to flee Hungary during the Soviet invasion. Finally taking refuge in Switzerland, Kristof is a haunted woman. She has been separated from her beloved brothers. She has to work in a dreary factory. But most of all, she doesn’t know the language. At twenty, she is an illiterate. If she is to continue being an artist, she must learn and express herself in French, a language she finds opaque and uninviting. However, writing is in her blood. And so, Kristof painstakingly learns French and starts writing plays and stories. This is a story of loss, survival, and hope. Most of all, it is the story of the birth of a unique writing voice in Europe. Kristof’s writing voice is both enchanting and stark, and this creates a curious, beguiling effect on the reader. Her lack of eloquence in French ultimately works to her advantage. It strips her writing down to essentials, so that the sentences feel sacred, even therapeutic. I love this slim, mesmerizing memoir and have revisited it many times. You can finish it in a day. But its effects will linger in your mind for days. Kristof has the gift of going straight to the most remote corners of a reader’s mind and heart. Perhaps that gift is also a measure of the tremendous pain that drove her journey as a writer and a woman in a world fractured by war.
Photo: Agota Kristof.
Celebrating 10 years of Labyrinths: 2014-2024.
Labyrinths, written by Philip John, is about the mysteries of everyday urban life.
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