Author: Éva Veronika Kalapos
Original title: F mint
Title in English: F, as in
Year of publication: 2019
Publisher: Athaeneum
Number of pages: 264
Éva Kalapos’s novel offers snapshots of a social class which only rarely makes an appearance in literature. Her early works were young adult novels, so she is familiar with the harsher tones of everyday language. Fema, the protagonist of the novel, is a cashier in a small store. She introduces us to the people who come to the store, her husband, who is fond of playing pranks, her mother, who suffers from Alzheimer’s, and her past, which is full of wounds, and we bear witness to a tale which is almost dystopic. Fema is not willing to recognize the affronts she has suffered. She recounts events in an almost emotionless voice, but her simple, everyday style still makes her a compelling character. The tension in the relationships among the characters is palpable. Fema’s husband, who is fond of making threats, her mother, who is in a state of serious mental decline, and her boss, who loves to grab her ass, are all incapable of forming deeper bonds. In this dull world, a hooded man pops up who picks people out of the crowd and starts taking pictures of them like some paparazzi photographer. An attorney, a woman who often comes to the store, is one of his victims, and she suffers a nervous breakdown because of his stalking. Her collapse creates a bond between her and Fema, members of two distant social classes who, apart from happening across each other in the store, would otherwise never meet. They begin to form a friendship until one day, the attorney suddenly disappears. In the meantime, Fema has developed a closer relationship with a new coworker, a mentally handicapped boy who, odd though he is, approaches her sensitively. Though the introductions to the individual chapters indicate that the story will not end well, predictability takes the place of trust, and this offers a vision of the emergence of an entirely new order.