Author: Gábor ZOLTÁN
Original title: Orgia
Title in English: Orgy
Year of publication: 2016
Publisher: Kalligram
Number of pages: 320
Rights sold: English, France, Slovakia, Sweden
Gábor Zoltán wrote this book following a great deal of research, prompted first and foremost by a topographical connection, the writer having lived in Maros utca in Budapest all his life. It was in this neighbourhood that the infamous fascist Arrow Cross party’s 12th District organisation carried out their torture and killings. After a brief introduction, we find ourselves in the district headquarters of the Arrow Cross Party in 1944-45. The text shows us perfectly the process of their taking power, growing degeneracy and accompanying brutality, not without highly naturalistic scenes, which – combined with the multi-faceted narration and the whirlwind of events – give the reader not a moment’s respite. The goal is to liquidate as many Jews as possible as quickly as they can. The only voice that represents a stable point, something to cling on to, is the narrator’s dispassionate and yet sometimes nonetheless faltering voice, as well Renner, the hero’s externality. Renner, the almost accidental Arrow Cross member (he joins to save his wife and lover) represents an unusual viewpoint, as do the network of real historical figures (Father Kun, Miklós Dési-Dregán, Dénes Bokor, etc.) and fictional characters, the description of their personalities, the constant stream of victims, their meaningless deaths, and the mercilessly precise descriptions of their executions. Occasionally, these scenes would descend into pathos, but they are then counterbalanced by a wonderfully precise character description or a torture scene fit for a movie, which – with the evocation of the popular songs of the time – is both absolutely teeth-chattering and ethereal at the same time, all the time maintaining an ironic distance from judgement, and indeed, leaving the need for that to the reader. In order to understand the title, it’s worth first of all noting what can happen to various kinds of people with difficult pasts if they suddenly acquire power – they take revenge for their imagined or real slights, without any limits whatsoever, and become killing machines, chasing time, descending into sex, holding orgies.