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"Set in contemporary times, Baron Wenckheim's Homecoming tells the story of a Prince Myshkin-like figure, Baron Bela Wenckheim, who decides to return at the end of his life to the provincial Hungarian town of his birth. Having escaped from his many casino debts in Buenos Aires, where he was living in exile, he wishes to be reunited with his high school sweetheart Marika. What follows is an endless storm of gossip, con men, and local politicians, vividly evoking the small town's alternately drab and absurd existence. All along, the Professor--a world-famous natural scientist who studies mosses and inhabits a bizarre Zen-like shack in a desolate area outside of town--offers long rants and disquisitions on his own attempts to immunize himself from thought. Spectacular actions are staged, death and the abyss loom, until finally doom is brought down on the unsuspecting residents of the town"--… (more)
User reviews
This writing isn't for everyone. Paragraphs are 2-5+ pages long, and each is one sentence. Generally, each paragraph is also from the
There is a lot going on. Everyone is connected through work or home or school or friends or relatives. The Professor is an expert on mosses who seems a little...unhinged...as he now spends much of his time alone thinking about how not to think and other philosophical topics. The Baron himself is returning to his hometown in Hungary after spending decades in Argentina (he is also fleeing from gambling debts and jail). The Mayor is very hopeful that the Baron will donate his wealth to the town. The police chief has his fingers in this too. They create a HUGE welcome celebration when he arrives, and the Baron is painfully embarrassed. Marika was his girlfriend when they were teens, and she is still there, single, and he has written to her. The mayor and police chief are jockeying for position, the biker gang is after the professor who purchased one of their hidden weapons, everyone is afraid of the biker gang but ignore them rather than do what they say. The town itself is a character. The trains are somewhat unreliable, there are limited gas supplies, the orphans (why are there so many?) are housed in the chateau, there are espresso bars, a travel agency with little business, it sounds quite dreary and downtrodded. It's all an interesting and farcical take on small town politics. And then it veers into creepiness.
I am not sure what actually happened.
You never really sure where you're going in