Houses (New York Review Books Classics)

Building Can Be Seen As A Master Metaphor For Modernity, Which Some Great Irresistible Force, Be It Fascism Or Communism Or Capitalism, Is Always Busy Building Anew, And Houses Is A Book About A Man, Arseniev Negoyan, Who Has Devoted His Life And His Dreams To Building. Bon Vivant, Francophile, Visionary, Negoyan Spent The First Half Of His Life Building Houses He Loved And Even Gave Names To--juliana, Christina, Agatha--making His Hometown Of Belgrade Into A Modern City To Be Proud Of. The Second Half Of His Life, After World War Ii And The Nazi Occupation, He Has Spent In One Of Those Houses, Being Looked After By His Wife And A Nurse, In Hiding. Now, On The Last Day Of His Life, Negoyan Has Decided To Go Out At Last To See What He Has Wrought. Negoyan Is One Of The Great Characters In Modern Fiction, A Charming Monster Of Selfishness And Self-delusion. And For All His Failings, His Life Poses A Question For The Rest Of Us: Where In The Modern World Is There A Home Except In Illusion?-- Borislav Pekić ; Translated From The Serbo-croatian By Bernard Johnson ; Introduction By Barry Schwabsky. Originally Published As Hodočašće Arsenija Njegovana In Belgrade, Serbia, 1970 Reprinted By Special Arrangement With Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.--tile Page Verso. Translated From The Serbo-croatian. Building can be seen as a master metaphor for modernity, which some great irresistible force, be it Fascism or Communism or capitalism, is always busy rebuilding, and Houses is a book about a man, Arsénie Negovan, who has devoted his life and his dreams to building. Bon vivant, Francophile, visionary, Negovan spent the first half of his life building houses he loved and even named—Juliana, Christina, Agatha—while making his hometown of Belgrade into a modern city to be proud of. The second half of his life, after World War II and the Nazi occupation, he has spent in one of those houses, looked after by his wife and a nurse, in hiding. Houses is set on the final day of his life, when Negovan at last ventures forth to see the world as it is. Negovan is one of the great characters in modern fiction, a man of substance and a deluded fantasist, a beguiling visionary and a monster of selfishness, a charmer no matter what. And perhaps he is right to fear that home is only an illusion in our world, or that only in illusion is there home.