FICTION

Budapest Noir

by Vilmos Kondor
Harper: HarperCollins. Feb. 2012. c.304p. tr. from Hungarian by Paul Olchváry. ISBN 9780061859397. pap. $14.99. F
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The gray, urban landscape of 1936 Budapest is matched in this debut by the bleakness of the Nazi-influenced social and political milieu. Against this noir backdrop, Zsigmond Gordon, a newspaper crime reporter, investigates the murder of a beautiful Jewish woman whose body is found on the street. In the process, he encounters a formidable gamut of secret police, pornographers, thugs, and boxers while navigating such obstacles as anti-Semitism, sex rings, and family secrets. Gordon's one-man effort to get to the bottom of a crime contrasts strikingly with the prevailing sense of indolence that allowed for the rise of Nazi Germany in Europe. Readers' knowledge of the systematic mass murder to follow makes the story, with its dark setting, more disturbing.
VERDICT Kondor's impressive first novel, which unfolds against an atmosphere tinged by alienation, fear, and the threat of violence, stands out for its deft writing, plausible scenarios, vivid sense of place, and noir sensibility.
Reviewed by Seamus Scanlon, Ctr. for Worker Education, City Coll. of New York , Feb 15, 2012
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