Embers by Sandor Marai would be ‘Candles burn until the end" in Hungarian, it was called ‘Elegiac, somber, musical, and gripping, Embers is a brilliant disquisition on friendship, one of the most ambitious in literature’ – Embers is ranked 459th on The Greatest Books of All Time site, and I wonder if it would not have about the same place were I to organize a sort of ‘personal favorites’ list – there are thousands of reviews of books from the GOAT and other sites on my blog https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/09/do-you-have-any-feedback.html

 

Embers by Sandor Marai would be ‘Candles burn until the end" in Hungarian, it was called ‘Elegiac, somber, musical, and gripping, Embers is a brilliant disquisition on friendship, one of the most ambitious in literature’ – Embers is ranked 459^th on The Greatest Books of All Time site, and I wonder if it would not have about the same place were I to organize a sort of ‘personal favorites’ list – there are thousands of reviews of books from the GOAT and other sites on my blog https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/09/do-you-have-any-feedback.html

 

9 out of 10

 

Embers has reminded me of Footprints in The Jungle https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2024/04/footprints-in-jungle-by-somerset.html by one of my favorite authors, Somerset Maugham, in which this couple has plotted to kill the husband, and they did it, in the…jungle

 

First, we get the background, The General is arguably the main character of the narrative, albeit we could also say that Konrad and Krisztina have equal standing, the latter is dead, while the men are still alive and about to meet, in the castle of the general, somewhere in Hungary, after the end of World War I, when they are in their seventies

As young men, they were almost always together, despite the fact that The General came from a rich, aristocratic family, while Konrad had to suffer because of the excruciating efforts, deprivations his family suffered so that he could get to this prominent school, whenever he spent a meagre sum, his parents would go without basics

 

Furthermore, the differences between the two best friends extend to their calling – Harvard Professor Tal Ben Shahar https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/03/the-pursuit-of-perfect-by-tal-ben-shahar.html insists that one should identify the Calling, hopefully when young, and it is where your areas of what you like, are good at and has meaning for you intersect, this is what you should do and be happy for ever

The General and his friend are at this military school, obviously, to begin with, the former did not have that rank, Konrad is more inclined to music, the rift between them comes later, there is this hunt, during which the General understands that there is a moment when his friend has his shotgun aiming at…him, ready to kill

 

He does not, they have dinner that night, in this menage a trois, and then Konrad takes his things and disappears – they will see each other forty-one years later, to conclude their lives and some of the mystery – Krisztina will just say ‘coward’ when she hears about this abrupt departure, and nothing else, their friend would travel to Singapore

The General understands that his friend had an affair with his wife, who had married him without love, she was grateful, but different – perhaps the opposite – and shared music and probably much more with Konrad, who could not continue: he could not kill his friend, did not have the means to run away with his lover

 

It is in many ways an extraordinary novel, let me share just one of the marvelous quotes in there: ‘Namely, what did we win with all our intelligence and our pride and our presumption? Has the true meaning of our lives not been the agony of longing for a woman who is dead? It’s a hard question, I know.’

 

Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – I am on Goodreads as Realini Ionescu, at least for the moment, if I keep on expressing my views on Orange Woland aka TACO, it may be a short-lived presence

Also, maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/09/do-you-have-any-feedback.html – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the benefits from it, other than the exercise per se

 

 There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know

 

As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/realini-in-newsweek-participant-in.html

 

Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works

 

‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’