I had such high hopes for this book. It reminds me of Isak Dinesen’s writing. Like her, Krudy has the power to enthral with lyrical vocabulary and imaginary. But he did not develop a plot or characters enough to hold me there. Maybe, like Dinesen, he should had written short stories, as even as a novella it felt too long and repetitive.

The three stars are there because I am a sucker for poetic prose and rich vocabulary.
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I live with a fear. Each novel I read will be effaced in my mind. The recall will blur and float into ether. The inscriptions will be softened and removed, leaving only vague blushes of recognition, while fertile patches of perfection are lost to me forever. Novels such as Sunflower are very supect in this regard. There isn't much of a plot as far as any arc is concerned. There are only images. They are certainly eloquent and incisive, but they are but stills and miniatures. Such taunts my seizured brain. ( )

“Movendo-se em ambientes atulhados de móveis e memórias, de anseios e superstições, que vibram de realidade e cheiram a sonho, o narrador torna-se pivô de uma grande convulsão na cidade. O retiro torna-se armadilha nesta narrativa ceia de guinadas e nuanças, ora hilariantes ora elegíacas. (...) Se olhar vagava pela cidade ou pelo campo e pousava numa vitrine ou numa lápide, o enredo se detinha, e esse objeto comum, qualquer, ganhava vida, crescia, assumia o papel principal. Um perfume ou um violino iluminava um pedaço de pele, o canto de um lábio ou um retrato desbotado, e do presente ele se transportava em um passado mítico, irreal. Irrompia o espantoso, o sobrenatural, a ficção se impunha sobre a realidade. Esquadrinhava as obsessões e as paixões, aproximava-se tanto do que escrevia que, com alguns traços de tinta lilás, como um compositor verista com uns poucos compassos, criava uma atmosfera em que o erotismo, a compaixão e a crueldade arrastavam o leitor a um mundo de sonhos. Numa linguagem musical, num tom menor, grave, da literatura húngara, seus narradores, que muitas vezes se confundiam com o próprio autor, diluíam-se entre os personagens e com eles caminhavam por paisagens nebulosas, onde tudo era possível.”
Retirado do prefácio de outro clássico do autor: O Companheiro de Viagem ( )

Sunflower is an odd book -- I'm still not entirely sure what the point is, but the prose is beautiful and the characterizations interesting. Suffice to say, Eveline returns to her native village from Budapest at the turn of the century and finds that she likes it there. She picks up a kind of romance with old friend there. Then her long-time lover and a school-friend both follow her from Budapest, but find that it is not their style. We get everyone's back story and more. There's lots of talk about love and desire and the country values (and the characters who represent them) are much praised in comparison to the shallow modern world. And did I mention that the prose is beautiful? It's a satisfying if somewhat odd read, and you don't need to know much about Hungarian history or culture to appreciate it. ( )

Sunflower is like a fairy tale, only more like a dream. Eveline, a "country miss" living in Budapest, has her house broken into by her former fiancé, a wastrel who's been using her for money. Next morning she packs up the household and returns to her country estate, the Hideaway. Her dearest friend in rural Hungary is a solitary and melancholy man, Andor Álmos-Dreamer, with a fantastical family history and a devotion to Eveline that will lead him to end his life--then begin it again at her request.

Eveline is also joined by her best female friend, Malvina Maszkerádi, a wealthy cosmopolitan heiress who is a bit caustic for the countryside. Kálmán, Eveline's beau, also follows her to Hideaway. Rural life is full of beautiful dreams, epic loves, and constant torment. Everything is poetic and doomed, and described so vividly and mythically as to bring the reader himself into the same dream Miss Eveline is experiencing.

Krúdy lived at a time when the Hungary of his youth was disappearing. Growing up in the Birches, the rural area where Sunflower is set, he spent most of his adult life in Budapest writing about the countryside and the old Hungarian ways. Eveline, and Álmos-Dreamer, are the foundation of those ways--cold winters spent wrapped in furs in front of the fire, reading and drinking local wine; paying respect to the old and debauched country squire; leaving behind the unfortunate acquaintances one has made in the city.

The melancholy, and the bursts of life amid the melancholy, Krúdy captures them both with mythical and moving language. Sunflower is like a sea to dive into and swim around in, not a book for wading in or just dipping a toe.
(more at http://www.bibliographing.com/2008/10/14/sunflower-by-gyula-krudy_review/ ) ( )