I recently had the pleasure of reading the novel Flesh by David Szalay which won the 2025 Booker award. Flesh follows the story of a Hungarian man Istvan throughout his life and large portions of the book are set in Hungary itself. This making it an exceptional choice for me to jump into this book as part of my Hungarian gap year.
Szalay being Canadian born but with Hungarian heritage and having lived in Budapest, must have extensive knowledge of Hungarian personalities. And within a few chapters I recognised that I had met a few people very similar to Istvan himself. That is, men of few words but generally well intentioned. Myself meeting people like this within the span of less than a year in Budapest makes me think that Szalay himself might have known a few men very similar to Istvan who would later serve as inspiration for his character. Not to say that this is typical of all Hungarian men, like all cultures there are variances, in fact I would like to think you are more likely to meet a Hungarian who is passionate and verbose about their opinions than a man of few words!
The most significant thing I take away from Istvan is how he struggles to understand his own feelings, I have no doubt that this was intentionally aligned with Istvan’s lack of words spoken throughout the novel. For large parts his vocabulary is made up of ‘Okay’ and ‘Yeah’. Being able to verbalise your thoughts, and even better write them down is a way of organising them and then translating them to how they play in to your feelings more broadly. This is not Istvan’s strong suit, and perhaps serves as a commentary on one of the struggles men might face these days as mans’ role in the world becomes more complex. I find this exemplified best when Istvan randomly punches a door and he isn’t able to understand why he felt the need to do so.
Yet then seemingly out of nowhere there are paragraphs of such complex and deep understanding of Istvan’s internal thoughts. It makes for such a refreshing contrast to Istvan’s monosyllabic character and these moments are timed so well. These complex insights take up paragraphs compared to the spaced out one line of dialogue at a time, meaning your attention is not just drawn to it, but it tells you, ‘alright listen here’ this is important, so pay attention. I am uncertain whether in these moments of profound insight it is Istvan talking or Szalay narrating to us. However, I am choosing to see it as Istvan having a moment of clarity where perhaps he is connecting observations from past experiences and applying those learnings to how the people around him are behaving in that moment.
To me these internal dialogues are an assertion by Szalay that men who struggle with emotional awareness are capable of this insight which could be a stepping stone for further understanding why someone feels and behaves the way they do. Especially when you contrast this with Istvan’s depicted hypermasculine figure, these insights show there is so much more to his character than those who converse with him might see. Perhaps another takeaway from this is the overall theme that men like Istvan are misunderstood.
The use of spacing throughout the novel extends to more than just segmenting character dialogue to an individual line. Space is used as a way for Istvan to process grief. Several blank paragraphs and pages throughout the book show time for Istvan to grieve and reflect. I see it as though Istvan himself is having periods where whatever thoughts circling around in his head are not constructive for him. Much like periods of grief where one might feel like the constant sound of white noise is all that occupies your mental space. I get the sense in these blank spaces that the novel was written not only about Istvan but by Istvan himself, despite the third person written perspective indicating it is not so.
The different eras of Istvan’s life are never explicitly labelled, and neither are the locations in most cases either. At the beginning of the novel, it is not immediately clear that we are in Hungary. Instead, descriptions of somloi galuska (Hungarian sponge cake) or Balaton give away that we are experiencing Istvan’s journey in Magyarorszag. (Hungary in Hungarian). Descriptions of electronic devices that were in common at the time such as an iPod also help us figure out when we are. Between chapters with jumps in time and shifts in location, these indirect descriptions never left me confused where Istvan was.
Flesh to me is a novel that is deepened significantly with my experience being in Hungary. Without giving away any significant spoilers the way Istvan acts, and the circumstances he finds himself in, even down to the way his mother reacts to situations are all made richer for the understanding I now have after living here for the past year.
Even in its own right and living wherever you are, I have no doubt that Flesh will be a captivating way to spend your downtime . It’s a novel I’d be happy to discuss again and again with Hungarians and anyone else alike