from the list of winners

David Szalay: Flesh. 2025

reading this books makes me wonder the authenticity of the priaises on the cover of the book (and the first 5 pages…) 

Flesh was a very confusing ( an a bit boring, I must admit) read. I bought Szalaýs The Booker Prize 2025 winning book a while ago, this Flesh,  and I have been somewhat dreading reading it. I though, I think, that it might be somehow a bit too high literature for me being a Booker Prize winner (and maybe because Orbital, Harvey ´s Booker Prize winning book (2024) turned out to be a bit of a let down, too… even though I do not get myself making that correlation), but no, it was not too "intellectual" or a too difficult a read. Or maybe I did not quite understand it all. But, it is interesting to gather my thoughts around this book, while reading this book. I think that if it were not a winner, I might have left it in my book self to be, let it be, I will not finish it, but I kept thinking that there must be something worth reading there, being a winner and all. But, for me, it was boring. 

The protagonist, a Hungarian Istvan, he was a bore of a human being, of a man, a man with few words (a few thoughts) and I did not find any depth in the characters all and all in the book. Not a one I would have been able to resonate. 

the setting changed from Hungary to England, from poor to riches so a bit of a herós joyrney written in it, too, yet, still. naa, not my cup of tea. 

And about the dialogue - I have to say that I give praise to Szalay in that sense that he has kept the dialogue well close to normal, everyday talk. There were not well put together questions, nor replies that would make the characters more talkative, more accurate in their words. No, most of all, the dialogue was on the basis of "okay?" "Okay." 

So, maybe it was an 

okay 

book for me, using Istavan`s words.