First Lines of László Krasznahorkai's "Satantango"

 "One morning near the end of October not long before the first drops of the mercilessly long autumn rains began to fall on the cracked and saline soil on the western side of the estate (later the stinking yellow sea of mud would render footpaths impassable and put the town too beyond reach) Futaki wok to hear bells. The closest possible source was a lonely chapel about four kilometers southwest on the old Hochmeiss estate but not only did that have no bell but the tower had collapsed during the war and at that distance it was too far to hear anything."

 - László Krasznahorkai, Satantango

What an impressively strange book! On it's surface a depiction of the decay of socialist society, Krasznahorka's mesmorizing prose and psychologist insight create a universal tale of how modern life creates people desperate for saviors - but the saviors are themselves corrupted fools who know no more than the people who look up to them. It's all surprisingly entertaining - his sentences go on forever, winding and rolling around subjects and actions, spinning tales of terrible lives with such energy and invention that it becomes almost funny. Not an easy read but one I loved - and have thought about many times since closing the cover.