Róbert Gál

'Signs and Symbols' is a difficult work to read and review. It begins as a series of aphorisms, which are then followed by fragments of Gal's personal philosophy. Written at a time when Gal confesses to be at his lowest, they are the words of a philosopher looking up from a deep, dark hole. His pieces describe the view of life, God, ambition and pain from this nadir, while simultaneously lighting his way out. The aphorisms and fragments come together as a sort of dark poetry.

Gal's work is obscure and difficult to access. Occasionally his words are powerful, and easily related to his personal suffering. Too often, though, they are simply barely connected statements, or definitive pronunciations born from associations that I just couldn't relate to or understand. Whereas many authors try to draw you into their world by translating it to the familiar, Gal simply offers his quasi-poetry for inspection without explanation. Because of this, I ultimately failed to 'get' large chunks of Gal's work. Whether it was his failure to communicate or my failure to understand is not the point. There were too many occasions on which Gal and I couldn't find a common language, which frustrated me as a reader. An interesting experiment, but not an entirely successful one, in my opinion.… (más)