Talking Location With author Jan Fortune – Budapest

6th October 2018

TalkingLocationWith … author Jan Fortune, researching and writing her novel A Remedy for All Things in Budapest.

When I’m writing a novel, the place it’s set in is vital. Before travelling to Budapest, where A Remedy for All Things takes place, I read a huge amount about the place, but none of it could give me the details and texture of actually being there.

A melancholy place

In the novel, my character, Catherine, undertakes a writing trip to Budapest. Set in November 1993, one of the coldest winters on record, she is researching the 1930s  poet, Attila József. Catherine’s story interweaves with that of Selene Virág, a woman imprisoned after taking part in the Hungarian Uprising of 1956. Selene has her own strange connections to Attila József.

Writing in Budapest. Photo Adam Craig

I couldn’t travel back to 30s, 50s or 90s Budapest but I had the chance to soak up the place for a month. It was unlike anywhere we’d ever visited.

The Hungarian language seemed impenetrable, but the city’s pace was slower than London or Paris. Cars gave way to pedestrians and people were polite and helpful. ‘You’re welcome’ was the phrase of choice in every café or shop – yet there were few smiles.

Decay and bullet holes. Photo Adam Craig

The current politics in Hungary are not encouraging. Crony capitalism, nepotism and poor working conditions are not uncommon. There’s extreme right-wing thinking and talk of ‘ethnic purity’.

But a Hungarian friend assured me that melancholy goes back further. This landlocked, much disputed country has a history of war and sadness. Then there’s the bleakness of the landscape and interminable winters (captured in the writing László Krasznahorkai and films by Béla Tarr). Hungary even has its own ‘suicide song’ (‘Gloomy Sunday’, covered by Billie Holiday). Even the national anthem sings about sorrow and pity.

Memorial to Jewish victims. Photo Adam Craig

Monuments like the empty shoe sculptures on the bank of the Danube, where Jews were herded, made to take off their shoes, then shot, are powerful reminders of this past. Similarly the silver weeping willow in the Great Synagogue, each leaf inscribed with the name of a Jewish person who died there during the ghettoisation in WW2. In the novel, Selene lives through this as a teenager and her mother is deeply marked by loss.

Environment shapes character

The characters in my book know a great deal about sorrow.

House of Terror Cell. Photo Adam Craig

Selene is not only arrested and detained, for a long time without trial, but has no idea whether she will survive to see her young daughter again. Visiting the House of Terror, where many people were held and tortured, was sobering and the cover of the book is a photo taken of an inhumane cell there.

Another character is a fictionalised version of the poet, Attila József, who committed suicide in his early thirties. The museum that tells his story and the statue of him by the river, give insight into his struggles, both personal and political, in ways I could never have appreciated from reading.

Writing in Budapest, I became acquainted with a city full of beauty, yet teeming with ambivalence and poverty. Once grand buildings crumbled alongside others that were shiny and renovated.

It was a place I fell in love with. There was an authenticity there. I was able to write and talk to writers and archivists in Budapest, visit museums and walk the streets that my characters walked. Place and political context make a huge difference to personal stories. The stories we tell ourselves and allow others to tell about us shape us. Environment shapes character, even in fiction.

Art Nouveau facade. Photo Adam Craig

It is not only a place with a sad history, but also a place of generosity, humour and resilience.

Tips for writing in locale

There are so many small details that can only be found in the place. In particular:

• walk everywhere – you need to experience the weather, take in the smells, the sounds, the views
• eat like a local – find local websites and immerse yourself. In Budapest the organic Sunday market in the Szimpla Ruin Pub on Kazinczy Street or Cafe Csiga in south Pest.
• ask for help – even across language barriers, museum staff were  keen to get involved and give me information. I also looked up local authors and publishers and found people I’d never met incredibly generous with their time.
• go back – in November I’m returning to launch the book and to reconnecting with the generous people who helped me understand the place a little better.

Photographer Adam Craig’s house

Meet me in Budapest as the story unfolds…

THANK YOU SO MUCH TO JAN FOR SUCH GREAT INSIGHTS INTO WRITING CONVINCING LOCATIONS AND SHARING HER VIEW OF THE CITY, PLUS GREAT PHOTOS!

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And if you are intrigued by the city, access our own blog of travels to the city here (Christmas is a great time to visit!). For more books set in the city, just access the TripFiction database.

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