With the skill of a social scientist, the compassion of a humanist, and the stylistic pyrotechnics of the avant-garde, Konrád [in The City Builder] outlines the political, social and economic history of an unnamed East European city….

Much of The City Builder reads like an extended essay, although it is profoundly literary. Its ideas arrive in language of extraordinary power and plasticity. Moreover, by constantly condensing and telescoping events, Konrád manages to pack a number of potential novels into his text. Alfred Kazin has said that novels cannot be written anymore, only scenarios. Eastern European novelists and film makers are particularly adept at schematic, elliptical modes of composition. Konrád merely hints at the specifics of time and place, yet each hint is crucial, for it evokes a state of mind and a way of life. The true protagonist of the novel is the city, whose...