“Reality is no obstacle”: a review of László Krasznahorkai’s Spadework for a Palace
It’s hard to know what to make of the newest effort by László Krasznahorkai, Spadework for a Palace. The novella concerns an aging librarian at the New York Public Library named herman melvill. He is overtaken by an obsessive interest in three artists who also lived and worked in Manhattan: the writers Herman Melville and Malcolm Lowry and the architect Lebbeus Woods.