Tragicomic and melancholic, this novel presents us with a leaden and totalitarian world, dominated by blind and impersonal forces. A desolate human scenario in which intelligence is annulled by brute force and violence, and in which chaos inevitably drags characters who, between conformism and insignificance, fail to create a new, less cruel and less Gray. The outbreak of violence does not even reach the rank of revolution and life passes, in this small and anonymous Hungarian city, plunged in an atmosphere of terror and bitter irony. Melancholy of resistance is a masterpiece of black humor.

The film director Béla Tarr adapted László Krasznahorkai's novel for film in 2000 under the title Werckmeister-Harmonies. Béla Tarr was the first Hungarian director to reach the devotion of movie circles since Miklos Jancso. Some critics consider him the most important Eastern European "author" of today.