Hungarian Heritage Review, 1991 (20. évfolyam, 1-11. szám)
1991-09-01 / 9. szám
Hungarian-born Novelist’s First-hand Experiences Shed Important Light on Contemporary European History As momentous changes sweep central and eastern Europe, whole nations are being transformed into what’s being called a new world order. As nations rise and fall, it is critically important to recall their cultural and national origins and to examine the experiences of those who have lived and died with their countries. These current events lend a special significance to a new novel by Andrew Kevey, a Hungarian-born writer living in Setauket, Long Island, New York. Béla Keredy-A Hungarian Odyssey, published this summer by Fithian Press, is, first of all, an epic historical novel following the life of an impassioned Hungarian youth coming to manhood during World War II. Through the eyes of its young protagonist, we see what Hungary was before the war, and how it became the oppressed nation it has been for the last forty years. The book's hero, Béla Keredy, is caught in the same web of history as is his country. The son of a family deeply involved with their society, Béla enrolls in the Ludovika Academia (the Hungarian West Point), and attempts to save his country from foreign domination by joining with Germany against the Soviet Union. Far from being the war’s victors, however, Béla and Hungary become its victims; Béla spends several years first as a prisoner of war, then as a displaced person in Germany. Unable to return to a homeland destroyed by Soviet occupation, Béla subsequently emigrates to England, then to the United States, and begins his life anew. But Béla Keredy is more than a novel of war; it also lovingly brings to life Hungary between the two wars as seen from the point of view of a boy living in a close-knit family of intelligent, nationalistic idealists. Best of all, Béla is a lively and compassionate protagonist with whom the reader identifies easily and strongly. As Paul Pulitzer, publisher of Hungarian Heritage Review has commented, “[Béla Keredy] is supposed to be a work of fiction. But it really isn’t. For only one who lived such a story could have written it." In fact, author Andrew Kevey’s own life story closely parallels that of his character, Béla Keredy. Born and raised in Hungary, Kevey, too, attended the Ludovika Academia, served in World War 11, and was a displaced person like the one in this novel. As a prisoner of war, Kevey vowed never to mention his wartime experiences again, and so, after emigrating to the United States in 1951, he concentrated on building a new life in a new country. He worked at the Brookhaven National Laboratory, an atomic research center in New York, and kept his vow of silence until his retirement in 1986, when the need to reopen the experiences of those turbulent years became apparent to him. In fact, there are thousands of Béla Keredys-thousands of Hungarians whose lives were turned upsidedown by the events surrounding World War I l-and this is their story as much as it is that of one Andrew Kevey. PRICE: $14.95, including shipping. Mail your order with pre-payment to: HUNGARIAN HERITAGE REVIEW P.O. Box 2203 Union, New Jersey 07083 SEPTEMBER 1991 HUNGARIAN HERITAGE REVIEW 21
