Hungarian Studies Newsletter, 2000 (17. évfolyam, 58-61. szám)

2000 / 58-61. szám

(1987). In these volumes he explored the notion of East Central Europe, as well as the main problems and issues of the region that the Germans used to call Zwischeneurope [In Between Europe]. In addition to the above works, Fried edited and co-authored several related volumes, including a textbook on comparative studies, A komparatisztika kézikönyve [Handbook of Comparative Studies) (1987), and two essay collections on Austria-Hungary, entitled A monarchia a századfordulón [The Monarchy at the Turn of the Centuryl (1991), and Magyarok Bécsben - Bécsről /Hungarians in Vienna - About Vienna] (1993). The latter two works dealt with the literary and cultural manifestations of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and its dazzling imperial capital during the height of its prominence.

Fried’s most recent book - published in English by his own Department at the University of Szeged - is this collection of six essays that were originally published in Hungarian. They include a study on the concept of East Central Europe, an essay on the nature of East Central European literature, an exposé on the formation of the East Central European novel, and three other studies on such diverse topics as literary bilingualism, the literary achievements of the noted Croatian author Miroslav Krleza, and South Slavic literary relations. These related and interconnected studies were translated and published in a single volume, primarily because the author wished to make them available to the English speaking world.

The quality of the studies is generally high, reflecting the author’s erudition. Their comprehension does require some prior knowledge of the region’s historical development. Having been put out by an in-house publisher at one of Hungary's regional universities, it is doubtful that this book would ever have gotten into wider circulation without the help of the Matthias Corvinus Publishing House of Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.

In my estimation it would have been most helpful if the author had introduced this volume with a short essay that would have tied together the here-assembled individual studies, and would have placed his volume into the spectrum of comparable works published by East Central European and Western Scholars. Nonetheless, Fried's East Central European Literary Studies is still a most useful compilation. Let us hope that Matthias Corvinus Publishing Company’s efforts to put this and other similar works into major North American academic libraries will result in increased use by Western Scholars.

Steven Béla Várdy

Gál, Sándor. KÉT ÓCEÁN KÖZÖTT. ÚTIJEGYZETEK [Between Two Oceans. Travel Notes) (Nyelv és Lélek Könyvek = Books on Language and Spirit). Budapest: Magyar Nyelv és Kultúra Nemzetközi Társasága, 1997. ISBN 963-04-9306-3.

Két óceán között is a publication of the International Association of Hungarian Language and Culture [Magyar nyelv és Kultúra Nemzetközi Társasága|. It is one of the volumes in a series entitled "Books on Language and Spirit” /Nyelv és Lélek Könyvek/ edited by Attila Komlós, the Executive Director of the Association. This series concentrates on the past and present of the Hungarian minorities in the successor states, as well as on the Hungarian diaspora in the Western World. The Book under review combines the fate of these two distinct groups of Hungarians, which is the result of the fact that the author, Sándor Gál (b. 1937) - a noted Hungarian poet and writer in Slovakia - describes his experiences among the Hungarians in the United States.

In 1994 Gál attended the Twenty-Third Annual Conference of the

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Hungarian Communion of Friends /Magyar Baráti Közösségi at Lake Hope, Ohio. This was followed by a lecture tour that embraced many of the important centers of Hungarian life in the United States, including such cities as New York, New Brunswick, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Portland, Seattle, Chicago, Minneapolis, Cleveland, Atlanta, Buffalo, Detroit, Washington, DC, and New Haven.

Gál’s book is made up of three pieces of writings: The author’s travel notes, a collection of his poems inspired by his experiences, and the text of his lecture at Lake Hope entitled "Hungarian Consciousness in Minority". From the vantage point of Hungarian- Americans, the most interesting of these writings are his travel notes, which contain interesting observations about the places and persons he visited. Some of these reflect considerable wisdom. Others, however, are either naive or simply outright wrong.

Among the former is an observation - which most Hungarians in the Old Country don’t wish to believe - that "the majority of the Hungarians here...are not millionaires, but rather persons who are struggling with everyday problems." The author acknowledges that Hungarian-Americans generally live better than people in Hungary. But he recognizes that this is so because the United States has a higher standard of living.

Of the many questionable remarks, I would only quote a few of his observations concerning American food, and American eating and drinking habits: “Americans have no inkling about the 'taste' of food. Here, even the best of meats are broiled to tastelessness, and are made bitter and sooty in various broilers or electric grills." (P. 71) American whiskey "tastes like soap." (P. 50) He concludes that Gyula Krúdy - a well-known early twentieth-century Epicurean novelist - "would have died of hunger in this dreadfully large country." (P. 72)

Gál's final conclusion about the United States is that it is "a country of sandwiches" without any personality. In his view, “a larded bread with green peppers back home has a distinct personality! But here [in the USA) even the sandwiches are uniform. They represent impersonality. )ust like America, which lacks the character of a [real) home.” (P. 72).

Although some of the author’s comments are not very flattering and display much naiveté, the book as a whole is interesting reading. It permits us to take a glimpse into the mind of a Hungarian minority intellectual during his first encounter with the New World.

Steven B. Vardy

Handler, Andrew. A MAN FOR ALL CONNECTIONS: RAOUL WALLENBERG AND THE HUNGARIAN STATE APPARATUS, 1944- 1945. Westport, CT: Praeger, 1996, pp.xi+124. Index. ISBN 0-275- 95214-2. Hardbound, $49.95.

Andrew Handler, born in Budapest, spent several months as a hidden child in eastern Hungary during the Holocaust. After the war ended he, his parents and his brother returned to the capital city where the Swedish humanitarian Wallenberg had negotiated the safety of Hungarian lews. Handler became intrigued by the larger than life and heroic figure Wallenberg represented and was puzzled by the "improbable images" he left behind as he saved tens of thousands of lews in the capital city.

This work is the seventh major work Handler has authored, edited, or translated on Hungarian/Jewish topics. Readers may be familiar with The Holocaust in Hungary: An Anthology of Jewish Response (1982) or the volume with Susan Meschel entitled Young People Speak: Surviving the Holocaust in Hungary (1993). For the

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NO. 58-61, WINTER/SPRING/SUMMER/AUTUMN 2000, HUNGARIAN STUDIES NEWSLETTER