Miklos Vamos. The Book of Fathers. Translated by Peter Sherwood. New York: Other Press, 2009. 480 pages.
This is a thoroughly Hungarian novel that has some crossover appeal, particularly if you think 19th century Russian novels are too light-hearted. Twenty pages in, an entire village is laid waste, not for any strategic military objective, but just out of wanton cruelty. And that’s just the beginning. The novel traces the Csillag/Sternovzsky/Stern/Csillag over twelve generations. Each chapter tells the story of one of the sons/fathers, and along the way the reader learns a bit of Hungarian history. If you already know a great deal about that country, you’ll probably understand the context of the tragic action much better, but if you don’t know much, it might whet your curiosity. In a novel like this there isn’t a plot, in the sense of a hero chasing a Mcguffin before a resolution a few pages before the end. Instead, it reads like a personal history of 300 years with the focus shifting from father to son through the generations.
That being said, it’s an intensely absorbing work, if you can handle the emotional sledgehammer that slams down at the end of just about every chapter. Just as you become engrossed with the life of one of the Csillag men, it invariably ends in tragedy–banditry, dueling, pogrom, political execution, Holocaust. There are not many happy endings in these pages.
I don’t think I’m overstating the violent tragedy of much of the novel. Indeed, the author addresses the issue in a delightful epilogue, noting that Hungarians have been on the losing side of every important war and revolution they’ve partaken in since 1490 before repeating a well-worn but nonetheless apt Hungarian joke whose punchline I won’t spoil, but which perfectly reflects Hungarian history.
The epilogue also puts the book into better context–it certainly makes the larger story that surrounds the Csillag clan much more lucid for non-Hungarian readers. You may want to read it first, for insights into the psyche of both the nation and the author. In some senses a meditation on nationhood, in others a study of the loss of familial memories over time, THE BOOK OF FATHERS is a thought-provoking and amazing read.
