Sound of Our Hearts

I guess it's time to write about The Great Escape (Kilenc magyar in Hungarian) by Kati Marton, as I don't feel like doing anything and am just sick and tired of looking at job ads.

Kati Marton

The way I came across this book was accidental, as is usual with me. I got a newsletter advertising a concert by Mariann Falusi, the ex-Pa-Dö-Dő-member. The lead said that the selection of the songs was inspired by this book, and that it is about nine Hungarian Jews emigrating and "changing the world." Looking at the list of the nine of them (Arthur Koestler, Robert Capa, John von Neumann, André Kertész, Michael Curtiz, Edward Teller, Leo Szilard, Eugen Wigner, Alexander Korda) I became instantly interested and even considered buying it. I'm not saying that I knew all of them at the time, I hadn't even heard of some of them, but it made me all the more curious. I think it's a pity that Hungarians don't know much about their most talented people. I think the most well-known of the nine of them among average citizens is Neumann. Everybody knows that he invented the computer, but when and where and why is beyond our knowledge (and perhaps interest too).
Getting the book was both easy and hard. There are about a dozen copies at the central library, which is remarkable in itself and must be due to some generous donation by an expat. The difficult part was checking the book out. A couple of months ago the library installed extra hi-tech self-service checkout machines, which are able to identify a special magnetic sticker that can be found in each book. Now, this book didn't have the sticker for I don't know what reason, and it took about a quarter of an hour to the local staff to figure this out. Finally they checked the book out manually, and did not put a sticker in it, so I wonder how many times they're going to go through this whole procedure in the future.
The book is told in a sort of chronological order. The narration follows the order of the events in the general historical context (both Hungarian and global), such as for example world wars, etc. It covers the whole twentieth century, focusing on the factors that shaped the lives of the protagonists. (It reminded me of Szabó István's movie, Sunshine.) The beginning chapter focuses on the cultural aspects of Budapest at the beginning of the century. From then on, we get to know the nine characters, and follow them around the world in parallel-running storylines. It is like reading nine biographies cut up and mixed, which sometimes makes it hard to remember who is who and where we left off, but in general it is a very thorough and exciting account of their lives.
What I like the most about this book is that we get to know the personality behind the name. Kati Marton (who is by the way a descendant of expat Hungarian Jews) relied on a lot of contemporary sources, such as interviews and memoirs. There are lots of anecdotes about the characters, which bring them closer to the reader as actual human beings. It is nothing like a documentary where you get dead bored by facts and data. There wasn't a single boring sentence in the whole book. Somehow she has the ability of great story-tellers to grab the attention of the audience and maintain a certain level of curiosity throughout the book. I read it in Hungarian (translated by another person), and there are some disturbing grammar mistakes in the book, but it's OK in general.
I wish teachers told stories like these at school and not just flood pupils with encyclopaedic knowledge. I think every Hungarian should read this book. Actually, it made me want to learn more about the nine of them, watch their movies for example, or read their books, and I'm glad I had the opportunity to visit an exhibition on Capa a few years ago, and the exhibition on the birth of photography (including some of the most well-known photos by André Kertész) is still on at the Museum of Fine Arts. And I'm looking forward to read more of Kati Marton's books.

P.S. Capa remains my favorite character amongst the nine of them, though there was something to each of them, for different reasons.