The Book of Fathers [Paperback]

Miklos Vamos (Author), Peter Sherwood (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 13, 2009

When in 1705 Kornell Csillag's grandfather returns destitute to his native Hungary from exile, he happens across a gold fob-watch gleaming in the mud. The shipwrecked fortunes of the Csillag family suddenly take a new and marvelous turn. The golden watch brings an unexpected gift to the future generations of firstborn sons: clairvoyance. Passed down from father to son, this gift offers the ability to look into the future or back into history–for some it is considered a blessing, for others a curse. No matter the outcome, each generation records its astonishing, vivid, and revelatory visions into a battered journal that becomes known as The Book of Fathers. For three hundred years the Csillag family line meanders unbroken across Hungary's rivers and vineyards, through a land overrun by wolves and bandits, scarred by plague and massacre, and brutalized by despots. Impetuous, tenderhearted, and shrewd, the Csillags give birth to scholars and gamblers, artists and entrepreneurs. Led astray by unruly passions, they marry frigid French noblewomen and thieving alehouse whores. They change their name and their religion, and change them back. They wander from home but always return, and through it all The Book of Fathers bears witness to holocaust and wedding feast alike.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this sprawling chronicle of the Csillag family, celebrated Hungarian author Vámos depicts the lives of 12 generations of men, each a first-born son, and in the process offers a whimsical 400-year history of his native country. Each son is graced with the ability to envision events from the past as well as the future; these gifted men maintain a Book of Fathers, which is simultaneously a mundane and inspired record of the family, containing everything from a list of songs and arias favored by one father to testaments about inheriting an heirloom. Each of the novel's 12 chapters is devoted to the life of a father as it plays out against Hungary's turbulent political context; one finds fortune in the wine industry, another is a brilliant gambler, another oversees a fancy shoe shop, another runs a glass factory and yet another is a master linguist. While the episodic structure can inspire a plodding feel, the book has many sublime moments, from meditations on the nature of time to a sly investigation of how words accumulate to form books. (Oct.)
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Review

“Graceful and alluring, a leisurely introduction to the last 300 years of Hungarian history and an often affecting depiction of the way individuals must appear and disappear, alive for a few years and then lost entirely, even to their own descendents…The Book of Fathers is a serious novel that, while sometimes agonizing or even shocking, is never somber. Inevitably, its theme is that life goes on, and that every son is no less interesting than every father, that each generation’s search for wisdom is different, but no less important or dramatic than the previous generation’s. Miklos Vamos’s literary skills are such that he can sustain the reader’s interest in each doomed generation (doomed by nature, if nothing else). His virtuoso portraits of his idiosyncratic characters are fully backed by his evocative portrayal of the world they live in and the history they live through. Note to Vamos’s publisher: More, please!”—Jane Smiley, The New York Times Book Review

“Vámos’s novel chronicles a Hungarian family from 1705 until the present, as its members pass down their recollections of joy and hardship in the carefully preserved manuscript of the title. The novel proceeds via discrete episodes, each focusing on the life and death of a male progenitor with the ability to see into the past and, often, into the future. Steadily, a portrait emerges of an artistic, emotional group of men with a tendency toward violent death...Vámos’s fatalistic narrative follows in the tradition of One Hundred Years of Solitude, but it stands as a unique and affecting illustration of the vicissitudes of Hungarian history.”—The New Yorker

“[The Book of Fathers] is a book worth spending time with.”—The Huffington Post

"In this sprawling chronicle of the Csillag family, celebrated Hungarian author Vámos depicts the lives of 12 generations of men, each a first-born son, and in the process offers a whimsical 400-year history of his native country… the book has many sublime moments, from meditations on the nature of time to a sly investigation of how words accumulate to form books."—Publishers Weekly

"A bestseller in Hungary, this family chronicle focuses on firstborn sons across 12 generations…Widely read in his homeland but rarely translated into English, Vámos should win a new American audience with his beautifully crafted novel of connection and continuity."—Kirkus Reviews

"A superb family saga that draws the reader effortlessly through nearly three centuries of turbulent history . . .it records the political upheavals of an entire nation. The characters are fascinating and Vámos's writing is a magnificent, seamless blend of the general and the personal."—The Times (UK)

"Vámos is capable of producing incredibly acute and economical observations of the most extreme human conditions."—The National

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 480 pages
• Publisher: Other Press; Original edition (October 13, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1590513398
• ISBN-13: 978-1590513392
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.5 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (43 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #380,698 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Book of Hungary's Sons, September 30, 2009

By 

Dick Johnson (Oklahoma USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Book of Fathers (Paperback)

(What's this?)

If, to enjoy a book, you need a page turner with a plot - this will not be a book you will like.
If, to enjoy a book, you need only good writing (albeit in translation) and a different take on the family saga theme - this could be worth a look.

Vamos, in twelve chapters, presents us with the 'story' of each of the first-born males of twelve generations of one Hungarian family. (Fortunately, there is a family tree included.) Unlike so many such sagas, this is not about the rich, famous or titled. Rather, this is about the struggles of the generations to survive the changing world.

Hungary has a history of being governed by outsiders with laws set without regard to its people, culture or history. The fathers and sons we meet are placed in situations requiring them to change who they are and what they are. Sometimes they are Jews; other times they are Christians. Sometimes they are patriots; sometimes they run away. What we don't have is any form of normal family life over the centuries.

The translation was very readable. The Hungarian vernacular that remains is either defined or apparent in meaning, thus being no problem. This is very much what will be labeled "literary fiction". While the book advances from A to Z in linear fashion, there is little of a continuing storyline - except for one inherited trait that I will not disclose.

The reason for only four stars is that it did drag toward the end. I thought the whole thing could have been handled, keeping the same twelve generations, in about a hundred fewer pages. This did not keep me from enjoying the book from cover to cover, however. I assume you have read the Product Description (above). Since you are still reading, I think you would like this one.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars I liked it! It wasn't exactly what I was expecting, but I liked it., November 18, 2009

By 

Alan Holyoak (The Shadow of the Tetons) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Book of Fathers (Paperback)

(What's this?)

I don't read much translated contemporary literature, but this was a treat. I'm not sure what I was expecting, perhaps some kind of science fiction-like story line where the ability of the first-born in the family line is able to use their unusual gift to pull off amazing and unexplanable feats...? Anyway, what I got was an extremely interesting guided tour through the family history of a mostly unremarkable clan.

The ebb and flow of the writing was refreshing and not at all Hollywoodized, especially after reading a series of religio-action adventure novels. It's apparently not the goal of this author to sell the movie rights.

While reading this book I could actually breathe, and the characters were interesting and had much more depth than characters in many of the other books I've been reading recently. I was particularly intruiged by the continuous string of references to Hungarian history (something I know woefully little about). If you are like me you will be intruiged by references to ethnic fighting in the early 1700s, the influx of German language and culture and the suppression of Hungarian language and culture during time of Austria-Hungarian Empire, hten comes WWI as well as the plight of Hungarian Jews throughout the entire narrative. Next you are on to WWII, Communist rule, and the fall of Communism, and the book wraps up around 1999. Don't get me wrong, this is not a history book, but it is engaging historical fiction.

If you read this book you will find yourself constantly flipping to the front of the book where a chart of the family lineage of the main characters is provided. I found that when I had set the book aside for a couple of days that I was able to readily refresh my memory with a quick glance at that chart and pick up where I left off.

Also, if you choose to read this book I HIGHLY recommend that before you start the first chapter that you flip to the back of the book and read the author's notes and brief history of Hungary the author has put togther. I didn't do this until after I had read the book...more's the pity.

All in all this was an enjoyable read. Four solid stars, and worth my time.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good world history and literature - 3.5, November 18, 2009

By 

Biblibio - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Book of Fathers (Paperback)

(What's this?)

It's been difficult trying to find what to say in this review. I suppose the first thing would be a comment on how fairly fascinating "The Book of Fathers" can be. It's a good epic - 12 generations - and it manages to have a massive story without having too massive a tome. It's the kind of book where you feel the general direction but are never really sure how it's going to get there.

Setting aside the writing style for a moment, there are a few fairly major issues with the book that bothered. Take, for instance, the last two generations. The stories, while bringing the reader to the current age comfortably, ring false with the rest of the book and are kind of boring. In general, some of the stories weren't very strong, as might be expected from a book of this kind. The format makes it resemble a book of short stories in that sense, with some chapters much better than others. Another point that frustrated was the Jewish subplot, which often seemed unlikely and slightly bizarre.

Because each chapter focuses on a different person, there's an overall imbalance to the book. Some characters are excellently drawn, are realistic, interesting, and make the reader want to learn about their lives. Others are simpler, duller and provide little food-for-thought, such that even their personalities feel flat and crudely drawn. The contrast can be a little disconcerting at times - one chapter I thought the book was brilliant, the next I was struggling to get through.

And then there is the writing. It's good writing (a fairly good translation too), but so much of the book is written in giant chunks of "told" stuff. Five pages of story-telling, summing up years in an almost inelegant fashion. This made it difficult to read sometimes and could get a bit boring. The unevenness was particularly apparent by the end, where the tone didn't quite match the content. It's not badly written at all, but sometimes it felt clunky.

I liked reading "The Book of Fathers". I really did. I liked some of the stories and I liked the overall atmosphere of the epic. I didn't like the last two installments, thought the book went on for a little too long and had a few minor plot issues, but on the whole it's an interesting, pretty good book. Is it my favorite book of the year? No. It's not even the best Hungarian novel I've read recently. But it's a good, interesting novel that those with patience and time should read, if only to learn a little more about the world and people in it. It's not an easy book to read, but for those with an interest in world literature and history, it's a good book to read. 3.5.