Broken Places

Fülszöveg

For László Petrovics-Ofner,
who grew up in Hungary at "the crossroads of the wars
of Europe," history has been a nightmare from which he
has struggled to awake,- it robbed him of his youth,
denied him his Jewish heritage, and finally made of him
an exile. Twenty years in the writing, this passionate
autobiographical novel is not only a literary achievement
of the highest order but a personal triumph over the rav-
ages and distortions of history.
Spanning the period from 1938, when the First Anti-Jewish
Law was passed, to the autumn of 1956, when Soviet tanks
rumbled into Budapest to quash a popular revolt, Broken
Places is told from the point of view of the precocious
and irrepressibly curious young Pisti. Setting the cata-
clysmic events of the period in the background, the story
focuses instead on the intimate drama of a young mind
grappling with the confusions and paradoxes of the times.-
why do his relatives, and yet not his immediate family
members, wear a... Tovább

Fülszöveg

For László Petrovics-Ofner,
who grew up in Hungary at "the crossroads of the wars
of Europe," history has been a nightmare from which he
has struggled to awake,- it robbed him of his youth,
denied him his Jewish heritage, and finally made of him
an exile. Twenty years in the writing, this passionate
autobiographical novel is not only a literary achievement
of the highest order but a personal triumph over the rav-
ages and distortions of history.
Spanning the period from 1938, when the First Anti-Jewish
Law was passed, to the autumn of 1956, when Soviet tanks
rumbled into Budapest to quash a popular revolt, Broken
Places is told from the point of view of the precocious
and irrepressibly curious young Pisti. Setting the cata-
clysmic events of the period in the background, the story
focuses instead on the intimate drama of a young mind
grappling with the confusions and paradoxes of the times.-
why do his relatives, and yet not his immediate family
members, wear a gold star on their breasts,- why is the stat-
ue of his boyhood hero, Stalin, being knocked over,- why
must he leave all he loves to find happiness? As Pisti strug-
gles to comprehend the incomprehensible, and bravely
(continued from front flap)
and naively confronts each successive crisis, his clear eye
of innocence casts a brilliantly perceptive light on the reali-
ties of war, repression, love, and family life.
Lovingly rendered and harrowingly told, Broken Places
has the force of Jerzy Kosinski's Steps and the charm of
the popular film My Life as a Dog.
László Petrovics-Ofner was born in Hungary in 1948 of
mixed Catholic-Jewish parentage. During the Hungarian
Revolution of 1956, László and his fourteen-year-old sis-
ter escaped the country on a journey that took them over
the border into Austria and ultimately to the United
States. He now lives in Oakland, California. Vissza