The Restless Hungarian by Tom Weidlinger

The Restless Hungarian Reviews

• 
  Jill Meyer

  How much do you know about your parents? Their parents, the places they lived, the times they lived through? If you are 66 year old Tom Weidlinger, you'd know your father was a famous structural engineer who worked with architects world-wide to make their building plans come to fruition. You could visit your father's buildings and see what he left to the world. You'd also know he was Hungarian by origin, and that he'd lived in Bolivia after escaping from Hungary during WW2, before moving to the United States with his Swiss-born wife. You'd know all that but you wouldn't know he was Jewish and had cast off his Jewish identity because...? Fear, disinterest in the religion, or some other reason?
  
  Tom Weidlinger's father was Paul Weidlinger. Born and raised in Budapest before the war to an assimilated Jewish family, Paul was trained in his craft and eventually moved to the US. He married a Swiss woman and had two children. Tom was his son, but born 13 years before Tom was his older sister, Michele, who later committed suicide. Tom's mother, Madeline, was in and out of mental hospitals during his youth. Tom got to know his father on a rather off-hand basis. Secrets of all kind were the basis of the father/son relationship and in his adulthood, Tom began to look at Paul's family and their history in Hungary. He found relatives he didn't know and discovered one of the biggest of Paul's secrets, the Weidlinger family was Jewish.
  
  Tom Weidlinger has written a beautiful memoir of his father and their family. The secrets that came tumbling out because secrets are not easy to keep.
  
  (By the way, It's not easy to rate and review a memoir. What are you supposed to judge? The truthfulness of the memoir? I read a lot of memoirs and always reach this sticky part of reviewing them, so I just judge them on the writing quality and hope for the best - truthiness-wise!)
• 
  Devyn

  I received this book from Goodreads.
  
  
  The Restless Hungarian is a biography about the life of Paul Weidlinger, painstakingly pieced together by his son Tom Weidlinger.
  
  Paul Weidlinger was a Hungarian structural engineer, architect, and a cold war defense analyst. Some of his most notable projects and collaborations are The Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, the Wat Nawamintararachutis Thai Temple and Meditation Center, the Nakashima Studio, the Paul and Madeleine Weidlinger House, Villa Falbala, and various abstract art statues.
  
  But, before the success of Weidlinger Associates, Paul was a clever child born to a Jewish family in 1914 in Budapest, Hungary that grew into a troubled youth with a passion for communism that got him into trouble with his father and eventually the government. His rebel restlessness ultimately saved him from the German occupation and the Iron Curtin, but left phycological scars that profoundly effected his relationships with his wife and children.
  
  It is because of this tenuous relationship that his son, Tom Weidlinger, decided to write this book.
  The discovery of his Jewish heritage compelled this probing search into his late father's background. But the past is obscured, destroyed, or forgotten, and the information mostly comes from second and third parties. The confusion, uncertainty, and huge gaps of the unknown periods in Paul Weidlinger's past is obvious and makes for an awkward read.
  This is why I rated it only three stars.
  But the historical value of the Weidlinger family's account of their experience of WW2 and the Cold War in Hungary is worth the read, and Paul Weidlinger's involvement in the Space Race and his contributions to engineering and architecture is important American history.
  
• 
  Agnes Kelemen

  It is a very engaging book, I was so excited for the turns in the lives of the Weidlingers! I even cried about the tragedy of Cini Szenes, Madeleine, Michèle and Julien.
  In addition, I greatly appreciate the author's critical perspective on his own parents for instance, he notes
  - why did Paul worry about entering a morganatic relationship if he was a Marxist?
  - the classist prejudices against "Ostjuden" of the "Gang of Thirteen" despite their communism
  - Madeleine's objectifying and exoticizing "othering" of Bolivians when taking photos of them (although she was also socially sensitive and left-wing) except for two photographs
  
  I even learned a new Hungarian vocabulary as a Hungarian -I did not know that "mukikám" used to refer to women and children specifically, in my family it is used for adult men too.
  
  Yet, in one aspect of the story something is off and I have a feeling that the author did not go after it enough -because it may not be much easier than exploring the shocking layers he did explore: the way Paul's becoming an important engineer for the American defense against expected Soviet nuclear attacks is very unrealistic. During the Red Scare someone having been a Communist earlier would have had to take a very sharp, conspicuous and explicit turn in order to achieve any position of significance, and we do not learn from the book about anything like that on Paul's part. Why did the military fund him trustworthy? (Former) communist immigrants had a very hard time.
• 
  Beth

  I did not love or finish this book. The best part was the pictures and I'm not being sarcastic. They were excellent. Otherwise the content was just too much for me and I could not make myself continue. Too much at too slow of a pace.
  
  [Updated after finishing the book, returning based on feedback from my book group. ] I skipped Chapter 13, returning at Chapter 14.
  
  This was truly a troubled family and kudos to the author for coming to terms with his upbringing (a healthy but difficult choice, it seems to me). Following is a meaningful, telling sentence: 'He (Paul) was unable to comfort my mother because he was unable to comfort himself.' Paul's architecture and drawings are works of art and 'joys of space' as was this [difficult to read] book by his son. Turns out this was a lovely tribute.
• 
  Laszlo Kadar

  Well written, easy to read about his father with an amazing life and accomplishment.
• 
  Myranda Grace

  I was fortunate to get an early copy of this book to review from Booksparks. I was so impressed with the emotional and relational exploration the author went on writing this book about his father. Tom Weidlinger takes us on many journeys in this incredibly captivating historical biography. We get to trace the life of his father Paul over time and space venturing from his early life until death and spanning three continents. Exploring the choices his father made and the events that occurred throughout history, readers get to see how Paul's life unfolded ultimately shaping him into the man our author knew. The book is structured around phases, places, and people in Paul's life which creates a sort of map for the reader and timeline to follow. As Tom deep dives into the what made his father tick, we get to explore his own journey of self-growth. In what seems to be a cathartic project, the author finds peace despite the complexities of family. Bringing his father's secrets to life in such a beautiful way, Tom created an emotionally impactful and remarkable memoir. I thoroughly enjoyed going on this journey with the author. The included photographs made this book much more relatable and genuine. I highly recommend this for any fans of history, biographies, and even historical fiction. I also want to thank the publishers at SparkPress and BookSparks for giving me the opportunity to experience this book and write an honest review.
• 
  Abby Kincer

  Follow me on Instagram @bookmarkedbya /
  instagram.com/bookmarkedbya and see the full review at my blog:
  https://bookmarkedbya.wordpress.com/2...
  
  *Thanks to Booksparks for the free book.
  
  The immensely interesting combination historical biography of a world-renowned architectural engineer + personal exploration of his son’s family heritage and secrets.
  
  Paul Weidlinger was born to a Jewish Family in early 20th century Hungary. A communist sympathizer, he is banned from his home country so explores the rest of Europe. Here, he meets his future wife and, with a stroke of good luck, is welcomed into a circle of famous architecture and engineers. With Europe on the brink of WWII, Paul escapes to South America and, eventually, America. Tom, Paul’s son and the author of the biography, knew little of his late father’s life and began this project to better understand his father and their secret Jewish heritage.
  
  This book is both a captivating historical biography and a deeply personal exploration into Tom’s family history. It is wonderfully written and surprisingly engaging. The history of architecture, Europe during WWII, and America during the Cold War are quite interesting, but the most compelling aspect is Tom’s gradual understanding of his father, his family, and their history. I was pleasantly surprised by how interesting I found this book to be, and I highly recommend to history buffs!
• 
  Aliona | alyonkazfrenzy

  admittedly, i more or less glossed over the esoteric architectural bits but found the historical biography quite compelling that it kept me thoroughly engaged throughout especially when complemented with captivating visual evidence & commentary.
  
  —
  
  gifted via BookSparks