Fischer, Linda. 2014. The Memory Book – One Woman's Self-Discovery in the Mist of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. New York: Minted Prose. 326 pp.

Martha Pereszlényi-Pintér

doi:10.5195/ahea.2017.307

Abstract

Fischer, Linda. 2014. The Memory Book – One Woman's Self-Discovery in the Mist of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. New York: Minted Prose. 326 pp.

Highlights

In 2005, while on a short vacation to Budapest, Linda Fischer chanced upon a small leather-bound book in an antiques shop
It turned out to be a “memory book,” a keepsake album and a common tradition kept by Central-European girls at the turn of the twentieth century, in which they recorded and perpetuated special events; such books may have included entries by the main author's friends and family members
Fischer found it filled with watercolors, drawings, messages, evergreen truisms, and warm time-period aphorisms written by and to the book's owner, Amálka (Amália), including mention of places that Amálka had visited and which few Americans have ever heard of, much less seen

Summary

Introduction

In 2005, while on a short vacation to Budapest, Linda Fischer chanced upon a small leather-bound book in an antiques shop. Fischer found the drawing- and writing-filled book not just captivating but compelling, albeit she did not understand the Hungarian language in which it was written.

Results

Conclusion