Naplók könyve

Abstract

is both a musician and the symbol of the events in Rwanda. The life and death of Kitami—a famous singer, who, among other prestigious accomplishments, sold thousands of records and filled a large concert hall in Queens—is told from several points of view. Her death remains a mystery, as her reputation is based not only on her talent but also on how she is related to Rwanda. The story is first told as a third-person narration of events when Kitami meets the men who will make up her band, Pedro, their manager and their plans to travel. They are a Jamaican rasta, who welcomed the arrival of Haile Selassie to his island; a Guadeloupean who tells the story of Napoleon and the French takeover of Guadeloupe; and a man who defines himself as either Rwandan or Ugandan, depending on how European authorities cut up the countries in Africa. While Kitami is initially skeptical of West Indian drums, she learns that they originate in the suffering of Africans and that drums have hearts. After traveling to Africa, the band goes to Montserrat. The second part is more descriptive, telling the memoirs of a young Rwandan woman named Prisca, who is a bright student living with a typical family and supported by a Catholic missionary, although as a Tutsi she cannot receive as much from the authorities as a Hutu. She becomes inspired by the spirit of Nyabinghi, the spirit of Kitami, a queen of women, who will never die. Prisca realizes that she has entered into the legend of the Black Amazon . With Pedro’s help she manages to take a great drum from its hiding spot before the Hutus destroy it. The final part of the novel is termed “Ruguina,” the drum itself. It describes Kitami’s death and the investigation of officials in Montserrat, who consider several alternatives without reaching any conclusion . James, the Ugandan, sees the death as an attack on the drum, for Kitami wanted to silence the chant that would announce greater sufferings: “Perhaps, in sacrificing herself under the drum, she could ward off Misfortune, as the kings and queens of Rwanda had done in the past. Misfortune, Kitami had told him, always thinks it is the strongest, but doesn’t realize what comes afterward.” Mukasonga’s Cœur Tambour shows the strength that can come from describing the truth of Rwanda. Adele King Paris, France Tamás Vekerdy. Naplók könyve. Budapest. Kossuth. 2016. 203 pages. Tamás Vekerdy, one of Hungary’s top educationalists and founder of the Waldorf Schools in his native country, is also an impressive writer. His early literary work was reviewed already in Books Abroad (1976), and with the publication of Naplók könyve (Book of diaries), he once again demonstrates his strength as a writer of docufiction. Both Vekerdy and his family are investigated and analyzed in this collection of fragmentary diaries. The first, “Böske naplója” (Lizzie’s diary), is the diary of a young Jewish woman in the 1920s who turns out to be the author’s maternal aunt. These are the notes of an intelligent and sensitive person, struggling with her status as a second-class citizen in contemporary Hungary. The next, very subjective diary dates from the period 1944–45. It is told from the point of view of a young boy with a Christian father and Jewish mother, frightened first by the terror unleashed by the Fascist Arrow Cross Party that followed Admiral Horthy’s unsuccessful attempt to end the war, then shocked by the behavior of Soviet soldiers in “liberated” Hungary, which included arbitrary mass arrests and the not-infrequent rape of young Hungarian women. Interesting as these two earlier diaries are, I found the next two chapters even more relevant. “1956–68. Negyven év mult án” (After forty years) gives a faithful account not so much of the facts but of the chaotic and elated atmosphere of the 1956 Hungarian revolution. In this, Vekerdy uses imagery known from documentary films, which he mixes with somewhat skeptical commentary. I have to quote an event that highlights a detail about the sequence of events that led to the...