Scandal in a Small Town: Understanding Modern Hungary through the Stories of Three Families by Marida s> Hollos (review)

Abstract

REVIEWS I93 and minds of other Catholic or Orthodox nationalities. So great were these preoccupationsthat Byrnesconcluded thattheyprecluded,forthe time being, the kind of transnational cooperation demanded by the Pope's vision for Europe. The relationshipsbetween the statesof the region with each other and with the rest of Europe are in transition. The outcome is by no means certain. When the next majorcrisisof identitydescendsupon East CentralEuropethe worldwill again listenattentivelyto the voice of the Church, and to thosewho are capable of interpretingit. Byrnes has reminded us of this. Hopefully, his writing will stimulate furtherresearch and debate on a theme that is all too often neglected by secularizedchildrenof the Enlightenment. Zurich,Switzerland JOHN EIBNER Hollos, Marida. Scandal ina SmallTown.Understanding Modern Hungary through the Stories of Three Families. M. E. Sharpe, Armonk, NY, and London, 2001. Xiii+ 214 PP. Maps. Figures. Tables. Appendices. Bibliography.Index. $49-95. THIsabsorbing anthropological study traces the fate of three families in the town of 'Tiszadomb', on the Great Hungarian Plain. Scandal in a SmallTown conveysa vividimpressionof Hungarianruralsocietyfromthe late nineteenth century through to the end of the twentieth. It will be enjoyed by, and useful to, anyone with an interest in East-Central European history, politics, sociology and economics. It is written to be also accessibleto anthropologists who do not necessarilyhave a specialistknowledge of East-CentralEurope. The postscript, describing the small town in I995, could be included on reading lists for undergraduatesor taught postgraduates studying postcommunist societies. Like the rest of the book, it has a liveliness, freshnessand a wealth of smallbut relevantdetailwhich allowsthe readerto almost 'feel'the atmosphere of Tiszadomb. With a little hunting around the index, students could alsofindsimilarillustrativematerialabout 1956 and otherseminaldates in recent Hungarian history. Scandal inaSmallTown is cleverlyconstructedaroundthe scandalmentioned in the title, a scandalwhich is sketchedin outline in the introductionbut not fully explained until the last chapter, endowing the book with something of the quality of a detective story. The clues are embedded in the stories of the three very different families as they respond to the dramatically changing circumstancesof the twentieth century.Hollos showshow pre-communistera social backgroundhelped to determine the fate of her charactersright up to I989, and beyond. However, she also illustrateshow people could to some extent shapetheirown destinieseven in theperiodof communistrule,through educational choices and political and commercial activities. Parallel to the storyof the three families,whom she has named the Boglars,the Farag6sand the Pinters, Hollos also examines the career of 'IstvanJ6', the mayor from I967 to i989. Hollos showshowJ6 used his connections and cunningto make Tiszadomb a showcase socialisttown. (The book will be a usefulcorrectiveto anyone harbouring illusions that communist-era Hungary conformed to a I94 SEER, 8 i, I, 2003 simple totalitarian model, or that its inhabitants were uniformly poor and miserable.) The scandal concerns the youngest generation of the three families described:two boys in the final class of high school and one of their teachers. In spring I988 Peer Farag6, whose mother was the local communist party secretary,tried, throughJo, to bully a teacher, Katalin Pinter, into raisinghis marks. Pinter obliged, but also raised all the other students' marks, and explained to her classwhat she had done. She commented on the injusticeof a situationin which the lazy Farag6received the same markas Laci Boglar, a hardworkingCalviniststudentfrom the so-called 'kulakclique'. (The Faragos were descendants of landless and Catholic peasants who had benefited from de-kulakization.)The national press became interested in the story, which seemed to symbolize the corruption and injustice of communist rule. Media interestin the school led to furtherrevelationsabout malpracticesin the town under J6's management and in I989 the mayor unexpectedly committed suicide, signallingthe 'end of an era, not only in the historyof the smalltown, but also in the historyof a nation thatwas on the brinkof momentouspolitical and social transformation'(p. 3). The book is writtenwithin the Hungarian ethnographic tradition,but as a historical ethnography, not a snapshot of Tiszadomb in the I98os. It was researched from the I970S through to the I9gos, partly as a by-product of Hollos's earlier research into child development in small-town Hungary. (Marida Hollos is an American anthropologist of Hungarian extraction.) Hollos's sourcesinclude interviews,both detailed familyhistoriesrecorded in 1995 and other interviewsin the local...