Confess Original Sinner CL

by John Lukacs

Book Overview

In this eloquent and thought-provoking "autohistory," John Lukacs, distinguished historian and writer, describes the history of his own convictions and beliefs. The journey takes us from the Hungary... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0899199569
• ISBN13: 9780899199566
• Release Date: January 1990
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
• Length: 328 Pages
• Weight: 1.31 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Mr Lukacs wears his humanity on his sleeve

I agree with the two reviewers who give the book five stars. In almost every sentence one can feel Mr Lukacs' humanity. Strangely, in my youth, I spent a summer in Norristown, a northwest suburb of Philadelphia, close to where Mr Lukacs lives. I too was struck by the verdant beauty of the countryside of southeast Pennsylvania. It is a mystery that its beauty is not more widely known.

An Original Life

Lukacs gets to you slowly in this marvelous autobiography. It's partly the way he structures his life, and partly his remarkable prose. Structurally, he moves chronologically through his life, but also moves thematically at the same time, coming back around to the same preoccupations again and again but from different angles, foreshadowing what's to come, commenting on his earlier follies and triumphs. And so, slowly, he gnaws away at your preconceptions about history, especially U.S. history. Particularly entertaining are his witty criticisms of U.S. academia, his stinging assessments of Kissinger and Reagan from his perspective as a "reactionary" historian. Direct and simple, never-simplistic, he paints his experience as an exile coming to the U.S. after WWII truthfully, with wit, self-deprecation, and remarkable self-knowledge. There are passages in this book which are remarkably moving. His description of his first wife's illness and death, the slow dissolution of his connections to Hungary, the mother and family he left behind, are restrained, but all the more emotionally compelling because of that restraint. An original thinker, Lukacs never accepts anything at face value. After reading him, your view of 20th Century U.S. and world history will be changed. You may even be tempted to adopt his "reactionary" values.

Thoughtful and Inisghtful View of Life

This is no doubt one the most heartfelt and honest memoirs I have ever read. John Lucaks, teacher and historian, tells us early on of how he escaped from Hungary shortly after World War II. He lived under the Nazi's and then the Communists, despised both, and then made a life for himself in America. Good writing is about good writing. Any subject is interesting when presented the right way and Lucaks goes a long way in presenting his story in a way that is fresh and full of life. He reveals many personal observations and details that leave him bare. He laments the loss of his first mistress (a married Hungarian lady with two children) and keeps her picture still. He describes, in detail, the harrowing illness and death of his first wife and the sadly sweet feelings that her memory still conjure up. He goes a long way in describing why Philadelphia is superior to New York City and why the Pennsylvania countryside is superior to both. But mostly, Lucaks explains why he is a political reactionary, why that distinction is a noble one, and why it suits him so well. Don't construe this to mean that he is a member of the John Birch society or something, his political opinions are really hard to pigeonhole. He is a man of unique perspective, who had a front row seat to the happenings in the Second World War. He saw his people at their best and at their worst. He witnessed people who blew with the wind, and others that stood on conviction. He got a glimpse of what Eastern Europe could have been like if the Americans hadn't left it in the hands of the Russians.The one caveat I have to offer is that this book is not breeze to read. The language is easy enough, but Lucaks insists that you think about his writing, and that takes a little more time than reading the latest popular novel.