AMERICAN HUNGARIAN EXECUTIVE CIRCLE
MEMBER AND AUTHOR COMPLETES TRILOGY
Sándor Alexander Erdélyi, noted freelance writer and author, has three powerful books covering the history of his native Hungary and Canada, where he emigrated and settled. - PEACE, WAR AND THE AFTERMATH is an account of war and communism in Hungary as witnessed by Mr. Erdélyi. - YUKON, LAND OF THE MIDNIGHT SUN, takes the reader through the construction and impact of the Military Highway in Canada, which opened up the Yukon Territory todevelopment. - WALK 20 MILES IN MY MOCASSINS is the author’s most recent work, a collection of essays reflecting his love of history, his worldly experience, and provocative opinions about politics and society.
AHEC is proud of Mr. Erdélyi’s accomplishments in publishing these informative, thoughtful works. Please find them at www.amazon.com or by calling BookSurge Publishing at +1 (866) 308-6235, Ext. 5120.
(Published in the AHEC Summer 2008 Newsletter).
A review from Forbes Book Club.
The book would be an interesting read for those who lived through that sad era and, those who were lucky enough not to be victims of a communist regime, they should read this book to better understand the fight of a nation for its freedom and for its existence.
The author vividly presents life in Hungary, from the turn of the 20th Century, through the effects of WWI, the depression during the early thirties, WWII and the subsequent Soviet occupation and communist oppression of Hungary. The book ends with the failed 1956 October revolution and the exodus of two-hundred thousand young Hungarians to the West that followed. On October 23, 2006, the world will remember the heroism and the sacrifices of the rebelling students and workers, who gave their lives in want of freedom for the Hungarian people.
A reviewer, 11/23/2005 Customer
A fascinating read for anyone with a connection to that little known period of history. A must for children of immigrants who fled that terrible time. This is what the older generation was talking about when you were younger, but refused to give you many details. This will answer many questions never asked.
A reviewer, 11/16/2005 Customer
In search of freedom.
I enjoyed reading Peace War and the Aftermath. It is not only because I could readily relate to the events described in the book, myself having lived through WWII, the siege of Budapest and the communist oppression that followed, but because of the way the author vividly presents life in Hungary before, during and after WWII. A nation of 10 million lived through the horrors of war and endured the communist oppression thereafter. It is unfortunate indeed that Hungary and its people are still poorly understood in English speaking countries. The book is a highly recommended read, especially before the 50th anniversary of the 1956 rebellion against the Soviet occupation, to be commemorated in October 2006.
A reviewer, an avid reader of history books, 11/09/2005 Customer
The Red Army in Hungary.
In the Soviet Union, History books described the Red Army's actions in Hungary during the 1956 October revolution as if those were requested by the Hungarian Government. PEACE, WAR AND THE AFTERMATH throws a very different light on those events.
Leslie T. Eloed "Előd László" RSS Feed (California, USA) - on Amazon.com - December 8, 2006
The "Aftermath" of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution...,
"YUKON, Land of the Midnight Sun" is a welcome new book that arrived on the horizon.
A Hungarian Freedom Fighter -- Alexander in the 1956 Hungarian Revolution and Freedom Fight -- escaped with his family from the Communist tyranny and its retributions after the Russians, with the support of thousands of tanks re-occupied Hungary on one of Hungarian history's saddest days, starting November 4, 1956. The Erdélyi family wanted to get as far away from that dark hole of Communism as they could. They waited in Vienna, and due to limited admissions to the United States at the time, they decided to emigrate to Canada.
The book is a fast-paced account of taking a foothold in Canada, the hardships they endured in the Yukon Territory. It was no dreamland, it was not a land of honey and butter where you just had to reach down to the sidewalk and pick up the nuggets of gold. While they grew up in the harsh weather conditions in Hungary, nothing could have prepared them for the 'Land of the Midnight Sun', its arctic conditions most of the year. Having been fortunate enough to land in California, I can only shudder at the thought of what they had to endure. Reading the book, I was shivering. His description of life there was almost a live personal experience for me.
He accounts for the hardest first ten years in Canada. Throughout the book, you can feel however, he loves his adopted new Homeland.
I live in the United States, and have not heard or read much of the experiences Hungarian refugees had in Canada.
This book is definitely a "must read" for all of those, who care about social conditions, history and freedom.
This is Alexander Erdélyi's second book, after "Peace, War and the Aftermath." While his first book is about his coming of age, the second book reflects a far more mature person's outlook on the world in the 'Aftermath'.
I feel, I must mention two items in the book.
One is a typing error, on page 153, the first sentence in the second paragraph: 'By January, 1956,' should read: 'By January, 1966,'.
The second item is a little more difficult to explain. It is a question, of historical facts, which without further explanation may be misunderstood.
While the Erdélyi family was waiting in Vienna, in January 1957, rumor was that the US will not allow entry above the open annual quota. Unaware of the later changes, Alexander draws the mistaken conclusion, that this remained so, and refers to 20% of Hungarian refugees accepted by Canada, 2% by the United States, and the rest, almost 80% by the rest of the world. The reality however, is different. The US allowed approximately 5,000 refugees with a permanent residency status, that is 'Green Card', and an additional at least 30,000 refugees, myself among them, with a temporary status, a 'White Card'. Thereafter, approximately during 1959 the US Congress passed new legislation to allow political refugees into the US as permanent residents regardless of any quotas. This "political refugee law" is still the basis of political asylum being granted by the US. So in fact, the total number of Hungarian refugees who settled in the United States is quite close to those settled in Canada. Too bad, he did not make this clarification in the book. To be sure, until I read this book, I had no idea, how many Hungarians emigrated to Canada.
In an overall rating on a scale of 1 to 10, based on the presentation, readability and content, I would judge this book as a "must read" ten.
Sandy Antal, Newmarket, Ontario – April 5, 2007
Hungarians have a cautionary saying roughly equivalent to “the luck of the Irish.” It translates as ‘You will know the God of the Hungarians!” Sándor Alexander Erdélyi articulates its validity in Yukon, the second book of his trilogy.
Leaving his homeland after the Soviet invasion of 1956, he immigrated to Canada with a pregnant wife and little more than the proverbial clothes on their backs. He was among 200,000 who despaired of life improving under the communist system and risked all for an uncertain future abroad. Of these, almost 40,000 settled in Canada, making for the largest immigration spike in Canadian history. Most of them adapted to their new country but that adaptation was hardly easy. It was the road of struggle borne by hope.
As a twenty-two year-old, Erdélyi rolled with the punches to establish a life for himself and his family on that most remote Canadian frontier, the Yukon. Erdelyi recounts his new experiences with language, customs and the challenges associated with eking out a living to support a young family with scant means. He details his encounters with wolves, deer flies, colorful characters and bureaucracies in a light-hearted manner, even when the circumstances were not so amusing at the time. He did all this in sub-freezing temperatures while learning a new language and several new trades. But through it all, he often paused to admire the majesty of the great north and its wildlife. Likewise, although he looked back, it was not with remorse.
Erdélyi overcame all obstacles to become proudly Canadian but he never forgot his origins. Flashbacks of his homeland crop up often in his writing, reminders of the bitter-sweet sensations in having to leave it so that he could raise his family with dignity and freedom. His book is testimony to the triumph of the human spirit coming from a people whose history makes them no strangers to adversity.
One will find occasional lapses in English usage. For example, Erdályi writes “plain” to mean “plane.” But such flaws do not detract from the overall meaning or value of the book. On the contrary, they are reminders of the long road people like Erdélyi have come to be able to write it.
With the 50th anniversary of the Hungarian Revolution, Sándor Erdélyi’s book is a timely reminder of the injustice to which many ordinary people have been subjected amid big-power geopolitics, a timeless theme in human history. But as his experience shows, little people will always survive adversity and emerge with their sense of humanity intact. Yukon is a worthwhile read!
I read S. A. Erdelyi’s latest book: WALK 20 MILES IN MY MOCCASISN with pleasure. Being an emigrant of his generation, the book also reflects my own thoughts; those being a retrospect of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, against Soviet occupation and communist rule. Every Hungarian, men and women, who survived the revolution, should justifiably be proud of the fact that the sacrifices of a small, freedom-loving people were the first one to put a crack in the structure of the Soviet –Evil– Empire, which led to its destruction 35-years later.
In the book’s second part, the author criticizes the faults of the Western democracies. Some of those faults might be correctable, whereas others are not.
In the Eastern European countries, during the era of totalitarian dictatorships, the “Free world of the West” was very much idealized. However, after emigration to one those countries, some people might have been disappointed in what they found. Yet, according to the author, Western-style democracy is still the best of all the existing forms of government!
Whereas it is possible that there will be some who will not agree completely with the author, no one can deny that the book is mercurial and that it compels the reader to think.
From AMAZON.com
Reading Erdelyi's intriguing essays reminded me of the 17th Century French philosopher and mathematician, René Descartes, who once stated: Je pense, donc je suis (I think, therefore I am). He is a thinking and a courageous man. His essays in WALK 20 MILES IN MY MOCCASINS are certainly thought-provoking! It is a very interesting read. I recommend it and give it five stars!
