Strictly from Hungary

Noting that Hungary has produced some of the world’s most renowned artists, scientists, and financiers as well as its share of world-class con-artists, charlatans, and rakes, Farago sets out to explain just how one tiny country can be responsible for so much talent, both good and bad. Using stories from his days as a struggling writer in the bustling cafe scenes of Budapest and New York City, Farago demonstrates the Hungarian knack for remaining irrepressible and optimistic even in the face of catastrophe. Here we meet Zoltan, a fellow Bohemian who presents his astonished benefactor with a play about nothing, a theme later made famous by another writer of Hungarian descent, Jerry Seinfeld. Farago also introduces us to Baby Kiss, a vivacious Hungarian beauty queen, and the story of how she ended up in Fort Worth, Texas: Orkeny, a double agent for America at the height of the Cold War who spiced up his reports to keep everyone happy, and the author’s own experience getting mustered into the supposedly non-existent Royal Hungarian Army.