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A STUDENT'S DIARY: Budapest Oct. 16-Nov. 1 by Laszlo Beke

A STUDENT'S DIARY: Budapest Oct. 16-Nov. 1

By

Publisher: Viking

Where Michener (in The-Bridge at Andau) cross sections the various faces of the revolution in Hungary, including the students' spearheading of the whole, this is an expansion, almost moment by moment, of one student's experience as the unrest, dissatisfaction with things as they were, and drive to regain lost liberties disrupted into a more far-reaching sequence of events than dreamed of on the University campus. The student's name is of necessity a pseudonym. He was an art student (and his sketches illustrate his text), and as a leader of the protest groups was instrumental in triggering a revolution that involved the workers, the police, the soldiers and won through to a brief glory of unbelievable success before the juggernaut of the Soviet power throttled the country once again. In his deep emotional division-fearful as he was for his pregnant wife, his family, this brings triumph and tragedy into juxtaposition, and leaves an impress as a moving human document and a first hand record of a glorious interlude in man's struggle for libery. In editing and translating the text, Leon Ko and Ralph Zoltan have preserved that sense of first hand communication.