~Does the Past Foreshadow the Future? ~

The choice to remember, and why and how to remember are explored in the memoir Where Angels Lived by Margaret McMullen as she discovers her lost Jewish relatives in Hungary.  The family’s traits, both physical and behavioral, become evidence linking the past to the present. The historical past is made more whole as the future is spotlighted.  Unfortunately. the past in this case does not bode well for the future.

         Starting with a chance visit to a museum, the author embarks on a quest to honor a forgotten relative who died during the Holocaust in Hungary in 1944.  In the process, Margaret McMullen unearths truths that are foundational as to why her mother denied her Jewish roots and lived with secrets that hardened her to life while she assimilated as a Christian in America.

         An integral theme of this book is the manipulated fear of the other.  Parallels are drawn between the author’s experience living in the legacy of racism in Mississippi and her Jewish kin living in pre-Hitler, anti-Semitic Hungary.  The past is used to foreshadow the future as analogies are drawn between actions taken against political dissidents, homosexuals, the Roma, and the Jews taken during pre-WW II by the Nazis and their Hungarian collaborators to the more recent actions taken by President Trump and President Orban of Hungary. These actions trumpet nationalism and advocate for a narrow view of who deserves freedom.

         The book is not an easy read due to the atrocities that are described, but a worthwhile one.  Its vivid sensory, culinary and historical detail propel the reader along quickly.  The emotional transformation of the author from anger to understanding and eventually, the acceptance of her mother as well, gives substance to the value of truth and compassion. You will emerge from reading this memoir with a greater understanding of the destructive power of hate.

Where the Angels Lived by Margaret McMullen

Historical, authentic and family-oriented, Where the Angels Lived tells the tale of a somewhat parallel universe that exists even in the 21st century—dealings with Soviet-style bureaucracy; skepticism; anti-Semitism; and ironically the same sort of isolation and rejection Margaret’s Jewish Hungarian family experienced in 1944 before they were forced into concentration camps. Straddling memoir and reportage, past and present, this story reminds us all that we can escape a country, but we can never escape history.

About Margaret McMullen