I Kiss Your Hands Many Times: Hearts, Souls, and Wars in Hungary Hardcover – Deckle Edge, August 27, 2013

"I Kiss Your Hands Many Times" is the story told by an ordinary American woman who knew that her family history was extraordinary but who, in researching this book, discovered that it was extraordinary beyond imagination. Not stranger, but more wonderful than fiction is an apt description.Imagine a family whose fortune was on the scale of the Carnegie, Mellon, or Krupp families. Or, in today's measures, a fortune perhaps close to that of the Gates family. Until the 1930s, the family was a pillar of society and strong supporter of their country. Then, the rise of Nazism and ethnic prejudice changed everything. The Gestapo gave them a choice: turn over the family's industrial empire or go to Auschwitz. Even that did not prevent the book's main protagonist from going to Dachau.In the end, a true love survived these trials and flourished in a new land. But the human costs were profound.Read this book for an excellently written family history that tells the story of how a family at the center of what was Europe's largest country (teh Austro-Hungarian Empire) in 1900 became political refugees and migrants by 1950. It reveals a great deal about twentieth century history that rarely meets the eye in a gripping tale of love, dedication, survival and disappointment.

Having recently met the author, I was excited to learn about her family. I had no idea what I was in for! What an amazing journey! The family's story is really, in many ways, a microcosm of the story of Hungary itself. Buffeted between the Nazis and the Russians, the Hungarians suffered miserably despite trying their best to persevere. And, the same goes for the family. From high level positions in industry and government, they lose most everything during WWII. In the immediate aftermath of the war there is a glimmer of hope before the Russians crush it. Marianne takes us through the entire time period with love and honesty. Her writing is beautiful and evokes the era to perfection. I highly recommend this book!

The book ranges over a huge area of historical detail and the sheer commiment of the author commands great respect. It misses by a not very large margin of being a truly great book. Some of the judgements are superficial, or just simply incorrect, rely on a "copy and paste" approach which is in direct opposition to the almost Proustian sensibilities displayed using the language to best effect in themost moving passages. In other places, sadly in many instances the language is used clumsily and some of the translated passages are just not upto thestandard we would be entitled to. Did anybody at all read the book before it went to the printers?The title is needlessly obtuse, the cover completely misleading. The protagonists, or not to mince my words, the heroesfor this who they were would deserve that the book should meet consistently the level of literary art, which at times itdoes meet.This is a book which is highly informative even to those familiar with the events and the people involved, but falls shortin many respects.

Interesting historical memoir. The writer chooses to end the story before 1956, but I wonder why. The protaganist, the writer's father, who was the Hungarian Ambassador to the US before the Communist takeover of Hungary in 1947, worked at Voice of America in the 1950s. While the 1956 Hungarian Revolution is not covered in this book (it is never mentioned), the VOA's Hungarian service had a controversial role in encouraging that revolution, with promises of military assistance that turned out to be false. This had implications far beyond Hungary, it was a major stain on the reputation of the US.What was her father's role at VOA? He could not have been a mere desk clerk. Was her father involved in any of those broadcasts? Was he told things that turned out to be untrue? Does she know what his version of those events was? I'd be interested in hearing her take on his side of that story.

This story is so engaging that you want to know everything little thing about the young lovers' moments getting through their time during the war. Two different families, a crazy political situation, secret operations to somehow force a miracle, all sorts of anxieties of dangerous times are described as if you were there going through it all along with them. Kudos to Marianne Szegedy-Maszak for being able to elicit that through her nicely detailed style.My folks lived through this Holocaust when it arrived in Pest, though not nearly in the society of the author's family. Many Jews did convert to RC Catholic, esp during the war. Many in the city assimilated and had mixed marriages by turn of the 20th century. It was really after all the Hungarian thing to do, anyway. The war changed all that. When people hate religions, all the other religions also get their defenses up, and it makes for very bad times. We are seeing that again now in 2014 all over the world.

Both being a 2nd generation U.S. citizen with Hungarian grandparents, and having visited Hungary in 2000, I was very interested in reading this book. This book has filled in many details for me about Hungarian history and what family members left behind have had to endure through Nazi and Soviet occupation. This account of the author's family and friends during this brief period in Hungarian history was difficult to follow with all the foreign names, the accounts of their whereabouts and their activities, but necessary in this type of historical format. Thus the four star rating. To truly enjoy and appreciate this book I think one would need a committed interest in Hungarian history. It helped me tremendously to follow the story with the geography aspects mentioned in this book, like street names and cities, to have visited Hungary prior to reading this book.

I received the book promtly. I am happy about that. I am not happy with quality of the book. badly cut. It feels like a cheap peper adition. I ordered it for a present not for myself. My friend whom I recommended the book got hers for 12 pounds I paid 17

Magnificent love story in the middle of WWII. No one in today's Twitter world could even conceive of love this profound.

An era I know quite well from stories and other books. The fascinating aspect is the interconnectedness of Hungarians with different religious background. A unique view of a woman who managed to collect reminiscences and put together a story that is descriptive, historically true and well written. An insight we all need.

The author write the true and very sad history of Hungary. The country politicians always bet the wrong horse.

A most fascinating insight into the end of war years in Hungary and the lead up to the Communist take-over. History interwoven with the lives of two families and the coming together of those two families, one Jewish and one Christian. I can heartily recommend it to anyone interested in that era.