2020 IPPY Awards: Gold in Memoir “[A] story of the visionary upheavals of the 20th century. . . . An immersive and well-told account of a father and his legacy.” —Kirkus Reviews "A moving and insightful portrait of a brilliant architect and engineer by his son, a seasoned documentary filmmaker. Paul Weidlinger's trajectory from Hungary through Western Europe and South America to the United States parallels the migration of some of the leading artists and architects of the 20th century. A colleague of Le Corbusier, Breuer, Moholy-Nagy, Kepes, Noguchi, and Dubuffet, Weidlinger made his contribution as a structural engineer who realized buildings, dams, and sculptures on three continents. This is a biography of a unique visionary who helped create the architecture that defines our times. It is also the saga of a family riven by madness—a compelling read. " —Steven Kovacs, Professor of Cinema, San Francisco State University, author of From Enchantment to Rage: The Story of Surrealist Cinema “Weidlinger’s story of his father’s incredible life is both emotionally and intellectually satisfying. Historically pertinent and deeply personal, it is told with searing candor. It is poignant, tragic, and wise.” —Kati Marton, author of The Great Escape, Wallenberg: The Incredible True Story of the Man Who Saved the Jews of Budapest and True Believer: Stalin's Last American Spy “There is a cinematic sweep in the way Weidlinger brings alive the story—and secrets—of his remarkable father.” —Adam Hochschild, author of King Leopold’s Ghost, Bury the Chains, and To End All Wars “A tender and deeply moving memoir, The Restless Hungarian explores the complicated and, at times, mysterious narratives of Paul Weidlinger’s life as they intersect with the currents of twentieth-century history. Engrossing, affecting, and beautifully written, the book offers important insights into the complexities of memory, Jewish identity, loss, intergenerational trauma, and—most essentially—family, that most luminous structure composed of both pain and love. “ —Nina Pick, Fellow, Yiddish Book Center’s Oral History Project “In excavating the mysterious background of his titanic father, Weidlinger deploys the kind of compressed storytelling he has honed as a documentary filmmaker: deftly intercutting between past and present, revealing tantalizing clues that he follows across continents and epochs, and providing lively context that enriches his family’s saga. It’s a deeply affecting journey.” —Peter L. Stein, executive director (emeritus), San Francisco Jewish Film Festival “With a son's longing and a historian's drive, Tom Weidlinger has written an intensely personal book on the shaky radius of genius. Having come of age at “a time of manifestos” in Europe, structural engineer Paul Weidlinger fled the impending Holocaust and made brilliant contributions to twentieth-century architecture — only to watch a new generation of family ties fray and break in the United States. Weaving intellectual biography with warm, searching memoir, his son's reckoning is both an important document and an unforgettable read.” —Christine Cipriani, coauthor of Cape Cod Modern: Midcentury Architecture and Community on the Outer Cape and author of the forthcoming Ada Louise Huxtable “Paul Weidlinger led an extraordinary life. Sleeping under bridges in Paris, escaping Nazi-occupied Europe for the mountains and jungles of Bolivia, he made and lost a fortune during World War II. Coming to the United States, he collaborated with the world’s greatest architects and did top-secret work for the government. This story is compellingly told by Weidlinger’s son, who combines a historian’s grasp of the big picture with a storyteller’s craft, honed over thirty years as a documentary filmmaker. To gain an understanding of what immigrants can bring to our country, this book is a must-read.” —Barry Vogel, Creator and Host of Radio Curious Praise for A Dream in Hanoi:
“A tremendously moving record of the first collaboration between theater companies from both countries...lovingly crafted.” —Ken Eisner, VARIETY
Praise for Swim For the River:
“Weidlinger's riveting film recounts Swain's swim . . . and the stories of the communities that have mobilized to reclaim the river from its polluters." —Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
"In excavating the mysterious background of his titanic father, Weidlinger deploys the kind of compressed storytelling he has honed as a documentary filmmaker: deftly intercutting between past and present, revealing tantalizing clues that he follows across continents and epochs, and providing lively context that enriches his family’s saga. It’s a deeply affecting journey." —Peter L. Stein, Executive Director (emeritus), San Francisco Jewish Film Festival
“A tale of triumph against all odds. . . a worthy tribute to an exceptional human being who advanced the world through architecture.” —San Francisco Book Review, 5/5 stars
“The Restless Hungarian is a touching discovery of buried family history. The engaging journey, which seeks out the dormant past, is harrowing and revealing. . . . This is a biography-history book that readers will find entrancing.” —Manhattan Book Review, 5/5 stars
“In a measured tone that is at the same time compassionate and dramatic, Tom Weidlinger has reconstructed the life of the complex man who was his father, who succeeded against all odds in his career, but had much less success in his family life . . . In uncovering the secrets his father kept buried, Tom Weidlinger has found the understanding he sought and given readers a portrait of a remarkable man.” —The Jewish Book Council “The Restless Hungarian is a warm, heartfelt family memoir revolving around complicated relationships defined by world events.” —Foreword Reviews
2019-01-17
In this debut book, a writer shares the story of his father, an innovative structural engineer.
Weidlinger remembers his father, the Hungarian-born Paul, as full of amazing tales: of being arrested and sentenced to death at the age of 18; of becoming an apprentice of Bauhaus professor László Moholy-Nagy and pioneering modernist architect Le Corbusier; of striving to "protect the world" from a nuclear war. Even so, there was much mystery surrounding Paul, who spoke seven languages and had worked on three continents. For example, Weidlinger did not discover that his father was Jewish until he was an adult and found Paul's will (in which, it so happens, the author was not mentioned). It wasn't until Paul died in 1999 and Weidlinger inherited a box of his papers that he was finally able to dig deeper into the life of the man. "It was clear that it was in those documents," writes the author in his introduction, "in the languages I could not understand, that I would most likely find the evidence to prove or disprove his fantastic tales." A portrait emerges of a Holocaust survivor who, through a series of remarkable encounters, was able to collaborate with some of the greatest artists of the 20th century and help change the way that people thought about architectural design. It is also the story of a man surrounded by tragedy, from the deaths of family members in World War II to the institutionalization of his wife for paranoid schizophrenia. Weidlinger writes with energy and compassion, even about topics that are understandably close to him, as here, when he discusses his father's influence on his mother's breakdown: "There are too many unknown factors and, if he did drive her mad, he did not do it with intent but rather with his own fear of her despair at seeing the ‘sharpest relations of things,' things that were too dark for open conversation." The book, which features family and architectural photographs, relates a captivating tale, with Paul simultaneously an archetypical European genius and a highly idiosyncratic figure. Fans of architecture will be particularly intrigued, but it is more broadly a story of the visionary upheavals of the 20th century.
An immersive and well-told account of a father and his legacy.
