Connect
Sponsors
Currently Reading
My first romance novel!Terms
The Book Lady's Blog is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Reviews and articles posted here are property of The Book Lady's Blog and are not to be posted elsewhere without permission. Please contact me if you wish to post any of my work, or any excerpt thereof, in any other location or format.
Books and Blogs
Miscellaneous
Technical Stuff
Design Credits
Oct
20
Book Review: Vera and the Ambassador by Vera and Donald Blinken
2009 at 3pm Posted by Rebecca Joines Schinsky
Published February 2009 by SUNY Press
In 1950, when Vera Blinken was just eleven years old, she and her mother fled Communist Hungary and began a new life in the United States. Determined to fit in, Vera set out to become “200 percent American and forget everything Hungarian,” and she did a pretty thorough job. After graduating from Vassar College with a degree in art history, Vera worked for prominent corporations and eventually began her own interior design business. She was living the American dream, and it didn’t seem like life could get any better.
Then she met Donald Blinken, and it did just that.
After a romantic courtship and a few decades of marriage, the Blinkens found themselves members of an elite circle of New York society and in a position to begin thinking about how they could give back to their country. After backing Bill Clinton’s presidential campaign early and with strong support, the Blinkens, considering Vera’s background and Donald’s business savvy, decided to pursue an ambassadorial appointment to Hungary. In March, 1994, their dream came true as they arrived in Budapest, more than forty years after Vera’s escape.
Vera and the Ambassador: Escape and Return is the Blinkens’ memoir of their time in Hungary. Taking turns with the narration, Vera and Donald provide a behind-the-scenes look at the nitty gritty details that go into making an international embassy function. Vera’s sections focus on her experiences with entertaining and social protocol, updating the embassy and ambassador’s residence, and re-educating the staff to help them adapt to post-Communist customs, while Donald’s chapters emphasize day-to-day operations, the big picture, and the work he did to “help Hungary grow its economy while solidifying its democratic institutions.”
As they recount their time in Hungary, the Blinkens do a very nice job of explaining the history and meaning of seemingly arcane traditions (such as rules governing who sits next to whom at diplomatic dinners) and illustrating the stark contrasts between life in the U.S. and Hungary. Vera’s ability to understand and communicate with the Hungarian people made her an invaluable partner for Donald and enabled the couple to work with the local people, for whom “the sudden transition to democracy and freedom of speech was arduous,” with a pace and style that met their needs. The Blinkens’ also share several humorous stories about social and intercultural mishaps, one of which caused Vera to reflect that “chatting casually at a diplomatic dinner was out of the question.”
I had high hopes for Vera and the Ambassador but ended up feeling somewhat disappointed by it. The stories that Vera and Donald share and the insight they provide into ambassadorial life and international relations are very interesting, but they seem disorganized and lacking in flow. The story is not told linearly—at least, not entirely so—and it seems to jump from one anecdote to another without any real guiding principle. This story-to-story design works well in conversation or at a dinner party, but over a 300-page book, it becomes a bit difficult to make sense of. Several themes emerge throughout the memoir—traditions, protocol, updates and improvements, post-Communist diplomacy, VIP visits—that would lend themselves nicely to chapter headings, and that would go a long way into making this memoir more reader-friendly.
Regardless of the problems with flow, Vera and the Ambassador is an interesting book. However, as interesting as it is, it is not a compelling read, and I hard a hard time with that. I never really felt connected to Vera and Donald, and I often found myself thinking “Okay, that’s a good story….but why do I care?” The book is rather lacking in emotion, with the exception of Vera’s reflections on her childhood and Hungarian history, which I found incredibly moving. Despite her determination to bury her past, Vera finds herself forced to face her history:
Unexpected sights and sounds caused deeply buried recollections to surface. It became impossible to deny any longer that in my effort to become 200 percent American, I had erected an “iron curtain” in my mind.
Realizations like this one and Vera’s personal story were, for me, the heart of this book and the pieces that made reading through the dry parts worth it. Had the Blinkens made the details of their ambassadorial experiences more peripheral and put the central focus on Vera’s “escape and return,” I would have flown—rather than plodded—through Vera and the Ambassador. Several pages of full-color photographs do help bring the story to life, and I would still recommend this book to readers interested in history and the transition from Communism to democracy in eastern Europe. Vera and the Ambassador wasn’t quite what I expected, but I did learn quite a bit and am ultimately glad to have read it. 3 out of 5.
[...] Book Review: Vera and the Ambassador by Vera and Donald Blinken [...]
I don’t usually read a lot of nonfiction, but this sounds so interesting and promising that I think I might pick it up.
Thanks, Book Lady!
Hmmm, I’m not sure I care about who sits where at state dinners and why. But if it was a travel memoir, then I’d be all over it.
That sounds like a shame … the premise sounds really fascinating (I’ve never seen a “behind the scenes” as a diplomat book) but it seems like it needs a better editor or something. Too bad.
I have this book stands on a shelf at home
Hm, if it were better organized I might pick it up JUST for Vera’s reflections on her childhood, but as it is I think I’ll pass.
Kim at Sophisticated Dorkiness mentions similar disappointment. That’s too bad.
I just read another review that said exactly the same thing; this book is structurally unwieldy. Disappointing because I think it could have been really interesting.
hm. The other review of this I read was largely against the book. I think I will have to read a couple others before making a decision. Right now I still think I will pass.
I like your review a lot, it says a lot of the things I was thinking. I wanted to like the book, but I found the lack of structure so frustrating that it made the book drag. It was really hard to get into the storylines when they didn’t connect with each other in a way that made sense to me. It was interesting, but not especially compelling (I like that distinction).
[...] Reviews: The Book Lady’s Blog — (Rebecca’s review is more positive than mine, so please go check it out for a second [...]
Thanks! I agreed with many of the things you said as well. I didn’t love the book, but I have certainly read much worse, which explains the middling rating. I really liked the way you pointed out how dry/clinical many of their discussions were. I mean, you just KNOW that some of these things were complex and stressful and embarrassing and funny, but it just never comes out that way.
When I was reading your description of the book, I was thinking, this one sounds so good. It’s too bad that the authors didn’t quite pull it off – it sounds like there was so much potential there.
[...] Reviewed Vera and the Ambassador The Good Good Pig Manhood for Amateurs The Lost Symbol Waiting for [...]
I just prepped my review for this tonight, and came across your review when I was looking for a link to the book’s website.
I’m very impressed that you could figure out that Vera was 11 when they escaped! I had all kinds of math equations (year she graduated Vassar, working backwards), but I couldn’t confirm her age …. I got a bit obsessive about looking for clues!
I agree with your assessment that the book doesn’t have a good flow, but I am recommending it for content (having warned people about style); I found the history to be fascinating (political and personal)