A Doubtful Inheritance: A Novel in the Form of an Autobiofiction

"A Doubtful Inheritance"

This novel was part of the work for a  PhD in literature/writing at Swinburne University 2014

About the book:

The book is a novel but written as an 'autobiofiction'. The main character is a child of the Holocaust’s and his story is about his later life and inheritance or lack of it. The backbone of the story a search for missing inheritors of a lot of money, but one ofcourse inherits (or not...) much more than that. The themes are about memory, loss, love, missing people, human nature and its feelings and contradictions. One component is the migrant experience, another that of war and survival. Realtionships and /or the lackl ofthem is what lives are about and good or bad luck is part of all that goes on in lives. The book builds with drama and humor, loss and hope, and how these juxtapose each other.

The novel is multi layered. The reader will be uncertain at times as to who wrote the story, the first person narrator or …? This part of the story structure is revealed at the end of the book. The underlying story action is a bit of a ’whodunit’, and a psychological meander in the lives of two damaged men; very much a search not only for the inheritance of money, but into questioning what each of us do in fact ’inherit’.

The story time line moves, (not in a linear way), between 1944 and the present day.The narrative opens at the Esalen institute of Human relations in California in the seventies, where the main protagonist, Tim, discovers his losses at an encounter group, questioning for the first time his now recovered past and memories. Then we  move to a battle front in 1944, in Siberia, where the German and their allied Hungarian soldiers are retreating from the advancing Russians. The action is about Tim’s father Lajos, a 26 year old Jew used as a ‘work serviceman’ in a war that wants him dead. The story moves to a Gulag in Siberia, and then to Vienna, and Argentina. Lajos, a Jew saves the life of a Nazi soldier. This is a pivotal event for the story and it serves to activate the resolution of the story at the end of the novel.

Chapters cover Tim's memories of a Hungarian childhood, the Stalinist years, and memories of stories heard from his mother. There is insight into Tim, (who may at this point seem like the author of the story). Various events take place in Australia, Budapest, and the USA.  The exploration for ‘present pasts’ gains momentum: it has to facilitate the search for a possible, yet previously unknown inheritance of a large fortune. Stories from the past and from the present interweave, as the novel builds and brings the two together.

 Josef’s life in Budapest is a key element that meets and confronts Tim. Most of the action now takes place in current day Budapest, Australia and Los Angeles. Neither Josef nor Tim is aware that the other even exists at this time. Various new events enter the story, that eventually merge and re- constitute Tim’s and Josef’s lives and attitudes. New actors bring serendipitous events that combine, unite, divide, surprise and progress the speculation about the inheritance that Josef thinks he has found. The inheritance, un-holly ghosts, dark sides of Josef, and Tim’s renewed mind set, all emerge to bring a kind of resolution to the story.

 

 

 

 

Name of author Dr Ted Todd (Tibor Weisz) Title: A Doubtful Inheritance Name of PhD Examiner: Prof. Ann McCulloch (Deakin University) This thesis, consisting of a creative piece (novel) and exegesis, is a substantial and highly successful submission. The Novel 'The inheritance' was a pleasure to read and it was clear that it was one fuelled by research on many levels whether one refers to the content of the plot dealing as it does with large political events since 1939; experiences of adaptation and diaspora for the protagonist, his family and his fellow Hungarians who fled Europe during the 1950s; ... Furthermore the candidate's capacity to draw into the novel knowledge related to psychological movements with a focus on the role of memory, repression and re-engagement with subterranean feelings related to his past was inspiring. What fascinated me during the reading of the novel was the way the writer was able to transport a reader successfully to different places across continents including war zones, prisoner of war camps, European cities set in different times, Argentina and the suburbs of Sydney and Melbourne. Todd's sense of place is incisive; he presents a familiarity with relevant landscape, both urban and rural, from memory, research and from direct experience. ...This is indeed a remarkable accomplishment and is indicative of the research he underwent whilst writing the novel itself. ...I wish to emphasize the quality of research that informs the telling of the story and the sense of place that his many sites within the plot draw on. The structure of the novel was highly successful in engaging a reader. The dramatic movements across time; the use of the multiple narrative points of view, some indeed represented within a single character; the sheer variety of both landscapes and mindscapes determined this as a 'page-turner'. The fact that I read it in one sitting, simply because I could not put it down, is testimony to the writer's success in engaging his reader. This is a rich novel... Title ; A Doubtful Inheritance Name of PhD Examiner: Prof Alistair Fox (Univ.New Zealand) Let me say at the outset that I have a very high admiration for this work, the artifact especially, which by any standards is an excellent piece of work. A Doubtful Inheritance, a novel submitted as the artifact, is an exceptionally fine piece of writing that displays a mastery of mechanisms and strategies used in prose fiction. It weaves together multiple narratives in a complicated time scheme, effectively switching between different periods and characters relating to the main character's autobiography in a way that allows for telling juxtapositions for the sake of comparison and contrast. From the outset, the narrative is invested with suspense that is maintained and intensified right to the end. In terms of style, the author's writing is crisp and economical, with vivid imagery and a sense of immediacy that is highly dramatic. He shows an admirable control of focalization, allowing this to shift in a way that helps to support the characterization. Indeed, the characters are very well realized - not only the main character, Tim, who is given a very convincing psychology, but also minor characters, such as Tim's alcoholic stepfather. Italics are used tellingly to recall reported narratives that are embedded within the main narrative in order to establish a relationship between the past and the present. As well as being highly accomplished, the novel is also a compelling, good read, and I certainly think that it should be published. Indeed, I can imagine that when it is, a filmmaker will quickly snap up the rights to adapt it, because it would also make an equally fascinating movie that would be of interest not only to Australians, as illustrating the processes that have contributed to the experience of immigrants, Very, very good work indeed- superlative, in fact.