Millie by Peter Hargatai

PETER HARGITAI’s Millie is a novel that touches the heart. When I first read it I wasnt too sure of the novel that laid ahead of me, but was pleasantly suprised.
In a story of the quintessential American dream, immigration, Hargitai tells the story of the coming-of-age of Art Nagy, a young Hungarian who arrives in America after the 1956 Hungarian Revolution against Soviet-Communist occupation. Art struggles to make sense of life not only as an adolescent but also within his family who insist on transplanting many of their customs and much of their thinking from their country of origin, including less than attractive ideas about race and class. Art’s likes and dislikes and the friends he chooses bring the family to clash over values and beliefs, and culminate in tragedy when he falls in love with a girl from a different background. His deep love for Millie pits him against everything his family believes in…. And the final pages of the novel reveal acts of horror in his family’s past and explain much of what Art Nagy was up against.
Every page keeps the reader fascinated, unable to put it down until the very end. Millie was truly a book in of itself about pushing limits in every sense. Hargatai's strong sense of lack of thought for the common norm. kept me thinking. His raw and real approach to racism and sex is truly unmatched by any other author. It made me want to read again and again. Millie, was and is by far, one of Hargatai's best compilations.