This book's contents is a lot more solid and a lot less presumptious than its title. The author, thankfully, does not pretend to "understand modern Hungary" through the lives of three families. She does, however, do a good job in exploring the social and, to an extent, economic history of a small town in the Great Hungarian Plains. A reader's interest and curiosity are nicely piqued by installments of family histories -- marriages, children, house building -- which successfully sustained me through tables of income statistics and descriptions of numerous land reforms. I would have wished to see more clear differentiation between author's comments and the views expressed by her interview subjects. As it is, I was occasionally frustrated by being unable to tell the difference, and feeling deprived of a clear insight into the families' views and perceptions.
The book is written in a strongly narrative style, steady-paced and slightly boring in the middle sections, but picking up speed and vibrancy as the author moves into the events of the 1980s. All in all, it is a solid work, and I would recommend it to anyone with an interest in social history, particularly of Eastern Europe.