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Everything or Nothing: A True Story of Men Against the Cold War River
Sunday, January 04, 2004 4:18:00 PM
by Jozef Imrich
| Memoir |
To protect your rivers, protect your mountains.
-Emperor Yu of China, 1600 BCE
There is No Escape Like Iron Curtain Escape.
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Imagine what it would be like to be a sole survivor of the Iron Curtain Crossing. Unlike myth, history is not tidy, and the wall that became known as the Iron Curtain is complex as any genuine tragedy. Cold River is a chilling image of a totalitarian world without breathing space, where ideology has no outside and even an unborn child is always already a subject.
In Cold River author Jozef Imrich takes us into the torn heart of his country, presenting the Czechoslovak people, their culture, and their terrible history. In the spirit of ’1984,’ Jozef's debut memoirs is a daring escape story told through the medium of the Iron Curtain. Cold River’s magic lies in being able to capture the essence of Bohemian youth mixed with a desire for freedom: its timelessness, the murmurs of the past which persist in the present. Most of all, Cold River is a story of duel. It is a duel between two unequal adversaries: an exceedingly powerful state and insignificant individuals.
This is a true story of three young, High Tatra Mountain, men - Jozef, Ondrej and Milan - and their quest to be free of the system that oppresses them. To gain freedom, Jozef, Milan and Ondrej set into motion a plan to escape across the Iron Curtain to Austria.
Few would dare dream about crossing such a border, unless, of course, you have inside knowledge and contacts. Milan has both. They will have only one chance to disarm the army guards at the gate and drive through an army barracks without alarming others. Their set day is sunny. Not one of them, even for a moment, thinks it might rain. But it does and the swollen river makes it impossible for them to cross, yet it is impossible to go back ...
Ironically, Cold River is several things at once: a tragic memoir of a life under communism; a record of a sole survivor's defiant dedication to becoming a storyteller; and a memorial to his dead 22-year-old sister, Aga; and his drowned 22-year-old friends, Ondrej and Milan. Its singular language blends Slavic mythological rhythms and imagery, stirring kafkaesque catalogs and unadorned observations about life in exile. There is no escape from being defined by what you lack: HOME.
Many of Jozef's stories describe small acts of kindness that carry huge symbolic weight.
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COLD RIVER - A Survivor’s Story: A MEMOIR
By Jozef Imrich with countless soulmates
Publication Date: July 2002
Double Dragon Publishing
eBook Price: $ 5.99
Hardcover Price: $ to be advised on request
Available in: Adobe Acrobat, eBook Reader, Gemstar eBook, Microsoft Reader, Palm Reader.
ISBN: 1-894841-06-9
Any survivor has more to say than all the historians combined about what happened.
-Elie Wiesel
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Amazon.com: Books: Cold River : A Survivor's Story
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