Crossing the River: A Memoir of the American Left, the Cold War, and Life in East Germany

Crossing the River: A Memoir of the American Left, the Cold War, and Life in East Germany





What could possibly impel a relatively privileged twenty-four-year-old Americanâ€"serving in the U.S. Army in Germany in 1952â€"to swim across the Danube River to what was then referred to as the Soviet Zone? How are we to understand his decision to forsake the land of his birth and build a new life in the still young German Democratic Republic? These are the questions at the core of this memoir by Victor Grossman, who was born Stephen Wechsler but changed his name after defecting to the GDR.

A child of the Depression, Grossman witnessed firsthand the dislocations wrought by the collapse of the U.S. economy during the 1930s. Widespread unemployment and poverty, CIO sit-down strikes, and the fight to save Republican Spain from fascismâ€"all made an indelible impression as he grew up in an environment that nurtured a commitment to left-wing causes. He continued his involvement with communist activities as a student at Harvard in the late 1940s and after graduation, when he took jobs in two factories in Buffalo, New York, and tried to organize their workers.

Fleeing McCarthyite America and potential prosecution, Grossman worked in the GDR with other Western defectors and eventually became, as he notes, the "only person in the world to attend Harvard and Karl Marx universities." Later, he was able to establish himself as a freelance journalist, lecturer, and author. Traveling throughout East Germany, he evaluated the failures as well as the successes of the GDR's "socialist experiment." He also recorded his experiences, observations, and judgments of life in East Berlin after reunification, which failed to bring about the post-Communist paradise so many had expected.

Written with humor as well as candor, "Crossing the River" provides a rare look at the Cold War from the other side of the ideological divide.

Mark Solomon, a distinguished historian of the American left, provides a historical afterword that places Grossman's experiences in a larger Cold War context.









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The Girl Must Die: A Monster Girl Memoir (Another Erika Lopez Thang)

• ISBN13: 9780984401406
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This is for the Real McCoy Monster Girls—not because they WANT to be—but because they need to be. For some it's a calling, their actions directed by an unknown force. For others, it's in their blood. The DNA that has been passed down from The Beginning of Time, back when tiny people lived in transistor radios, vaginas had teeth, and Neanderthal Monster Girls squatted through The First Supper, leading to the tantrums and quiet tensions of post-modern dinner tables of today.

This is for the ones who must white-knuckle it through polite society. We eat sugar-free nothing, for we are sugar: Granular. Unrefined. Evil. There's no "on/off" switch, no safety net, no do-overs or practice throws. You have one chance, and one chance only, like a fearless tightrope walker. One mis-step and you'll plummet into the gorge of mediocrity.

Erika Lopez wrote books like Flaming Iguanas for Simon & Schuster before she hit the skids and ended up on welfare. Some say it’s because she’s mean. Some say it’s because she’s loud. Some say it’s because she told people to get her books at the library. Regardless, she's back and taking her rightful place at the head of the rickety kid's table with the prettiest little brick of a book she’s ever made. Its existence is a metaphor for coming out of hell clutching a handful of flowers. It's about white-knuckling it through a seemingly endless tour of The Abyss, and realizing that whatever doesn't kill you will eventually turn you on.

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