“I embarked on the pursuit of harvesting my neighbors’
memories without knowing what, if anything, would come out of it. And here it is: an account of the long, straggly, painful trek of escapees, survivors, refugees, who wandered from Czechoslovakia, Poland, Ukraine, Yugoslavia, Hungary, France, Latvia, Libya, to make their home in our small neighborhood by the sea. The stories collected do not twine into a dramatic theme, and yet there is a thread: myself, living as I do in close walking distance of such legends”. V. Arnon.
(from the back cover of Across the Street and Far Away)
In its own way Across the Street is a history book, one concerned not with the grand actions of nations or the deeds of great men, but with the small-scale heroism required of ordinary people slammed about by momentous events.. . Arnon lets her subjects do the talking, the stories are told as monologues, with only short, personal comments at the end of each chapter and a preface by the author. But her talents as an interviewer are apparent throughout the book