About book Freedom Bridge: A Cold War Thriller (2013)
I downloaded a free copy of Freedom Bridge from Amazon. In exchange, I offer the author this—my fair and honest review.The first time I visited Berlin was in 1973. The Berlin Wall was quite a sight. I recall seeing white crosses and barbed wire, the last signs of some of those souls who had sought and fought for freedom—and lost. It made a strong impression on my young mind. I recall being mesmerized years later, as I watched live television footage of the Wall coming down (in 1989). In 2008, I visited that great city once again—and Berlin is a truly great city. The inner parks are lovely; the ancient feel to some of the streets thought provoking; the grand buildings, exquisite. I picked up a souvenir piece of the Wall during that visit and I keep it as a reminder. . . . I took a detour one day to Potsdam, making my way there by going over the famous Glienicke Bridge, the “Bridge of Spies.” Potsdam, a city that had once been the home of the former Prussian royalty, later taken over by the Soviets, was still in the process of being re-built almost ten years after the Soviets “left” it. I saw some of the most beautiful “houses” ever. In some places one that had been completely restored stood amidst others that still showed the severe neglect and damage that had come with Soviet control. I was pleased to have the opportunity to revisit in my mind, some of these places and things in my read of Freedom Bridge: A Cold War Thriller, by Erika Holzer.In Freedom Bridge, we meet three brothers, all born behind the iron curtain. One makes it out with his mother, when the two are allowed to leave for emergency medical attention for the child during his early years. Though his mother believes she will never see her other two children again, she determines that at least one will live in freedom. Thus, she does not return to the Soviet Union. Rather, she finds a new identity and moves to the U.S. Her son receives the medical treatment he requires, grows and becomes a famous doctor. Back in the Soviet Union, two remaining brothers carry the stigma of a family member who has abandoned their homeland. To compensate, one grows to be a party member, flexing his muscle as and when he might, orchestrating events to maintain control over others. The other shuns the party and grows to become a doctor himself, struggling to keep secret from his power-crazed older brother, his desire to defect. Through a series of unexpected events, the three eventually meet again. While I thoroughly enjoyed the story, I did have one issue that accounts for the missing “star” in my rating and that is that I found it highly unlikely that one brother would look so very much like another that no one (including the man’s wife) would be able to tell the two apart. (I may not have had this problem if the two had been born “identical” twins, but they were not.) Even so, Holzer has provided a fully satisfying mystery/suspense.Freedom Bridge opens with a reminder of some of the results of the ruthlessness of an ideology that will not allow independence of thought and spirit and word. Here lies the danger in collectivism, in statism: the institutionalized force “necessary to implement it.” The experiment in the Soviet Union, Holzer reminds us, left “almost 80 years of power destroyed nations, tens of millions of corpses, and the moribund but never fully discredited killer viruses of collectivism and statism.” All freedom lovers should take note: the very concept of “political correctness” implies that there is only one way to think and to act. Ultimately, it requires force to fully implement that single way. As Friedrich A. von Hayek illustrated in The Road to Serfdom, in the end the price may be more than your freedom and that of your friends, family and neighbors. In the end, the price may be your life itself.
My first reading of this book was in the early '80s, far too long ago to pick out the revisions Ms. Holzer did for this edition, but no matter. "Freedom Bridge" will transport you to the aftermath of the U2 incident in the blink of an eye and make you forget that the Soviet Union is no more. The sense of suffocating totalitarian malice, the sense of urgency in the face of certain death, the suspense of imminent betrayal under the highest of stakes, are as palpable and immediate in this novel as this morning's headlines.Holzer weaves a plot that becomes a kind of literary origami - I won't do spoilers, but suffice it to say that her original title "Double Crossing" is a serious understatement, a play-on-words several times over. As a reader repeatedly disappointed in spy thrillers so complex that they're nearly unreadable, "Freedom Bridge" is a refreshing surprise. Rather than miring the story in a quicksand of frustrating complexity, its multiplying plot convolutions work together so logically that they actually *clarify* rather than muddle. The analogy to an elaborate jigsaw puzzle is perhaps a cliché, but in this case it fits.The characters in this novel could not be more different from one another - in culture, in ethics and in motives - but Holzer draws them together from those disparate points as if by a gargantuan magnet. Ground zero is the Glienecker Bridge between East and West Berlin, and the resulting multi-faction clash is at once understated and explosive. An edgy, brooding atmosphere throughout accelerates with a cinematic flow that makes me think "Freedom Bridge" would make a great movie - provided someone could be found in that industry with the integrity to do it justice. Holzer's exposition of these different personalities, particularly in context of their ethics and moral choices, does positively wonderful things to the integration of plot and theme.That theme, the magnet that pulls everything together in Cold War Berlin, is of course: Freedom.Holzer makes freedom not just "the moral of the story" but the motive that animates the actions - and for some, the transitions - of the characters. For Soviet defector Kiril, it's an overriding passion worth dying for; for American journalist and kindred spirit Adrienne, it's a value fully grasped and vigorously defended; for the Soviet and East German communist operatives, it's a threat to be hated, crushed and, unmistakably, feared - in much the same way that a liar fears the truth; for an underling assigned to spy on Kiril, it becomes an unbearable conflict of allegiances; for a corrupt doctor waffling between the two poles, it becomes an object of disdain to be ignored and betrayed.All of which means that "Freedom Bridge" is a choices-driven morality play that becomes a timely meditation on something too often taken for granted in today's world. If you're looking for a read that's of significantly greater long-term value than passing entertainment, "Freedom Bridge" is an excellent choice.
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as seems to be happening more than I'd like, this was once again an overly LONG book .. I thought I'd never get to the end; in places it was great but too often the plot slowed and got bogged down .. the 2 brothers left in Russia v 1 American brother and 1 Russian brother near the end looked so much alike that they took each others place and fooled many people just by dying their hair -- but previous to that noone seemed to notice the resemblance?!?! a bit farfetched .. but it did give one a feel for what it was like to be "just a 1/2 a bridge length" away from freedom!
—Betsy
The old evil empire raises its ugly head on a down and dirty personal level in this book. Let us just say that the first 100 pages are a slog. The author belabors the anti-Soviet propaganda to the extreme. True, the police state overwhelmed the people and spread its wicked tentacles deep into the hearts and minds of the population, but 20 pages of succinct, dialogue-based expository balanced with some narrative would have been enough.From about 35% into the book, things really picked up. The story wound through a complex series of events (described enough in other reviews) and often surprised and propelled the reader forward. Character development charmed this reader. Real people started to jump off the page more and more as the story unfolded.Give the book a chance. Get past the slow start. Even the slog has its bright side: real experience obviously decorated and built the author's enthusiasm for the subject.
—Michael Gallagher
