Eastploitation
May 19th, 2009 at 19:59Those of you who read German I urge to read this book: Martin Leidenfrost: Die Tote im Fluss (The Dead in the River).
A careful and highly sensitive report on the atrocities caused by Western European eastploitation; an admirable gesture of compassion and responsibility.
A Slovakian caregiver’s death and a story about the new Europe and its old borders.
The last time Denisa Soltísová was seen alive, she was wandering around in an Austrian city; it was January the 19th 2008, at night , only wearing underwear.
Days after this incident she was found – dead and naked. The 29-year-old woman was a college graduate, Slovak, and worked round-the-clock as a caregiver.
The police closed the case: “Suicide”.
Yet the autopsy, performed in Slovakia, showed traces of violence.
(from the publisher’s website)
The Dead In the River is the opposite of a cool, detached report of a crime.
Even before I start reading the first page, Leidenfrost confronts me with my own ignorance & indifference . I realize I have no idea how to pronounce Denisa’s last name: Soltisova. The software on my computer doesn’t even allow me to spell it right!
I am able to say the most difficult Italian, French, Spanish and Russian names, but I have no idea how to pronounce the names of those who in in this country take care for the sick & and the elderly. They ought not to be strangers. Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia, is less than a 45 minutes drive from Vienna (where I am right now).
Here is where xenophobia begins: in language.
What’s in a name? A history; recognition.
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author’s website: http://www.leidenfrost.net
Posted: May 19th, 2009
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