"When everyone who is in any way connected with your imprisonment--from the supervising procurator through to the censor and the doctor--persists in lying day in, day out, you begin to feel as though you are in some huge lunatic asylum. The only difference is that it is the overseers who are psychopaths, who try to incorporate you into a hideous, contrived reality. Shalin's insistence that we do not exist is a case in point: 'There are no political prisoners in this camp,' he would aver. Yet at the same time, he and all his colleagues invariably referred to us as the 'politicals.' The pots in which our skilly was delivered from the kitchen had the words "Polit. Zone" marked on them with brown paint. And Shalin himself, in an attempt to make us see reason, would say: 'Everyone in the men's political zone wears identity tags, so why can't you!'"
~~ from Grey is the Color of Hope by Irina Ratushinskaya
Alex Kudera’s award-winning novel, Fight for Your Long Day (Atticus Books), was drafted in a walk-in closet during a summer in Seoul, South Korea. Auggie’s Revenge (Beating Windward Press) is his second novel. His numerous short stories include “Frade Killed Ellen” (Dutch Kills Press), “Bombing from Above” (Heavy Feather Review), and “A Thanksgiving” (Eclectica Magazine).
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