Cold War Secrets: Unscrambling the Certain Uncertainties of Family Secrets

COLD WAR SECRETS chronicles growing up in the political and creative hot bed of Greenwich Village in the 40s and 50s. The seriousness and impact of the McCarthy era is fused with humor as Paul encounters the various ironies of the human condition. The author's memoir is a search to discover his parents' well-hidden secrets and learn how they shaped his identity and life perspective. One of Paul's earliest evidences of secrets is the appearance of FBI agents to interview his father. His mother offers reassurance: "They just happened to be in the neighborhood and dropped by." Only late in life, while researching his parents for this memoir does the author uncover the purpose of those visits along with other family secrets and consider the effects on his life. Was his father burdened with shame for possibly being a Soviet asset?Paul connects the journey to discover and make sense of the secrets, to the various rites of passage growing up in Greenwich Village, brimming with artists communists, gangs, and romance.