From the Razors Edge
()
About this ebook
From the Razors Edge is Part 2 out of five parts on the timeline from 1957-1972. It begins with running away from life in communist Yugoslavia. After crossing the border to Trieste in Italy, I become a refugee detained in the refugee camp of San Sabba. With no time to waste, I escaped from the camp to continue on my dream journey to America. To avoid recapture and extradition back to Yugoslavia from Italy I walked across the north of Italy avoiding urban areas to the French border at Ventimiglia. My illegal entry to France ends in arrest and imprisonment, but it saved my life. After I had been set free, I drifted through France as a refugee, surviving on self-reliance by working part-time as a kitchen hand and whatever odd jobs I could find. Naive in matters of life, guided by my minds course, life challenged my moral and intellectual boundaries. When in Paris at Sorbonne, I soon discovered that the search for knowledge without belonging, freedom, and security was worthless cargo. While drawn into Paris left-bank drive, for a short time I was absorbed in the pursuit of what becomes a baptism of existentialism. When stapled into an emotional relationship, I justified it for the sake of art, discovering my moral and intellectual limitations. Adventure with an African Muslim teenager led me to the discovery of pervasive racism and intolerance. Being an illegal refugee in France without residential permit often resulted in hardship and imprisonment. At a late hour, I was forced to make a choice from being extradited back to Yugoslavia or sign up to French Foreign Legion (FFL). I choose the later. Despatched to Africa, Algiers war of independence in 1959 I soon found myself in strife. Court-marshalled for disobedience they sent me into the military slammer.
French Foreign Legion was a place where I wasn’t meant to be because soon after my arrival in Algiers I was captured by FLN (Front de libération national du Algérie). My lucky escape from capture earned my discharge from FFL and set me free to return to France. That was the beginning of my Antipodean journey.
On the way to Melbourne on 18 November 1960 while ship Roma docked at Western Australian Port of Fremantle a mining company recruiting officer scouting for mining workers made me an offer in the best-paid work in the country. That enticing offer changed my life’s direction. Instead continuing to Melbourne-four days later, I was at work in the infamous Wittenoom Blue Asbestos Mine. After a year, I left Wittenoom and settled in Melbourne, which became my home city of choice. Here I could converse in five different languages without ever crossing the street. It was here where my real story began. My story from the “The Book of Life” became “Australian Quintet” in five parts, written on borrowed time in adopted second language, English.
About the Title of this book.
I owe the title “From the Razors Edge” to one of my favourite authors W Somerset Maugham, who I met in person three times in Nice on the French Riviera in 1959, I describe in Chapter 8. At the time, I didn’t know who he was. After I had told him, I wanted to write but was looking for rules on how to start. He said, “As for rules, there aren’t any.” He added, “You just write.” So I did, leaving it a bit late to come out. Later he kindly gave me a copy of “The Razors Edge” in paperback. But I could not hone my skill to match his craftsmanship. And I am not like Larry Darrell his famous character who after his spiritual odyssey in search for the absolute came out wanting to drive a taxi in New York. My Odyssey was much to do with the quest for the absolute in finding my place in the sun, freedom, and the reason for my being here. I am perhaps lucky having found all these working creatively using my minds tools and life’s oxygen. Forgive me for following Master's advice.
Stjepan D Z Benedict, Melbourne July 2015.
Related to From the Razors Edge
Related ebooks
Solitude: Memories, People, Places Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5LIV Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsQuestions I Am Asked About the Holocaust Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Confessions: A Life of Failed Promises Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5An Adventurer’s Seven Point Guide to Living an Interesting Life Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsStories of Survival Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWill to Freedom: A Perilous Journey Through Fascism and Communism Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBeyond the Palouse Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA World of My Own: A Dream Diary Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Means of Escape: A War Correspondent's Memoir of Life and Death in Afghanistan, the Middle East, and Vietnam Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ernie Pyle in England Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Stories of Survival: The People of Ferramonti: Then and Now Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMental Fight Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAmerican Sketches: Great Leaders, Creative Thinkers, and Heroes of a Hurricane Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5A Traveler at Forty Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAccess All Areas: Selected Writings 1990-2011 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Undefeated Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5An Improbable Life Book I: The Prologue, Dawn, First Travels Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMrs. Falchion, Complete Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEnlightenment Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Hell’S Heaven Is Between My Ears: (Or Heaven’S Hell Is Between My Ears) a Poetic Odyssey Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMrs. Falchion, Volume 1. Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsI Was More American than the Americans: Sylvère Lotringer in Conversation with Donatien Grau Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Lives of Alice Pothron Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOnce Upon A Bridge Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMasquerade: The Incredible True Story of How George Soros' Father Outsmarted the Gestapo Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Medals on My Kitchen Wall Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Promised Land Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Keeper of the Kumm: Ancestral longing and belonging of a Boesmankind Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Personal Memoirs For You
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lost Connections: Uncovering the Real Causes of Depression – and the Unexpected Solutions Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Child Called It: One Child's Courage to Survive Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Glass Castle: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I'm Glad My Mom Died Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Stolen Life: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Diary of a Young Girl Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dry: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: A Therapist, HER Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mediocre Monk: A Stumbling Search for Answers in a Forest Monastery Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Stash: My Life in Hiding Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Just Mercy: a story of justice and redemption Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Choice: Embrace the Possible Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Becoming Free Indeed: My Story of Disentangling Faith from Fear Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Man of Two Faces: A Memoir, A History, A Memorial Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: the heartfelt, funny memoir by a New York Times bestselling therapist Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Pity the Reader: On Writing with Style Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Becoming Sister Wives: The Story of an Unconventional Marriage Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Son of Hamas: A Gripping Account of Terror, Betrayal, Political Intrigue, and Unthinkable Choices Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bad Mormon: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Billion Years: My Escape From a Life in the Highest Ranks of Scientology Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Solutions and Other Problems Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Everything I Know About Love: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to Be Alone: If You Want To, and Even If You Don't Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Seven Pillars of Wisdom: A Triumph Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Down the Rabbit Hole: Curious Adventures and Cautionary Tales of a Former Playboy Bunny Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related categories
Reviews for From the Razors Edge
0 ratings0 reviews