Synopsis and Review of Liberty's Quest
Liberty's Quest is the amazing memoir of Liberty Kovacs. Her family roots go back to the Dodecanese Islands in the Aegean Sea of Greece. The book is divided into three parts. Part I includes her early family life which was centered on the customs and beliefs of the Greek Orthodox Church, Liberty tells of her paternal and maternal roots, their marriage, her birth, and her siblings. She relates stories of family feuds, memories of school, her love for reading
and of the impact of WWII on her family.
Part two covers her marriage and the ensuing years as the wife of Poetry Pulitzer Prize winner, James Wright. She brilliantly describes her multi-faceted education in nursing, Jim's family background, his teaching job in Texas, and of their sojourn in Philadelphia. Jim then enrolled for a year at the University of Vienna. With amazing insight and openness Liberty describes the
psychological difficulties of their marriage. While in Vienna their first son Franz was born. (Franz also became the winner of the Poetry Pulitzer Prize).
As a result of a contact with a friend in Vienna Jim enrolled in the graduate program in English at the University of Washington in Seattle. Jim excelled in his studies. Liberty found solace in her work. Jobs in Minneapolis and a new son, Marshall did not eliminate the alienation of a broken relationship doomed from the beginning.
Part III tells of Liberty's from Minnesota to California and of how she created a whole new world for herself and her two sons. In her job in San Francisco she was given advanced training ford' medical, public health and psychiatric nursing. In 1965 Liberty married Miklos M. Kovacs. Liberty gave birth to her third son, Michael Kovacs in 1966. The intervening years tell of more
unhappiness and despair. I found Kovac's attention to detail in the historical and cultural perspectives of her family both interesting and engaging. Her insights into relationships and the psychological needs of the individual are profound. Her writing is strong, open, and well organized.
Liberty's Quest is an inspiration, courageous and triumphant in spite of unhappiness and despair. An amazing epic of a person's search for personal freedom.
- Richard R. Blake
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