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in Ukrainian fields and forests in the 1940s and 1950s, but what makes any successful popular insurgency work, whether it takes place in America in 1776 or in troubled parts of the world today. History aside, Roman Mac’s story is also a moving human document. There is tragedy, heartbreak and heroic endurance here, both witnessed and lived. And Roman depicts it all in modest, straightforward style – not only the great struggle that was going on around him, but also the struggle that was going on within himself. We see and feel the rustic joys and travails of village life, the destruction and loss that war, Nazism and Communism bring upon it, and we, too, struggle along the “winding path to freedom” with a young boy who manages to keep his faith, his humanity and – not the least of accomplishments amidst so much suffering and sorrow – his sense of humor through it all. Although I was already familiar with Ukrainian history and, as an aide to Presidents Nixon, Ford and Reagan, was 2 ROMAN D. MAC an eye witness to the last chapters of the Cold War, reading Roman Mac’s story made me understand more fully what that colossal struggle was really like for the ordinary people who bore the brunt of it. His gift of making us see it all as he saw it then, through a young boy’s eyes, brings alive both the brutality of battle and magic, solitary moments in the still forest with only woodland creatures as companions. We feel the pelting snow and piercing cold, we smell the smoke of the campfires, and we hear both the whiz of bullets and the deep, moving chords of the freedom fighters’songs, just as the young Roman Mac did more than half a century ago. Then, with the battle over, we follow a troubled but determined young man on the road to a new life in the west. We share the ups and downs of a new series of trials and tests from which he emerges once again with his humanity – and his humor – intact. By book’s end, we feel as if we’ve walked beside him all the way, and we, too, experience his joy in achieving success, dignity and a happy family life in America. Thank you, Roman Mac, for sharing and showing us so much, and for doing it with such clarity, honesty and goodness of heart.
