Joseph Kutrzeba

The Contract: a Life for a Life Joseph Kutrzeba

We first meet Mark as a member of a teenage resistance movement in the WWII Warsaw Ghetto. Coming from a prominent Polish-Jewish family-his father is a renowned conductor-composer-Mark is barely 15 years old. During one of the numerous razzias, he is packed into a cattle car bound for the Treblinka gas chambers, but he manages a hair-raising jump from the moving train. Following his turbulent and dangerous wonderings, he is sheltered by an idealistic young priest who introduced him to the Catholic vernacular, ostensibly first to help him disguise his true identity. Following many other miraculous escapes, Mark is finally liberated by U. S. troops in Germany. Eventually, weeks after he emigrates to the U. S, he's drafted and ends up in the Korean War's battle zone. On his discharge, Mark graduates from Yale and later from NYU. All the while he's tormented by the gnawing, persistent question: Who am I? Like a modern Peer Gynt, his search takes him to a prominent Catholic bishop and a renowned rabbi who do not satisfy him fully. Enter Karina. She is a beautiful fellow Polish-Jewish survivor and a tough ex-Israeli Army soldier. In the meanwhile, During many encounters-many intimate-Karina entangles Mark in his struggle for his identity. Karina's insatiable sexual appetite alleviates some tensions. During one of their stormy scissions, Karina, also in search for her own future, demands to know what FOR Mark is the purpose of life. "The search for beauty and truth." "Bull shit!" she replies, "it is to make life good for yourself and those dear to you-you're too good for me, for you'll never stop wrestling with yourself. Alright, the priest meant well given his limited village perspective, but he also served you a huge dose of self-hatred-no doubt acquired at his Seminary, where else? As for you, you have repaid Life for Life, Mr. Yale. And you should go on living as YOU see fit-never mind Catholic and Jewish dogmas. You have paid off your Contract. Now