Characters who leap off a page

By ROD WISE

Have you ever wanted to meet your favourite character from a much-loved book? Like Holden Caulfield from The Catcher in the Rye? Or Alex DeLarge from A Clockwork Orange? Well, perhaps not Alex.

Anyway, you can have the next best thing at Dapto’s Ribbonwood Centre next Monday, September 1, from 11.00am to 2.00pm. There you will meet a veritable library of 16 characters from their own “Living Books”, each with a title, and each with their own story to tell.

For example, a gay man is the author and main character of his own book entitled Sticks and Stones, an Italian migrant is similarly the creative sweat behind and in Wellbeing in the Illawara, and An Enlightened Life is the story of what it’s like to be a vision-impaired person utterly dependent on a guide dog.

Community Harmony Project Officer Tracey Needham of Wollongong City Council, which is running the Dapto event, said that the Living Library “opens people’s minds to a much wider community beyond their familiar circles of reference by giving people the chance to discuss issues face to face with the individual ‘book’.”

One of the “books” is Hans whose title is One Man in his Time. It was certainly a time for Hans who grew to adolescence in the then German province of Silesia, joining the Waffen SS at 18 in 1944 and serving out the war in controversial company.

He was one of those Germans who infiltrated Allied lines in American uniforms during the Battle of the Bulge to sow confusion, an act certain to have brought him to a firing squad as a spy if caught. And his commanding officer, with whom he was once photographed, was Hitler’s favourite commando, Otto Skorzeny, who engineered the kidnapping of Benito Mussolini from anti-Fascist custody in Italy.

After periods in prisoner of war camps and a US Army jail, he migrated to Australia in 1959. From then he was, successively, a steelworker at Port Kembla, a librarian and a welfare worker.

In his time, he was also a union delegate and a peace activist. His wife is Jewish, clearly making him a man who has escaped “his time”.

And what does he think of being a Living Book? “I am so excited to tell my story to young people,” he said.

The idea of the Living Library is Danish in origin and grew out of a concern about the chauvinism set off by the arrival of refugees. It was to facilitate the human connection beneath the cultural stereotypes.

“ ‘Living Books’ are people from the community who have volunteered to share their stories,” Ms Needham said. “The program is all about breaking down prejudice and overcoming barriers. There has not been the slightest hint of keyhole peeping into other people’s troubles.

“Some people, especially if from a quite different background, may be hesitant to ‘borrow’ a particular book. But after the initial reluctance, the result has been inspiring.”

The “books” are available to be “borrowed” at the Ribbonwood Centre next Monday. To reserve a 30-minute session with a favourite character, phone Tracey Needham on 4227 7158.