Twists and Turns There Once Was a Dream

Claire LeBrint Metzger is a real person and also the fictional narrator of Twists and Turns an

imagined memoir based on Claire's life. Fictional Claire writes her memoir in 1994 at the age of

80. The historical backdrop for her life story includes major twentieth century events: The

Depression, World War II, the Holocaust and the growth of Communism. Claire was born in

Chicago in 1914 to Jewish immigrant parents who wanted their daughters to marry Nice Jewish

Men, settle down, and have children. Claire wanted different. She wanted romance but not

necessarily marriage. She wrote poetry and short stories and dreamed of being a journalist. In the

1930s, she carried on a long-distance flirtation with a Spanish pen-pal who reported on his life

including his experiences fighting on both sides in the Spanish Civil War (1936-39), with the

"Red Army Brigade" and with Franco's Fascist army. From 1940 to 1943 Claire got involved in

a real-life romance with a non-Jewish political cartoonist who worked for a major Chicago

newspaper. When her parents found out about him. They banished her to California. One year

later, they demanded she return to Chicago. Claire moved back home, took office jobs doing

drudge work, became more and more depressed, had a mental breakdown and for a brief time

was hospitalized. Slowly she turned her life around with the help of a wise psychiatrist and

loving friends. In 1967 at age 53, Claire got married for the first time to a Nice Jewish Man, who

was quirky enough to understand and support her in her pursuit of her dreams.

This imagined memoir is full of twists and turns, highs and lows, pathos and humor, as told by an

unusual, creative, and most interesting woman whom readers will be glad they got to know.