Heda Kovaly on accordions

"I carry the past inside me like an accordion, like a book of picture postcards that people bring home as souvenirs from foreign cities, small and neat," she wrote in her memoir. "But all it takes is to lift one corner of the top card for an endless snake to escape, zigzag joined to zigzag, the sign of the viper, and instantly all the pictures line up before my eyes." New York Times obituary, "Heda Kovaly Dies at 91; Wrote of Life Under Totalitarianism," Dec. 9, 2010.