H. Stolk Boeken

A poignant, truthful look at what living under Communism was really like, by Croatian journalist & novelist Drakulić. The author, daughter of a former partisan who was a high-ranking Communist army officer, was never a member of the Party herself. Here, she conveys the reality of life under Communism thru ordinary but telling detail: the wonder of a man who, for the 1st time in his life, was able to eat a banana--& ate it skin & all, marveling at its texture; Her own bewilderment at finding fresh strawberries in NYC in December; the feel of the quality of the paper in an issue of Vogue; the desperate lengths to which women would go to find cosmetics or clothes or something that would make them feel feminine in a society where such a feeling was regarded as a bourgeois affectation. She dismisses the argument that Western manufacturers have manipulated these needs: 'To tell us that they are making a profit by exploiting our needs is like warning a Bangladeshi about cholesterol.' Tho herself a feminist, she willingly turns amusing in describing the uncomprehending questions sent to her by a NY editor who asked about the role of feminism in political discourse in Eastern Europe, when there was no political discourse & when feminists were--& apparently still are--regarded as enemies of the people. 'We may have survived Communism,' she writes, 'but we have not yet outlived it.' To the author, Communism is more than an ideology or a method of government--it is a state of mind that is yet to be erased from the collective consciousness of those who've lived under it. A sometimes sad, sometimes witty book that conveys more about politics in Eastern Europe than any number of theoretical political analyses.--Kirkus (edited)