How we survived communism and laughed
How we Survived Communism and Even Laughed
Slavenka Drakulić’s How We Survived Communism and Even Laughed is an interesting and educational book about the struggles and dysfunction of communism in Croatia. I found this book incredibly personal because it showed the point of view of a woman who is experiencing life growing up in a country where communism had ended, but continued in the minds of it’s people. Not only does she speak of the lack of common luxuries that Croatia has, but she relates them to western culture in a time when America was progressing faster than we ever have. This book was interesting because while reading it, the reader is not lectured with facts about communism and World War II, but instead given a personal view of someone stuck in a country they feel oppressed in. Another interesting aspect is the author wrote that she was forced to recycle, collect and conserve everything that was possibly useful. However this recycling and collecting was not for environmental protection, it was because of fear, fear of running out of supplies and not being able to get more, something that civilians under communism would have to deal with everyday. If anyone had a problem with anything that involved the government including running out of basic needs like milk, it was their problem. Drakulic observed a friend who wrote articles about the problems of communism, she was later punished for it. She was shunned by society just for speaking her mind. This novel gives the reader a personal feel of civilians stuck in a communist country. Slavenka Drakulic wrote this book, living in an apparently post communism country of Croatia. However as she writes communism is still very prevalent “I understand that in the West today ‘the end of communism’ has become a stock phrase, a truism, a common expression supposed to indicate the current state of things in Eastern Europe. It sounds marvelous when you hear it in political speeches or read it
Slavenka Drakulić’s How We Survived Communism and Even Laughed is an interesting and educational book about the struggles and dysfunction of communism in Croatia. I found this book incredibly personal because it showed the point of view of a woman who is experiencing life growing up in a country where communism had ended, but continued in the minds of it’s people. Not only does she speak of the lack of common luxuries that Croatia has, but she relates them to western culture in a time when America was progressing faster than we ever have. This book was interesting because while reading it, the reader is not lectured with facts about communism and World War II, but instead given a personal view of someone stuck in a country they feel oppressed in. Another interesting aspect is the author wrote that she was forced to recycle, collect and conserve everything that was possibly useful. However this recycling and collecting was not for environmental protection, it was because of fear, fear of running out of supplies and not being able to get more, something that civilians under communism would have to deal with everyday. If anyone had a problem with anything that involved the government including running out of basic needs like milk, it was their problem. Drakulic observed a friend who wrote articles about the problems of communism, she was later punished for it. She was shunned by society just for speaking her mind. This novel gives the reader a personal feel of civilians stuck in a communist country. Slavenka Drakulic wrote this book, living in an apparently post communism country of Croatia. However as she writes communism is still very prevalent “I understand that in the West today ‘the end of communism’ has become a stock phrase, a truism, a common expression supposed to indicate the current state of things in Eastern Europe. It sounds marvelous when you hear it in political speeches or read it