Introduction: First-Person Singular
Café Europa
Invisible Walls Between Us
Why I Never Visited Moscow
In Zoe's Bathroom
To Have and To Have Not
A Smile in Sofia
The Pillbox Effect
Money, and How to Get It
The Trouble With Sales
Slavenka Drakulic was born in Croatia in 1949. The author of several works of nonfiction and novels, she has written for The New York Times, The Nation, The New Republic, and numerous publications around the world.
"Insightful... This book not only helps to illuminate the political
and social problems facing much of Eastern Europe, but also sheds
new light on the daily life of its residents, their emotional
habits, fears and dreams." —The New York Times
"Drakulic is a perceptive and amusing social critic, with a
wonderful eye for detail." —The Washington Post
"Profound and often bitingly funny... you'll never think about
capitalism, modern history, or your perfect, white, American teeth
in the same way again." —Elle
Drakulic (How We Survived Communism and Even Laughed) notes that Eastern Europeans are so anxious to become like their Western counterparts that every city and town has a Café Europa that is a pale imitation of similar establishments in Paris and Rome. She presents here a collection of essays that explore life in various Eastern European countries since the fall of communism. As a citizen of Croatia (formerly a part of Yugoslavia) living now in Vienna with her Swedish husband, she writes knowingly as a survivor of a communist regime, as one who realizes that pitfalls still lie ahead for nations emerging from the Soviet yoke. In Albania, she observes rage everywhere in people who seem to want to smash all vestiges of the Hoxha regime. In Romania, she comments on the execrable state in which public toilets are maintained: "[T]he standard of Romanian toilets reflects the nature of the communist system of which it is a legacy"; "the absence of any improvement is... a warning for the future of democracy" there. Drakulic's pungent and insightful ruminations not only describe life in her part of the world‘she makes us feel it as well. Author tour. (Feb.)
"Insightful... This book not only helps to illuminate the political
and social problems facing much of Eastern Europe, but also sheds
new light on the daily life of its residents, their emotional
habits, fears and dreams." -The New York Times
"Drakulic is a perceptive and amusing social critic, with a
wonderful eye for detail." -The Washington Post
"Profound and often bitingly funny... you'll never think
about capitalism, modern history, or your perfect, white, American
teeth in the same way again." -Elle
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