A review by hhimes47
Stasiland: Stories from Behind the Berlin Wall by Anna Funder

informative reflective sad medium-paced

2.5

Full of beautiful prose and must-read stories to understand the GDR. Has a tendency to take a one-dimensional, positive view of the capitalism of Western Germany, as if simply because the GDR was extremely flawed, its capitalist counterpart must have been free of error. Multiple former residents of the GDR of all walks of life are quoted in the book either outright condemning capitalism or simply pointing out certain aspects of their old lives in the GDR that functioned better than they do in reunified Germany. In most of these cases, the author works to discount this point of view or paint it as overly nostalgic and far from the truth. Despite this, the book is still overall worth a read for the various first-hand accounts.