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A review by theclue
How We Survived Communism and Even Laughed by Slavenka Drakulić
5.0
4.5 / 5
+loved the details she focused on like those dolls and the difference between generations and how she withdrew her kid of the simplest pleasure because of how she taught or how she compared the u.s. to her homeland and how fundamentally different an American viewed feminism compared to herself. I also loved how she described the feeling of being left behind from other parts of the globe cuz that's exactly how I feel and how glorious it feels just to be a tiny bit in touch with the outside world (other countries) (like when she described collecting foreign candy wrapping papers). related to her experiences on so many levels specifically when I compared them to the lives my grandma has led like when she talked about how they recycled everything not out of being environmentalists, but from the probability of shortage of everyday stuff. Last but not least i loved how neutral and even confused she felt about some new situations and ideas that contracted her childhood mindset and her current beliefs and understandings (when her mom wanted to buy a fur coat).
-what I did not like was how she jumped into historical events without any preparation. as a book that's written for a general audience not a specialized one, I expected to be educated on per say the Hungarian wars before getting into details about it. I had to google the ideologies, the wars, and so many other stuff to understand what exactly she was saying. considering this as a negative aspect the chapter on presidency and election was the worst. I had no idea what I was reading and it even got to a point where I skipped a paragraph or two.
the translation was decent although some phrasal verbs and idioms were translated literally which made me laugh so that's a pro. She didn't care to add feuilletons AT ALL which was annoying because there so many specific names that I wanted to look up and had to go with the translatd word
+loved the details she focused on like those dolls and the difference between generations and how she withdrew her kid of the simplest pleasure because of how she taught or how she compared the u.s. to her homeland and how fundamentally different an American viewed feminism compared to herself. I also loved how she described the feeling of being left behind from other parts of the globe cuz that's exactly how I feel and how glorious it feels just to be a tiny bit in touch with the outside world (other countries) (like when she described collecting foreign candy wrapping papers). related to her experiences on so many levels specifically when I compared them to the lives my grandma has led like when she talked about how they recycled everything not out of being environmentalists, but from the probability of shortage of everyday stuff. Last but not least i loved how neutral and even confused she felt about some new situations and ideas that contracted her childhood mindset and her current beliefs and understandings (when her mom wanted to buy a fur coat).
-what I did not like was how she jumped into historical events without any preparation. as a book that's written for a general audience not a specialized one, I expected to be educated on per say the Hungarian wars before getting into details about it. I had to google the ideologies, the wars, and so many other stuff to understand what exactly she was saying. considering this as a negative aspect the chapter on presidency and election was the worst. I had no idea what I was reading and it even got to a point where I skipped a paragraph or two.
the translation was decent although some phrasal verbs and idioms were translated literally which made me laugh so that's a pro. She didn't care to add feuilletons AT ALL which was annoying because there so many specific names that I wanted to look up and had to go with the translatd word