Café Europa: Life After Communism

http://nhw.livejournal.com/685280.html

Collection of short pieces (presumably newspaper columns) by this Croatian writer, who I have not previously read. To be honest, after the first third of it, I was ready to put the book down: too much whining about the state of the world, very much reminding me of why I didn't much like living in Zagreb in 1998: Croatia then seemed both smug and fragile, a curious combination. Things have improved, however, and every time I return to the country now I find myself liking it more and more as normality takes deeper root. The same was true of Drakulić's book: there were two really good pieces about Croatia's failure to deal with its fascist historical legacy, and about the psychology of Arkan's show more uniform, and after that it somehow all seemed to make more sense and become more readable. So, worth persevering with, though perhaps the editors should have chopped a bit more of the early stuff. show less

Many worthy bits, but it seems a bit like Drakulic, a Croat journalist with a great Brecht-alienation turn of phrase, had a book in her about mixture of identities and the struggle to come to terms with the twisted past in ex-Yugoslavia, amidst the awareness that it had given way to an even-more-twisted present (the book was written in 1996), and then her editor wanted her to expand it to take in all the former Communist countries of Eastern Europe, from post-commie daze to Europalust und -Frust (hence the title), about which she had some very interesting vague generalities and supporting anecdotes - like about the Swedish filmmaker who thought he was being cheated by his Czech interpreter because she literally didn't show up to work, show more and she thought he was cheating her because she had no concept of the relation between pay and work and it was more like "WHERE'S MY WINDFALL?!" or all about the generalized Russia-horror and German-lovehate in the satellites even now today - but not enough to support a whole book on. But many tasty bits in a slightly watery post-Communist borscht. Also, it is very interesting to muse on how Drakulic in '96 could treat all these places as part of the same in ways, and now some are practically normal (Poland, Czech) and others have fallen so far behinder even (poor Albania) and there are at least three tiers if not more. show less

A collection of essays.

I read this book while on holiday in modern day Croatia, chosen because the author is Croatian (although she now lives in Vienna with her Swedish husband).
It is basically a collection of essays which appear to be strangely frozen in time between the fall of Communism and the modern Croatia which I visited. It was this photograph of a country in turmoil that was its appeal.

Writing this review six months later, several things have stuck with me about the book.
Firstly, the fact that Communism did work for many people and for those above a certain age, the difficulties in adjusting to the changes were huge, both culturally and financially. No longer were they in a job for life, nor were they supported into their old show more age - and many did not have sufficient time ahead to earn enough for their retirement.

At the time that the book was written (1996-1999) Drakulic seemed unable to envision a time when Croatia might become in any way truly Western. The title refers to the cafes that sprung up in Eastern Europe, pertaining to be like their Western counterparts but falling well short of the mark, but the Croatia that I visited in 2010 seemed to be making its mark in modern Europe. I saw few old communist style vehicles, for example, and even though I was searching for signs of the old regime, there seemed little of it left.

One or two anecdotes also stuck with me, particularly the problem of smuggling items such as vacuum cleaners across the border from Austia bacause they were either too expensive or not available back home. One vacuum cleaner absorbed the entire allowance, and that was even with a false receipt for its cost written by the seller.

I don't think I would have got as much out of the book had I read it at a different time and place but it was fascinating to realise how much the country had changed in such a relatively short space of time. show less

This is a collection of political reportage written in the years immediately following the fall of communism in Eastern Europe. According to the inside cover of the book, Drakulic “contributes regularly” The Nation and the New Republic, which would fit with the quasi-journalistic, descriptive approach that she takes in these pieces. I use with the word “journalistic” as a slight pejorative here, as a way of denoting a style that is more inclined to be demonstrative and flat, as opposed to couching her opinions in a critical framework that would offer the reader insightful explanations. Most of her conclusions are fairly banal, though some of her observations are not devoid of interest.

For a book of barely two hundred pages, show more there are twenty-five essays, so they are short and accessible, almost made for picking up and putting down at leisure. In fact, the one major criticisms I have of the book is that the essays are a little too short, so much that it sometimes inhibits Drakulic’s ability to fully flesh out the ideas at hand. The essay topics are varied, but tend to revolve around a constellation of relatively abiding concerns: two of these are the consumerism of post-liberalized, post-communist Eastern Europe and its growing homogeneity, and shifting political attitudes.

Drakulic is deeply ambivalent about Europe being taken over by the cultural accoutrements – really only simulacra – of Western Europe, symbolized by the ubiquitous “Café Europa,” the iconic Viennese coffee shop, which has apparently cropped up all over the place. Even the name “Europe” has come to signify a kind of sybaritic luxury. A cinema in Drakulic’s home city of Zagreb changed its name from “The Balkan” to “Cinema Europa,” indicative of a willed escape from primitivism, war, and everything non-European. One of the most interesting aspects of the book is how Drakulic looks at Europe as a name “loaded with the complexity of positive values” (p. 11). Which begs the question: is Europe one thing any longer, or merely what we make of it for ourselves?

The highlights of the collection, not surprisingly, are the pieces in which Drakulic gives herself the appropriate space to think through an issue. Here are a few of my favorites, including a short description of each. “The Trouble with Sales” explores some patterns – ones that Drakulic herself admits are paradoxes – about shopping and consumerism in an age of the new economic logic of capitalism, especially her old habit of seeking out sales – a habit which she can’t seem to finally kick. “Invisible Walls Between Us” looks at the bizarre and discriminatory travel strictures imposed on Easterners, who are often looked down upon as suspicious foreigners while traveling in Western Europe. “A King for the Balkans” is an insightful look at the political psychology in Yugoslavia as Prince Alexander Karadjordjevic makes his first post-exilic visit to an unusually warm reception given the country’s history under previous monarchy. show less

It's whatever.

As far as essays go, these essays are very repetitive. The same themes are reiterated and explained many times, to the point of bordem. Many of these themes and motifs are simple and don't require that much to explain, like that Eastern Europeans and Western Europeans are divided, that Europe is just a continent that can't do anything, that history should not be erased, individualism is an ideal, and similar themes. Sometimes her themes get spicy, as she critiques elements of capitalism, nationalism, and the idea of a nation-state. They are not developed much, however.

The book is well written and certainly can be a page-turner at times. Other times, however, I wish I could finish a chapter and get on with my day. The show more translation used lots of hyphens, colons, semicolons, and British commas, which can spice up sentences. Sometimes, however, the translator treated H as a vowel and used phrases like "an history" which certainly broke my concentration. For Americans like me, Drakulic explains the context of what happened/is happening in Eastern Europe. Towards the end of the book, however, she drops the ball, and if you are an American like me, will probably have no idea about the conflicts between Muslims in Bosnia and Serbians in the Balkans (?). At least for me, I missed out on some of the themes she was trying to develop.

My main problem with this book is that it is most certainly a biased propaganda piece. Don't get me wrong, I very much dislike the USSR, the satellite states it created, the lack of democracy, its materially deficient life, and the mass murders, but the author straight-up lies to the audience at times. As a biased Marxist myself, my eyes were certainly rolling at phrases like "communist country" or how Drakulic contrasted communism and democracy, or how Drakulic equated communism to fascism.

I remarked in my notes that Drakulic lied to her audience for several reasons:
1. she simply forgot her state education (if they actually taught her anything Marxist related)
2. she remembers her state education but doesn't care and lies anyway
Either way, I find it disgusting that Drakulic would lie to her audience about what the USSR actually was, or what Yugoslavia actually was. At one point in her book, Drakulic writes, "But according to the egalitarian principles of any communist society, those ‘haves’ should share with the ‘have nots’. And because there is not much to share anyway, in the end, that egalitarianism boils down to the equal distribution of poverty. At least it would in theory - in practice it did not quite work." Anybody who knows a bit about Marxism will know that Drakulic is lying about Marxist principles. Marx very clearly disliked the idea of equality or egalitarianism for its own sake as a political goal in Critique of the Gotha Progamme; Marx instead advocated for the abolition of classes instead of mindless equality or egalitarianism.

Overall, this book is great as a condemnation of authoritarian state capitalism and showing the development of new ideas in Eastern Europe. This book would be rated higher if the author wasn't lying boldy to their audience, and if the book was cut down a bit. I would like this book a lot more if the author replaced the words "communism" with "state capitalism." show less

A collection of interesting pieces written after the fall of Communism in the Balkans and the partition of Yugoslavia into its various ethnic, historical divisions. Lots of interesting musings on life during and after that time, reflections on the idea of "Europe" and how that manifests itself in the Balkans.

Purchased at Prague Airport, 8 June 2007. Read mostly while waiting for flight to FCO and while in Rome for the weekend.

Ever read one of those books that just totally wows you? Well this was it for me, it really opened my eyes.

Spoilers below, highlight to read:

The author's intro really sets out her goals and aims for this project. Europe meant different things to different people depending on where they lived and where they were in life. There's a lot that is implied by just the word Europe, or Europa, but you need the context to fully understand it.

A clear example of this was the stick/horse allusion. "If you asked a child riding a broomstick what it was doing, the child would answer, without hesitation: 'I am riding a horse.' ... And show more no one has yet told the infant Eastern Europe that a wooden stick is not a horse." It's almost as if by putting western names on their stores and businesses, they hoped to be Western but weren't aware that it was far more complicated then that. The same applies to Japan, and one wonders even today if that message has been received.

Part of what intrigued me about this book was that I know/knew very little about Yugoslavia. I was just old enough to pay attention to goings-on in the world when communism collapsed and Yugoslavia eroded into the political mess that it still is today. The only contest I have for the former Yugoslavia is Monica Seles, the Balkans that I remember are Serbia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Croatia, etc. It was interesting to learn that Yugoslavians enjoyed such relative freedom.

I found the author's stories about the high cost of living in Croatia to be amazing. Eastern Europe is perceived as being cheap, it's almost impossible to imagine the idea of shopping in Vienna for 'bargains' especially in today's strong Euro.

In the case of the Romanians and Serbs, electing leaders whose ideologies so closely resembled that of the communist leaders, it almost helps to explain the current state of Iraq. The Iraqis aren't sure what they want, and it's shown in violence. Contrary to popular belief, the US troops represent instability rather than the intended stabiliy.

I knew Ceaucescu had been shot along with his wife, but I had no idea that Tito's wife JOvanka was still alive and living in Belgrade. Why was she allowed to live? What would the region have looked like if Tito hadn't broken with Stalin? PErhaps even better, why did Moscow allow it while at the same time feel threatened by the Prague Spring? I think it's interesting to wonder whether Tito would have been executed like Ceaucescu if he'd not died of his own health issues.

Although these stories were written 10+ years ago, a lot of them applied to Prague and its current standing vis a vis its neighbours in Europe. It's been said that Vienna is Prague in 20 years, but Prague is the Prague of 1900 in that its finally regained its former standing in the world.

In light of the changes I've seen in Prague in the last four years and the changes in the region as a whole, this was an excellent book to read. It will be interesting to see when and if the former Soviet countries do indeed become "European." Speaking now, I think it extends far beyond EU membership, as there are still differences between member states ex: Austria:Czech Republic: Poland. show less