Review by Booklist Review
In this vivid memoir, political commentator Lea Ypi recalls her adolescence during the complete social upheaval in Albania in the late 1980s and early 1990s. At first, she attended school in a fully socialist nation. Religion was abolished, illiteracy was eradicated, she and her family received vouchers for food and other necessities, and everyone went to work. She was 11 when she first saw a statue of Joseph Stalin beheaded by protesters, and so began the epic instability that would define her teenage years. Ypi witnessed her parents becoming outspoken in their political beliefs, and she was confused to discover that they did not fully share the party loyalty she was taught in school. The first free elections brought chaos and rumors of fraud. Then, in 1997, it all came to a head with the Albanian Civil War, wherein economic insolvency led to violence, anarchy, and massive loss of life. Ypi's family was separated as they fought for freedom. Ypi's prose is colored by the innocence of her youth as she delivers a beautifully straightforward analysis of the world around her. This is also a gripping portrait of all ill societies struggling with socialism and capitalism. Ypi's experiences and perspective are invaluable, especially for politically minded readers dreaming up the future.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
A child's sense of safety, security, and national pride is upended as family histories surface and a political system splinters in this beautiful debut from Guardian contributor Ypi. The author, who grew up behind the Iron Curtain in Albania, recounts her coming-of-age in 1990 as the country (the last with Stalinist-type rulers in Europe) began to shed its Communist identity. She reflects on her puzzlement as a young girl when protesters demanding freedom and democracy took hold of her city that December. "We had plenty of freedom," she writes. "I felt so free... my freedom as a burden." That mindset, nurtured by her teachers at school, directly opposed the beliefs of her family, intellectuals and property owners whose own ideas of liberty led to their punishment in what the Party referred to as "universities," where "different subjects of study corresponded to different official charges." When the government crumbled, her parents felt it safe enough to finally reveal to her "that my country had been an open-air prison for almost half a century." Out of this comes an electric narrative of personal and political reckoning, suffused with sharp cultural critique, that underscores history's contentious relationship with independence and truth. This vivid rendering of life amid cultural collapse is nothing short of a masterpiece. (Jan.)
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Review by Library Journal Review
Ypi (political theory, London Sch. of Economics; Architectonic of Reason) draws on her academic work for this memoir, which was originally intended to examine overlapping ideas of freedom in liberal and socialist traditions. As she wrote the book, however, the work transformed into one about people and how they are affected by changes in political systems and beliefs--all grounded by Ypi's personal history and her childhood in a repressive regime in Albania. After the 1985 death of Labor Party Secretary Enver Hoxha, who ruled Albania for 40 years, Ypi discovered that her parents had been hiding the truth about the regime from her. "Uncle Enver," as he was known to Albanians, was feared, not worshipped; relatives of Ypi's who were said to be at university were actually in prison, and their supposed teachers were actually their jailers and torturers. As Albania spiraled toward civil war, Ypi's world became filled with unrest. The memoir ends with Ypi, as a young woman, leaving to study in the United States. "I never returned," she writes. VERDICT This astonishing memoir is a lively and subtle reflection on the relation between personal and political, in a world where neither old nor new fit without personal loss. Ypi's writing sets itself apart.--David Keymer, Cleveland
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
An Albanian writer reflects on her personal experience of her country's transition out of Soviet-style socialism and into civil war. Growing up, Ypi, a professor of political theory at the London School of Economics, had complete faith in what she was taught in school. At home, she urged her parents to display a picture of Prime Minister Enver Hoxha--whom she and her classmates called "Uncle Enver"--in their living room. At school, she was thrilled to be chosen to join the Pioneers of Enver, a socialist youth group, a year before the rest of her peers. It wasn't until the country's first "free and fair election" that Ypi realized her own parents had never supported the repressive government and, in fact, were grateful to see it fall. Even more shocking were the family secrets that her parents, now unafraid, revealed to her in rapid succession: Her beloved grandmother used to be an aristocrat so well connected that she attended a royal wedding; a "former prime minister whom I had grown up despising" was her great-grandfather; and her mother came from a long line of formerly wealthy property owners. In the years that followed, Ypi weathered not only a changing country, but also a changing sense of self, as she released political beliefs she had held for decades. The author's narrative voice is stunning, expertly balancing humor, pathos, and deep affection for the characters and places that defined her past. She is adept at immersing readers in her childhood experiences of unquestioned loyalty to "The Party" while also maintaining a tongue-in-cheek, critical distance from what she now recognizes as a tyrannical regime. However, while the scenes and characterizations are captivating, the book lacks a clear narrative arc, making the chapters feel more like a loose collection of memories than a cohesive story. A poignant, humorous memoir about growing up during the decline and fall of the Iron Curtain. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
