Söndags-smakbit # 16

Bloggen Betraktelser ger oss på söndagar chansen att publicera ett litet smakprov ur en bok vi läser.
Där får du många spännande boktitlar att kika närmare på.

Jag har kommit över en ny biografi på engelska, den heter Free – Coming of age at the end of history och är skriven av Lea Ypi

Författaren berättar om sitt unga liv i det slutna Albanien som år 1990, ett år efter Berlinmurens fall, förändrades över en natt från ett en-parti-stat till en demokrati med flera tillåtna partier. Hur upplever en ung kvinna livet när det förändras i sina grundvalar och allt du lärt dig om dig själv, politik, din familj, visar sig vara lögn.

Rysslands invasion av Ukraina gör boken extra aktuell att läsa då mycket handlar om hur man lever i ett kommunistiskt land.
Jag har länkat titeln till förlaget där du kan läsa mer.

Smakbit sid. 46-47

”Religious groups had bitterly fought each other, but not in our country. In our country, the Catholics, Orthodox Christians, Muslims and Jews hade always respected one another. Then the Party had come, more people started to read and write, and the more they learned about how the world worked, the more they discovered that religion was an illusion, something that the rich and powerful used to supply the poor with false hopes, promising them justice and happiness in another life.”

sid. 62

”The stolen object was a Coca Cola can. At the time, these were an extremely rare sight. Even rare was the knowledge of their function. They were markers of social status: if people happened to own a can, they would show it off by exhibiting it in their livingrooms, usually on an embroidered tablecloth over the television or the radio, often right next to the photo of Enver Hoxha.”

sid 136

”More changes occured in December 1990 than in all the previous years of my life combined. We had spent decades preparing for assault, planning for nuclear war, designing bunkers, suppressing dissent, anticipating the words of counter-revolution, imagining the contours of its face. We strove to grasp the power of our enemies, resist their efforts to corrupt us ant match their weapons.——- Suddenly, Socialism, the society we lived under, was gone. Communism, the society we aspired to create, where class conflict would disappear was gone too, Only one word was left: freedom. When it finally arrived, it was like a dish served frozen. We chewed little, swallowed fast and remained hungry. Some wondered if we had been given leftovers. Others noted they were simply cold starters.”