- Hardcover: 208 pages
- Publisher: HarperCollins; Revised edition edition (11 Mar 1992)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 000215871X
- ISBN-13: 978-0002158718
- Product Dimensions: 23.4 x 16 x 3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,244,769 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Review
'Crazy, charming, a delight' --John le Carré
'The most extraordinary debut in travel writing since "In Patagonia". A dark, sardonic and brilliant book which grows in stature with every page.' --William Dalrymple
'As an allegory it is powerful and frequently moving. As a tale it is tremendous fun. It is also a thing of beauty' --Jan Morris --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
'The most extraordinary debut in travel writing since "In Patagonia". A dark, sardonic and brilliant book which grows in stature with every page.' --William Dalrymple
'As an allegory it is powerful and frequently moving. As a tale it is tremendous fun. It is also a thing of beauty' --Jan Morris --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
Product Description
Rory MacLean's uncle was a Soviet spy, his aunt a faded Austrian aristocrat. They lived in furious, frustrated retirement in a rambling house filled with animals in Potsdam, Prussia's Versailles. In their youth they stole secrets from Stalin and changed history. He visited them briefly as he passed through Berlin en route from the Baltic to the Black Sea. He was travelling along the line of the old Iron Curtain, writing about the Eastern European revolutions. But his aunt, a vivacious eccentric, would not be left behind. In her rattling Trabant, accompanied by her pet pig, they moved across the continent, following the threads of memory. Her remarkable East European relations - the angel of Prague, a Hungarian grave digger, a dying Romanian propagandist - help tie together the loose ends of her life. They picknicked at Auschwitz, they met Lenin's embalmer and they visited an improverished Czech town. This book is a documentary of their journey and a history of Eastern Europe. Its portrayal of subjugated peoples at a time of great change, of their fears of the past and hopes for the future, illustrates the icy comedy of human existence.
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First Sentence
Winston the pig fell into Zita's life when he dropped onto my uncle's head and killed him dead. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
Winston the pig fell into Zita's life when he dropped onto my uncle's head and killed him dead. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I thoroughly enjoyed this book, especially the author's unique insights and personal involvement in the journey. Highly recommended. If you haven't read Rory Maclean's books before, this is a good place to start. His writing is very funny, but it is balanced with serious observations.
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This - one of Rory Maclean's early travel writings - is perhaps less of a travel piece than one may expect, having more to do with a family history, stretched across countries and times. It is nevertheless an excellent portrait of a region and of issues it faced in the early 1990s - much less optimistic and much less resolved than the mood in the West at the time had one believe.
Starting the journey from the Baltic to the Black Sea, it is derailed in Berlin already, where the author's uncle suffers a rather fantastic end to his life. Fearing for his aunt Zita's sanity (as well as looking for replacement dentures for her), she gets taken along for the journey, together with Winston the Tamworth pig, in the trusty East German steed - the aunt's Trabant.
As they wheeze their way through Czechoslovakia, Poland, Romania, and Russia, Zita has to resolve many issues that arose in her complicated past - including a Soviet spy husband, SS officer brother, Austrian aristocrat predecessors, etc. Through this we get an abridged look at some issues plaguing the countries in Central and Eastern Europe, as well as how far from democracy and prosperity the countries were at this early point in their post Communist journey.
It is often incredibly funny, at times quite tragical, shows the mental constructs many were forced to erect around themselves to be able to deal with their situation, the pretty fantastical but nevertheless real stories many a family went through in the time since WW2, as well as the bleak outlook.
Many aspects described in the book have definitely changed since Maclean wrote it, so it has more of a historical significance now. But in capturing the moment of transition, the author did an excellent job and it is a book very much worth reading, if one wants to understand the past and possible futures of the region. If you enjoyed Koestler's Darkness at Noon or Kundera's The Joke, this book is likely up your street as well.
Starting the journey from the Baltic to the Black Sea, it is derailed in Berlin already, where the author's uncle suffers a rather fantastic end to his life. Fearing for his aunt Zita's sanity (as well as looking for replacement dentures for her), she gets taken along for the journey, together with Winston the Tamworth pig, in the trusty East German steed - the aunt's Trabant.
As they wheeze their way through Czechoslovakia, Poland, Romania, and Russia, Zita has to resolve many issues that arose in her complicated past - including a Soviet spy husband, SS officer brother, Austrian aristocrat predecessors, etc. Through this we get an abridged look at some issues plaguing the countries in Central and Eastern Europe, as well as how far from democracy and prosperity the countries were at this early point in their post Communist journey.
It is often incredibly funny, at times quite tragical, shows the mental constructs many were forced to erect around themselves to be able to deal with their situation, the pretty fantastical but nevertheless real stories many a family went through in the time since WW2, as well as the bleak outlook.
Many aspects described in the book have definitely changed since Maclean wrote it, so it has more of a historical significance now. But in capturing the moment of transition, the author did an excellent job and it is a book very much worth reading, if one wants to understand the past and possible futures of the region. If you enjoyed Koestler's Darkness at Noon or Kundera's The Joke, this book is likely up your street as well.
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