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Henk's Reviews > Vrij
Vrij
by
by
A book against simplification and generalisation and against thinking of perpetrators and victims. A thoughtful book on regime change and what events in the newspapers, in far away small countries mean for people of flesh and blood
He knew everything had a price but was unwilling to accept that price
A thoughtful book on a country I knew next to nothing about. Sometimes I was a bit confused where in time I was and what the author was working towards, but a thought provoking book on societal systems, change, and the role of the individual in all this, and history in general. Both communism (Albanian style, which was particularly isolated) and crash capitalism after the fall of the regime of Enver Hoxha are critiqued in a show, don't tell manner, from the perspective of the author growing up. The oblique talk on people graduating from universities, an adult cover-up of the camps and prisons of the regime, is chilling. The shift in perception from especially Italy, who first welcomes refugees and when they come in the 10.000's per boat puts them in camps and extradites them, is very familiar, if not any less cynical than what we see in the current day refugee crises.
The transformation of Lea Ypi from a model communist girl to a London School of Economics professor focussed on the meaning of freedom is very impressive and subtly captured in the book. Also the reflection on the nature of both her mother and father, who need to find a way, after being prosecuted by the regime, to fit into a rapidly changing post-communist state, whose people collectively try to find it's footing is thoughtfully narrated in Free: Coming of Age at the End of History.
Especially the author's mother is rendered in a complex manner, from one of the prosecuted, to a free market liberalist and a politician, who still needs to rely on the rather inert father of the family to really make it in Albanian civil society. The 1997 civil war, again an event I remember next too nothing about, triggered in part by a Ponzi scheme of shadow banks falling apart due to over exaggerated expectations of the boons of capitalism and liberalisation, is chillingly described near the end of the book.
A book that really makes one think and brings a hardly talked about nation to the spotlight.
Dutch quotes:
Je kan beter een ontevreden mens te zijn dan een tevreden varken
Hij wist waar hij tegen was maar vond het moeilijk om te verdedigen waar hij voor stond
Ik had geen ingang tot de juiste antwoorden omdat ik niet wist hoe ik de juiste vragen moest stellen
Ik leerde de waarheid kennen toen hij niet meer gevaarlijk was
Ze was nooit niet verantwoordelijk geweest
Falen was de kust waarvan we ons losmaakten het kon niet de haven zijn waaraan we aanmeerden
Zonder daders bleven er alleen ideeën over om de schuld te geven
Iedereen wilde weg
Als je geld hebt zijn wegen natuurlijk wel open
Hij wist dat alles een prijs had, maar hij was niet bereid die prijs te accepteren
Mijn vader bewonderde politici enkel na hun dood
He knew everything had a price but was unwilling to accept that price
A thoughtful book on a country I knew next to nothing about. Sometimes I was a bit confused where in time I was and what the author was working towards, but a thought provoking book on societal systems, change, and the role of the individual in all this, and history in general. Both communism (Albanian style, which was particularly isolated) and crash capitalism after the fall of the regime of Enver Hoxha are critiqued in a show, don't tell manner, from the perspective of the author growing up. The oblique talk on people graduating from universities, an adult cover-up of the camps and prisons of the regime, is chilling. The shift in perception from especially Italy, who first welcomes refugees and when they come in the 10.000's per boat puts them in camps and extradites them, is very familiar, if not any less cynical than what we see in the current day refugee crises.
The transformation of Lea Ypi from a model communist girl to a London School of Economics professor focussed on the meaning of freedom is very impressive and subtly captured in the book. Also the reflection on the nature of both her mother and father, who need to find a way, after being prosecuted by the regime, to fit into a rapidly changing post-communist state, whose people collectively try to find it's footing is thoughtfully narrated in Free: Coming of Age at the End of History.
Especially the author's mother is rendered in a complex manner, from one of the prosecuted, to a free market liberalist and a politician, who still needs to rely on the rather inert father of the family to really make it in Albanian civil society. The 1997 civil war, again an event I remember next too nothing about, triggered in part by a Ponzi scheme of shadow banks falling apart due to over exaggerated expectations of the boons of capitalism and liberalisation, is chillingly described near the end of the book.
A book that really makes one think and brings a hardly talked about nation to the spotlight.
Dutch quotes:
Je kan beter een ontevreden mens te zijn dan een tevreden varken
Hij wist waar hij tegen was maar vond het moeilijk om te verdedigen waar hij voor stond
Ik had geen ingang tot de juiste antwoorden omdat ik niet wist hoe ik de juiste vragen moest stellen
Ik leerde de waarheid kennen toen hij niet meer gevaarlijk was
Ze was nooit niet verantwoordelijk geweest
Falen was de kust waarvan we ons losmaakten het kon niet de haven zijn waaraan we aanmeerden
Zonder daders bleven er alleen ideeën over om de schuld te geven
Iedereen wilde weg
Als je geld hebt zijn wegen natuurlijk wel open
Hij wist dat alles een prijs had, maar hij was niet bereid die prijs te accepteren
Mijn vader bewonderde politici enkel na hun dood
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Reading Progress
April 10, 2022
– Shelved
April 10, 2022
– Shelved as:
to-read
May 16, 2022
– Shelved as:
non-fiction
July 10, 2022
–
Started Reading
July 11, 2022
–
Finished Reading
