Introduction: The Trivial is Political and Chapter 1: You Can't Drink Your Coffee Alone Summary and Analysis

How We Survived Communism and Even Laughed is inaptly named. The author, Slavenka Drakulic, opens the book considering this as she flies to London on Thursday, June 27th, 1991. On this day, Slovenia and Croatia secede from Yugoslavia, only a year after holding their first free elections in fifty years. War breaks out. Things do not change as much as she had hoped after the fall of Communism. Politicians change, as do names of streets, anthems, etc. But the collective memory and cultural impact of communism cannot be so easily erased.

When communism begins to collapse in 1989, everyone is excited but disoriented with the rapid change. Many are left out of the media presentations of the change, most...