Russian Disco

by Wladimir Kaminer

Book Overview

Born in Moscow, Wladimir Kaminer emigrated to Berlin in the early '90s when he was 22. Russian Disco is a series of short and comic autobiographical vignettes about life among the migr s in the explosive and extraordinary multi-cultural atmosphere of '90s Berlin. It's an exotic, vodka-fuelled millennial Goodbye to Berlin. The stories show a wonderful, innocent, deadpan economy of style reminiscent of the great humorists. Several of...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0091886694
• ISBN13: 9780091886691
• Release Date: January 2009
• Publisher: Ebury Press
• Length: 192 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 5.0" x 7.8"

Customer Reviews

Strongly recommend

If you were to meet someone at the back of a party, swapping stories and letting the conversation wander until the sun rose, you might walk away feeling like you just read this book. Wladimir gives the impression of his life in a way that is like getting all the stories you haven't heard yet from a new friend.

Russendisko

I have read this book in both English and German and I absolutely love it. I bought it in English when I was wondering around Berlin in the middle of winter. I couldn't put it down and read it while I was catching trams and sliding all over ice and couldn't stop laughing out loud the whole time, which earned me plenty of looks from the very stern Germans around me. I enjoyed it so much in English I bought it in German too. Do give this book a go, it is wonderful in its own right, and particularly good if you happen to be lodged above and below ostensibly dodgy Russians in East Berlin in wintertime (well, you never know).

fun German cultural literature

Kaminer is one of the great contemporary German authors. He is a Jewish Russian immigrant who came to Berlin in 1990, but he generally dislikes critics' attempts to pin him down and box him in. His observations of Berlin are fresh and witty, but don't romanticize things. I have read 9 of his books so far and am continually looking forward to the next one. I am quite happy that his work is being translated into English and have already given this book to my parents as a gift.

Delightful!

If you are looking to understand about the everyday life in Berlin since the fall of the Berlin wall, this is your book. Kaminer has this great way to describe the political incorrect with his innocent spectator view. Most of his stories, even the sad ones, leave me feeling upbeat. Many stories make me laugh out loud. Kaminer is a true comedian, he feels deep, he is supersmart, he teaches you how to cope with everything and anything by trying to find the hilarious, bizarre and funny in everything we encounter.