Free by Lea Ypi

Within the former Eastern bloc, there were two particular dictatorships - ´of the people´ - that were frustratingly absurd: one was Ceaușescu´s (the illiterate dictator and his wife) Romania; the other one was Albania. But as Lea Ypi mentioned at the end of her coming of age memoir Free ´people never make history under circumstances they choose´.

Enver Hoxha, the Albanian dictator, ruled for four decades and his natural death slowly triggered changes with a terrific impact in the whole region - from the Balkans to Italy, where desperate Albanians who lost all their savings and hopes tried to escape by overcrowded boats. As a child experiencing the transition through her own family story and histories, Ypi took note of the general trends and world events - in a similar manner with Ernaux in The Years, letting the personal to interfer naturally with the global -  while observing the changes within her familiar realm: people disappearing, the secret language of returning from prison terms, the rewritten biographies (´Biographies were carefully separated into good and bad, better or worse, clean or stained, relevant or irrelevant, transparent or confusing, suspicious or trustworthy, those that needed to be remembered and those that needed to be forgotten´). 

The intensity of the political and personal times is reproduced through the voice of a young girl trying to make sense of the changes, while following her path of her own personal, intimate changes. It doesn´t try to be philosophical and reflect on things past, but it does maintain its authentic voice through a simple account of a complex reality. Words, like ´free´ the title of the memoir, are defined and re-defined by their contextual use. Or the Marxism, ideologized often, rarely studied and understood.

For the political scientist curious and anyone interested in post-communist memoirs, Free by Lea Ypi is a reference lecture for both the personal and general take. A free testimony in her own words.

Rating: 5 stars

Disclaimer: Book offered by the publisher in exchange for an honest review