Jean Thrasher

LOOKING BACK AT LIFE UNDER COMMUNIST RULE The author is on vacation in South Africa when she hears a conversation in a language, a dialect, that brings back memories. It causes her to search her belongings upon her return home to find notebooks from the 1950s when she and three other students were part of a literary club. The book is the result of short stories intertwined of four friends who either lived in a particular house or were part of the literary circle and then they scatter throughout the world. These stories are some of the bleakest stories I have read which reflect living under Communist rule. It reeks of loneliness-not knowing who might report you. It is for this reason that I am giving this book 4 stars—a look back at how young people felt while living in this era and, therefore, a realistic study.