A Guided Tour Through the Museum of Communism

Drakulic, Croatian journalist and author of Café Europa, presents a condensed and whimsical history of communism filtered through the perspective of animals who share little tales that largely focus on figures like Tito and Ceausescu. Along the way, Drakulic achieves a measured (if silly) survey of communism and its fall that is neither vitriolic nor nostalgic, nor wholly cynical or awed by Western capitalism. Running throughout is an awareness of how the past is eroding, with young people blissfully unaware of history. The animal narrators—a mouse, a bear, a dog among them—are generally charming, though the harshness of the book's subject and the quaintness of its methodology makes for odd pairings, with some of the attempted lightheartedness coming off as awkward or just plain botched (as with the pig who is supposedly writing an introduction to a cookbook but instead goes on a political screed). It's a strange project, partially successful, and likely to hold undeniable appeal to a limited audience. (Mar.)