Over and over

These are two parallel books with the same structure. A West German and an East German writer take stock of his childhood. The two authors literally take an inventory of the objects, spaces, places, people, events around them, of course, especially those that are important to a child: for example, we can find out what turntable was used in the West German family and the top could not be closed when a large record was placed. TVs, TV habits on one side and the other. Tape recorders, radios, home appliances, vehicles here and there. Differences between schools and school education. Games, friends, girls, first sexual experiences. Travel. From the inventory and the little stories about objects, places, people, a characteristic picture of everyday life in the two countries gradually unfolds, and even some kind of sociological overview of the two social systems emerges. We can learn how blatantly the environment that a child considered natural on one side was in contrast to the environment of a child on the other.