Zoo Station: Adventures in East and West Berlin

by Ian Walker

First Printing. Book Excellent Condition . VERY CLEAN. FASTSERVICE. 16-A

Genres: Travel, Nonfiction, Germany, Biography Memoir, Memoir, History

329 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1987

Reviews

[Matthew Wilson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Always wondered whatever happened to Ian Walker. Anybody know? He's like the Holden Caulfield of divided Berlin. Naïve, conflicted, lovelorn, perceptive. I read this book shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall and thought, this whole world is disappearing in front of my eyes. I had been in Berlin only once, in 1987. Then, after visiting Berlin in 2003 I read this again. I felt almost nostalgic. If you want to see what life was like in Berlin in the 1980s (the music, the clothes, the Cold War!) this book is like a long lost piece of celluloid.

[Cold War Conversations Podcast · Rating 5 out of 5]

Without doubt the best book that captures the atmosphere of 1980's Berlin. His experiences brought back many memories. He died in 1990, two years short of his 40th birthday.

If you want to know what happened to Mark Reeder, one of the main characters see link below

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Reeder

[Rachel Stevenson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like Ian Walker, I too went to Berlin in the 1980s, but not for squat parties in Kreuzberg, it was a school trip, a part of which was going over to the east for a day. Unlike Ian walker, I didn't write anything down about the experience (beyond trying to get booze and off with boys). Seven months later the wall came down and I’d missed my chance. Walker was an unselfconscious leftie, but was nonetheless resident in west Berlin, travelling to the east via U-bahn on day trips, to see his friends, to take over records and books.

Berlin is now hipster-ville, tourist city, and this book is a fantastic delve into what it was like before Karl Marx Allee became capitalist. I had to keep reminding myself that almost as much time has passed since the end of WW2 and the time Walker was writing this as between this book's publication and nowadays.

Sadly, Ian Walker died just a year after the wall came down (whilst in Nicaragua). I would've loved to read a follow up book with his erudite thoughts and poetic visions on how the two Berlins had merged into one and the trials and tribulations, travesties and travails of the new, unified city.

Zoo Station has been out of print for some time and is expensive second hand, but you can read it for free on archive.org https://archive.org/details/zoostatio...

[Michael Greening · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very perceptive and passionate piece of writing.

[Shane · Rating 5 out of 5]

This has to be right up there as one of the must-read books about life in West and East Berlin before the fall of the wall.

This is no boring, dry historical account of life in the divided city. This is a warts 'n all account of life in 1980s Berlin. The author zigzags across the two cities and recounts his experiences in both. Clearly, the author is of a Left wing disposition but I don't think that detracts from the book.

I learned a great deal, I doubt I would have hung around Kreuzberg in the 80s ;-) I could have done without some of the story telling of his youth but I guess this is Walker's Odyssey.

[Clare Harvey · Rating 4 out of 5]

unique subject, wonderful writing

[Brad · Rating 5 out of 5]

An obscure masterpiece. A sort of decadent drunken DeLillo story that ends with headlights in the rain.

[jessica becker · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dense with personalized detail, but memorable in the feeling of being in Berlin. A good re-read all these years later.

[Olaf Leeuwis · Rating 5 out of 5]

A real gem, what a delight. Such a shame he died a few years afterwards.

[David · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book has some neat insight into the two Berlins in the 1980s and there are some interesting stories and characters. However, the author's own personal leftist politics dominate his highly subjective and biased account of life in Berlin. Walker is unfortunately an unrepentant Soviet communist apologist. This is quite disturbing to someone like me who had to leave communist Hungary behind to live freely in the United States. It should also be disturbing to anyone familiar with the damage and destruction caused by communism throughout the 20th century and beyond.

Overall, this would have been an enjoyable book if the author's political ideology would not have overshadowed every page. I wonder how he enjoyed living in Nicaragua under the Sandinistas in that socialist 'paradise.' If nothing else, this book should serve as a warning for anyone who thinks that all that talk about the communist threat from within the West during the Cold War was nonsense.

[Betty · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was recommended by Nancy Pearl in one of her books. I'm traveling to Berlin later this year, so I tracked down a copy. I found it grim, not so much from his portrait of West and East Berlin in the early 1980s, but because of his disjointed, disconnected, dissolute life.

[Gary Bricklebank · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book when it came out & sometimes wonder what happened to Ian Walker. There is very little information other than that he died in Nicaragua not long after this was published. Does anyone know more?

[Paul Wilson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic - Berlin in the 1980s, West and East, with Walker volleying between each.

[Karl · Rating 3 out of 5]

A little time capsule of a point in time for an ever-changing city