Walker, Ian

New York. 1988. Atlantic Monthly Press. 1st Printing. Very Good in Wrappers. 0871131978. Paperback Original. 330 pages. paperback. Cover design by Robbin Schiff. Cover photograph by Nan Goldin. keywords: Travel Germany Berlin. FROM THE PUBLISHER - ZOO STATION is the account of a young man's odyssey through the two Berlins, where two systems of life and thought wage war. Ian Walker explores West Berlin's hip demimonde and East Berlin's dissident mood in the company of friends from both sides of the wall. A traveler looking for his own life, Walker shares an unlocked Kreuzberg ghetto flat on the western side with various Copenhagen skinheads, a Tamil guerrilla en route to Nicaragua, and Murat, a Turkish guestworker. His friend Pint (rhymes with mint) is an East German exile who once was jailed for dissent, and again for attempting to escape, only to have his freedom eventually bought by the West for a flat cash fee. A quick shuttle brings Walker from the neon glow of capitalism to the somber streets of the Eastern Bloc. His friends are architects, models, and musicians, each with a different view of the benefits of communism. He encounters Wolfgang, a suspiciously nice and well-bankrolled kind of guy, and Florence, a former British socialist now married and living in East Berlin, quite at home here now. At Friedrichstrasse Station - Zoo Station, as it's known - Walker watches as lovers line up at midnight to renew their twenty-four-hour visas. He hangs out at Doughboy City, the American army base, smuggles books and records across the border, dances at underground clubs well past dawn and at illegal concerts in East Berlin churchyards, meditates on a disintegrating romance, and debates with his friends, East and West, wall jumpers or not, the attractions of each side. inventory #25630 ISBN: 0871131978.