RUSSIAN DISCO
By Wladimir Kaminer
This book is about Russian immigrant Kaminer describing post-wall Berlin in short, interconnected understated vignettes of life. A German learns Russian from a children's radio show and calls everybody "my little friend" and gets arrested for murder when he visits Moscow for the first time; advice on how to deal with curses and hire a witch and something of the Russian disco run in a bar by the author. Kaminer has now achieved international celebrity status and travels all over Europe playing his unique brand of kitschy pop. Other Russendiskos have sprung up all over the country.
Kaminer freely admit that the Russendisko would be a flop in the highly charged fashion factories of Moscow's clubs, where young oligarchs go to show off their Armani suits, their model girlfriends and their big wads of cash. "Even the Russians here are shocked at the mixes we make, and the Germans have mostly never heard any of this music before," says Kaminer. "In the meantime, the Russian community in Berlin have their own discos. They like lots of gold and velvet. We don't conform to their tastes. Part of the attraction of the Russendisko is that it is a disco without any context."
Kaminer has four other books; this is the only one translated to English.
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