This is a wonderfully informative book, a kind of "Once upon a Time, Ljubljana," in which elevated philosophical debates and emerging political and cultural realities keep crossing over into each other's frames. It tells the story -- not anecdotally, but analytically, with a wealth of theoretical sophistication -- of how, from the tiny country of Slovenia, Slavoj Žižek and his closest colleagues, Mladen Dolar and Alenka Zupancic, encouraged and inspired by a phalanx of talented artists and intellectuals, launched a distinctive school of thought (both Lacanian and Marxist) with universal appeal. The real accomplishment of the "back story" is that it sets this thought into relief; that is, it tarnishes neither its distinction nor its universality.
