Zoo Station: The Story of Christiane F.

I loved this book from start to finish. I first read the book in middle school then again in my adult life. I'm purchasing it for a second time since I lost my first copy. It's one that you'll read over and over and it won't be any less sad or intense. The whole time you're rooting for Christine and hoping she makes better choices, and getting upset when she doesn't. It's a story that will stay with you for a lifetime.

I read this book many many years ago. The memory of book has stayed with me for a long time -- a book filled with sadness and despair for reality for a young girl who grew up fast and tough. As it is filled with some frightening and harrowing experiences I would recommend it as a good read for teenagers as it has its anti drug messages thru the graphic experiences of the characters in this book.

This is a great book! I read it when I was about 14 yrs old and the graphic description of Christiane shooting-up gave me all the details to satisfy my curiosity about drugs that I never wanted to experiment with them and never did. ALL teenagers, boys and girls, should read this book. It points out the downward road to self destruction many teenagers occasionally think about. It gives a teenagers a reality check, also when it comes to considering running away from home and all the crazy perverts "out there" that don't respect anyone, just want to use you and want to get in your pants when you are young, pretty, and inexperienced about life and the world.

I first read Christiane F over 20 years ago, & it's been re-read at least annually since then. This book is fascinating on so many levels.For those unaware of the background of this book, in the mid 70's two young German journalists did a photo-essay of the teenage prostitutes (male & female) that hung out in a subway station in Berlin, the Baunhoff. The magazine that ran it (Stern) received such an outpouring from the public that the authors decided to expand the piece to book length; to do so, they chose to focus on one particular girl they had interviewed, Christiane. At the time of the interviews, Christiane was 15 & had already spent 2 years on the "Baby Line" in Berlin, as well as having been a heroin addict since 12. Ostensibly clean at the time, she is brutally honest in her description of the years in question.Told in Christiane's own words with almost no interference from the authors (at least in the English translation), her story is revalatory on many counts. To an American reader, life in Berlin circa 1973-5 sounds wildly different from our own teens lives; legal adulthood is reached at the age of 14. School classes are jammed college-lecture style with as many as 100 young students per class, so teachers never have any direct contact with their charges. Life is lived in high-rise tenement blocks, where children playing outside in the concrete alleys have no chance to make it back to their flats to relieve themselves; the stairways are foul with the result. Young teens are never given a chance to develop intellectually, but are herded into vocational schools with no chance of a higher education. Etc, etc.Faced with the gloomy prospects & no recreational outlets, is it any wonder so many adolescents were drawn to the glitz of the glam discos where English rock stars such as David Bowie were idolized? Even on school nights, the group Christiane runs with are out til the morning trains come to take them to school where they can sleep it off. With over the counter amphetimines & downers easily available, it isn't hard for a 12 year old girl to take the next step to heroin when she sees the older friends she idolizes do so.Detlef, Christiane's boyfriend, first provides heroin for both of them thru gay prostitution. But soon their needs overwhelm his ability to earn; since she's hanging at the subway station with him anyway, what could be more reasonable than to do a few easy tricks herself? And so the downward spiral continues...Christiane describes her friends vividly & their deaths with a clearness of vision. Although the book ends on a hopeful note, the prospective reader should know that Christiane did return to her life as an addict in her 20's. Now in her 40's, she is a mother & claims to have cleaned up. But anyone familiar with the chemical changes wrought in the brain by heroin will understand how someone habituated to it at 12 could find it impossible to stay away long.If you are easily offended, this is not a book

I have read this book on several occassions and I still find it shocking even as a 34 year old.I think this book should be read in schools, and I am disappointed it is no longer in print or available in book shops. This is the type of book I feel should be available in light of the tragic drug problem we now seem to have. It gives a more realistic interpretation of what a drug addicts life is really like and how it isn't the glamourous life some think it is.Christiane is still fighting with her addiction now, so it is not an easy thing to escape. If you are interested there are web sites about Christiane, just use your search facilities.

Any Teenager should have read this book or at least have seen the movie. This is not a fictional Story, it's the ugly Truth that most people don't want to know. Instead of pointing the Finger at the Addicts, people should get a bare impression of what they go through everyday and how easy it is to become an addict. For me, the most shocking thing about this book was, that if I would have been in that scene (Berlin 70's), I would surely also have become a junkie. This book should be read in every school, it would be actually something that we could LEARN from. Although it is certainly not a listening pleasure, everyone that is barely interested on what can go wrong should read it.