My rating: 5/5
Book review:
For
those of you who have seen Tales
from the Golden Age and enjoyed it, Dan Lungu's novel could reiterate
that experience. There is also a movie made after the novel in 2013.
I’m a Communist Biddy! is nowhere near a profound, serious novel; it doesn't promise revelations or novelties (well, at least for the Romanian readers, it doesn't). But it is undoubtedly funny, even in spite of the sad realities it encompasses. A book I fell in love with from the moment I read its first paragraphs and which I didn't want to part with, not ever. As far as I am cocerned, I fully enjoy Dan Lungu's writing; I appreciate his delicious humor, which is far from being stale, predictable or vulgar. I only wish for him to be finally translated into English!
My rating: 4/5
Book review:
In Romanian, the word fugă has a double meaning: that of run/flight and that of fugue, the polyphonic musical composition in which the theme is repeated by several voices and developed through the counterpoint technique. The word is used in this novel both ways: the main character is caught in a perpetual and futile run, while the novel is structured similarly to a Bach fugue, with different voices that replay and develop the main theme, but also with additions that extend the complexity of the story.
As a critic states in the foreword, this novel which cannot be retold has, precisely for that reason, a fresh quality, even after 40 years from its conception. Founder of the oneiric aestheticism, Dumitru Ţepeneag conceived his first novel after the logic (or non-logic) of dreams, as opposed to the surrealism, which uses dreams as a source of images and motifs.
My rating: 4/5
Nothing is incompatible in Romania.
In 1986, at the age of 50 and three years before the fall of communism in Romania, Norman Manea decided to emigrate abroad, first to Germany, later reaching the final destination - The Paradise, The Other World, The United States. He was to come back one decade later, in 1997.
The return visit, awaited with doubts and apprehension, awakens memories from his previous life. Through a non-linear chronology and convoluted narrative, he slowly reconstructs the image of his family and friends, while recollecting the experiences that shaped him: Holocaust, Communism, Exile and, above all, his Jewish origin. It is a pretext to muse on subjects such as language, identity, history, belonging, formation, ambiguity and adaptation.
My rating: 3/5
What is it that pushes people towards committing suicide? I thought the answer was simple: a grief and desperation so great that would obliterate any trace of hope and desire. One of the characters in Our Circus Presents has a different opinion, though: besides being the ultimate artistic act that a human being can perform, a true suicide is one without a motive. If one has desires, even the littlest of projections into the future, it means that one is not really capable of committing suicide. The same character asks: what was the reason behind God's creation of Earth and people? He couldn't have made it either from love, wisdom or desire for power and justice. He concludes that God had no real motive, it was just because. An authentic suicide should be the same, just because.
My rating: 4/5
Book review:
I haven't read a novel by a Romanian author in a long time. I, along with many other young people here, tend to avoid local literature because:
a) it may be full of social commentary and communism issues (people are already fed up with it, yet it may prove interesting for a foreigner);
b) it might be brimming with obscene words (although there is a market for that, I'm sure);
or, simply, c) it may turn out to be a disappointment.
Surely, this could be a reaction of a country whose members are not overly patriotic, read less and less and are not able to come to terms with their place (and time) in history.
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