Reviews

Entries Tagged as 'Reviews'

ETERNAL REST IN BUCHAREST (part 3 OF 6)

March 27th, 2016 · Comments Off on ETERNAL REST IN BUCHAREST (part 3 OF 6) · History, PEOPLE, quotations, Reviews, Short Stories & Cameos

Still, during the dictatorship years the Continental was no more than a gilded cage for tourists, a kind of ghetto, where all foreign visitors were huddled together, as they were easier to keep in check. A hub of Securitate operatives and professional prostitutes were at hand. A mall of hard-currency shops, where luxury goods could be bought only with dollars, were completing the landscape. Dollars were at the time a currency, which native Romanians were not allowed to obtain: if found out, or denounced, they could spend years in prison.

BOOK REVIEW: A Romanian close encounter – “The Romanian – Story of an Obsession

February 27th, 2016 · Comments Off on BOOK REVIEW: A Romanian close encounter – “The Romanian – Story of an Obsession · Books, Diary, International Media, PEOPLE, Reviews

A literary critic of “Le Monde” who is quoted on the front cover of this book states that: “what astonishes and intrigues is Benderson’s way of recounting in the sweetest possible voice, things which are considered shocking… ”
If the French are “shocked”, then the Romanians would certainly be outraged, not by the lack of prudery, as by the fresco of the Romanian society of motley pimps, hustlers, prostitutes, bureaucrats, hangers-on, desperate people and the whole gamut of poor destitute of all ages, social background and ethnic origin, neither of whom come out too well, in the end: TOUGH!

Constantin ROMAN – Book Review: Orwell behind the Iron Curtain

February 26th, 2016 · Comments Off on Constantin ROMAN – Book Review: Orwell behind the Iron Curtain · Books, Communist Prisons, Diary, Famous People, History, International Media, OPINION, PEOPLE, quotations, Reviews

Orwell behind the Iron Curtain
Margot Eftimiu,, my private French language teacher in Buchrest, was educated in Vevay, Switzerland and fell on hard times after being expropriated by the Communist regime. She borrowed these magazines and transcribed by hand the whole of Orwell’s 1984 novel- no mean feat and a labor of love. I had the privilege of being lent these notebooks when I was just 15 years of age, and found the reading fascinating.
As a teenager, during the dire Stalinist years I identified myself perfectly well with the character of Orwell’s book and with the whole atmosphere described by the author, as one which we were experiencing in Romania under a communist dictatorship.

Constantin ROMAN’s Book Review: “Bread, Salt & Plum Brandy” by Lisa Fisher Cazacu

February 26th, 2016 · Comments Off on Constantin ROMAN’s Book Review: “Bread, Salt & Plum Brandy” by Lisa Fisher Cazacu · Books, Diaspora, OPINION, PEOPLE, Reviews

FIRSTLY she comes to realize the true blessing of being born in a country where public services function properly and are taken for granted:
– “what, no bus service to take children to school? What, no compulsion by RomTelecom the national telephone company to fix the fault on Lisa’s line at a weekend?”
– Who needs a phone, anyway?
The list of Ubuesque mishaps is endless and a great eye-opener both for the reader who could not imagine it and for the natives who got used to and put up with it for far too long!

Isabela Vasiliu-Scraba: Receptarea românească A PRIMULUI SCRIITOR STRĂIN LAUREAT AL PREMIULUI GONCOURT

January 15th, 2016 · Comments Off on Isabela Vasiliu-Scraba: Receptarea românească A PRIMULUI SCRIITOR STRĂIN LAUREAT AL PREMIULUI GONCOURT · Books, Communist Prisons, Diaspora, Famous People, International Media, OPINION, PEOPLE, POLITICAL DETENTION / DISSENT, quotations, Reviews, Translations

Prin anii cincizeci Vintilă Horia reținea cu mai multă subtilitate un fapt caracteristic lumii desacralizate în care mulți sunt creștini doar cu numele: Anume că păgânismul care „controlează toate mijloacele eficace de propagandă” îndreaptă „voința de a aparține” nutrită de omul societății de azi către partide, secte, grupări totalitare” (Vintilă Horia, Speranța socialismului tragic, text publicat de Uscătescu în revista „Destin” nr. 8-9/ 1954, republicat în vol. Mihaela Albu & Dan Anghelescu, Eseistica lui Vintilă Horia – deschideri către transdisciplinaritate, Ed. Aius, Craiova, 2015, p.199). – See more at: http://www.romanianstudies.org/content/2016/01/isabela-vasiliu-scraba-receptarea-romaneasca-a-primului-scriitor-strain-laureat-al-premiului-goncourt/?preview_id=7030&preview_nonce=6b04855292&preview=true#sthash.SUZLPqIt.dpuf

Poetry in Translation (CCCLXXII), ROMANIA/GERMANY, Alexandru LUNGU (1924 Cetatea Alba, Bessarabia, Romania – 2008, Bonn, Germany): “Margini”, “Limit”

January 9th, 2016 · Comments Off on Poetry in Translation (CCCLXXII), ROMANIA/GERMANY, Alexandru LUNGU (1924 Cetatea Alba, Bessarabia, Romania – 2008, Bonn, Germany): “Margini”, “Limit” · Diaspora, Famous People, International Media, PEOPLE, Poetry, quotations, Reviews, Translations

Leave me this limit
of the world
ultimate frontier uncertain space
sufficient to stop sliding
this lonely traveler’s foot
sufficient to stop my head
falling off the clouds.

Poetry in Translation (CCCLXVIII), France, René DAUMAL (1908-1944): “Poème”, “Poem”

December 17th, 2015 · No Comments · Books, Famous People, International Media, PEOPLE, Poetry, quotations, Reviews, Translations

Voyant qu’on n’a rien, on essaye de se donner,
Essayant de se donner, on voit qu’on n’est rien,
Voyant qu’on est rien, on désire devenir,
Désirant devenir, on vit.
Văzând că nu am nimic, încerc să ofer,
Încercând să ofer, văd că sunt un nimic,
Văzând că sunt un nimic, doresc să devin,
Dorind să devin, trăiesc.

Catherine Durandin prezintă: “Blouse Roumaine – The Unsung Voices of Romanian Women”

November 12th, 2015 · No Comments · Books, Diary, Diaspora, Famous People, International Media, PEOPLE, Reviews, Science

Această antologie este un dar minunat care surprinde prin originalitatea sa, chiar am putea spune prin aspectul său esoteric; este o cavalcadă pasionantă, până la obsesie, aidoma vocilor acestor femei extraordinare pe care le evocă.

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Isabela Vasiliu-Scraba, „Rinocerizarea” criteriului biografic la un istoric dilematic

November 6th, 2015 · No Comments · Communist Prisons, Diaspora, Famous People, History, International Media, OPINION, PEOPLE, POLITICAL DETENTION / DISSENT, quotations, Reviews

„Rinocerizarea” devine posibilă după „cucerirea puterii prin modificarea mentalității, grație hegemoniei ideologice veșnic atentă ca cele spuse și publicate să nu-i fie defavorabile (vezi Ion Varlam, Pseudoromânia. Conspirarea deconspirării, București, Ed. Vog, 2004, p.68).

Poetry in Translation (CCCLX), Paul CELAN (1920, Cernăuți, Bucovina, Romania – 1970, Paris, France), ROMANIA/FRANCE: “PANTA”, “La Pente”, “Die Halde”

October 10th, 2015 · No Comments · Books, Diaspora, Famous People, International Media, PEOPLE, Poetry, quotations, Reviews, Science, Translations

Tu vis près de moi, telle que moi :
comme une pierre
dans la joue affaissée de la nuit.
…
Ô cet œil ivre
qui erre ici comme nous
nous confond à lui
et s’en étonne.

Exişti alături de mine, ca şi mine însumi:
ca o piatră
în obrazul supt al nopţii.

O, acest ochi beat
rătăcitor ca şi noi
ne confundă
şi este surprins.

Centre for Romanian Studies