Mircea Cărtărescu

[miercuri]

Mircea Cărtărescu is one of the most widely translated contemporary Romanian authors, although outside Romania he still remains rather obscure.
He started off as a rebellious poet in the 80's. He was part of the so-called 'blue jeans generation' of poets. He wrote quirky, playful poetry (some would call it naive) but he soon grew out of it.
He made his debut as prose writer with Visul (The Dream), in 1989. The revised edition of this book was published some years later under the title of Nostalgia (http://www.amazon.com/Nostalgia-Directions-Paperbook-Mircea-Cartarescu/dp/0811215881/ref=sr_1_15?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1258501959&sr=8-15), with a few other alterations made to it.
Nostalgia was the first book I read by him, I would recommend it to anyone who would like to get acquainted with him. It consists of three novellas, all loosely connected, plus a prologue and an epilogue. The style is dense, oneiric. He outlines the distinctive universe which he later explored much further in Orbitor.
Nostalgia reads effortlessly (in my case at least). Orbitor is, however, his most ambitious work, a trilogy spanning over 1000 pages, which took him more than a decade to complete. I have yet to read the final volume, but for that I feel that must reread the first two. I will let you know when this happens.
I would add that Cărtărescu is the kind of author that obsesses over certain themes, there are many leitmotifs and they recur in all his books. There are kaleidoscopic descriptions, cryptic characters, there is magical realism and all dialogue is reported. Overall, he has a certain pomo vibe that might make some clutch their pearls.
But what makes his novels so dear to me is the fact that he put Bucharest, my homecity, on the literary map. He depicts a city of mythological proportions, a city within a city. He put into words his personal mythology of Bucharest. To make an analogy, I would say that in a way he is to Bucharest what Pamuk is to Istanbul.

So here is your thread Daniel. :) I tried to keep it brief, I tried to make it more factual, but it still turned out rather cheesy. Oh well.

Here is the wiki link too, although I don't find it illuminating at all:
Mircea C?rt?rescu - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mircea_Cartarescu)

[e joseph]

...I tried to keep it brief, I tried to make it more factual, but it still turned out rather cheesy. Oh well.

I know this exact feeling reading anything I've written on this site longer than 3 sentences. I liked its brevity, informativeness and cheesiness though. Thanks.

[Backwords]

Sounds interesting. I'm going to get Nostalgia at the library. Thx.

[nnyhav]

Stochastic Bookmark: Just this side of Byzantium (http://nnyhav.blogspot.com/2007/05/just-this-side-of-byzantium.html)
(yes I already linked this in the RomLit thread, but it bears repeating)

[Daniel del Real]

So here is your thread Daniel. :) I tried to keep it brief, I tried to make it more factual, but it still turned out rather cheesy. Oh well.


Thanks a lot for the thread Miercuri, you did very well actually. I'd prefer to read this in Spanish, since being a Romance language it is closer to Romanian than English, but I think he hasn't been translated into Spanish yet, or am I wrong? I'll make my research because it really seems an inspiring author.
I really liked the comparison you did on Cartarescu/Bucharest and Pamuk/Istanbul.

[Bjorn]

Yeah, thanks for starting this thread, miercuri. I've somehow ended up with only the third volume of Orbitor on my shelf, so I'll have to search out the first two, but he's definitely on my TBR list.

[Eric]

Ee, Joseph, you should read some of the succinct reviews in English, less than a hundred lines long, which still manage to include words such as subterraneously, holographic, fractalic, parabolic, Bildungsromanish (who put the "dung" in Bildungsroman?), trompe-l'?il, and anglot.

Ee, I'm glad I'm not educated.

Seriously though, Cărtărescu does sound to be an interesting author. Sticking to quasi-monosyllabic vocabulary, I would say that novels that are set in a real city, and when this forms more than a backdrop, appeal to me.

I found an excerpt here:

WWB: from The Roulette Player by Mircea Cartarescu, translated from the Romanian by Julian Semilian (http://www.wordswithoutborders.org/?lab=Roulette)

So, English-speakers can judge for themselves from this brief sampler. Another piece by him:

WWB: Nabokov in Brasov by Mircea Cartarescu, translated from the Romanian by Julian Semilian (http://www.wordswithoutborders.org/?lab=Nabokov)

[e joseph]

Eric, clearly I'm not educated either. I've no idea what you're talking about. Care to attempt to dumb it down for me?

[Daniel del Real]

The only book I found translated to Spanish is one named "Why we like women" by an unknown to me, Funambulista Editors.
Do you know this book Miercuri?

[miercuri]

Yes, it's compilation of short stories/articles priviously published in Elle Magazine. He was a 'special guest' contributing writer for Elle Romania a few years ago. :p I thought it was an ok book, but it doesn't really illustrate his style. It became a bestseller over here though. Cărtărescu said it was the only book that actually brought him some financial gain. Of course, there were critics who argued that he was selling out and he could no longer be taken seriously as a writer...
The bit that Eric has posted earlier, Nabokov in Brasov (http://www.wordswithoutborders.org/?lab=Nabokov), is one of the short stories from Why we love wome. The other one is an excerpt from the prologue of Nostalgia.
Daniel, I think I read somewhere that The Dream, the first edition of Nostalgia was transtated to Spanish in 1990, but I would guess it is long out of print. :confused:

[Daniel del Real]

Yes, it's compilation of short stories/articles priviously published in Elle Magazine. He was a 'special guest' contributing writer for Elle Romania a few years ago. :p I thought it was an ok book, but it doesn't really illustrate his style. It became a bestseller over here though. Cărtărescu said it was the only book that actually brought him some financial gain. Of course, there were critics who argued that he was selling out and he could no longer be taken seriously as a writer...
The bit that Eric has posted earlier, Nabokov in Brasov (http://www.wordswithoutborders.org/?lab=Nabokov), is one of the short stories from Why we love wome. The other one is an excerpt from the prologue of Nostalgia.
Daniel, I think I read somewhere that The Dream, the first edition of Nostalgia was transtated to Spanish in 1990, but I would guess it is long out of print. :confused:

I think is going to be hard to find Cartarescu's books, however I'll be searching carefully for them in the Guadalajara Book Fair opening November 28th. In a place so big they must have something. Or maybe not, 85% of the stands are full of crap.
So, wish me luck :)

[miercuri]

Well good luck with that! And, on a side note, have fun at the bookfair! I imagine it must take a while to explore that place.

[Backwords]

What is anglot?

[nnyhav]

What is anglot?
neologism for English-only speaker, collision of anglo & polyglot

(tho it's also old coinage: Definition of Anglot (http://www.greengonzo.com/dictionary/Angelat.html))

[Backwords]

Ahhh. Thanks.

[Eric]

While attending a meeting last Friday of the Translators' Section of the Swedish Writers' Union, I chatted a little to someone called Inger Johansson. And it turns out that she has translated four Cărtărescu books into Swedish: Nostalgia, plus the Orbitor trilogy. This is well over 1,000 pages in total. Björn already mentioned he was reading the books in November 2009. I only really discovered them last weekend.

My question. have any of these four books appeared in English? If not, why not? Are any of them being translated right now into English? As you can see, looking back on this thread, I did find an excerpt or two, plus short fragments. But without a whole book or two to look forward to, your interest soon palls. I was taking the piss back in November 2009 in my own comment, as I sometimes feel that reviewers are frustrated authors who think the world will notice of them is they use long or pseudy words. Luckily, while I have been put off for just over a year, by the person who used "stochastic", the books themselves look a good deal more readable. Why do reviewers sometimes sabotage interest?

Now that I can read Cărtărescu in a language I know well, and the stochastic man seems to have gone away, I shall probably read them.

[miercuri]

My question. have any of these four books appeared in English?
Well, Nostalgia has been translated. I left a link at the top. But there doesn't seem to be much interest for Orbitor, even though it was translated into French and German.

[Daniel del Real]

As I anticipated in my post from more than a year ago, it's almost imposible to find any Cartarescu in Spanish, at least in Mexico. In Spain there are 3 titles available, all of them published by small publishing houses. It's going to be easier to read Nostaliga en English, it will be in my next Amazon shipment cuz I'm really interested in reading this author.

[Rumpelstilzchen]

Just discovered this thread via the Nobel speculation thread (thanks to Adaorardor).

The author sounds really interesting. Several books seem to have been translated into German: how lucky we are :). I any case, will go for Nostalgia first.

Thanks Miercuri :)

[Daniel del Real]

Just discovered this thread via the Nobel speculation thread (thanks to Adaorardor).

The author sounds really interesting. Several books seem to have been translated into German: how lucky we are :). I any case, will go for Nostalgia first.

Thanks Miercuri :)

I purchased this book earlier this month. Will read it later this year.

[Rumpelstilzchen]

Cărtărescu's ode to Herta Müller:
http://www.signandsight.com/features/1946.html

[Daniel del Real]

After more than a year in my shelves, I finally picked Cartarescu's Nostalgia. So far I've managed to read the first two parts: The Roulette Player and Mentardy. I absolutely loved the prologue, the idea of this fantastic man who keeps playing despite his odds are lowering until it gets to no chances at all to survive it's just stunning. Mentardy was a bit slower and not that amazing.The theories Mentardy explained to his friends were quite amusing and interesting though. This is good stuff, so let's see what brings ahed

[Daniel del Real]

I've been reading Nostalgia for the last two weeks and apparently I committed the mistake everybody told me not to do, that is reading it occasionally since the last two weekends I've been travelling. I see what everybody means when you said it needs dedicated time and have special attention to it.
The Roulette Player is an astonishing entrance to Cartarescu's universe, the story is fascinating and the main character is a very solid persona in his fictional description. However, you can realize it wasn't written at the same time than the body of the book, as the themes are very different one from another. After you enter to the Nostalgia section everything is different and it goes from slight fantasized atmospheres to a totally different world of dreams, hallucinatory memoirs of childhood and the excruciating tension of the young loves, so tortuous and fascinating at the same time. The three stories that constitute Nostalgia relay its strength precisely on evocation of past times, memories, moments seem little at the time but that constitute a totem in the life of everyone. Not a big fan on how he takes dreams and develops it in a very short, concise but scarce way. Haven't finished REM so probably there is a why on those short dreams that he keeps telling to this giant skeletal figure living in the hightower. However, after the brilliance of the introduction I expected something different and better from the main part of the body, something that has not happened yet with Mentardy & The Twins. REM is a good story, but I think it takes too long in describing the girl's games that makes it a little dull at times, too long for being a short story and missing depth to be a short novel. Haven't finished it yet so probably I'll have a different perspective later.

[Hamlet]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mircea_C%C4%83rt%C4%83rescu

I looked him up on Wiki Daniel, but it's not much of an entry. More of a slim chicken leg of an entry in fact, than a fat and tasty goose.

Just to add some gratuitous imagery to that sentence.