miercuri
Reader
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, 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
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, 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
