The Romanian: Story of an Obsession

Description

'History follows a trail of sputtering desire, often calling upon the delusions of lovers to generate the sparks. If it weren't for us, the world would suffer from a dismal lack of stories.' In this brutally candid memoir, writer, translator and journalist Bruce Benderson recounts his unrequited love for an impoverished Romanian whom he meets while on a journalism assignment in Eastern Europe. Rather than retreat, Benderson absorbs everything he can about Romania, its culture and its history and discovers a mirror in it for his own turmoil: the wild affairs of its last king, Carol II. Free of bitterness, nastiness, or any desire to protect himself, he is sustained throughout by little white codeine pills, a poetic self-awareness, a sense of humor, and an unwavering belief in the perfect romance, even as wild dogs chase him down Romanian streets.

Bruce Benderson is the first American to receive the Prix de Flore, for The Romanian, which is published by Snowbooks in May 2006. He is the author of two works of fiction, User and Pretending to Say No, and several works of nonfiction, including Toward the New Degeneracy. He is a translator of French literature who has worked as a journalist for numerous American and French publications, including The New York Times Magazine and Liberation.

Simon Callow: "Bruce Benderson's harrowingly autobiographical The Romanian (Snowbooks) is one of the most devastating and unsparing accounts of amour fou I have ever read, providing at the same time an extraordinary glimpse into Romania's past and present. I read it at the same time as Andrew Holleran's Grief (Hyperion), a novel which - haunted by reflections on Henry Adams as a widower and Mary Lincoln's aimless life after her husband's assassination - deals calmly and wisely, in exquisite pellucid prose, with some fundamental truths. Both these books deal with gay life, but from diametrically opposite points of view. Finally, Ian Buruma's fine and subtle Murder in Amsterdam: The Death of Theo van Gogh and the Limits of Tolerance (Atlantic), while specifically and illuminatingly about some Dutch responses to Muslim extremism, has chilling resonances for all of us." More than simply a memoir, this is an extraordinary book: part travelogue, part love letter, politically incorrect and painfully honest. - Time Out - five star review More than just a memoir, The Romanian is also a fascinating travelogue of a country dense with mystical traces and decay...A grand, if disturbing adventure. --The Village Voice