My rating : 3 / 5
For the last 5 years, I’ve traveled to Romania at least once a year and as often as 4 times per. The country and its people have so much history, and it’s such a contrast to the US and to California in particular.
There are many legends about Dracula and Dracula’s castle (which I have yet to visit), but I’ve been trying to find some current literary fiction about Romania, set in Romania, or by Romanian authors. Since I’m just barely learning Romanian (“Înteleg putin Românesti”), I need something that’s been translated to English.
Turns out, there is actually more than I thought there was. However, when I first looked, The Land of Green Plums was all I could find. Herta Müller is a Romanian-born German novelist, and she was the recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2009.
The Land of Green Plums is set in communist Romania, before the revolution in 1989 and the overthrow of Nicolae Ceausescu. Herta Müller lived in Romania during this time, and the novel is in part based on her own life. The protagonist is also an ethic German born and living in Romania. She and her 4 male friends are oppressed, under surveillance interrogated and followed frequently.
Unfortunately, this book really missed the mark for me. Since I read a translation, I don’t know if I’m commenting more on the translation or the original work, but the issues I have are so prevalent, that I can’t see this being an issue solely with the translation.
To start, the book only loosely has a plot. The narrator, who I don’t think is ever named, and her friends seem to be trying to flee Romania. People they know are frequently shot for trying to escape the country. However, it seems that it’s perfectly feasible to go down to an office and request a passport for emigration. If this is the case, why are all these people trying to flee illegally and risking their lives? This is not addressed in the novel and was confusing to me.
The one positive thing about this novel, one thing it did well, is to capture the emotional state of the time and place. I felt as though the narrator’s dire situation and abysmal life came through.
“In this county, we had to walk, eat, sleep and love in fear.”
This novel reads more like a very long poem written in prose. There is so much imagery and symbolism, and much of it is incomprehensible. It seems like it should be lyrical and flowing, but instead it just falls flat. Some of it is clearly intended to be surreal (or part of a dream?) but it is never clear what is actually happening and what is not. I’d love to add some more quotes to demonstrate what I’m talking about, but I loaned the book to my mom to read.
I was hoping for vivid scenery and descriptions of people and places. Instead, the narrators 4 friends seem interchangeable and the characters are all very one-dimensional.
Hopefully, my next attempt at reading something from or about Romania will be more successful!