I'm an Old Commie! - (Romanian Literature) by Dan Lungu (Paperback)

About the Book

"Originally published in Romanian by Editura Polirom as Sãint o babæa comunistæa! in 2011" -- Verso title page/

Book Synopsis

Emilia, a pensioner in northern Romania, is forced to confront the nostalgic illusions she nurtures as a reaction to the grim post-communist present when her daughter, now living in Canada, telephones urging her not to vote for the former communists in upcoming elections. Determined to discover in her own mind why 'things were better back then, ' she explores her memories of growing up in an impoverished village and of her life as a factory worker in the town. But ironic tension grows as the reader glimpses between the lines how nothing was what it seemed in Ceaușescu's Romania. Interspersed among Emilia's memories are fantastical, hilarious anecdotes about the dictator, told by a factory foreman who will turn out to have been a secret police informer. I'm a Commie! is a subtle and humane novel about self-deception, but also about the ways in which a totalitarian state twisted ordinary lives.

Review Quotes

"A very good novel, a novel of copious humour, written in the first person, on one of the most topical of subjects: the (im)possibility of reconciling the memories of a happy childhood and youth with a recognition of the abjection of communism." --Mihaela Ursa, Apostrof

"Dan Lungu refuses . . . the monarchic perspective of the demiurge-novelist who always gazes on the world from above . . . for he treats his characters 'from one equal to another', places himself among them, advancing a vision 'from within' which confers upon the narrative some extra authenticity and naturalness" --Octavian Soviany, Tribuna

"We are dealing here with an extraordinary novel, one of the few that I can calmly recommend for export. Because it is incredibly simple to read. Because it is written with astonishing lightness, because it has no pretensions to be a fresco of the Ceausescu epoch or of the 1990s. It is an examination, humane and at the same time cold, of a typically Central-European state of mind." --C. Rogozanu, Suplimentul de cultura