The Romanian by Bruce Benderson

‘The Romanian’ idles now by my side with crumpled pages, not long after reading Bruce Benderson’s interview in The Rumpus. Must be the longing for connection with a space I know too well, the space of a post communist Romania whose youth are struggling to come to terms with the endless material possibilities that the western world lavishes on its people, but which are out of reach for easterners.

My state evolved during the lecture from being unimpressed, or better said, slightly edgy regarding the author’s [what it seemed at that stage] exclusive contact with the underground Romania, to being bemused and feeling superior towards the American’s naiveté who lacks the basics notions of street smartness and who gullible engages in potentially dangerous situations, even bursting at one point ‘he’s so lucky. Romulus could have robbed him so many times’, traversing sadness towards the most likely sorrowful end the story will unroll, finally settling in genuine joy when faced with the improbable, yet real finale of this modern day, gay Lolita novel.

An appealing reading.

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The nerve.com article that drove the adventure.

Dropped Three Trapped Tigers , reading The Black Book of Communism and Small Wars.