Book Review: "Nostalgia" by Mircea Cărtărescu

The Kindle version of this was cheaper than getting the paperback. I've not read this author before and if I have, it definitely wasn't a set of weird interlocked stories satirising the impacts of communism. One thing I have been able to learn about the author is that he too, is a huge Bob Dylan fan and so, he's alright in our books. As I read this book, the one thing I noticed is that there was definitely some influence from other authors, one of which was Chekhov - at least I hope he was inspired by Chekhov. Some of these stories definitely remind me of back when I read Chekhov's The Bet and so, that's why I simply assumed. Let's take a look at it then...

The opening novella, The Roulette Player, tells of a man named Costel who becomes a near-mythical gambler. He achieves miraculous winning streaks at Russian roulette and his survival giving him charisma, a cult-like following, and a strange aura of transcendence. But the story is not really about luck, instead it’s about mortality, faith, and the obsessive pull of games that push people to the edge of existence. There's something quite unsettling about this story, especially considering that it is about some guy playing Russian roulette. The obsession is also something unsettling because the main character definitely becomes more enamoured with his own sense of success the more success he gets - whereas in reality, every time he plays, he gets closer to death by the rules of probability.

In Mentardy, Cărtărescu recalls childhood through the character of a boy nicknamed “Mentardy,” who is both ridiculed and revered by other children. His presence blurs reality and imagination: he seems fragile, almost spectral, and becomes a mirror of childhood cruelty and longing. Through him, the author meditates on innocence, cruelty, and how memory distorts the truth of youth. I can say I related somewhat to this because I have very little actual memories of my youth, only pictures and things other people have said - as for organic memories though, they simply aren't there. So when it comes to what this story represents, yes it is the communist government's way of changing pasts to suit a narrative, but it is also a testament to us as human beings.

Another story, The Twins, enters the grotesque and uncanny. It describes Siamese twins whose existence unsettles those around them. Their condition becomes a metaphor for duality and how their sense of self almost becomes divided or fractured by this same duality. The author uses dream logic and hallucinatory imagery to explore the strangeness of the human body and the unease it provokes. Honestly, this one felt the most like a metaphor to me and how certain regimes can change the way the 'normal' and 'abnormal' are viewed to create outsiders or 'us vs them' mentality. The grotesque nature of the twins themselves is grotesque in the context, but their metaphor of duality is even stronger. There's something about the want for independence but the requirement for dependency that is actually quite frightening.

In REM, teenage characters experiment with dreams, sexual encounters, and hallucinatory experiences. They form a kind of secret society, trying to push themselves into alternate realities through lucid dreaming and trance. The boundary between sleep and wakefulness dissolves, leading to bizarre, erotic, and terrifying visions. The story becomes a metaphor for adolescence as a liminal state as in: on the edge of madness, yearning, and transcendence. This one, initially I wasn't too sure about but it became better as it went on. The theme of youthful escapism is something that keeps returning over and over again. A requirement to control the narrative of yourself in a time and place where other people control it for you is seen as a form of resistance, no matter how controversial the method might seem. It was actually quite intriguing.

All in all, I thought this book was an anthology of great things. The writing definitely suited the topics, at times it could feel deeply uncomfortable whilst at other times it felt uplifting. I was interested in the storylines of these incredibly individual characters and honestly, I would recommend this to anyone wanting to find a million different metaphors in a simple story. It was brilliant.