I'm not sure I have ever read a book translated from Romanian into English before. Now I will have the opportunity as my March NYRB selection is Matei Calinescu's The Life and Opinions of Zacharias Lichter. I am in the middle of the February book, which I am enjoying very much and finding smooth going, but the Calinescu may be closer to the Chang in terms of a 'perhaps challenging read'. This is an author and a book I know nothing about and likely would not have crossed my reading path had not NYRB nudged it my way. But the beauty of my NYRB subscription is broadening my literary horizons, so I am up for it. (If I managed to get through the Chang, I figure I can tackle whatever NYRB sends my way).
So, let's see, a little about Matei Calinescu first. He was born and educated in Romania (1934-2009) and emigrated to America in 1973 where he taught comparative literature at Indiana University. He was a "leading intellectual of his generation". This novel achieved "cult status among generations of young people despite attempts by Romanian authorities to expunge Calinescu's name and works from cultural memory". After the fall of Ceausescu Calinescu was able to return home.
The Life and Opinions of Zacharias Litchter is considered one of the top ten Romanian literary works of the 20th century. Why does this description bring to my mind J.P. Donleavy's classic The Ginger Man? (Which I have to be honest with you--I read it, but I could not warm up to at all).
"Ugly, unkempt, a haunter of low dives who begs for a living and lives on the street, Zacharias Lichter exists for all that in a state of unlikely rapture. After being engulfed by a divine flame as a teenager, Zacharias has devoted his days to doing nothing at all—apart, that is, from composing the odd poem he immediately throws away and consorting with a handful of stray friends: Poldy, for example, the catatonic alcoholic whom Zacharias considers a brilliant philosopher, or another more vigorous barfly whose prolific output of pornographic verses has won him the nickname of the Poet. Zacharias is a kind of holy fool, but one whose foolery calls in question both social convention and conventional wisdom. He is as much skeptic as ecstatic, affirming above all the truth of perplexity. This of course is what makes him a permanent outrage to the powers that be, be they reactionary or revolutionary, and to all other self-appointed champions of morality who are blind to their own absurdity. The only thing that scares Zacharias is that all-purpose servant of conformity, the psychiatrist."
Still, my mind is a blank slate and I am keeping an open mind. Whenever something is called picaresque, and this one has been called that, I also think of Cervantes's Don Quixote, too. Here is how the story opens:
"Many who chance to see him now and then, if only in passing, recognize him at once from the briefest of descriptions: a strange creature, so ludicrously ugly he produces a strong impression on even the indifferent observer--leaving behind one of those liminal but nagging memories that remain concealed in the shadows, only to surge forth from time to time with incredible freshness and precision."
He sounds like he could be quite interesting. This read should be an adventure! Apparently at the time of publication it passed the censor because they could not make head or tails of it, which means they were certainly the very people likely being skewered by his prose (much like Bohumil Hrabal's Closely Watched Trains--I see a pattern here!). Maybe if Zacharias is to my liking I should give this Calinescu book a try?