The Romanian: Story of an Obsession [Mass Market Paperback]

Bruce Benderson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 2, 2006

Winner of the 2004 Prix de Flore-one of France's most distinguished literary prizes-a wildly romantic, true-life love story

History follows a trail of sputtering desire, often calling upon the delusions of lovers to generate the sparks. If it weren't for us, the world would suffer from a dismal lack of stories," writes Bruce Benderson in this brutally candid memoir.

"What astonishes and intrigues is Benderson's way of recounting, in the sweetest possible voice, things that are considered shocking," wrote Le Monde. What's so shocking? It's not just Benderson's job translating Céline Dion's saccharine autobiography, which he admits is driving him mad; but his unrequited love for an impoverished Romanian in "cheap club-kid platforms with dollar signs in his squinting eyes," whom he meets while on a journalism assignment in Eastern Europe.

Rather than retreat, Benderson absorbs everything he can about Romanian culture and discovers an uncanny similarity between his own obsession for the Romanian (named Romulus) and the disastrous love affair of King Carol II, the last king of Romania (1893-1953). Throughout, Benderson-"absolutely free of bitterness, nastiness, or any desire to protect himself," wrote Le Monde-is sustained by little white codeine pills, a poetic self-awareness, a sense of humor, and an unwavering belief in the perfect romance, even as wild dogs chase him down Romanian streets.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Benderson was wandering Budapest researching sex clubs for Nerve. com when he fell in love. Romulus, a Romanian street hustler, was a sleekly attractive, uneducated (though clever) 24-year old (significantly younger than Benderson), into soccer, TV and swapping dirty stories with his buddies. Living in a largely homophobic culture, Romulus didn't consider himself anything but heterosexual, even as he spent months having sex with Benderson. As Benderson (author of two novels, including User, as well as some nonfiction) slid into an obsession with Romulus, he started reading about Romanians whose lives and loves seemed curiously tangential: the artist Brancusi; the novelist Istrati; the lascivious King Carol II and his Jewish lover, Lupescu. Sometimes, Benderson and Romulus drove around the Romanian countryside, exploring villages mired between pastoral paganism and socialist realism. Weaving storytelling and seduction, Benderson's tale has a deliciously Arabian Nights flavor. His descriptions—the fat Ukrainian bartender with "fast, greedy fingers" and "predatory" hospitality—render scenes so three-dimensional, readers will be checking for their wallets. While some may be derailed by the unsafe sex and Benderson's back-to-the-closet erotics, anyone—gay or straight—who's able to read a painfully honest account of an obsessive love affair without feeling they need to judge the author will be rewarded. This Prix de Flore winner could be Benderson's American breakthrough book. (Feb.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

"History, and my history, are part porn novels," declares Benderson halfway through this haunting memoir of his nine-month obsession with a deprived young street hustler from Romania. Enthralled by Romulus' soccer-defined legs and ill-fitting macho gestures as well as romanticized notions of barrier crossing with a poor Eastern European man who claims to be heterosexual, Benderson relishes the purity of homosexual sex that denies bourgeois notions of gayness even as his infatuation careens out of control. Romanian history and culture--especially the romantic gamble of the "playboy king," Carol II, and his Jewish lover, Lupescu, and sculptor Constantin Brancusi's modern abstractions--guide Benderson through the inscrutability of passion from the perspective of the beloved and other mysteries, the author's erotic energy bringing these subjects to life. As in his book-length essay, Toward the New Degeneracy, Benderson is fascinated with the sexual personae of the underclasses, but this time it's deeply personal, challenging the author to redefine his notions of love. Uncommonly prescient and provocative, the French edition made Benderson the first American to win the esteemed Prix de Flore. Brendan Driscoll
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Mass Market Paperback: 416 pages
• Publisher: Tarcher (February 2, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1585424781
• ISBN-13: 978-1585424788
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 4.9 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #793,802 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #35 in Books > Travel > Europe > Romania & Moldova
  • #57 in Books > Gay & Lesbian > Travel

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A smart director would snatch up the rights, April 29, 2006

By 

painter "skg" (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Romanian: Story of an Obsession (Mass Market Paperback)

I am straight and was wonderfully surprised how "The Romanian" depicted facets of my own love life and how Benderson's relationship with his mother was similar --the same suffocating control and tenderness. Benderson jolts us right out of our outdated heterosexual and homosexual bourgeois notions. Whether it is his mother or a shameful street hustler, Benderson is only too aware that we are all flawed; that we are only all too human. A shocker for sure but almost right from the beginning, we stop judging and start to search, along with Benderson, deep into our own souls.

"The Romanians," multi- layered intertwines the past with and present in such a brilliant way that we not only learn something about ourselves but also about several cultures. A smart director like Paul VERHOEVEN or TARANTINO would be smart to snatch up the rights.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars THE GREAT SYNTHESIZER, March 27, 2006

By 

GOODLIT "GOODLIT" (WISCONSIN) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Romanian: Story of an Obsession (Mass Market Paperback)

I just finished reading The Romanian, after a 4-day marathon of more or less non-stop reading. It is going to remain on my desk for a while, as I intend to re-read and re-savor it.

In addition to the vibrant telling and the always lush use of language, what's most impressive about The Romanian is Benderson's fluid and seemingly effortless fusion/synthesizing of the three major narratives that run through the book: Benderson's relationship with Romulus (in Romania and Hungary), with his ailing, 93-year-old mother in NY - who is as feisty and explosive as her son - and, as a background to these, the hovering majestic figure of King Carol and his relationship with his mother and his Jewish mistress; luscious descriptions of the Romanian capital and countryside are the bonus here.

Benderson is an exciting and passionate author, and his excitement and passion inevitably become the excitement and passion of the reader - at least this reader. The French have given Benderson one of their most prestigious literary awards - the Prix de Flore (Benderson is the first American to win it). Hopefully, the American literary establishment will soon follow suit.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful, April 6, 2006

By 

DR.T (California, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Romanian: Story of an Obsession (Mass Market Paperback)

While I may like this book partly because I know its main locale, anyone who has ever loved a person or a place with pain, obsessed, fantasized, felt exiled, or contemplated history and fate, will find this a fascinating read.