A Romanian Rhapsody
My first winter in Romania, along the Mures River in Arad, 1992.
I left my apartment in Williamsburg, Brooklyn in September, 1992 for my great Romanian adventure. It was a last minute job offer and in a hectic whirl I got rid of everything: some things for the garbageman, a huge stack of LPs on the sidewalk for passersby to peruse, shopping bags of personal items given to various people who, in those days, sat on blankets on the sidewalk in the East Village selling used items. It was worth it, because for the next three years I would live in a society that I could have never imagined. And I came back enriched: maybe not so much financially, but culturally and creatively. My stay in that fascinating country during those fateful years just after the fall of dictatorship resulted in an archive of thousands of photographs, stories to tell, and a novel, The Shriek and the Rattle of Trains.
Now, as I contemplate a tourist’s return to Romania after a quarter century, to look around and see how things have changed and have remained the same, I would like to re-introduce that novel. A bit odd, strange to look at and at times enigmatic, like the complex country it is set in, this novel incorporates a thousand feelings and themes of my life there. There are quite a few black and white illustrations in there as well, just to give it the atmosphere it requires. I hope it resonates with its readers as well.
It is presently available on Amazon, both as a paperback and as an e-book. It has sold modestly, perhaps because I have never actually promoted it. But it has garnered a few very nice reviews, both on Amazon, and in personal responses written to me. In the near future, it will be available here on this website as well, but in the meantime, I invite those interested to consider buying it on the old Rainforest bookstore online, where you might get free shipping, (if you are a Prime member, for example). I won’t mind at all!
