Many consider him to be the most important Romanian writer of the last two decades, while other critics and admirers rank him among the best of the 20th and 21st century or even ever. The best Romanian writer ever. Which must say a lot about his popularity. What is unusual is that despite this support, there are also some who say that his success is just a fashion, a trend, which will slowly pass away. Hard to believe, for during the last decades his books - which are certainly anything but easy reading - have been sold in record number for Romania. More than that, they are bought, read and commented. Especially after publishing the long-awaited third part of his greatest work to date, "Orbitor" (Blinding), maybe the most complex and best Romanian novel ever written, this writer, now it his early fifties, has become a successful author. A truly successful author. Which doesn't happen very often in this country.
Mircea Cartarescu was born on June 1st 1956 in Bucharest and later enrolled at the Dimitrie Cantemir Highschool - which will later be a key element, presence and place in his poetry and stories - then studied Romanian language and literature at the Bucharest University. At first, he was known as a poet, an interesting and tallented one, who made his debut in the prestigious Romania literara. He was part of the literary groups led by Nicolae Manolescu and Ovid S Crohmalniceanu, the two being a great help and inspiration. After some collective volumes, he published his first solo work in 1980, a poetry volume, which was rather successful. After another two poetry volumes, he published in 1989 the "Visul" (Dream) volume, which will later be republished, uncensored, with the title "Nostalgia". The volume won the Academy Literature Award in 1989. In 1990 Cartarescu published his greatest poetical achievement, Levantul, a strange, fascinating and mixed work of fiction, which practically reinvented poetical language and themes.
After 1990 he continued to become increasingly popular, especially after he began publishing his books at the Humanitas Publishing House, one of the most important and respected publishing houses of Romania. In 1994 he published Travesti, a gentle rmeinder of his teenage years, then republished some of his earlier poetry, earned a Phd at the Bucharest University, with a thesis on Romanian Post-Modernism, reedited Nostalgia, two volumes of essays and newspaper articles. But his greatest work, published in three parts - 1996, 2002, 2007 - is the novel titled "Orbitor" (Blinding), the most ambitious literary project in the last decades. A huge fresco of life, religios, literature, politics, history, fantasy, art, with a strong autobiographical part, it is a book that is almost impossible to describe or comment. It is also the most demanding book he ever imagined and writted, according to the author. Since the last part was finally published, after a long wait, it has won some prestigious awards and distinctions, and made Mircea Cartarescu even more popular.
Mircea Cartarescu is the greatest Romanian poet of the 80s generation, one of the most import Post-Modernist European artists, a successful writer and a rather appreciated journalist. His next work, probably titled "Short novel", will be published by the end of this year and so far it has been a close kept secret.
2008-06-20
