Detectorul de emoții

by Carmen Firan

Genres: Romanian Literature

229 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2011

Reviews

[Ms. Smartarse · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hell hath no fury like a... -n immigrant scorned? Or at least that's what the teaser led me to think. In any case, it was enough of an incentive to have me rush out (to the Interwebs) and quickly hunt down the original source material.

On asking for directions to the gynecologist:
"From Grand Central parkway take exit 20 and turn right on Queens boulevard."
"We can't turn right if we come from Grand Central. I told you we come from the east. From the east you can only turn left. That much we know."
"You can turn both left and right, but you need to turn right to get to the clinic," I tell him in a surprisingly calm voice.
"I won't be turning right, that's for sure. There's no way to turn right when you come from the east."
"As you wish, but you won't get to the clinic then, sir."
"Listen missy, do you drive?"
"Yes, I drive."
"Well, that's why everything's such a mess, because you all turn willy nilly!"

... and as with all my rushed decisions, I didn't quite get the expected collection of hilariously satisfying adventures in the land of customer service. Instead, I was faced with several wildly different Eastern-European emigrant tales from the US: most of them starring Romanians, occasionally interspersed with stories of others hailing from the ex-communist block.

For all my misled expectations, I didn't dislike too many stories.
Admittedly, there were some duds such as:
- the woman who kept waxing poetical about the giant fir tree in her garden,
- or the woman stressing about her speeding ticket.
- not to mention the weird email monologue of an over-confident woman going on and on about her virtues.



But I couldn't possibly leave without at least an honorary shout out to all the surprising gems:
- the one with the appointments at the gynecologists's practice - available online in Romanian.
- the one about the fortune-storing mattress
- the one listing the many cleaning ladies, all named Maria
- the one detailing the lives of eccentric old widows
-my personal favorite: the Russian Fur Hat - available online in English
- ...and the not-at-all funny, but deeply moving story of a die-hard reader turning into a die-hard writer.

Score: 3.8/5 stars

Not quite what I expected, yet nowhere near disappointing.
That said, not having properly understood the overly-confident woman's story still bothers me. *taps foot impatiently*

[Vio · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am such a good friend! #andmodest , but you knew this already, right?
So when my friend D. decided to leave the country with just two suitcases, I did what I do best and accepted some good kg of her books.

So far I only read this one, which is quite good, it is my first book by this author, I think I wasn't familiar at all with the name. I would read more stories written by her and yes, I recommend her book to everyone reading in Romanian and maybe more to those of you who are living in another country... It is mostly a book about expats, nicely written and often super funny.

Here:

http://carmenfiran.com/OmuldinEst.htm

you can read in Romanian one of the funniest (and craziest, of course) stories. But it would not be accurate to describe her stories as funny, maybe more profoundly human. There are some stories in English on the author's site as well:

http://carmenfiran.com/Fiction.htm#Li...

(I couldn't stand the story with the power woman, ay. You know which one, the one in Sweden.)

I started recording (??) my reading of this book here on goodreads several times and I am really happy that I seem to be done with it today. Yay!!!

[Liliana · Rating 4 out of 5]

O alta carte semnata Carmen Firan care mi-a placut, o carte in principal depare trairile emigrantilor, surprinse si in “Miracole mici si mijlocii” si “Umbra pierduta”.