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The Băiuț Alley Lads

Filip Florian

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Nov 06, 2013 Bogdan rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction

I guess the editors put the wrong label on this book, when they subtitled it "novel". As one of the author says in a recent interview, he started out by wanting to write something with his brother. They decided to write one chapter each and after an initial failed attempt in fiction, they decided to do this autobiographical book. And it ended up in a very well result a book about childhood, family and friendship. The only drawback is the fact that readers that do not grew up in Romania's '80s wo I guess the editors put the wrong label on this book, when they subtitled it "novel". As one of the author says in a recent interview, he started out by wanting to write something with his brother. They decided to write one chapter each and after an initial failed attempt in fiction, they decided to do this autobiographical book. And it ended up in a very well result a book about childhood, family and friendship. The only drawback is the fact that readers that do not grew up in Romania's '80s would have a hard time to connect with the book. For me, as I was born in the same year as the small Florian brother, I enjoyed it very much and I remembered a lot of my child adventures in different Bucharest's neighborhood.

The premise of this memoir is pretty easy to identify, as the Florian brothers showed that even in the hardest years of communism they can be happy kids, in their own universe, with the friends from the neighborhood. It is a powerful premise and I can testify myself as well, that despite the harsh living conditions, us, the kids, always found reasons to enjoy life. This is why I will give it a 5 for premise.

Regarding the form, I noticed sensible differences in style between the two brothers. Filip is writing more clear, to the subject, describing facts as they were, despite some occasional poetical digressions. Matei is very indirect and likes to focus more on the feelings rather than facts. I liked much more Filip's chapters, while during some chapters written by Matei, I struggled to read on. So I cannot rate it more than 3 at form, making an average between the two brothers.

In terms of originality, for me this is the first memoir of children growing in the last decade of communism from Romania. There is still a famous precedent in Romanian literature that stands out as a clear masterpiece. I am referring to Ion Creangă's Amintiri din copilărie. I believe still it holds a good degree of originally, so I will rate it with a 4.

The characters section usually is not applicable for non-fiction works, but as this is a memoir, there are a lot of characters. I really enjoyed most of these characters that were vibrant and really well created (proof that they were actual persons). Especially there were some great humorist descriptions of various adults. I need to rate it with the maximum, so a 5.

Regarding the complexity and difficulty, as this was made up by the memories of the two authors, I guess it was not too difficult to write. I enjoyed very much the fact that they wrote each chapter separately and share it with each other only after it was complete. Thus, in the next chapters they referred to some aspects from what the other has write previously. This made a nice dialogue between the two brothers. I believe that even if it was not too hard to write it, remembering so well in so many details their childhood, it was not at all easy. So I will rate it with a 4 for complexity and difficulty.

The last criteria is edition and this book is part of a collection created by Polirom to publish with low cost some of the great successes of this publishing house. Thus the covers are not too appealing and the paper is not top quality. But there is no spelling error or other issue with the proof reading. Plus the font size is sufficiently large to enable even children to read it. I will rate it for edition with a 4.

To summarize, I liked it a lot as it portrays childhoods similar to mine. It was well written and enjoyable, despite some minor issues. All in all, my final rating for the novel is 4.17, rounding it up to a 4 star on Goodreads system.


+--------------------------+-----------------+
| Criteria | Rating |
+--------------------------+-----------------+
|Premise | 5 |
+--------------------------+-----------------+
|Form | 3 |
+--------------------------+-----------------+
|Originality | 4 |
+--------------------------+-----------------+
|Characters | 5 |
+--------------------------+-----------------+
|Difficulty/Complexity | 4 |
+--------------------------+-----------------+
|Edition | 4 |
+--------------------------+-----------------+
|Total | 4.17 |
+--------------------------+-----------------+

For more details on how I rated and reviewed this novel, please read these guidelines. ...more

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