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Why We Love Women

Mircea Cărtărescu

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May 27, 2014 Bogdan rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: romanian

Mircea Cartarescu is one of the most praised Romanian contemporary writers, but I was not impressed after reading this collection of very short stories, most of which appeared previously in various women's magazines. I was mostly disappointed by the style, similar as what high-school teenagers are writing, the lack of topics in many stories, except for capitalizing on various biographical aspects from his past, and by the generalization of his beliefs or values, that are not at all so general as Mircea Cartarescu is one of the most praised Romanian contemporary writers, but I was not impressed after reading this collection of very short stories, most of which appeared previously in various women's magazines. I was mostly disappointed by the style, similar as what high-school teenagers are writing, the lack of topics in many stories, except for capitalizing on various biographical aspects from his past, and by the generalization of his beliefs or values, that are not at all so general as he thought. Of course it has some good points as well, especially the conciseness required by the magazines, but in my opinion, they don't make up entirely for the negative aspects.

As I already said, almost all these stories lack a premise. I believe that the main reasons for which they were written were the contract with the magazines where they appeared and as a way of the author to talk about himself. The rare exceptions are not having very powerful premises and this is why I will give it a 1.

Regarding the form I already mentioned that most of the stories are written using a style similar as what a typical high-school student would write. Despite not being excessive, the metaphors are used in such a way that they are striking. And in my opinion this is not good as they draw attention from the important things in a story. I believe it deserves no more than 1 for form.

In terms of originality, as most of the stories are inspired from biographical events of the author, they are pretty much original. Despite this, some of the stories start from a particular event and then generalize it, thus turning them towards a theme that was already treated by other writers. This is why I will give it a 3 for the level of originality.

Being inspired by actual events from his past, the characters are pretty much well constructed. I enjoyed very much the teacher Sincu, the story being itself pretty much hilarious. Despite these good things, there were too many stories were the main character was Mircea Cartarescu himself. For me he was not so interesting, so I will rate it with a 4.

Regarding the complexity and difficulty, most of the stories are pretty simple. They tend to follow a similar pattern: generalizing at the beginning to allow the author to pour in his own theories, then a story in a pseudo-biographical style to prove it. Sometimes it is done right, which you can sense it, but some other times probably the deadline to submit the story was too short and he wrote something to complete it. So I will rate it with a 3 for complexity and difficulty.

In terms of credibility, the author confesses at the end that he distorted the actual facts from which he inspired. On their own, the stories are not always credible, but there are a lot of incredible facts in each evening news magazine. My rating for credibility is therefore 3.

The last criteria is edition. I must congratulate the marketing team behind this author. Without too great content they managed to create a good product that also sells very well. Due to this, I will rate it with a 5.

To summarize, I believe that at least this book is too much praised by critics and if this is typical for Mircea Cartarescu, this author is also overrated. All in all, my final rating for this collection of short stories is 3.29, which I will round it to a 3 on Goodreads system.


+--------------------------+-----------------+
| Criteria | Rating |
+--------------------------+-----------------+
|Premise | 1 |
+--------------------------+-----------------+
|Form | 1 |
+--------------------------+-----------------+
|Originality | 3 |
+--------------------------+-----------------+
|Characters | 4 |
+--------------------------+-----------------+
|Difficulty/Complexity | 3 |
+--------------------------+-----------------+
|Credibility | 3 |
+--------------------------+-----------------+
|Edition | 5 |
+--------------------------+-----------------+
|Total | 3.29 |
+--------------------------+-----------------+

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

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Nov 01, 2013 Stil de scriitor rated it liked it · review of another edition

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