The celebration of the 100th anniversary of the birth of Monica Lovinescu in the fall of 2023 presented the publishing house Humanitas re-editing part of the books of one of the most outstanding personalities not only of the Romanian exile from the communist period, but also of the entire Romanian culture of the successive part of the last century. A number of chronicles appeared on short waves for the first time Free Europe, chronicles, which in one way or another formed an original and exciting, sometimes even non-conformist history of Romanian literature in the communist period, were reprinted in Vol. The ethics of not forgetting prepared by Volodymyr TismanianuThe Essential Journal, i.e., a concentrated formula created by Christina Choabe, in seven volumes, also published on humanity, volumes covering the period 1981-2002, finally By the water of Babylon. Which I would call a hybrid book, in the highest sense of the phrase.

Why a hybrid book? Because he rewrites, rearranges, comments according to a new logic, imposed by the special point of view of a person who has reached the age of aging, as well as by the games and whims of memory, which does not always obey a strict timeline. , a memory that often no longer has patience and succumbs to the temptation of waiting, a large part of what happened to Monica Lovinescu from 1941 or, more precisely, from 1946-47 until the early 80s.

From 1941-42 until the fateful year of 1958, when the Communist Security arrested Ekaterina Beletsa-Lovinescu, Monica Lovinescu kept a diary. Abandoned by a family tragedy that marked his entire existence. Former journalist A Free Europe he reread the diaries of that time after 1989, supplemented them with many other memories, deciphered and interpreted from the point of view of time, which confirm or cancel the impressions written in a fever, compared and supplemented them with what he found in similar works of Virgil Yerunka, with personal notes from notebooks or even scraps of paper, miraculously saved from loss or destruction, and this is how these memoirs were born.

The memories, of course, belong to Monica Lovinescu, but the events recorded and discussed from all sides in more than 500 pages of the book are not formed only on the scheme of one existence. The existence of one who was forced to leave, to leave rather than choose the path of exile. But who brought not only Bucharest, but also all of Romania to the street in Paris. Her Romania, which was often also our Romania. A fact that confirms the accuracy of the observation. I consider it an important detail that the studio where the good years were recorded Theses and antitheses in Paris, the history of vorbei Hierunks or contributions Monika TO Romanian culture news it is very close to the Embassy of the Socialist Republic of Romania.

What we find or find in By the water of Babylon it is not only a chronicle of the last years spent by the author of memoirs in the country, or different stages of her Parisian existence. But a direct, warm, sympathetic chronicle of Romania, condemned to internal exile and for which Monica Lovinescu wanted to preserve the hope of finding territories and a normal life characteristic of free Europe. It is true that the free Europe described by Monica Lovinescu was also, at least in part, in danger of losing its own freedom. A fact discovered by Monica Lovinescu from the first years spent in the capital of France, where she arrived in this way, shows that even before the forced abdication of King Mihai and the strict communalization, as if without the right of appeal, Romania was forced to break with normality.

In the first 100 pages of the book, we find a description made with exemplary transparency of intellectual France. France, Sartre, Aragon and many other educated or at least dear minds, intellectuals who were fascinated by communism in the 50s. Who did not understand or did not want to understand anything about what happened behind the “iron curtain” or from 1961 behind the Berlin Wall. France, which will be disappointed only after its appearance in 1973 The Gulag Archipelago and who until then had calmly declared that she would rather be wrong with Sartre than be right with Raymond Aron. Which ignores the writings of Zhanna Hersh or the memoirs of Adriana Georgescu, which minimizes Kravchenko’s case.

After many years Radio Parissince 1967, Monica Lovinescu will gradually move to Free Europe. Where, thanks to the visionary vision of Noel Bernard, she would have the shows that made her famous. From 1974, Virgil Iyerunka joined him on the same airwaves. From the microphone Free Europe, often facing, with the wise support of the same Noel Bernard, the sometimes absurdly strict demands imposed by an overly cautious American patron, Monica Lovinescu will strengthen her standing as an engaged viewer, critical intellectual and public. Bernard was not only the most popular director Free Europe in Romanian, he was a director of excellence, unreservedly praised by Monica Lovinescu. Mihai Cismerescu and, in my opinion, with too much severity, Vlad Georgescu also evoke the Munich world. From the Paris skyline Free Europe Theodore Casaban, Sanda Stoloyan, Sherban Kristovici, Mihai Pupezan, George Banu, Gabriela Ionescu, Paul Barbaneagra, Alain Parui are mentioned. And, of course, Michnea Berinday, whose presence transcends the time frame imposed on the book. But this is also about expectations. I mean, I might even say that By the water of Babylon it is a kind of autobiographical novel, full of analepsis and prolepsis. Being an autobiographical novel By the water of Babylon leave the proper place for a person of culture, who was and remains Monica Lovinescu. This is how mini-chronicles of literature, theater, cinematography or visual arts are unexpectedly offered to us. with theses and antitheses strictness Read the whole article and comment on Contributors.ro