Download Ebook Never Mind the Balkans, Here's Romania, by Mike Ormsby

Download Ebook Never Mind the Balkans, Here's Romania, by Mike Ormsby

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Never Mind the Balkans, Here's Romania, by Mike Ormsby

Download Ebook Never Mind the Balkans, Here's Romania, by Mike Ormsby

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Review

"Likeable, lucid, with a big soul. Ormsby offers reality - today's Romania." - Formula AS"Romania's British Caragiale. You die laughing." - Cotidianul"Insightful, humorous, loving." - Tim Burford, Author, The Rough Guide to Romania"Does not play our national sport of turning away." - Romania Libera"Merits pride of place on any bookshelf." - Foaia Transilvana"Better than a guide book." - Tribune "He clearly appreciates our charisma." - Elle "Very good portraitist." - Cultural Observer"Full of charm, a lot of English humor." - Ziarul de Iasi"Had me laughing at man's utter fallibility in the face of absurdity. And I loved Romania more with every page." - expatro.blogspot.ro/

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Product details

Paperback: 254 pages

Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform; 2nd edition (September 1, 2012)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 1477465367

ISBN-13: 978-1477465363

Product Dimensions:

5 x 0.6 x 8 inches

Shipping Weight: 12.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)

Average Customer Review:

3.8 out of 5 stars

64 customer reviews

Amazon Best Sellers Rank:

#1,280,880 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

The few (Romanian) people who gave this book a negative review weren’t criticizing the interesting stories, or the fascinating observations expressed by a skilled writer, or any of that; but just how they sometimes showed Romanians in a megative light. That the stories were true didn’t seem to matter— some people just can’t bear criticism.I’ve lived in Romania for over 6 months (and married one!) and I can vouch for Mike Ormsby’s spot-on observations and descriptions. He has a keen eye (and memory) for detail, and a witty, interesting style that reminds me of Bill Bryson or Peter Mayle (author of A Year in Provence). He can see irony and farce in almost any situation, to which most of us might not give a second thought.Plus, he had an obvious fondness for Romanians and their sometimes silly attitudes and quirks; why else would he live there so long, and write so much and so lovingly about them?Anyway, I thoroughly enjoyed this book and his others on Romania, and so will anyone who is thinking of going there, or is simply curious about what life is like on the far side of Europe. Foarte bine!

I bought this book as an intro for my upcoming trip to Romania. I had to stop reading 400 pages in as, while it may be 100% honest, it is overwhelmingly depressing. It made me want to cancel my trip to Romania. Surely no-one has had so problems visiting a country? I have been to some dodgy countries so far, but this made me feel I would be snubbed, beaten and harassed within 5 minutes of being there, and I don't scare easily. I read up to page 400 and deleted. Way too out there. Defintely bot a book to read BEFORE travelling to Romania, but maybe better for people that have lived there and maybe had similar experiences. I also agree that the stories didn't fully end as another reviewer wrote.

I can testify to the veridicity of the stories, as our family is Romanian, but we have been living abroad for 20 years. So we are lucky enough to have a double perspective, as both "insiders" and "outsiders".I find Mike Ormsby's book to be as objective as one gets, funny, but also full of love and a deep understanding of the country and of its inhabitants. Once I have started to read it, I could not put the book down until I have finished it, hoping that it will never end, that there will be yet another story...

Admittedly, it has taken me some time to discover Never Mind the Balkans, Here's Romania, first published in 2008, yet here I am now, eager to fill that awkward gap.In this collection of fifty-seven short stories, Mike Ormsby, a writer and former BBC journalist/World Service trainer, chronicles various moments of his experiences in Romania between 1994 and 2006, when Romania became his home.Published simultaneously in Romanian as Grand Bazar Romania (translated by Vlad A. Arghir), Ormsby’s book received a range of reactions - from sheer enthusiasm to harsh criticism - mostly depending on readers' personal visions, expectations, and sometimes, on their nationality.Personally, I could not help getting absorbed in tales that so vividly evoke situations and characters almost identical to those I have come across, eight years later.Irony - and, even more valuable, self-deprecating irony - seems to me the X-factor which makes you enjoy reading this book, to the point that some local critics have dubbed Ormsby ‘our British Caragiale’, after the 19th century playwright and satirist. Alas, I wish I knew more about Caragiale - just another one of the huge gaps I still need to fill - to fully appreciate that comment, surely enough, though, the author's funny and bittersweet tone works as an antidote to his keen empathy with Romanians and their unique land, providing him with a safe distance from which to observe the scene.This book strikes me for having succeeded in assembling such a vivid gallery of characters, so powerfully close to the "real thing": you cannot but feel grateful for that. In each story, the author blends into his surrounding and allows characters to speak for themselves. His voice is never invasive nor in the least sounding like the usual "wise guy from the West". Rather, quite often he limits himself to acting as litmus paper within his environment, letting people and situations speak for themselves. Like in Why Not, where his artistic projects with his friend Adrian finally cannot but crash when faced with the dumb indifference of an incompetent journalist, whereas in Nice Sofa, Ormsby lucidly stops aside to actually wonder, “Was it my fault? Was I some wise guy from the West, with big ideas?” So, as I went on reading - always with valuable help from my Urban Dictionary - I enjoyed descriptions conjuring up, in a bunch of words, whole human landscapes and situations.More. Many tales leave you with a surreal aftertaste, not an infrequent impression in Romania. Take Labyrinth, where characters successfully incarnate one mainstream approach to life here: "Live by the rules and don't get stressed.” Others - with generous help from serendipity - focus on the past or dig into local history to finally present you with little treasures, like Buried, where, en passant, Mihai Eminescu is described as that chap "with the rock-star looks”. The tale sheds light on the little known, tragic biography of a promising young translator, Corneliu Popescu, whom Ormsby discovers by chance while searching in the public library for English translations of Romanian authors. As a teenager, Popescu translated Eminescu, and brilliantly so, but died alongside his mother in the 1977 earthquake.Another kind of sadness takes you when reading tales like 'paga, depicting the use of bribes as the mainstream strategy to solve any practical problem or life issue, applicable at every possible social level.The good thing about these tales is that they are not Bucharest-centred: Ormsby travels the whole country and encounters very different human habitats. In The Wrong Place, we end up in a small village, Tu'nad, with poor Tanti Dorina who is caught in her damp bed between past and future, whereas in Too Good To Be True, a hiking trip takes us up into the Carpathian Mountains, dangerously close to angry sheepdogs. But it is definitely in tales like Faith, Hope, and Chablis that I most appreciate Ormsby's voice. Here, two worlds - West and East Europe (allow me to generalise) appear to get extremely close one another, yet something goes wrong and it does smack of us-and-them - indeed a chasm - unless prejudice and self assurance are not won by good will and a sincere wish to understand "the other". I won't say more, because I do invite you to pick up this book and enjoy your reading.Overall, I am grateful to Ormsby and will steal a quote from John Lennon, one which the author passes on to his friend George, a character we meet in several tales: “Life is what happens while you are making other plans.”

This is not a travel guide nor a travelogue. Mike's short stories give an insider's look into the Romanian soul.

At first I thought I wouldn't like this book - it's a book of very short stories about small events in the author's life. At first the stories annoyed me since they have no ending. I think the main reason I expected not to like it was the ugly cover and dumb title.But the book grew on me. Mike Ormsby is an English journalist who has lived in a number of different countries and has settled in Bucharest. The stories are conversations or adventures he has with Romanian friends or alone. Many of them are sort of bleak, not awful but not upbeat. It's clear that Romania doesn't run very well - politicians are corrupt, laws are not enforced, decisions are made that make little sense. People drink and smoke a lot and are not generally optimistic. I don't know for sure why Mr Ormsby has stayed so long except that he likes the people. But by the middle I felt like I got some insight into Romania and its inhabitants. And that's good enough for me.

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