I am just going to go ahead and preemptively apologize because I know you are probably tired of reading this when it comes to blogs about The Trenchcoat by Norman Manea, but I’m confused. I wish I wasn’t, but I am; along with a little dissatisfied. This book had me almost as scrambled as the characters were, and I still don’t even know what the deal was with that damn trenchcoat. Although its a little obvious (at least to me it is)  that the coat was just that, a coat, but i’m still left with that unsatisfied, yearning for a conclusion feeling. That might just be because I like clear and concise endings, but I digress.

The Trenchcoat by Norman Manea is set in late Communist Romania during Nicolae Ceaușescu’s final years of totalitarian reign. This is a key aspect of the story as almost all of it is either tied to or related to it in some way. The characters of the book (who are either lucky enough to have a name, are referred to under some symbolic nickname, or do not have a name at all) all have  very strained, ominous, and distant friendships/relationships with one another which becomes abundantly clear after they gathered at a dinner party. Along with the evening resulting in dry and dull conversation, a trenchcoat is left at the host’s place of residence. Now, you may be thinking, “How could this possibly lead to anything interesting?” and to that, I would say you’re both right and wrong.  The coat symbolizes so much more than just a coat as it perfectly showcases how such an everyday, mundane item that literally had no special qualities or strikingly memorable attributes can be built-up into so much more than it needs to be. The mystery surrounding the coat and its owner sends the characters of the book into a sort of subdued frenzy and, as if their attitudes towards each other weren’t strained enough, suspicion and paranoia take hold of all of them.

This is where the setting of the story becomes vital to understanding the vague, uncertain, and almost uncomfortable atmosphere of the story. Seeing as their living in a time where the feeling of your actions and words being watched and monitored is a continuous experience, I don’t blame them for (lowkey) going ape-shit over a coat either. The uncertain and vague setting I mentioned before does lead to my question of…

Does writing about a certain point in time in the abstract, sort of “you-had-to-be-there’ kind of way create a barrier between the message the author is trying to send and the audience?