I’ll be super honest I picked this book because it was short and I have a midterm this week. And I feel super neutral about it. I liked the plot of a dinner party, a spy mystery – it felt like ‘Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf’ if that play was about totalitarian Romania!
Something I did enjoy about this book as well as the video lecture is learning more about the historical and cultural context of Romania during this time. Learning about the historical context did give me a lot more context about the novel and better explained a lot of the symbolism I found a bit confusing.
But something I did not love about the novel is that a lot of it felt unfinished. I want to know why there’s an unnamed character. I want to know what the coat symbolizes. But I guess the unfinished-ness of the novel is also the point – nothing in this world/society is finished. Even if totalitarian regimes are over it does not mean that the lasting events have also left. The effects of communism and post-war life are cyclical. They still affect the everyday lives of society and individuals even if ‘nothing dramatic is happening’. And these effects still linger generationally.
One point of the video lecture that I found super interesting was the meaning of the missing coat. Is it a symbol? Or is a coat just a coat? On one hand, I do agree that sometimes a coat is just a coat. On the other hand, novels, especially novels of a political nature, makes me think that this coat is not just a coat. For me, I feel like the coat could be a ‘Big Brother’ type of symbol, representing the totalitarian government. Especially given how the characters act very paranoid about it, and as the video lecture said ‘just because you are paranoid doesn’t mean they aren’t out to get you’ (also a Nirvana quote). The coat keeps everyone on their toes and keeps everyone guessing. I also feel like the coat has to be symbolic due to the nature of politics and literature. Yes, not all literature is political, but when writing under oppressive governments, everything becomes political. And it’s hard to separate the political from the art.
My questions for discussion would be: do you think the coat is more than a coat? and another question I have is do you think it’s possible to separate art and politics?
“They still affect the everyday lives of society and individuals even if ‘nothing dramatic is happening’.¨You have quite interesting points about the book, and I will comment on some now: each event in the plot appears loaded with hidden meanings, and above all, with processes that have not ended. There is a very peculiar kind of historicity that permeates the atmosphere and makes everything strange. Rather than a cyclical sensation, it seems that the layers accumulate without reaching a central or final point.
Thanks for sharing! Your post stood out to me in particular because while this piece reminded you of “Mrs. Dalloway” by Virginia Woolf (a piece I have not read), weirdly it reminded me of the play “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf.” This play, although much more dramatic and humorous than this story also follows a few couples as they have a get together and dislike one another even though they spend time together. A big part of this play involves ignoring their issues and tiptoeing around them– in a way I found similar to how Manea subtly integrates the political climate of Romania at this time into the otherwise somewhat mundane plot of this story.
To answer your question though, I do surely think that the trenchcoat must be about more than just its physical form. Whether it itself is a symbol, or the paranoia that it ensues, there just HAS to be more.
omg I was definitely thinking of ‘Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf’ not Mrs Dalloway!
But I agree the coat HAS to be something more