Manea’s The Trenchcoat was a really fascinating read; I enjoyed diving into the slightly unsettling atmosphere of stagnation, censorship and being forced to say “correct” things that pervaded the dinner party and the initial drive there. It seemed like social convention had an extremely strong influence over the attendees’ actions.  For example, before the party, it seemed that Dina’s invitation to show the guests around the house was a bit forced because of the use of the word “must,” as though it was an obligation. I think that that atmosphere contributed to the actual reveal of the mysterious trenchcoat by building up a feeling of paranoia and that one was being watched.

Paranoia generally seems to be a major topic that Manea explores, making what seemed mundane into a world filled with suspicion and fear. The lecture mentioned that he had to avoid writing names and or being specific, and the lack of openness about location names or specific details seemed like the narrative of someone who knew they were watched, and was a stark difference from previous weeks’ books. The censorship that the characters were subjected to reminded me a bit of Nada, where Laforet had to avoid making direct references to people involved in the Spanish Civil War, writing in a society full of open secrets that could not be named.

The other thing I wanted to discuss was the appearance of the trenchcoat, which almost made me feel a sense of dread for the characters. The lecture mentioned that Manea’s writing thrived upon introducing small differences into monotonous life, and I felt that the couples’ initial conversations gave me an impression of stagnation toward progress and change. I also associate trenchcoats with a kind of surveillance or spying, deliberately designed to conceal appearances, so when it appeared among the guests, it served to me as a reminder of how the people in the privileged dinner party were not above surveillance. The trenchcoat is also described as being almost completely indistinguisahble; it is like “the one you see in all of the stores.” To me, it symbolized both an anonymous power that seemed to constantly weigh on the Romanians’ lives and their overt knowledge that it was present and could not be ignored.

A question I wanted to ask the author was “How did your experiences with social interactions under communism in Romania inform the symbolism of the trenchcoat and its significance to the plot?”