Title: Tiny, but Mighty
Daniel Farcas Buried Children
Reviewed by R.A. Ross
Date: 11/2/14
Let me begin this review by saying
that Buried Children defies being
summarized or evaluated with a mere one page review, but I will do my best.
This book will keep you up at night; make you laugh, cry, cheer, and hug your
parents. The author does more in 137 pages than other books with 337 or more.
This novella comes from a journal of
real life experiences that Daniel Farcas wrote as a child in communist
controlled Romania during the 1980s. It is comprised of twelve chapters that
tell different stories along a certain theme that is usually the chapter’s title.
The first chapter was about Farcas in an orphanage and the stories progress
until he leaves Romania. This book is raw. The author did not hold back from scenes
of rats eating off children’s toes to crushing a man’s skull in a paper press
to a girl’s flailing arm sticking out of drying concrete. I loved how Farcas
gave a unique perspective to his life on and under the streets of Romania. His
character/narrator tells a story of personal conflict within himself, while
there is greater social unrest around him. This book offers a unique viewpoint
to the human experience. I was blown away by some of his social, political, and
economic critiques.
My only issue is that the book is replete with grammatical, formatting, and styling errors.
It was distracting. Some stories were better written than others, but it did
detract from my overall reading experience. There were times that I had to go
back and reread something for it to make sense.
Buried
Children is something that is true to life, captivating, disturbing, brave;
and, frankly, I think we need more stores like it to make us question our own
comfortable reality.
I give Buried Children by Daniel Farcas 2/5 **
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