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The Last Hundred Days (2011)

by Patrick McGuinness(Favorite Author)

3.65 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

1854115413 (ISBN13: 9781854115416)

languge

English

genre

Historical Fiction

publisher

Seren Books

review 1: This book was a disappointment. Our "hero," a young British man, a college dropout, despised father recently dead, arrives in Romania to teach at a college in Bucharest. (This despite, or because, he never turned up for an interview.) He is in Bucharest for the year before the Romanian Revolution. He spends his time with Leo, a consumate black-marketeer, and the two women with whom he gets involved. The description of the dictatorship, the almost-total destruction of the city, the corruption and the power/influence of the secret police and informers is powerful. But, somehow, the book dragged for me. Still, glad I read it.
review 2: A young British academic lands in Bucharest in the final days of the Ceaucescu regime.It was a promising theme but McGuinne... moress misses the opportunity. First the main character is quite implausible: he is quite naïve but gets heavily involved with a number of shady characters, he also integrates very rapidly in this new culture and he does not even speak the language. Also the other characters, except for Leo, are so rapidly (or badly) described that the reader gets confused and does not relate to any of them. Even Leo is a mystery, how did he get to be what he is now. Finally it is incredibly long and slow. The only good thing is the description of this decrepit country, it reminds me of Belgrade in the 70’s, the gloom of soviet satellites at that time is quite well captured by the author. less

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