Diary of a Short-Sighted Adolescent

Supposedly the work of a young Mircea Eliade, one of Romania's and Europe's greatest writers and intellectuals, Diary of a Short-Sighted Adolescent provides a unique insight into the musings of an inchoate genius, in the form of a schoolboy's diary set against Bucharest in the 1920s.

 

The short-sighted adolescent is a passionate reader who takes various cultural figures as models, trying to emulate both their lives or their works. The pupil protagonist is a poor student, who likes science and reads a lot of books, sometimes staying up all night to do so. At the age of fifteen, he decides to write a novel to demonstrate to his teachers that he is not as mediocre as all the other students. Is he really prepared to give up everything he holds dear for his art?

 

As readable as The Catcher in the Rye, and as funny Adrian Mole, Diary of a Short-Sighted Adolescent is a playful, pioneering and refreshing addition to the epistolary novel.