Jens Christian Grondahl. Piazza Bucarest.

von Zimmermann, Nina

Jens Christian Grondahl. Piazza Bucarest. Copenhagen. Gyldendal. 2004. 211 pages. 198 Kr. ISBN 87-02-02774-7

JENS CHRISTIAN GRONDAHL'S Piazza Bucarest is a novel about the idea of freedom, its ability to influence and direct people's lives. The novel unfolds the story of a young Romanian girl, Elena, who leaves her infant son behind in communist Bucharest to search for her vanished lover as well as personal freedom on the other side of the Iron Curtain. Elena seizes the chance to live in Denmark when proposed marriage by a U.S. citizen living in Copenhagen. However, Elena's dream of freedom in the Western world--for which she sacrifices motherhood and the love of her son--does not guarantee happiness. It shows that the more options there are on the table, the more difficult it becomes for her to decide on one. Instead of getting a stable life, Elena floats; she leaves Denmark for Italy and moves from one lover to the next and the next. In fact, her life turns out to be not so much directed by freedom but by serendipity. For all her freedom of choice, however, Elena cannot get hold of her life. In her case, making decisions all the time means not making any at all.

Although this is quite a philosophical novel, Grondahl manages to generate and maintain suspense throughout. He avoids a chronological account by employing a narrative structure that operates from two different points of time and view simultaneously. In effect, the story of Elena's life in Denmark confronts the reader with more questions than answers, which first get solved when her past in Bucharest is revealed to the reader in the second part of the novel.

Through this device, Grondahl not only scrutinizes the idea of freedom from different social, national, and political angles but also points toward the mysterious character of all people's lives. Jens Christian Grondahl suggests that they can be read as personal mirrors of "big" history and lets the reader share his ideas on the connection of story and history--that is, how to break down history to the size of personal story. These reflections make Piazza Bucarest not only the story of a young Romanian girl and her lovers or a historical novel on the fall of communism but, at the same time, a poetological manifesto.

Nina von Zimmermann

University of Berne