Adrift E J Bancesco Books
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A return to his native Romania offers a unique opportunity for Boston architect Luca Leontin to come to terms with his past; instead he becomes enmeshed in the vengeful designs of a man with whom he shares a life-long history of passion for art, as well as an indelible bitterness over the love of one woman. Luca finds himself drawn to the Circe, the infamous Bucharest night club, where the illusion of erotic fulfillment could cost him his life. From a totalitarian society that crumbled in December, 1989 to a contemporary world gripped by fear of international terrorism, Adrift is a study of cultural dislocation and the ensuing alienation that triggers both our yearning to return to our origins and the hopeless need to find what is lost forever. This is a story of obsession and revenge, and, above all, the survival of love despite the corrosive action of lifelong mistrust and suspicion.
Adrift E J Bancesco Books
Loved the creativity of this book. The concept reminds me of Kundera, the characters unexpected and lively, the language supple and evocative. Was particularly struck by the goulash scene and its imaginative play on the sensory relationships between cooking and seduction. Enjoyed this nostalgic and epicurean journey. Look forward to reading more from Bancesco.Product details
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Tags : Amazon.com: Adrift (9780996663465): E. J. Bancesco: Books,E. J. Bancesco,Adrift,All Things That Matter Press,0996663460,FICTION Cultural Heritage
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Adrift E J Bancesco Books Reviews
"Adrift" is the story of a middle-aged man, Luca, who engages in a journey to his past. A past that leads him back to his homeland in Romania to visit family and old loves, reliving memories of his youth, indiscretions, and the people who shaped his life. We see Romania through his eyes, both how he remembered it and how it changed. We follow his childhood diary to relive his first loves as well as his first conflicts. As one might imagine, there’s both excitement and disappointment in remembering why you loved someone, or why you left them in the past. The reader sees how easily Luca, adrift on this mission to recapture happy memories while setting aside the unpleasant ones, is also easily ensnared in events he neither planned nor expected.
“Adrift” is a little bit of a homecoming story, a mid-life crisis event, and a cautionary tale of modern troubles that seek us out when we least expect it. It is also a tale of a man who followed his heart, welcomed challenges, and remains grounded throughout.
I found the writing to be precise and intriguing. It’s a story that will make you think about the implications of your choices throughout life.
Full disclosure I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. I do not know the author personally, although I was privileged to chat with him via Twitter messaging after reading the book. He answered my questions patiently. He’s an eloquent and thoughtful author who challenged me to think further about my initial responses to his work.
"Adrift" is a study in human consciousness – not altogether pleasant, nor easy to assimilate, but all too realistic and thought-provoking. As a female reader, I felt at once enthralled and alarmed by the merciless portrayal of the male psyche; so far removed from the sentimentality that drives women's fiction. The dividing line between love and lust is blurred, and so skillfully achieved as to be unobtrusive, but it hits you squarely in the gut nonetheless. If a woman wants a vivid picture of the workings of a man's mind, this novel is definitely the place to go. John Gray's "Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus", for all its psycho-babble, could not have put it more clearly or quite as eloquently.
Through the mind of the protagonist – Luca Leontin, a Romanian expatriate revisiting his roots after a two-decade long absence – the reader is drawn inexorably into the convoluted tunnel vision of the male mind. Luca is a cultured man, aloof but not unlikeable; a respectable family man, even. Or is he?! As in real life scenarios, the frailty inherent in human nature swiftly comes to the fore to dispel that romantic impression. Luca's moral rectitude, if indeed he can boast of such a virtue, is squarely accompanied by promiscuous habits, which by some twisted logic are portrayed as de rigueur. And our hero is unrepentant in that practice. While wife Lili and daughter Emma are out of the way, they are held in respectful awe in some remote fashion as the playboy comes to life with a vengeance.
And, yet, for all its harsh realism, "Adrift" is a gripping read. It is imbued with all the common emotional elements we experience through the course of our lives – desire, or its darker equivalent, lust; infatuation, obsessive love, revenge, detachment, denial, and the thrust of danger we all too often stumble upon when we play with fire. From the youthful mesmeric ideal of hope to the bleakness of maturity, the force by which each episode is conveyed to the reader is thought-provoking. With a middle-aged man as the central figure of the story, as he revisits childhood haunts, old flames and new erotic interests in a post-communist country, all elements come together like a tightly-woven tapestry. Much like a rollercoaster, we are thrust into this fast-paced journey, in both the literal and emblematic senses, and henceforth overtaken by its momentum.
The novel is structured into several parts, most of which are dedicated to a particular woman who claims our hero's focus during that period of his life. Woven through the lapses between these women, there is a nostalgic trip to Luca's past via an unfinished memoir, reunions with family, friends and enemies, where the links between past and present merge and also blur his own emotional development. In fact, Luca is now a man of fifty, but one gets the feeling that his emotional make-up remains firmly entrenched in his youth. This might explain his reckless abandonment to danger, which could so easily have been avoided, and his numerous sexual exploits. And in the interim, the vast changes wrought to his homeland in the intervening two decades of absence, which in many ways is still ravaged by its history, seem to him but a figment.
Towards the last quarter of the novel, the story takes off at an incredibly fast pace when Luca gets himself embroiled quite unnecessarily in a dangerous espionage episode, which, true to form, also has him falling prey to his lustful urges with a stranger and nearly gets himself killed in the process. But, perhaps, the sheer horror of that death-wish did achieve its objective, for in the end we discover that Luca has not gone adrift without recourse. That is, in and of itself, a redemption, for it returns him to the hope and optimism of his childhood, as this epigraph for Part 1, so aptly highlights
"… the green paradise of childhood loves … is for many a future in reverse, an obverse of hope in the face of the gray purgatory of adult loves."
Without a doubt, Bancesco boasts a unique voice that is a pleasure to read. This is one of those books that one just cannot put down. As with his second novel, "The Scarf", its elegant and evocative language is its greatest draw. I cannot recommend it highly enough, and will be looking forward to more of this author's work in the future.
A wonderful read! Can't wait to read the next one!
Bancesco's book offers a wonderful glimpse into an era and culture while also dealing with a very human struggle. Great read, highly recommended!
Captivating train ride through Europe through the eyes of Luca! Some interesting history of Romania mixed well with Luca's personal past and present. Look forward to reading the second novel!
A must read !!!
Loved the creativity of this book. The concept reminds me of Kundera, the characters unexpected and lively, the language supple and evocative. Was particularly struck by the goulash scene and its imaginative play on the sensory relationships between cooking and seduction. Enjoyed this nostalgic and epicurean journey. Look forward to reading more from Bancesco.
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