An „imperfect oeuvre”. I am delighted by the consistency of some of the sections of the book and by the ambitious targets set by the famous critic in his preface, I cannot deny the impressive linguistic abilities of Manolescu (at least comparable with Calinescu's texts from his own literary history, a standard for critics and canon for many decades already), but at the same time I am terribly disappointed by some evasive maneuvers (Ion Barbu mannerist? Sorry, but in this case the arguments are paler than the discourse) and especially by the pages dedicated to the avant-garde, which left me an extremely bitter taste... Not to mention the pages dedicated to contemporary literature. Here N.M. has a wide perspective (kudos for the hundreds of books that he managed to read and review), but his vision is at least limited. In some cases you are better off reading the writers that are only mentioned in the "dictionary" section than the (very few) ones that were selected. Also, no respect for poets from Moldova, even though very good ones have established themselves in the last couple of decades... Hopefully, the next edition will solve some of the flaws. But we should at least give the author credit for warning us that it is a flawed, contradictory book. Readers should be aware of this and expect maybe less from this all-too-hyped edition (one last thing: 5 centuries of Romanian literature? Quite a stretch there...) ( )

An „imperfect oeuvre”. I am delighted by the consistency of some of the sections of the book and by the ambitious targets set by the famous critic in his preface, I cannot deny the impressive linguistic abilities of Manolescu (at least comparable with Calinescu's texts from his own literary history, a standard for critics and canon for many decades already), but at the same time I am terribly disappointed by some evasive maneuvers (Ion Barbu mannerist? Sorry, but in this case the arguments are paler than the discourse) and especially by the pages dedicated to the avant-garde, which left me an extremely bitter taste... Not to mention the pages dedicated to contemporary literature. Here N.M. has a wide perspective (kudos for the hundreds of books that he managed to read and review), but his vision is at least limited. In some cases you are better off reading the writers that are only mentioned in the "dictionary" section than the (very few) ones that were selected. Also, no respect for poets from Moldova, even though very good ones have established themselves in the last couple of decades... Hopefully, the next edition will solve some of the flaws. But we should at least give the author credit for warning us that it is a flawed, contradictory book. Readers should be aware of this and expect maybe less from this all-too-hyped edition (one last thing: 5 centuries of Romanian literature? Quite a stretch there...) ( )