Burying the TypewriterBurying the Typewriter
The author recounts growing up on her grandparents' farm in the Romanian countryside and describes being shunned at school and by neighbors after discovering that her father was a political dissident during the time of Ceauðsescu.
The author recounts growing up on her grandparents' farm in the Romanian countryside and describes being shunned at school and by neighbors after discovering that her father was a political dissident during the time of Ceausescu. Original.
Winner of the Bakeless Prize for Nonfiction, a childhood memoir of political oppression and persecution during Romania's Ceausescu years
Carmen Bugan grew up amid the bounty of the Romanian countryside on her grandparent's farm where food and laughter were plentiful. But eventually her father's behavior was too disturbing to ignore. He wept when listening to Radio Free Europe, hid pamphlets in sacks of dried beans, and mysteriously buried and reburied a typewriter. When she discovered he was a political dissident she became anxious for him to conform. However, with her mother in the hospital and her sister at boarding school, she was alone, and helpless to stop him from driving off on one last, desperate protest.
After her father's subsequent imprisonment, Bugan was shunned by her peers at school and informed on by her neighbors. She candidly struggled with the tensions of loving her "hero" father who caused the family so much pain. When he returned from prison and the family was put under house arrest, the Bugans were forced to chart a new course for the future. A warm and intelligent debut, Burying the Typewriter provides a poignant reminder of a dramatic moment in Eastern European history.
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- Minneapolis, Minn. : Graywolf Press, c2012.
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