Diary of a short-sighted adolescent – a favorite among Romanian high school students

Why do other adolescents and people in general relate so well to this story about an awkward, short-sighted, ugly (according to his own description) young boy? Why has this story become so universal? Because many have been through similar experiences: being on the verge of failing two disciplines but procrastinating until it is too late, longing for the attention of girls, but failing to receive it, feeling insignificant and insufficiently good, but dreaming about the day when you will be successful and will put all of your detractors to shame.

What is exceptional about this is that Mircea Eliade was only a teen when he wrote the novel. One reviewer from The Guardian is so surprised at this fact that he almost doesn’t believe it to be true. Why? Because he thinks the novel is simply too good.

We meet our protagonist as he is thinking about writing a book. This will not be difficult, he believes, because he will write about his life. The book is indeed written as a diary, in the first voice, with the stumblings of a writer trying to decide which ideas are noteworthy and which are not.

The reason that he wants so badly to write this novel is that he is failing math and German and he hopes that if he finishes it in time, the teachers will have no choice but to pass a published author. He can’t stand these subjects, especially because they keep him from doing what he really enjoys, which was reading. He reads until his eyes are sore, although he is shortsighted. He also confesses to have cried when reading a book by Ionel Teodoreanu and to having fallen in love with the main character, Sonia.

But what is most heart wrenching is the deep and sincere way in which he suffers. He suffers because he isn’t successful with girls, like his friends are, because he considers himself lazy when he reads literature instead of learning math and a liar when he lies to his father about it.

It is a journey of self-discovery in which we see the character grow up and develop into a mature young man.

Sources:

http://www.calificativ.ro/ROMANUL_ADOLESCENTULUI_MIOP___COMENTARIUL_ROMANULUI-a4069.html 

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/mar/30/diary-of-a-short-sighted-adolescent-by-micea-eliade-review