What is Hidden in 'The Trenchcoat' by Norman Manea?

While reading ‘The Trenchcoat’ by Norman Manea, I was reminded greatly of two books written in a similar time period and location. The first of which was, ‘The Unbearable Lightness of Being’, by Milan Kundera, and the other being, ‘The Reader’, by Bernhard Schlink. It explored what I felt were similar themes to these stories, and in the case of ‘The Unbearable Lightness of Being’, they both discussed Romania and Czechoslovakia respectively in the liminal time before the fall of communism; where poverty and hunger were rampant and censorship was at an all-time high. I drew many comparisons between the stories while reading, specifically around the authoritarian regimes and the criticisms of the authors on the regimes. I connected this text to ‘The Reader’ because of its mentions of WWII and Jews occasionally as well as court hearings, which reminded me of this central theme inn ‘The Reader’. As well as this, the theme of paranoia and the sense of always being on edge was reminiscent of my memory of ‘The Reader’.

Much like these books, I found this story boring to read, but interesting to think about. No offense to Manea, but I think it was also his intention to make the story incredibly mundane, if so, the mundanity had its desired effect. What made the story interesting was not what was written, but was left unwritten. There’s a character whose name we never learn, he is presented as having speech difficulties and is simultaneously referred to as a “Child” and a “Learned One”, and he is apparently childhood friends with some of the other characters. Dina has a mysterious and tragic past, no one likes each other but also, they like each other? There is so much going on in this story while also nothing is occurring. Honestly, I spent a lot of the text confused. This did, however, make the story interesting. Having read books like, ‘The Unbearable Lightness of Being’, and, ‘The Reader’, the stifling sense of an authoritarian post WWII and post USSR regime in a text was familiar to me. It made me expect the worst of everything. I was honestly surprised in the end when (spoiler alert) no one was arrested or killed or exiled or had to escape.

Throughout, ‘The Trenchcoat’, we are shown situations in which social interaction is forced, happiness is forced and so are casual interactions, which caused me to think about the reason behind this. To be honest, I wondered if perhaps they all knew they were being listened to the entire time, and the lack of outright declaration of them being watched and listened to is due to the fact that they are being watched and/or that Manea was being censored in his own writing and so could not discuss the unethical actions of the Romanian regime. This thought was enforced when the character Ioana has a breakdown at her husband, Ali. She mentions that she doesn’t care if the walls have ears, and we are finally shown that the characters are aware of the stifling control with which they live their lives. It is not a funny alternate reality as could be taken from the book – a reality where no one really has friends and they can never outright discuss their issues, and where people enjoy monitoring everything they do. No, indeed, the characters are subject to the same stifling tension that we as the readers are subject to. In this sense, we are shown the lives of the characters not through what they do, but what they choose not to do. ‘The Trenchcoat’, much like ‘Nada’ by Carmen Laforet, is a story in which we must read something from the nothing which happens.

Finally, while I know it is too late for Manea himself, my question is: Do you think it is possible for people to live their lives fully under a regime with strict regulations that encourages strong censorship of thoughts and speech?

(PS sorry for the late post - internet issues!)