The Town with Acacia Trees

This is another good read from the Romanian author Mihail Sebastian, but “The Town with Acacia Trees” has one failure. It is the only thing that didn’t make it live up to “The Accident”, which I loved!

Short Summary

First published in 1935, the book tackles the transition from adolescence into maturity. Ideally, I should have read it a long time ago —, but I appreciated it nonetheless.

The story starts with Miss Adriana Dunea getting her period at 15. Of course, this was a welcomed, important change in a woman’s life, especially in those times.

The magnitude of this event, the fact that it is intimate, one of the tabu topics of conversation, something that she must navigate alone is what creates this great impact in her behaviour. She no longer wants to play and becomes interested in boys.

Adriana makes a new friend, Margareta, who actually gets her, having gone through the same change. More than that, even her tall, handsome cousin Paul recognises she has become a beautiful woman (he hadn’t seen her since they were children).

Her life becomes full of little joyful events and get-togethers with girls her age outside of school. At some point, she, naturally for her age and status, gives up school altogether and starts a young romance with Gelu, a boy from her group of friends.

However, once the novelty wears off, she finds herself bored. She leaves the small town to go to Bucharest, Romania’s capital city, to house-sit for her cousin, Paul while he is on his honeymoon.

This excites her a lot: she will be able to go to the theatre, to concerts and balls. She feels free and forgets all about Gelu.

Her experiences here help her mature even more.

My Review

The way the author treats the moment Adriana gets her period is childish at best. He gives some emotional insights and he manages to convey its importance in a girl’s life, but it doesn’t manage to transpose that into believable actions.

Firstly, Adriana doesn’t know what happens, her mother doesn’t either. Then the description of her body going through pains, producing blood… all that is terrible. Of course, we can blame it on the times and on the author being a man, but it just wasn’t believable. As wasn’t the fact that Adriana stopped talking to her best friend, Cecilia, because she feels misunderstood, yet somehow superior now.

Once you pass this (the first 10 or so pages), everything is perfect.

My favourite parts about it involved, actually, the side characters. They are peculiar and interesting and they offer a contrasting perspective from the main characters. This is because of their different status in society.

The main characters come from wealthy, posh families. Side characters like Buță, who wasn’t born wealthy, despise rich people and mock their relationship with money. The criticism he provides about how some people really view money is invaluable.

Another thing that I found special was the way Mihail Sebastian talks about music, the way we feel and hear music through a character’s passion for it. It reminded me of the skiing lessons in “The Accident” which made me want to learn to ski. This book made me want to learn to play the piano.

The best thing about it all are, indeed, the characters. Each one has a great story. Each one is interesting. Each one evolves a bit during the years covered in the book, some in a surprising way. I loved how they represent different strata of the Romanian society at the time. I loved even more how we get to see their thoughts and they give insights into their psychology and their views on the world.

The writing is exceptional. Mihail Sebastian is masterful at creating a small universe of people you want to get to know better. The way he portrays life in a small town in the 1930s as well as the life in Bucharest at the time is just perfect.

Conclusion

This book surprised me with how invested I got in these characters’ problems. I am genuinely disappointed it ended so abruptly as I feel I could have easily read about what they are doing 10 or 20 more years into their lives.

If you want to read a Romanian author, Mihail Sebastian’s writing will surprise you through his modernity. “The Town with Acacia Trees” is a must-read!

P.S. If you love it, you will also love “The Accident” as well!

✨✨✨You can find the book here:✨✨✨