The Little Communist Who Never Smiled

This is a terrific and superbly plotted novel about the Romanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci. Comaneci was one of the finest gymnasts the world has seen: she was the first to gain a perfect score (her parallel bars routine is still breathtaking), and was at the forefront of a generation of talented Romanian (and later, through the defection of her coach, American) gymnasts that loosened the stranglehold Soviet gymnasts had at the time. Lafon's novel is fascinating about the grueling regime that gymnasts went through at such young ages, and about the struggles Comaneci faced when her body grew (as of course it would) and the extraordinarily unfair criticisms she faced. It's also a superb portrait of the Cold War world, and how it intersected at global sporting events. The telling is made even more compelling by a sort of subplot which involves the narrator speaking to a fictionalised version of Comaneci herself about how she is writing her life. It's wonderfully imaginative, and is a terrific read.

Personally I find this a rather nasty little book. It's written as the relationship between a journalist with Romanian roots and the Romanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci but careful reading of the small print tells you the apparent relationship is invented. As the author has nothing good to say about Comaneci, or her athletic training in Romania, or anything apart from herself, and as it's written in a very realistic style, I think there is a significant risk of what in 2017-8 would be called fake news. But what is, or is not, is impenetrable. Best avoided.

Maybe because it's a translation but I found the writing jarring and stilted. The content starts out interesting enough and then quite frankly I just found it boring. Don't bother.

A fantastic book - at par with the best novels ever written. By far deeper than just a story of the gymnast. A highly artistic presentation of different views by the western observer and by the subject of the story comiing from one of the rebelios countris of the Easten Europe. I read the book on French and hope that the tanslation is as good as the original. But do not expect an easy read. The author would only give you different points of view - you need to use your own brains to derive the truth. So unless you have an open and inquisitive mind to discover the truth just do not bother.

didn't really care for it

Unique book. Especially cool to read if you link to YouTube videos of the various performances by the gymnasts mentioned in the book. Brings the book alive--or reminds those of us who are old enough to have watched them of the routines and events she is writing about. Powerful.

The book started kind of slowly for me, but wound up being an excellent read. Beyond just an examination of Nadia's life and career, it explores a number of powerful themes with that as a framework. It touches on the relative prosperity of people under both communism and capitalism, the impact of career defining fame achieved at an early age, the mythos a society develops around it's heroes, and the definition of identity. Really liked this

I loved this book. This book is much deeper than a look at the life of Nadia and the world of gymnastics. It delves deeply into conceptions of communism and capitalism and who "owns" a woman's body. This is a great book to accompany the Olympics which are going on now. I watch the American team and their coaches with a different level of respect as well as caution.