Gentiane.

''Pana la urma tot ce mi-a facut rau mi-a facut si foarte bine''

One of my many guilty pleasures when it comes to reading, are Cella Serghi's books. I don't know exactly how to explain what makes me so attached to her characters and stories. Perhaps her female characters and their life described so vividly within the pages of every book I read from her are the reason why I love her writting style so much. It's like I can relate in some way or another with all of them.

After all, we all loved and hoped as young girls like Diana Slavu from Panza de paianjen, we all had our dreams and goals like Mirona from Cartea Mironei. But I don't know how many of us fought for their happiness like Rada Ionac from Gentiane.

At first glance Gentiane is your Cella Serghi's typical novel, with a heroin that strongly resembles Diana from Panza de paianjen, at least those were my first thoughts in the first pages of this book. But I was wrong, very wrong. Sure, you can say that Gentiane is following the same road and tries to prove the same point that Panza de paianjen wants to prove, but you definetly can't compare Diana with Rada, you just can't, not even in their circumstances.

Rada Ionac was brought up into a disfunctional unloving family, she was always trying to maintain her fragile little existence between her alchoolic father who physically and mentally abused her, and of course her mother who seemes blame her in every aspect for her unfortunate life and bad decisions.

The only two things that got her going through her childhood were her dog, Ardei, the only friend she could count on, and her dream of becoming an actress. Later on, when her dog passed away, becoming an actress was the only thing she held on to.

Rada experiences throughout this book countless feelings and dispointments. Rada has the pride and strenght that only poor children from problematic families have, she is a living proof that people can be strong and adaptable to almost every circumstance that life has to offer. And knowing that this novel was inspired from a real case, from a girl who thought that Diana Slavu has no right to complain or call herself a poor unfortunate girl, makes this novel even more inspiring.

Sometimes, Rada is anything but feminine, and that could make the reader dislike her a bit, she has rough and pollished way of thinking and viewing life in general, but this of course is the result of a life lived in poverty and obstacles. She wants to catch up to everything that she didin't have as a teenager. The education she wanted so badly to obtain, but couldn't, her dream of working within the theathre industry one day still burns in the back of her mind even when she works as a nurse in a hospital - and she makes one hell of a nurse for that matter of fact - even if she's not emotionaly attached to what she's doing.

But Rada is the kind of person who likes to make the best out of everythig, so she finds different ways of obtaining what she wants, even if she has to work extra hard like becoming a servant or working extra hours in the hospital. Rada almost never has time for herself, she always keeps moving forward.

Despite her strong personality, Rada falls in love just like every Cella Serghi's female characters, she experienced her first love which broght her heartbreak and disspointment, then she falls in love with one of the doctors she assists in the E.R. but she realized it too late, and then again, she falls into the arms of another man who proved to be nothing but a liar and a cheat.

I never knew what to make of her relationship with Cirus Hotaru, there were passages in the book where it was pretty clear that she loved him and other passages where she admired or despized him. At the end of the book I reached the conclusion that she admired him more as stage manager and a teacher than as a man. Or maybe she was in love with both the genious, creative and proud stage manager and the original man beneath that mask.

I liked the ending, even though it was so typical for how the writer ends her novels (at least in Mirona and Panza de paianjen). In the end it's all about Rada and the right for happiness she fought all those years to obtain. Her happiness isn't to be found in love, her happiness is found in her personal acomplishments, and that's what every woman needs to learn. Rada Ionac gave me a lesson, just like Diana and Mirona gave me before her.

Gentiane isn't my Cella Serghi favourite book, but I definetly enjoyed every page of it. It's a about a life lived for a purpose.

*Si asta oameni buni, a fost primul meu review facut in engleza la o carte*