“I went blind to prison and I left it with eyes wide open; I was spoiled, pampered, now I am  leaving healed of frill, mischief, vanity; I entered frustrated, I am leaving knowing happiness; I entered nervous, irascible, susceptible to nonsense I am leaving indifferent; sun and my life were saying few things, now I know how to taste the slice of bread, I am leaving admiring the courage, dignity, honor, heroism above all; I am leaving in peace: with those who I have erred, friends or enemies, and with myself.” (N. Steinhardt)

Few people know that Nicolae Steinhardt (b.29 July 1912, Bucharest-d.30 March 1989) was a great Romanian writer who has long intrigued the communist doctrine with his writings. He refused to cooperate with the new regime and in 1960 he was investigated, then sentenced to 12 years of hard labor. Passing through prisons like Jilava, Aiud, Gherla he was released in 1964. In 1972 he finishes the first version of his masterpiece, Journal of Happiness, and it was strongly censored.

I was unable to read the Journal of Happiness until now, during college. The book has gone through my hands when I was in high school, but then I just skim it. But I was “ripe” to understand its fragmentary nature, being rewritten because its manuscript has been seized by the communists. Now, the non-logical order of passages does not disturb me, because I think that is part of the charm of the book.

Journal of Happiness is a book that marks the whole existence, one “builders of soul” reading, a jewel of our literature, our Orthodoxy, our Romanian soul, written by a man who endured suffering in prison but this did not mean sadness and despair, but awakening consciousness and closer to God. Steinhardt tries to reveal how pain is intertwined with a love of neighbor in a damp prison cell:

“In cell 34, the joy – stemming from the aristocracy, poetry and defiance – and pain (reigns for bitterly cold, the food is totally on the floor, water continues to be grubby, any observation is accompanied by guardians’ dig under the jaw and fists in the head) is so inextricably mixed that everything, including pain, is transformed into ecstatic and uplifting happiness.”

This book does not meet the memoirs features because there is a non-chronological ordering of events, and the emphasis is on interpretation of the events. Journal of Happiness is like life: full of inner self adventures, an account of the long road that follows the intellect striving to understand the Christian condition. The book is elevated to the status of the masterpieces of Romanian literature by the mere fact that the it is full of examples of the author’s life, especially literary and philosophical references are so rich, so convincing and expressive.

Steinhardt is one of the few monarchs who raise the question of difference between stupidity and belief:

“Otherwise, however, is elementary duty cleverness. And stupidity is a temptation. Luck of knowledge, blind passage through life among indifferent things or passage, are of the devil. The good guy was not only good, but carefully: he knew to see. ”

Happiness is actually Steinhardt’s human strength which has captured the freedom, not anywhere, but paradoxically in a prison!

“Life is a paradise, but we do not want to know” and “Man is always more than what is“ are two of Dostoevsky’s thoughts paradoxical that Steinhardt reminds and talks about Christian freedom.

The most beautiful pages are those describing the author’s baptism with water willow, in haste, running not to be seen by the guards.

“I am born again of water and the grubby Spirit quickly. Who was a Christian as a child has no way of knowing and cannot guess what baptism means. Every moment of my life happiness has more and more frequent assaults. Happiness rounds me, gets me dressed, and defeats me.”

In the end I chose to synthesize my “humble” review with a quote by Nicolae Manolescu who manages to capture in a big way the importance of this Romanian masterpiece:

“A splendid book, an inextricably mix of everyday’s notation, memories, confessions, hermeneutics, humor, tragedy, history, universality, metaphysics, physiology, cited by reading. Our literature was enriched with a first hand book, which we feel the need to return to it more than once, in moments of distress, but also of joy. ”

To enter the book’s atmosphere, I invite you to watch this movie:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tiSHBf6oK2Y

Source of information:

“Journal of Happiness”-N. Steinhardt, Polirom Monastery Rohia, 2008