4 out of 4 stars
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Behind Silent Smiles by Tanya J. Peterson is a fiction novel inspired by a true story. It follows the drama of Cătălina Gabor, a Romanian immigrant who lives with her two children in Sacramento, California. When she was young, her country was under the regime of President Ceauşescu. Her family struggled every day to get ahead and avoid getting in trouble with the Securitate, the secret police of the communist tyrant. Amid such a chaotic situation, a five-years-old Cătălina found it difficult to get the affection of her mother, her sisters, and her cousins, who constantly mistreated and belittled her.
Luckily for Cătălina, her grandmother was always there for her, making her feel loved and valued. It was only thanks to the lessons of her beloved Bunicuță that she managed to get through the horrors of communist Romania, from the countryside to the streets of Bucharest. But a horrible tragedy took her out of her life, leaving Cătălina with a family that never quite understood her. As an adult woman, a violent and abusive man named Dumitru came into her life. Although he made it possible for her two children to come to this world, he also left her with severe sequels of physical and psychological harm. After all, Cătălina is capable of loving others deeply in spite of unspeakable loss and abuse. But is she capable of giving herself the love she deserves?
Mrs. Peterson takes us on a painful and raw tale of a woman’s journey to love and be loved in return. Even as an adult, Cătălina always finds it hard to believe in herself and others. Every time she seems to run into people genuinely interested in her, Cătălina always questions herself and their intentions, fearing to be hurt or despised. She is an insecure and self-conscious woman, constantly pursued by the ghosts of her past, especially her abusive ex-husband. His son seems to understand her suffering, while her daughter is reluctant of her new life and treats her mother as badly as so many others have done throughout her life.
The prose of the author is simply magnificent. The internal struggles and doubts of the protagonist practically carry the story forward by themselves. Even the segments that narrate the life of a young Cătălina in Romania perfectly reflect her innocence and suffering, not to mention the social and political environment that the country was going through at the time. As for the editing work, although it is acceptable, it still misses a few double quotation marks in dialogues along with a couple of question marks in some sentences. Additionally, some paragraphs prove a bit extensive, even mixing dialog situations of multiple characters. While the reader will not be deprived of a continuous flow of reading, some further polishing would have benefitted this book.
Despite the drawbacks with the edition, I must admit that I found myself very immersed in this life story and I deeply enjoyed reading this book, even if it is not entirely my type of reading. To be honest, I think the most appropriate thing for me to do is to give this book 3.5 out of 4 stars, but having to choose between whole numbers, I am willing to give it 4 out of 4 stars. I recommend this book for those who enjoy reading life stories about overcoming adversities amid rough family circles. At the same time, I also recommend it to readers of historical fiction novels given Cătălina's past in communist Romania.
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Behind Silent Smiles
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when I get a little money I buy books; and if I have any left l buy food and clothes
