The Little Communist Who Never Smiled

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.

I enjoyed reading this... I was, however, confused as to whether the author really did communicate with Nadia after each chapter.

It was no easy reading and at times I skipped parts. There was a lot of superfluous information and details which in my view didn't add to my understanding of Nadia C's life or life in Romania under communism (or even now)

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.

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.

I like it as an attempt to unravel the mysterious young Romanian girl from 1976.The author does however manage to start the book with the first 10 being achieved on the beam (it was unbalanced bars).That seriously undermines her authority for the rest of the book.

didn't really care for it

Great

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.