Daniel Farcas , Ph. D.

To rate this book was a toss between two and three stars. With two, not enough, and three too much.

Maybe I was not in the right frame of mind when I read this book, or had too much on my plate to really get into it, but I simply couldn't get into it as I would have liked. It was a very difficult to read, and the grammatical problems didn't help either.

Why I agreed to read the book was found in the book's synopsis, but the book itself was hard. The book cover and images within the book were disturbing and though I could understand, after reading the book, where his frame of mind was, the images didn't help. It was warped and grotesque, and I didn't like them at all.

This is a true story from an orphan child born in Romania in the 1980s during Nicolae Ceauscu's communist regime. Daniel was a homeless child and lived in the city's underground sewers after he had run away from the orphanage. The 1989 Anticommunism Revolution was the event that moved him to flee and he landed in the United States.

The group of children that lived with Daniel down in the sewers each had their own story to tell. It was heart wrenching to learn about each, their dreams and hopes as they struggled to survive.
When he met Marianne, things changed for Daniel. Timing, in this case, was definitely a good thing because she helped him to get out.

The writing was all over the place, and the dialogue flicked from one character's point of view to another so quickly that it was difficult to keep up. In the end, I stopped completely.

Though this was not a book for me, I believe others might find this interesting so I can not slam it. Each of our viewpoints will be different, but that Daniel and his friends underwent a terrible ordeal cannot be denied.… (más)

So weird it must be true, though totally unbelievable. The cruelty of the powerful to the powerless can never be over stated. This is the lesson that we haven't yet learned and so we let power go unchecked. One happy out come in this story, at the expense of so many is not a happy outcome for mankind. I am happy for Daniel and thank him for telling his story. Reading his memoir, my question is, how was he able to learn the fate of his fellows when he had lost contact with them. H e talks of never hearing of or from them again and then tells us what happened to them after he lost touch with them. An eye opening view into the world's evils and no end in sight. Daniel has at least has and is doing what he can. But the rest of us....?… (más)