Ion Grumeza was born in Romania and lived there for 28 years. During that time, he wrote some 200 short stories, mostly humorous, to record what life was like under the leadership of a tyrannical Communist regime.
Grumeza’s satire reflects the grim reality of life in Romania at the time. The people confronted increasing political terror, lack of freedom of speech, and they stood in lines for hours in front of empty food stores, as they faced shortages of vital necessities. Grumeza experienced hardship firsthand, which gave him the unique insights needed to write these stories often with the officially banned humor.
Since Grumeza was not a member of the Romanian Communist Party and did not follow their politically correct directives, he was blacklisted from publishing for his lifetime. He felt outcast and defected to Austria where he was interned in a refugee camp where he waited to start a new life in the free world.
After legally immigrating to the United States, Grumeza faced many surprising new directions. Some of the effects are described in Part II of his book. He observed new immigrants who seemed to want to shortcut the time and the work necessary to achieve the American dream. Sometimes rather a comical end comes out in Grumeza’s stories as he depicts some immigrants’ unrealistic aspirations of being able to make it big, in spite of their limited potential.
However, his critique isn’t limited to immigrants, as some of the stories target inefficiencies of the American way of doing things. Yet, because hard work pays back and having the freedom of choices with achievable opportunities, his conclusion is often “God Bless America!”