Reviews for The Portugal Journal (Suny Series, Issues in the Study of Religion)

The average rating for The Portugal Journal (Suny Series, Issues in the Study of Religion) based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2017-07-24 00:00:00 Karen Freimark The choice of the book came along with the hope to read something of personal impressions of the author on life in Portugal. As a result of certain turn of events, Eliade found himself as an employee in the Romanian embassy in Lisbon, right at the beginning of the WW2. So he did his best in pursuing opportunities to emerge himself in Portuguese culture, history and politics. Voracious reader, he finds in Portuguese novels the reflections of his own intellectually inquisitive and restless spirit. His diary consists of random thoughts on everything that surrounds him in that environment, the entries also include rough drafts of future article. Once he mentions that he wished he could express at least the smallest part of everything that he contains, but words are not enough to convey his experience to the external world. This really reminds me of Ega’s character in “The Maias”. However, Eliade shares only the tiniest bits of his impression of Lisbon. Premeditations on the history of Romania occupies the major place in the diary. And names, names, names… It is obvious that the text is written by a very educated man, the short biographical note informs that Eliade was a polymath, who was interested in history, psychology, politics, eastern studies, yoga, and could speak up to ten languages, including rare Pali language. What especially surprised me, it is that his diary on 95% consist of his extensive elaborations on development of democracy, on anarchy, on the nature of social revolution, and on religion, which often I was not able to fully grasp and therefore appreciate, and very rarely on personal impressions. This is, by the way, the general impression, aftertaste of the book – can be a personal diary so official and emotionless? The book is recommended for general culture, for those who is interested in the history of the first half of XXth century, and to those who is eager to catch a glance on official Portugal of that time.

Review # 2 was written on 2017-12-04 00:00:00 Greg Vega Creația lui Eliade are tangență cu viața fiecăruia din noi, întrucât multitudinea de personaje cât și teme filozofice prezente ne decontează experiențele și gândurile proprii. Nu pot să neglijez percepția prezentă în jurnal precum că omul trece prin acea melancolie consfințită existenței umane în timp și spațiu.