Bruce Benderson reads from his new book The Romanian: Story Of An Obsession

From: Jeremy P. Tarcher Pages: "History follows a trail of sputtering desire, often calling upon the delusions of lovers to generate the sparks. If it weren't for us, the world would suffer from a dismal lack of stories," writes Bruce Benderson in this brutally candid memoir, which won the 2004 Prix de Flore--one of France's most distinguished literary prizes. "What astonishes and intrigues is Benderson's way of recounting, in the sweetest possible voice, things that are considered shocking," wrote Le Monde. What's so shocking? It's not just Benderson's job translating Céline Dion's saccharine autobiography, which he admits is driving him mad, but his unrequited love for a young Romanian in cheap club-kid platforms with dollar signs in his squinting eyes, whom he meets while on a journalism assignment in Eastern Europe.

Rather than retreat, Benderson embarks on a wildly romantic obsession: he absorbs everything he can about Romanian culture and discovers an uncanny similarity between his own fixation on the Romanian (named Romulus) and the disastrous love affair of Carol II, the last king of Romania. Throughout, Benderson is sustained by codeine pills, a poetic self-awareness, a sense of humor.

Bruce Benderson is the author of Autobiographie érotique (Rivages, 2004), which won the 2004 Prix de Flore. The book, a memoir, will be published in 2006 by Penguin USA. Benderson is also the author of two books about the Times Square underworld, Pretending to Say No (Plume) and the novel User (Dutton). These were republished in France as Toxico (Rivages, 1995) and New York Rage (10/18, 1991 and Rivages, 2004). His book-length essay about the decline of urban bohemia, Toward the New Degeneracy (Edgewise), was featured in Rolling Stone and was recently republished in French by Payot. Another book-length essay, Sexe et Solitude, published by Payot in 1999, is about the decline of urban space and the rise of the internet. A collection of stories, The Worst Place in New York, was published in a bilingual edition by D.T.V. He is also the author of James Bidgood (Taschen), a luxury monograph about the creator of the film Pink Narcissus. He is co-author of the feature film My Father Is Coming. He has translated Robbe-Grillet, Sollers, Guyotat, Virginie Despentes and Nelly Arcan from the French. He has written on squatters for the New York Times Magazine, boxing for the Village Voice, unusual shelters for nest, and books and personalities for various publications, including Out, The Stranger, New York Press, and Paper. He is the literary executor of the deceased novelist, Ursule Molinaro.