Comments on Lola Lafon's book The Little Communist Who Never Smiled

by Jean-Pierre Leroy

Table of contents

Warning to the reader of this blog

A few things made me jump while reading this book, or when listening to Lola Lafon's interviews about the book. Numerous factual errors, of course, but also in certain places Lola Lafon's incredible lack of tact towards Nadia Comaneci.

Please note, however, that I know gymnastics only through television, that I do not know Nadia Comaneci personally, that I have never been in Romania, that I do not speak Romanian. Thus, this list does not pretend to be exhaustive. Specialists may want to complete it.

Foreword of the book, Lola Lafon's preparation

Here is, in its entirety, the foreword of the book (emphases added by me):

'The Little Communist Who Never Smiled' does not claim to be a historical reconstruction of Nadia Comaneci's life. Although I have respected dates, places and public events, beyond this I have chosen to fill the silences of history and those of the heroine with traces of the many hypotheses and bootleg versions of that vanished world. The dialogue between the narrator and the gymnast is a dream, a fiction, a way of restoring sound to the almost silence film that constituted Nadia C.'s journey between 1969 and 1990.

I am recalling the foreword, since apparently not all readers read it:

In Lola LAFON, Edyr AUGUSTO : Histoires de vies, the presenter, Maëtte Chantrel, confesses:

[vimeo.com/99236018, 4'30"]

Quand on ouvre le livre, on lit tout de suite l'avant-propos, ou on ne le lit pas. Moi je ne l'ai pas lu, et j'ai lu le livre, et moi j'ai cru à tout, mais à tout ! Et c'est seulement après que j'ai lu l'avant-propos.

[translation] When you open the book, you immediately read the foreword, or you don't read it. I did not read it, and I read the book, and I believed everything, everything! And I read the foreword only afterwards.
Excerpt from boutabou.wordpress.com/2014/03/25/lola-lafon-la-petite-communiste-qui-ne-souriait-jamais:

Lola Lafon nous offre le résultat de son long travail d'anthropologue, qui a duré plusieurs années, et lui a permis d'entrer en contact avec Nadia Comaneci elle-même, mais aussi avec les gens qui l'ont côtoyée, de près ou de loin, et de rassembler tout ce qui pouvait être source de détails sur la vie de l'extraordinaire gymnaste.

[translation] Lola Lafon gives us the result of her long anthropological work, which lasted several years, and which allowed her to get in touch with Nadia Comaneci herself, but also with people who have been, closely or remotely, in contact with her, and to gather everything which could be a source of details on the extraordinary gymnast's life.
an English-speaking reader:

[www.youtube.com/watch?v=2v16wi2g3j0, 2'50"]

She told Nadia she was writing this book, and she actually shows correspondence she has with Nadia in the book, so presumably Nadia was OK with it.
in the French radio programme Le Masque & la Plume of Sunday, February 2nd 2014, the book reviewer (!) Michel Crépu admits he does not know whether the letters between the narrator and Nadia Comaneci are real:

[www.franceinter.fr/emissions/le-masque-et-la-plume/le-masque-et-la-plume-02-fevrier-2014, 21'55"]

Je me suis demandé si les lettres, qu'elle introduit dans son livre, de Nadia sont vraies.

[translation] I have wondered if Nadia's letters, which she introduces in her book, are real.

Given all this confusion, one wonders if the sentence in the foreword, about the fictitious aspect of the dialogue between the narrator and Nadia Comaneci, should not be printed again at the beginning of each chapter.

Some have praised the precision of the text, for example in the bookshop la Galerne:

[www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_7dsu46OoM, 2'50"]

Vous vous êtes replongée dans les documents de cette époque. Vous retranscrivez des moments réels, des interviews au mot près. La restitution des images et des reportages que vous faites est d'ailleurs d'une justesse remarquable.

[translation] You have revisited the documents of that period. You have written down real moments, interviews word for word. Besides, your rendition of the pictures and reports is remarkably accurate.

That precision is the outcome of her meticulous preparation:

[Comme on nous parle, www.franceinter.fr/emissions/comme-nous-parle/comme-nous-parle-28-janvier-2014, 30'03"]

J'ai lu l'Équipe, j'ai lu in extenso huit ans de l'Équipe, donc c'était assez, ouais...

[translation] I've read l'Équipe, I've read eight full years of l'Équipe, so that was rather, yeah...

(L'Équipe is a daily French sports newspaper.)

[Europe 1 Social Club, www.youtube.com/watch?v=QB8_gY9NiFc, 0'05"]

J'ai quand même lu une dizaine d'années du journal l'Équipe, hein, je dois vous dire... Même si je ne lisais que la section gymnastique, quoi. Mais j'ai lu beaucoup d'autres choses.

[translation] Anyway, I've read ten years or so of the newspaper l'Équipe, you know, I must say... Even though I only read the section on gymnastics. But I've read a lot more.

[Café littéraire de Sainte Cécile les Vignes, Intégrale de soirée, www.youtube.com/watch?v=BIm-JeXZoPo, 26'50"]

J'ai lu une quinzaine d'années de l'Équipe, hein.

[translation] I've read fifteen years or so of l'Équipe, you know.

So, let's now turn, amongst others, to these respected dates, places and public events, to those interviews written down word for word, to the remarkable accuracy of the rendition of the pictures and reports.

Smiles

In the title, the Little Communist never smiled.

When I search the Internet for "Comaneci", my screen is flooded with photos and videos of a beaming fourteen year-old. When she greets the crowd after getting her score, when she stands on the podium, when she has fun with her teammates.

Balance beam

Excerpt from the beginning of "Part one", 2^nd paragraph (emphasis added by me):

Why did no one tell them that was where they were meant to look, protest the spectators, who miss the moment when, on the ten-centimetres width of beam, Nadia C. throws herself backwards and, arms outstreched, launched into a triple back flip. They turn to one another: has anyone understood?

There follows a description of Comaneci's first ten in Montreal.

However, in Montreal Comaneci did not get her first ten on the balance beam, but on the uneven bars.

Source (amongst others): www.olympic.org/fr/videos/le-premier-dix-parfait-nadia-comaneci.

One point nought nought

Excerpt from the beginning of "Part one", 7^th paragraph (emphasis added by me):

During the preparatory meetings the Olympic committee told us 10 didn't exist in gymnastics, protest the Longines engineers, whom the press have dubbed 'team one point nought nought'.

Yes, ten already existed in gymnastics: Comaneci had got a ten in March 1976 at the American Cup.

Let's also note that Comaneci was not the only gymnast to get ten in Montreal: Nellie Kim also got the perfect score, at the floor exercise and on the vault. And of course that achievement, too, was scored as "1.00". The book does not make mention of Nellie Kim's tens.

Sources:

Pommel horse

The French version of the book mentions seven times cheval d'arçons (= pommel horse), always in relation to women gymnastics.

Pommel horse is an apparatus practised only by men. Lola Lafon meant vault.

The translator of the English version, Nick Caistor, corrected the error.

Uneven bars

Excerpt from chapter Replay, 1^st paragraph (emphases added by me):

As if someone had amplified the creaking of the bars she pounds with millimetric precision. They have been lent an echo that makes them anguished, repetitive punctuation for her body as it folds itself around them. The little girl's lips tighten with the effort; her shoulders scarcely tremble at the impact when, after letting go and rotating on herself in midair, she catches the other bar. She balances for a moment on her hands on the higher bar. A triangle, a moving rectangle that becomes an isosceles and then an i, a line of silence, breath held, the geometric exercise is coming to an end, Nadia signals her dismount, her back hunches, knees tucked up to her chin for a double somersault only boys can achieve; until then it was as if you had been watching a sylph evolve, but now she's borrowing from the men and giving them the hiding of their lives.

Uneven bars is an apparatus practised only by women.

Double somersault

Excerpt from chapter Replay, 2^nd paragraph (emphases added by me):

Now she is pirouetting on the beam, illuminated by the flashes of crazy fireflies, a dancing light. The child seems to hold everyone's breath. She finishes with a double twist punch and, with a snap of the fingers – her dismount is impeccably stable – she sets them free, as if the volume button has suddenly been turned up from mute, and the public roars with a delight mingled with relief that she hasn't fallen.

In this video, one can see three of Comaneci's routines on the balance beam: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yl9QpC8_LiE. I am unable to see any double somersaults at the end of her balance beam routines, "only" a somersault with a twist.

Bunches

Excerpt from chapter Mission accomplished, 1^st paragraph (emphasis added by me):

[the scene takes place in Montreal, in 1976]

When she finally arrives, dressed in the Romanian team's tracksuit with blue, yellow and red bands and the hammer and sickle on her chest, her coach lifts her and carries her at arms' length to her place; the doll she is clutching is wearing the same tracksuit and their hair is done up in the same way, with two bunches tied up with red ribbons.

Excerpt from chapter Snapshots - 26-27 July 1976, 2^nd paragraph (emphasis added by me):

At Montreal airport, hundreds of people recognize her and want to touch her bunches, and she is crushed against the Air Canada counter.

Excerpt from chapter Strasbourg, 1^st paragraph (emphasis added by me):

They say: she's no longer the schoolgirl given a 10 in her gym notebook, a little girl playing with her dolls in front of the entire planet. They note: she has cut off her bunches and stored away her ribbons, her body fills out her costume.

Although I have watched many photos and videos from Montreal, I am unable to find any trace of bunches, always a pony tail. The documentary film Nadia Comaneci, la gymnaste et le dictateur shows (18'00") an archive footage of Comaneci as she gets off the plane at Bucharest when coming back from Montreal. There again, she wears a pony tail.

In order to find Comaneci with bunches, one must apparently go back to the European championships at Skien (Norway) in 1975.

17th of July

Excerpt from chapter Mission accomplished, last two paragraphs:

So, empty with the calm after a celebration, already missing the Carpathian fairy, millions of mothers switch off TV sets that have been on constantly since the 17th of July. [...]

So, empty with the calm after a celebration, already missing the Carpathian fairy, millions of little girls switch off TV sets that have been on constantly since the 17th of July, as though stunned by a prolonged absence. [...]

The opening ceremony of the Montreal Olympic Games took place on Saturday 17th of July 1976, and the gymnastics competition started on Sunday 18th of July 1976.

Source (amongst others): www.olympic.org/fr/montreal-1976.

Nadia runs fast

Excerpt from chapter How old is she?, 6^th paragraph from the end:

[the scene takes place in Montreal, in 1976]

Run as hard as possible, build up speed, 24 kilometres an hour, leap feet together on the springboard, her hands come into brutal contact with the leather of the apparatus, [...]

24 km/h, or 100 metres in 15 seconds, seems plausible.

In chapter Biomechanics of a Communist fairy (1975), she ran faster:

Something that would take no account of the twenty-seven kilometres an hour runup to the vault they measured the previous week.

But it is in the program Plateau littéraire Paroles au féminin where Nadia takes off:

[www.youtube.com/watch?v=0PZJ6gNujQk, 7'03"]

l'écriture devait épouser cette fille qui va à 45 km/h

[translation] the writing had to be faithful to that girl who went at 45 km/h

before reaching her peak speed in entretien avec Lola Lafon:

[mutualise.artishoc.com/cite/media/5/dp-lola-lafon.pdf, page 6]

Parce que c'est ce que je voulais dans le roman : j'ai compris qu'il fallait donner un rythme au corps de Nadia. C'est une fille qui courait à 46 km/h et moi, j'ai coupé tout le temps dans le texte pour avoir ce rythme desséché, sec, sans gras, avec beaucoup d'instantanés; je voulais un livre et un spectacle fidèles à sa vitesse.

[translation] Because this is what I wanted in the novel: I understood I needed to give a rhythm to Nadia's body. She was a girl who ran at 46 km/h, and I have always cut into the text in order to get that dried, dry, fatless rhythm, with many snapshots; I needed a book and a show faithful to her speed.

or on Radio-Canada:

[ici.radio-canada.ca/emissions/plus_on_est_de_fous_plus_on_lit/2012-2013/chronique.asp?idChronique=331301]

Les petites filles de 76 qui ont eu un désir fou de l'imiter avaient envie de courir à 46 km/h, elles avaient envie de se mettre à l'envers, elles avaient envie d'être puissantes.

[translation] The little girls of 76 who have so much wanted to imitate her wished they could run at 46 km/h, they wanted to put themselves upside down, they wanted to be powerful.

or in TV5's program L'Invité:

[www.youtube.com/watch?v=Boq9e2wwdQM, 2'30"]

Cette petite fille va inspirer des millions et des millions de petites filles à avoir envie de courir très, très vite, quand même 46 km/h, à faire l'impossible, à s'élancer dans le vide.

[translation] This little girl will inspire millions and millions of little girls to run very, very fast, 46 km/h, to do the impossible, to leap into space.

or at the Prix des Lecteurs du Festival du Livre de Mouans-Sartoux:

[www.youtube.com/watch?v=IbX44g87X6g, 2'20"]

En vérité ce sont aussi des athlètes qui vont à 46 km/h.

[translation] The truth is, they are also athletes who go at 46 km/h.

Let's recall that during his 2009 world record, Usain Bolt ran the 100 metres in 9.58 seconds, at an average speed of 37,58 km/h, with a peak speed of 44,72 km/h between 60 and 80 metres.

Source: www.lapresse.ca/sports/autres-sports/athletisme/200908/17/01-893262-usain-bolt-a-fait-une-pointe-a-4472-kmh.php.

Nellie Kim changes nationality

Excerpt from chapter Numbers, 6^th paragraph:

I knew the Russians quite well, especially Nellie, because we'd been meeting at competitions for three years.

The Soviet gymnast Nellie Kim has never been Russian.

"Interpreter"

Excerpt from the chapter which follows chapter Béla's manipulations or plans, first two paragraphs:

Nadia does the rounds of the post-Olympic Western homages accompanied by Dorina, the marvellous casting of a queen and her more ordinary follower. Alongside them on the television sets is an interpreter who is a 'Romanian federal monitor', someone to watch their words for them.

The 'interpreter's' tension is obvious – it's a live transmission – when the presenter wants to know whether the girls are in a hurry to get back to Romania after the month they have spent in Montreal. Her relief when they are enthusiastic about the idea of leaving the West. The interview is almost over, a lengthy advertisement for the benefits of a communist childhood.

This is the daily TV show from Quebec, presented by Lise Payette, Appelez-moi Lise: www.youtube.com/watch?v=XO_yB0o58PU.

I don't understand the aggressive quotes around the word interpreter. I believe this lady was invited to the television set simply because she spoke French rather well.

Incidentally, the interpreter is none other than Maria Simionescu, whom the book later talks more about, in chapter Mrs Simionescu, and in more positive terms.

And no, I can't feel the interpreter's tension when Lise Payette asks if Nadia Comaneci and her teammate Teodora Ungureanu (nicknamed Dorina) are enthusiastic about the idea of seeing again their parents, of returning to their family.

Finally, this scene takes place between 2'49" et 3'20" of that show which lasts eleven minutes. Therefore, the interview is not "almost over" by that time.

La belle aventure ô gué

Excerpt from the chapter which follows chapter Béla's manipulations or plans, third last paragraph (emphasis added by me):

Nadia sits bolt upright in her chair and, like a declaration of independence, a diagonal without any red bows in her hair, she offers her pallid, bare cheeks to the TV lights and starts to sing, looking straight into the cameras, a French nursery rhyme. 'Je suis un petit garçon de bonne figure / Je suis un petit garçon oh, la belle aventure.'

Still, in the TV show, Comaneci and Ungureanu do sing the real lyrics of the first part of La bonne aventure:

Je suis un petit garçon
De bonne figure
Qui aime bien les bonbons
Et les confitures.
Si vous voulez m'en donner,
Je saurai bien les manger
La bonne aventure ô gué,
La bonne aventure.

Source: www.youtube.com/watch?v=XO_yB0o58PU, 8'50".

The trial

Excerpt from chapter American intermezzo: the trial:

The trial is to be televised and takes place in three minutes thirty-nine seconds as part of an American entertainment programme.

[...]

Presenter: 'Since Montreal we've heard that you've put on a few kilos... have you been ill?'

This interview from 1977 is broadcast on ABC, and indeed lasted three minutes thirty-nine seconds. Here is the above mentioned presenter's question to Nadia Comaneci, which I write down word for word:

[www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGMbdv760rU, 0'53"]

When a person becomes famous, we hear many rumors about them, the things that are happening to them, you know, which are not true. For example, we've heard, since the Olympics, that you had gained 15 kilos in weight, but that is not true apparently, we have heard that you were ill, we've heard that you were injured in the earthquake. Are any of these things true?

And the Great Inquisitor concludes the interview with the following words, gently tapping on her back:

[www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGMbdv760rU, 3'29"]

You are also a very nice person, and it's wonderful to see you again. Thank you very much.

Let's note that, in this chapter as in the chapter which follows chapter Béla's manipulations or plans, the interpreter is given quotes. (By the way, I believe that she is the same person in both TV programs, but the poor video quality of the "trial" does not allow me to be certain.)

Nadia shrinks

Excerpt from chapter Mission accomplished, third last paragraph:

The child is carried in triumph, they will even go down on their knees if necessary before this elf five foot nothing tall, who sweeps away the machine guns bristling all over the Olympic village.

[in the French version: one metre fifty-four]

In Montreal, Comaneci's height was indeed approximately 1 metre 54 cm.

But then, in chapter Strasbourg, 2^nd paragraph:

[referring to Montreal]

I couldn't stay at one metre forty-seven for ever... could I?

Béla in the Land of the Soviets

The chapter Moscow, in memoriam. Elena M. 1960-2006 tells about the tragic fate of a gymnast, Elena M. Since this gymnast's family name is abbreviated, the reader can easily believe that she is Romanian, Elena being a Romanian (amongst others) first name, and thus that her very guilty coach was Béla Károlyi.

And this is indeed what Lola Lafon claims in European Voices: A Reading & Conversation with Lola Lafon (www.youtube.com/watch?v=QL-ip-7H9tE). In that discussion, from 25'15" to 28'36", she reads this chapter, then, about Elena M.'s coach:

[www.youtube.com/watch?v=QL-ip-7H9tE, 29'15"]

This is Béla Károlyi. Béla was bought by the Americans. I say bought, because that was the case. And now he is the trainer of the very successful American team. And what he has done with American gymnasts is the same he did in Romania.

The problem is, Elena M. was Elena Mukhina, great gymnast from... Russia. But then, of course, Károlyi has never trained Mukhina, never. (If he heard someone has claimed that he has trained the Soviets...)

No girl friends

Excerpt from chapter Onesti-Bucuresti, 11^th and 12^th paragraphs:

'One more thing,' I added, a naive concern that had been troubling me for months, 'did Nadia have one or more close girlfriends, who she could share something apart from gymnastics with? She never mentioned anyone to me.'

Iuliana smiled, was silent for a while, then said, 'Perhaps when she was seven, yes. Afterwards, how do you expect her to...'

However, the TV show Appelez-moi Lise, where Comaneci and Ungureanu are invited, briefly touches the topic of friendship between the two teammates, and leaves no doubt about it (www.youtube.com/watch?v=XO_yB0o58PU, 3'50").

It is also easy to find (keywords: Nadia Teodora) many Internet photos and videos where one can guess their friendship. Someone has even made a blog on this topic: gym-passion2a.skyrock.com/653061469-Nadia-Comaneci-&-Teodora-Ungureanu.html (30 ans après avoir ébloui le monde entier lors des JO de Montréal, les 2 anciennes meilleures amies se sont retrouvées le mois dernier à New-York [translation] 30 years after dazzling the entire world during the Montreal Olympics, the two former best friends met again last month in New York).

Zoom on Nadia's very private life

Let's recall that Lola Lafon has never been in touch with Nadia Comaneci:

[next.liberation.fr/livres/2014/01/14/dialoguez-avec-lola-lafon_972691]

Je ne l'ai pas rencontrée car je n'avais pas pour projet de faire une bio. Je n'ai donc aucune relation avec "la vraie" Nadia.

[translation] I have not met her, because it wasn't my plan to do a biography. Therefore, I have no connection with "the real" Nadia.

Which she confirms at the Prix des Lecteurs du Festival du Livre de Mouans-Sartoux [www.youtube.com/watch?v=IbX44g87X6g, 4'50"].

And now, let's read together an excerpt from chapter Bucharest (5^th and 6^th paragraphs):

Is your name Nadia, like the gymnast? they ask, unable to believe it. She is 'like the gymnast'. The previous week a boy (a man!) holds her tight, they are dancing, he thrusts his knee between her legs, his hot breath on her hair, she has no idea what kind of response she is supposed to make, he says, 'Don't play at being the baby, don't be difficult, you know you've got a great ass, did you fuck an American in Montreal? Shit, look at those bruises, has someone been beating you up?' Embarrassed, she covers her thighs as quickly as possible.

Eeny-meeny-miny-what? And what does he want her to do, pushing her head down like that? She sits back down in the car, slightly nauseous, her cheeks bright red, he lends her a handkerchief to wipe herself with. She focuses, tries hard not to see in these poses something she must do better, or refine. Her thighs wide open like a chicken about to be stuffed. It's so inelegant being unable to move like this, he's got hold of her knees, giving her instructions, Yes, like that, baby, that's it, she tries to perform as best she can. It's like an operation – you are advised to relax before the first incision. The thin layer of fat she has allowed to cover her body so that she can go unnoticed doesn't alter a thing, he grasps her forearm and hoots, 'Oh shit, I'll have to watch out, you'd easily beat me at arm-wrestling.'

Yes, it is indeed Lola Lafon who writes these lines – those who have got the book can check for themselves that I didn't change the text one iota. Lola Lafon the feminist. The same as that who complains about the plight of Comaneci: As a matter of fact, I couldn't imagine such a violence, such an obscenity (www.regards.fr/web/lola-lafon-une-femme-n-est-jamais,7533).

Did Lola Lafon ask herself what the real Nadia Comaneci, with whom she has never been in touch, thinks about the whole book in general, and about this chapter in particular? Or her husband? Or her son (8 year-old when the book was published)?

What would Lola Lafon think if someone wrote that kind of text about her, "thighs wide open" and all?

Are such considerations above or below her?

I'm not betraying you

Excerpt from chapter Onesti-Bucuresti, 19^th paragraph (emphasis added by me):

I wanted to write to Nadia C., I missed our exchanges, but my efforts at writing seemed too much like the excuses of a contrite, ambivalent lover: I'm not learning anything, Nadia, that you wouldn't want me to know, I'm not betraying you.

No comments.

Inaccuracies

Excerpt from the chapter after Numbers: 13-95-25, 1^st paragraph:

Drunk on their viewing figures, the Western media aren't bothered about decimal points and multiply the number of dead in Timisoara: after all, what better end to History than these corpses of Marxism-Leninism, these exemplary martyrs of a head of state whom France unfortunately decorated a few years earlier with the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour...

Yes, truly irritating habit of manipulating readers according to what one wants them to believe.

Bibliography

Excerpt from Sources and references:

Nadia Comaneci, Letters to a Young Gymnast, Basic Books, Perseus Books Group, New York, 2011.

This is a reprint. Let's mention that the first edition (ISBN: 978-0-465-01276-3) was published in 2003.

Comments on Lola Lafon's book 'The Little Communist Who Never Smiled'

08 January 2017