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Reviewed by Jamie Michele for Readers' Favorite
In her memoir Diary of 66: The Night I Burned Alive, Alexandra Furnea recounts her painful journey following the 2015 Colectiv Club fire in Bucharest, where she details the inadequate medical care, mistreatment, and systemic failures she lived through. She survived when dozens of others did not, but this was only the beginning. Despite initial reluctance, she shares her story to expose the flaws in the Romanian medical system. Enduring excruciating pain and dehumanizing treatments, she reflects on the loss of her former self and the challenges of rehabilitation. Furnea highlights moments of resilience and support from loved ones even as rampant neglect and corruption rankled within the healthcare system. Even after horrific setbacks and dismissiveness from medical professionals, she persists in seeking justice and better care for burn victims, shedding light on the systemic abandonment they endured upon their discharge from the hospital and the aftermath and collapse that followed.
Diary of 66 is an incredible memoir and Alexandra Furnea describes everything she experienced in clear, horrifying detail. I'm quite ashamed to say that it was not a tragedy I had much exposure to in the United States, but the gravity of it is substantial and resonates across Europe even today. I read a lot of memoirs, and Furnea's is among the best and most engrossing I have read this year. What makes this book so beautiful, even in light of all that had happened, is that Furnea demonstrates empathy and compassion toward herself and others who have suffered similar fates. In her writing, she uses metaphors that show a deep understanding of pain and trauma with lines like, "The stories their intricate designs tell are no longer only of pain and destruction, but also of redemption, and the latter have multiplied, with every surgery that succeeded and every kindhearted human being who healed instead of harming." Stories like Furnea's are the ones that need to be told so that what happened is amplified to the point that it never, ever happens again. Very highly recommended.
