Eros, Magic and the Murder of Professor Culianu

In 1991, a 41-year-old Romanian professor, Ioan Culianu, was killed on the University of Chicago campus where he taught. The case is still a mystery, although DePaul University English professor Anton does his best here to explain the exceedingly murky details of Culianu's life, work and death--and their relationship to even murkier events in the Balkans--in clear journalistic prose. The problem is that neither the victim's life nor death lend themselves to clarity. Much of Culianu's political activity remains vague, such as why he phoned someone in Medellin, Colombia, the capital of the world cocaine cartel, shortly before he died. Also unclear is the nature of his relationship with Mircea Eliade, whom he knew to have been an active supporter of the Romanian fascist Iron Guard movement. Some of Anton's descriptions of Culianu's academic achievements are narrated in a gee-whiz style that suggests that were it not for Culianu, well-known thinkers like Giordano Bruno and Giambattista Vico would have been forgotten. Nor does the author seem to take into account the abundant literature in France that proves Eliade's fascist ties. Detailed biographical material on Culianu leaves the reader convinced that the most remarkable thing about his life was its grotesque ending in a university toilet stall. Odds are it was the work of the Romanian Securitate secret police, and Anton's cautious ambiguity is at times uncalled-for. However, the book serves to keep this victim of skullduggery from being yet another forgotten statistic. (Oct.)