In a feat of technical originality,
brothers Filip and Matei Florian create a joint portrait of their shared childhood.
Each brother tells the story of an event from his childhood while the
other fills in details, offers revelations, and imbues the story with
new meanings. This method clarifies “delicate matters”
unelucidated in the past, provokes confessions and lets truths be
told. The brothers’ childhood grows from memory beneath our eyes.
The miraculous world of childhood and childhood candor meet the power
of adult literary force. The reader experiences a text in constant
reinvention.
The child’s point of view peels back
layers of adult constraint. The writers use this freedom to explore
their parents’ divorce and their grandparents’ death. Refraction
through childish naivety accentuates the absurd and grotesque,
qualities inherent in the communist way of life. The absurdities
refract further into the storybook world of imaginary friends and
childhood heroes. Enter Matei’s frinds Sting and Stung—who turn
up in a jar of mustard—together with Joe Lemonade, Giani Morandi,
Rome Specs and “Brooslee” .And then there’s soccer—known as
football on the other side of the pond. The Băiuţ Alley Lads is a “novel” of backyard miracles: auto-fiction and
fairytales—nature triumphing over communist space.
