The writer I. Dumbrytė invented a new nation: always hungry, oppressed, living among us | Culture

Only the guy who graduated with a bachelor’s degree in history doesn’t know what to do next in life. Get a job at the “Šaltienos bistro”, a canteen where there are no desserts, only cold. His daily life is radically changing: backbreaking work in a food establishment and his colleagues, mostly golodai, it seems from another world. The story is told without sparing neither sharp vocabulary nor bitter humor.

True, before diving into a conversation with me. Dumbryte, who is not looking for a word in her pocket, she 15 minutes He assured: “I really like the cold. During this Easter, we contributed so much that it wasn’t even fun. Still, Dad taught me how to soak it in vinegar, pat it, and eat it with bread. “

So we’re talking cold layers and literature with the writer who just debuted.

About golodus

– Which is the golodai?

– It is a disadvantaged and eternally hungry nation that lives among us. They may be strangers whose real names we don’t know or can’t pronounce, or close relatives. Also, keep in mind that not only golodu it may be, but maybe someone is considering you right now.

Golodai It is a refraction between two sides that cannot be understood.

– Why golodai or others meet at a grocery store – Šaltienos bistro?

Food is a devil’s industry that can attract a wide variety of people. There are all kinds of kitchens: canteens, cafes, pizzerias, where you can work as a chef and wash the floor. Suppose death is said to be good. dealbecause people will always die. So it is with food. After all, people will always eat. It is an uninterrupted factory of the world.

And I myself face this reality of food, although I have been working in the restaurant sector for a long time. Due to the high employee turnover associated with physically very hard work, you can see a lot of people here. On the other hand, it is a very grateful place to meet different people.

– Reading that word puzzled golodai the root is Slavic. It means hunger. The names of the characters are also Slavic or Arabic. Doesn’t history demonize and level a certain group of people: refugees, foreigners?

I didn’t want to write about a specific nationality, so I needed a common name.

– At that time, I was working in the kitchen with Poles and Russians, in addition, I read Bulgarian fairy tales. In their resemblance to my experience, they caused surprise, fusing reality and fantasy.

Still, I didn’t want to write about a specific nationality, so a common name was needed. While I was working in the kitchen, there were Lithuanians with whom I disagreed, there were also Russians and Poles, in whose company I found a counterweight. If not, it would have been difficult.

We still live in Lithuania based on the stigmas on various minorities. Since there are not many of them, it takes an effort to understand one person or another. In my opinion, there is no uninterested person, there are very few questions.

– It is true that nobody asked the main character that he had just arrived at a new job. It seems that he too golodas.

– Yes, in a sense it was golodas. And the connection between him and his colleague was established the moment Constantine asked him a question.

Reject the unknown

– It is also anonymous. Still, what about the girl the narrator suddenly fell in love with? After all, Shahla didn’t speak to him either.

– You know, there is a completely different aspect to this. Beauty. Also, just for him. It is like a wonderful mystery: after all, flowers and birds do not ask for anything, and the forests remain silent forever. But why do all poets write about it?

The name Shahla, on the other hand, is close to what it sometimes calls Gypsy – unknown and obscure, and therefore self-rejected. He was quite interested in the gypsy nation, which is absolute in this world. golodai, the magical realism that lives next to us.

When I worked in a fireworks shop near the tax terminal, Rome visited me constantly. Some could not write, so they asked for help completing the paperwork. For example, I gave a boy bombies in exchange for bringing me the boxes. Later, together with him, we buy chocolates and celebrate Christmas. This boy probably had no family.

For example, while working at the Nazi Crime Center, we investigated not only Jewish but also Romani Holocaust tragedies. One of the tasks was to meet extremely elderly gypsies who could testify. We found that their catches were significantly lower because these people did not have a permanent residence. Gathering their tents, they simply ran. Colleagues warned me not to believe me, but Roma are very orderly people, which I think is absolutely true. And it doesn’t matter at all that their houses are built with clay, manure, and bile.

During these experiences, I got to know the very important side of this nation and, I think, we strongly segregate them in Lithuania.

– Being darker than usual in Lithuania sometimes seems strange to some.

– I agree. By the way, even the rum from the stop asked me if I was Gypsy. I accepted this as a great compliment!

In Samogitia, people think that the Jews pissed him off to salt the cheapest herring.

– Does the Nazi Crime Research Center work with a lot of creative material for the meeting?

– In this job I have to ask a lot of questions about foreigners, especially Jews. We know some riddles and nonsense about them, but there are still people who believe in them.

It depends a lot on the country, for example in Samogitia people think that Jews used to suck herring cheaper … Also, Jews are born blind like kittens, so they need to be anointed with the blood of Christian babies. And here in Jonava there are still Jewish dungeons. They hold special bags with nails, into which the Christian baby is again inserted. This is how the blood of the Christians is expelled and, of course, the macaques are cooked. I also met a man who “saw” rites of Jews killing a student: a corpse is placed on a sheet, everyone draws blood, and everyone cuts a piece.

This approach can be found in one out of every three huts.

– Why are stereotypes that happen with elementary logic so frequent?

– I don’t know, maybe some have never developed a close relationship with foreign families. Then the questions arise as to whether Jews are vampires because they blow a candle on the Sabbath instead of breaking bread … These stereotypes are magical but terrifying. What can they bring?

– So, speaking of golodus and needed magic realism?

– Some said that the book “Cold Bistro” is very far from reality. But some people still get it this way: go to the speaker pick roses | or at night he tells the children about Jews who love herring. And the rest of society lives simple and magical lives: they go to work and meet friends at night.

By the way, I would suggest to everyone on the street that they talk to some weirdo. Kevin from “One at Home” was initially scared of a neighbor (here the one who snows the snow). And when she met him at church, she realized that maybe he was a very cute grandfather. If Kevin hadn’t been there, he might have grown up and kept telling his kids about a neighbor who killed his kids …

Chebra It’s a holy word

– At school, we also had the opportunity to interact with different people, but eventually we all closed in our bubbles.

– Yes, since school we all have friends who can seem very strange to others. But what unites you is that together zabas skindavote. And no matter what kind of people they are now, they have been friends for the last 20 years. And how to do that now zabas link?

Sometimes it saddens me to have little chebros – people who kayak together and otherwise spend weekends. There are some friends who cannot get together because otherwise it would be a tragedy!

– And the Šaltienos bistro is working chebra?

– In a way, yes, because any job creates it. However, the concept chebra it also expresses the sacredness of the relationship, during which, even when sober, you say “I respect you.”

I didn’t want to say anything profound in this novel.

– Maybe you started writing from loneliness?

– Perhaps the opposite – of the presence of people. Give such reflections that you don’t know where to help them. Also writing to help disconnect, there is also being with oneself. Sometimes even too much.

– Do the bistro staff have counterparts in your life?

– Not only do they have counterparts, they actually had them. I also left some names! I have been asked why one of the employees graduated from the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theater. Is that to show that art studies have been dropped? No, I’m just working with a guy who studied saxophone at this institution. Single.

I didn’t want to say anything profound in this novel. For me, the most important thing was that the reader immerse himself in the story and find coincidences in their lives.