“In his first collection, Pruteanu delivers a series of fictitious “cogs” which grind together and move forward with the momentum and impact of a speeding freight train. Reminiscent of Kafka and Camus and even the great Russian novelists, Pruteanu displays that rarest ability to create believable and entertaining allegory, while at the same time deftly omitting crucial elements, allowing the reader to interpret his or her own meaning. The result is a series of machinations on love and death, oppression and adversity, identity and purpose; in effect, the machine strips away our options–and the world opens up.” –Pat Pujolas
The Sun Eaters unravels the story of two brothers in a small village of an Eastern European country just post World War II. The two boys and a handful of their colorful mates struggle to survive famine, desolation and destruction, as well as repressive political ideology that has been forced upon their country. In the boys’ battle against what seems like all elements of life-turned-hostile, we discover the beauty of the enduring human spirit and the coping powers of a child’s imagination during difficult times.
The Imagination of the State can cover a great expanse depending on what it wants to do with its naughty and not-so-naughty citizens. It’s when the state morphs into Supreme Creator that the power of its imagination is truly unleashed, spanning everything from the humorous and sublime, to the horrifically macabre. The stories redacted here highlight only a few of the inventive ways an all-seeing, all-knowing, and all-controlling state, a veritable Mother as such, uses its creative powers and vision in order to command and control life for all her children. One would wish these stories were fiction.
(S)wine: Fiction...Sometimes 