Modern Lithuanian literature, a daring and intellectual novel by Virginia Kulvinskaitė – finally in Belarusian, translated by Suzanna Paukštela
“When I Was a Youngster” is an auto-fiction that has become an event in modern Lithuanian literature. It is a bold and unadorned story about the coming of age of a girl who is searching for herself in a post-Soviet country of crooked mirrors. Soviet childhood, youth in the last decade
20th century in Vilnius, life abroad, doctoral studies, loves, sex, travels, parties, unsuccessful attempts at writing. Could it be that none of the existing "feminine" roles, no identity fits, slipping like bad tights?
"Virginia Kulvinskaite's book "When I Was Young" is an event, maybe even a turning point, and for traditional prose - almost a catastrophe. Witty, good humor, concise, not overloaded sentences; autobiography reconstructed into fiction.
It is told without tears, without snot, with comic details – without veering into self-pity and sentimentality. The book is written in slang, which more conservative writers still fear – a hipster English-Russian half-language. You read and, it seems, you hear a Vilnius accent."
/Gedre Kazlauskaitė – poet, novelist, literary critic
"The text describes real places in Vilnius and its society, but they undergo a process of transformation over time, from the narrator's childhood in the 1980s, when Lithuania was still occupied by the Soviets, to the present day, when the narrator is already an adult woman.
This book will certainly get on the nerves of those who strive for clear boundaries, social norms, and a traditionally defined identity.
The narrator is bisexual, her relationship with literature (especially the subject of her philological dissertation) does not even remotely resemble any kind of inspiration or spiritual matter, and at the end she remains almost an adult – she does not draw any conclusions, does not give birth to any children, does not find a husband.
/Elżbieta Bonyte – literary critic
Virginia Kulvinskaite — writer , literary critic She made her debut with the poetry collection "Double" (2017, New vardas ). The novel "When I Was a Young Man" (2019, Kitos knygos ) is the writer's second book. She also published a collection of short stories "Chatyry" (2023, Kitos books ).
The book "How I Was a Youngster" was included in the "Top 12 Most Creative Books in Lithuania" and in the "Top 5 Prose Books for Adults" in 2019, and was presented at Lithuanian and international book fairs and literary festivals.
