"i'm sam," begins the first poem of Nora Iuga's The Hunchbacks Bus (Autobuzul cu coco a i). The book is a sort of family chronicle centered on the imaginary character sam and his life, much of which is in his head, his not very faithful wife minodora, his brother istovitu (the name means exhausted, worn-out). It's comic, though not often in a laugh-out-loud kind of way; surreal or fantastic at not a few moments, at others ribald, eccentric; perhaps even a little hard to cozy up to, since Iuga keeps everything at an ironic distance. Her style is rarely lyrical in a traditional sense. The syntax is direct but the imagery teases and surprises; the poetic voice is energetic, even audacious, with a delightful quirkiness.
In the first of five authorial interludes, short monologues in prose, Iuga addresses the reader, you might find it hard to believe, but sam actually exists (notwithstanding the fact that he s sometimes presented as a dog); and Iuga notes otherwise in sam is an angel :
i m still determined to find out who
sam is and what he does with his little stick...
i m the most helpless text
in this city
Iuga s world may at times be one of loss, worry, proverbially a dog s life, but it spins away with exhilarating dreamlike absurdity.