Хто ти такий?

"Khto ty takyĭ?" - chas vid chasu zapytui͡e malolitnʹoho Tymofii͡a ĭoho kontuz͡henyĭ dalekoi͡u viĭnoi͡u voroh i druh, muchytelʹ i nastavnyk Feliks. "Khto i͡a takyĭ?" - zapytui͡e sebe naprykint͡si romanu maĭz͡he doroslyĭ avtobiohrafichnyĭ Tymofiĭ. Shli͡akh vid pershoho pytanni͡a do druhoho i͡e nemynuchym dli͡a heroi͡a budʹ-i͡akoho romanu vykhovanni͡a. U vypadku Artema Chekha - vykhovanni͡a v tini vidrazlyvoho dosvidu chuz͡hoï viĭny, shcho raptom vyi͡avli͡ai͡etʹsi͡a moralʹnoi͡u i fizychnoi͡u pidhotovkoi͡u do vlasnoï, khocha i͡akraz ïï my u t͡sʹomu romani ne znaĭdemo. Ale, moz͡hlyvo, znaĭdemo vsi ti dyti͡acho-i͡unat͡sʹki init͡siat͡siï, krizʹ i͡aki nam samym dovelosi͡a prodyratysi͡a do zovsim ne takoho, i͡ak ochikuvalosi͡a, dorosloho z͡hytti͡a.

"Who are you?"- from time to time asks the young Timofey his shell-shocked enemy and friend, tormentor and mentor Felix. "Who am I?"- asks himself at the end of the novel almost adult autobiographical Timofey. The path from the first question to the second is inevitable for the hero of any parenting novel. In the case of Artem Cech – education in the shadow of the repulsive experience of someone else's war, which suddenly turns out to be moral and physical preparation for their own, although we will not find it in this novel. But, perhaps, we will find all those childhood and youth initiations through which we ourselves had to wade to a completely different adult life than expected.