Aldo and Rino

Brothers Aldo and Rino love Nonna’s spaghetti. When Nonna trips and drops a plate on the floor, the two brothers have to share the remaining pasta. They bolt it down, until a single strand remains. With one end in his mouth, each does all he can to prevent the other from eating the last bit. Stubborn as they are, the strand of spaghetti dangles between Aldo and Rino all day, resulting in absurd scenes. Until Rino falls into a well. Will Aldo lose himself in his fanciful triumph or will he decide after all to save his brother?

In this playful and surreal story, friendship, brotherhood, sharing, letting go and getting things into proportion are central. Through the apparently everyday subject of a trivial argument, Jacques & Lise make a link with a broader social theme: our unwillingness to tackle larger societal problems together. In doing so they deploy a great deal of visual humour in their highly relatable, slightly nostalgic pictorial language in warm colours. There is a lot of symbolism in the layout of the book too; each brother is always shown on his own side of the fold of the book, although they are connected by the strand of spaghetti in the many crazy situations that arise. We see how a spaghetti strand can tie brothers together physically but push them apart emotionally.