***REGION 11: Asia I
ConversazioniReading Globally
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1avaland
If you have not read the information on the master thread regarding the intent of these regional threads, please do this first.
***11. Asia I: Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nepal, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan
***11. Asia I: Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nepal, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan
2Trifolia
I'm reading Ali and Nino by Kurban Said. Although the title says it's a love-story, it's primarily a story of the differences between East and West, Muslims and Christians, male and female, epitomized in the persons of Ali, a rich muslim boy and Nino, a Georgian christian in Azerbaijan. I'm halfway through.
3avaland
Buddha's Orphans by Samrat Upadhyay (2010, Nepal, Nepalese author)
Raja and Nilu are both orphans. Raja was abandoned as an infant just before his mother drowned herself, and Nilu was being brought up by a single mother who was often lost in the haze of alcohol and drugs. As children the two meet, he as the adopted son of a servant, and she as the daughter of the mistress of the house. It's an odd little relationship for the playmates at first, and Nilu begins to teach her little friend how to read. Theirs will be an epic love.
Set in Nepal during the later half of the 20th century, Buddha's Orphans is a tale of epic love—or perhaps an epic tale of a love that reaches across decades, caste, and anything else which might stand in its way. While reading it, Pasternak's Doctor Zhivago came to mind more than a few times, and while this novel doesn't reach the intensity of the classic, it certainly makes a brave attempt. His characters are superb, his stories—their stories—are set against the upheavals of Kathmandu as Nepal transforms itself from Monarchy to Democracy. The background-foreground connection doesn't work quite as well as it was probably intended, but I would not call it a failure as one is certainly transported to Nepal (and what do most of us know of Nepal?)
We've all read epic stories of love, set against war or other turmoil, but the most unusual thing about this epic love story is the very distinctive cyclical sense of it. Upadhyay has woven multiple stories in a way that suggests underpinnings of Hindu philosophy - that time is eternal and cyclical, a neverending cycle of birth, death, rebirth. This cyclical sense to the story was what really stayed with me after I had finished reading the book and perhaps it is this that gives the love story it's monumental feel.
Raja and Nilu are both orphans. Raja was abandoned as an infant just before his mother drowned herself, and Nilu was being brought up by a single mother who was often lost in the haze of alcohol and drugs. As children the two meet, he as the adopted son of a servant, and she as the daughter of the mistress of the house. It's an odd little relationship for the playmates at first, and Nilu begins to teach her little friend how to read. Theirs will be an epic love.
Set in Nepal during the later half of the 20th century, Buddha's Orphans is a tale of epic love—or perhaps an epic tale of a love that reaches across decades, caste, and anything else which might stand in its way. While reading it, Pasternak's Doctor Zhivago came to mind more than a few times, and while this novel doesn't reach the intensity of the classic, it certainly makes a brave attempt. His characters are superb, his stories—their stories—are set against the upheavals of Kathmandu as Nepal transforms itself from Monarchy to Democracy. The background-foreground connection doesn't work quite as well as it was probably intended, but I would not call it a failure as one is certainly transported to Nepal (and what do most of us know of Nepal?)
We've all read epic stories of love, set against war or other turmoil, but the most unusual thing about this epic love story is the very distinctive cyclical sense of it. Upadhyay has woven multiple stories in a way that suggests underpinnings of Hindu philosophy - that time is eternal and cyclical, a neverending cycle of birth, death, rebirth. This cyclical sense to the story was what really stayed with me after I had finished reading the book and perhaps it is this that gives the love story it's monumental feel.
4avaland
>2 Trifolia: Is the author from Azerbaijan also?
5Trifolia
Well, there's some mystery to the identity of Kurban Said. It was a pen-name for the mysterious Turkish-Arab Essad Bey. Only in the 1990's it was discovered that Bey was actually Lev Nussimbaum, a jew who was born in Bakoe. More on Kurban Said can be found in the book The Orientalist: Solving the Mystery of a Strange and Dangerous Life by Tom Reiss.
6Trifolia
I finished Ali and Nino. This book was written in 1937 but it feels as if it was written very recently. The turmoil in Azerbaijan during the First World War, the difference of cultures (Arab, Georgian, Russian, Armenian, Turkish, Persian, ...) that clash and gell, the richess, the beauty, the ugliness of the cultural identity, honour and friendship is breathtaking. In the midst of all this turmoil are Ali and Nino who try to find a compromise to make each other happy without compromising their own soul and identity.
This is a magnificent book which not only gives you an insight into a fragment of the history of Azerbaijan but also into the meaning of a cultural identity.
This is a magnificent book which not only gives you an insight into a fragment of the history of Azerbaijan but also into the meaning of a cultural identity.
7avaland
The Patience Stone by Atiq Rahimi (Afghani author)
translated from the French by Polly McLean, English edition 2009
As the book flap says, "According to ancient Persian folklore, sang-e saboor is the name of a magical stone, a patience stone, which absorbs the plight of those who confide in it."
A man lies unconscious suffering from a bullet to the neck received during a trivial argument with a fellow jihadist. He has been unconscious for several weeks while the neighborhood as become the latest "front line". His wife cares for him, prays over him, but as time goes by she begins to talk to him, pouring out everything she has been holding in her entire life.
It's a remarkable and powerful confession, part allegory, I suppose, written simply - it's narrative broken with bits of poetry. This little book won France's Le Prix Goncourt and has been translated beautifully.
A Thousand Rooms of Dream and Fear by Atiq Rahimi
Translated from the Dari by Sarah Maguire and Yama Yari (©2002, Translation 2006)
Having recently read and enjoyed The Patience Stone, I wanted to read more by Afghan author and filmmaker Atiq Rahimi. Set in 1979 in Afghanistan, this novella tells the story of Farhad, a university student who, when heading home after curfew (a bit drunk) is stopped by soldiers, beaten and thrown into a roadside ditch. A young widow risks much to take the battered Farhad into her home where she cares for him. Farhad is semi-conscious and drifts in and out of reality. He is also somewhat naive and it takes time for him to realize the gravity of his situation.
There is a sense that A Thousand Rooms of Dream and Fear is very allegorical even if one doesn't exactly understand the allegory. In its telling, the story belies a great sympathy for the women of Afghanistan in particular. And while I think I like The Patience Stone better, this imaginative novella has weighed its words carefully and carries with it a deep soulfulness that lingers well beyond its pages.
Earth and Ashes by Atiq Rahimi (Afghan author, 2000, translation 2002)
Set during the Russian occupation of Afghanistan, this tiny book succinctly tells a moving story of grief and despair. Dastaguir and his grandson, Yassir, is waiting by the gatehouse of a mine for a vehicle to come along in which they will be able to catch a ride many miles to the mine itself where Dastaguir's son (Yassir's father) is working. While they wait, the reader gets the backstory of how they have come to be there.
This is the last of Rahimi's three published works that I had to read. It is his first, and was translated from his native language. The two later books, A Thousand Rooms of Dream and Fear and The Patience Stone were translated from the French, the language of the author's adopted country. All of these have been excellently told, skillfully rendered in a prose that wastes no words. I think my favorite of the three is the most recent, The Patience Stone, because it is a bit more lyrical, imo, and because it is about a woman, it speaks to me differently. I will definitely be keeping an eye out for what Rahimi writes next.
translated from the French by Polly McLean, English edition 2009
As the book flap says, "According to ancient Persian folklore, sang-e saboor is the name of a magical stone, a patience stone, which absorbs the plight of those who confide in it."
A man lies unconscious suffering from a bullet to the neck received during a trivial argument with a fellow jihadist. He has been unconscious for several weeks while the neighborhood as become the latest "front line". His wife cares for him, prays over him, but as time goes by she begins to talk to him, pouring out everything she has been holding in her entire life.
It's a remarkable and powerful confession, part allegory, I suppose, written simply - it's narrative broken with bits of poetry. This little book won France's Le Prix Goncourt and has been translated beautifully.
A Thousand Rooms of Dream and Fear by Atiq Rahimi
Translated from the Dari by Sarah Maguire and Yama Yari (©2002, Translation 2006)
Having recently read and enjoyed The Patience Stone, I wanted to read more by Afghan author and filmmaker Atiq Rahimi. Set in 1979 in Afghanistan, this novella tells the story of Farhad, a university student who, when heading home after curfew (a bit drunk) is stopped by soldiers, beaten and thrown into a roadside ditch. A young widow risks much to take the battered Farhad into her home where she cares for him. Farhad is semi-conscious and drifts in and out of reality. He is also somewhat naive and it takes time for him to realize the gravity of his situation.
There is a sense that A Thousand Rooms of Dream and Fear is very allegorical even if one doesn't exactly understand the allegory. In its telling, the story belies a great sympathy for the women of Afghanistan in particular. And while I think I like The Patience Stone better, this imaginative novella has weighed its words carefully and carries with it a deep soulfulness that lingers well beyond its pages.
Earth and Ashes by Atiq Rahimi (Afghan author, 2000, translation 2002)
Set during the Russian occupation of Afghanistan, this tiny book succinctly tells a moving story of grief and despair. Dastaguir and his grandson, Yassir, is waiting by the gatehouse of a mine for a vehicle to come along in which they will be able to catch a ride many miles to the mine itself where Dastaguir's son (Yassir's father) is working. While they wait, the reader gets the backstory of how they have come to be there.
This is the last of Rahimi's three published works that I had to read. It is his first, and was translated from his native language. The two later books, A Thousand Rooms of Dream and Fear and The Patience Stone were translated from the French, the language of the author's adopted country. All of these have been excellently told, skillfully rendered in a prose that wastes no words. I think my favorite of the three is the most recent, The Patience Stone, because it is a bit more lyrical, imo, and because it is about a woman, it speaks to me differently. I will definitely be keeping an eye out for what Rahimi writes next.
8akeela
Another Atiq Rahimi fan here!
A further brief review of Earth and Ashes: This poignant novella is set in Russian-occupied Afghanistan. A heartbroken old man sets out with his grandson, Yassin, who has been rendered deaf by the bomb-blast that destroyed his home, killing his wife, son and daughter-in-law under the most demoralizing conditions. His task is to find his son, Murad, who is away working in the mines, to tell him the devastating news.
The narrative, though short, is very touching as the old man grapples with the harshness of war and the moral dilemmas facing him. This is a very short but powerful book that succeeds in depicting an old man's anguish in extremely demanding circumstances.
And my review of A Thousand Rooms of Dreams and Fear: A young man is completely discombobulated. He doesn’t know whether he is alive or dead; what he does realise is that his body is battered and that he’s in terrible agony over it. The first few pages of this novella are confusing, as the protagonist tries to figure out his situation. And then, light slowly dawns and, as he remembers what happened, the reader comes to learn about it as well. It’s wonderfully done!
Farhad is a university student who seems to just have been in the wrong place at the wrong time. And he paid for it dearly. It is 1979 in Russian-occupied Afghanistan. Farhad and a friend were out drinking and, as a result, he forgot about the imposed curfew time. So finds himself in desperate trouble when the security forces find him on the road. He subsequently endures a cruel beating at their hands. When he is finally left alone, a young woman finds him and with all the strength that she can muster, pulls him into her home where she tends to him as best she can under the harsh conditions in her country at the time.
This is a beautifully written book. Rahimi has a special, poetic way with words that I enjoy. It was a bit grating in parts because of the harsh content, but it was definitely a worthwhile read.
The Patience Stone is on my wishlist!
A further brief review of Earth and Ashes: This poignant novella is set in Russian-occupied Afghanistan. A heartbroken old man sets out with his grandson, Yassin, who has been rendered deaf by the bomb-blast that destroyed his home, killing his wife, son and daughter-in-law under the most demoralizing conditions. His task is to find his son, Murad, who is away working in the mines, to tell him the devastating news.
The narrative, though short, is very touching as the old man grapples with the harshness of war and the moral dilemmas facing him. This is a very short but powerful book that succeeds in depicting an old man's anguish in extremely demanding circumstances.
And my review of A Thousand Rooms of Dreams and Fear: A young man is completely discombobulated. He doesn’t know whether he is alive or dead; what he does realise is that his body is battered and that he’s in terrible agony over it. The first few pages of this novella are confusing, as the protagonist tries to figure out his situation. And then, light slowly dawns and, as he remembers what happened, the reader comes to learn about it as well. It’s wonderfully done!
Farhad is a university student who seems to just have been in the wrong place at the wrong time. And he paid for it dearly. It is 1979 in Russian-occupied Afghanistan. Farhad and a friend were out drinking and, as a result, he forgot about the imposed curfew time. So finds himself in desperate trouble when the security forces find him on the road. He subsequently endures a cruel beating at their hands. When he is finally left alone, a young woman finds him and with all the strength that she can muster, pulls him into her home where she tends to him as best she can under the harsh conditions in her country at the time.
This is a beautifully written book. Rahimi has a special, poetic way with words that I enjoy. It was a bit grating in parts because of the harsh content, but it was definitely a worthwhile read.
The Patience Stone is on my wishlist!
9akeela
One of my favorite reads for 2010:
Jamilia by Chingiz Aïtmatov. Translated by James Riordan. This beautiful little gem of a book is set on the Kyrgzstan steppe during the war. The narrator is 15-year-old Seit, who has to engage in arduous toil on the farm as the men and his older brothers are away at war. He is burdened with responsibilities of labor beyond his years, as he is now the jigit – the protector and breadwinner in the family. The women in the village are tasked with harvesting the fields, carrying heavy loads of grain, taking the lambs and calves out to pasture, and so on, work they would not ordinarily be required to do.
Seit spends his days working alongside his young, beautiful jenei (sister-in-law) who is every bit as industrious as the older women in the family. She calls him kichine bala, little boy, as is required by family custom. These are terms of respect; they are not allowed to call each other by name. Seit absolutely adores his graceful, high-spirited, strong jenei, who loves to sing.
Her husband, Sadyk, is in hospital recuperating from wounds sustained in the war and occasionally writes home, but as custom demands, rarely even mentions Jamilia in his letters. Meanwhile, back home, with her lively and forthright personality, Jamilia attracts a lot of attention from the young men around.
There is one man, though, who spends a lot of time in their company, of necessity, but he remains an aloof. Injured at war, Daniyar is now in their midst. But he is the strong and silent type. As time passes, Seit sees Jamilia draw Daniyar out of his shell and a beautiful, but forbidden, relationship evolves between them.
The writing is magnificent, especially the paragraphs describing the depth of the enigmatic Daniyar's character. This book was written way back in 1957, and was only translated into English in 2007 by James Riordan who must be commended for the splendid translation!
The author, Chingiz Aïtmatov, died in July 2008, and I found this obituary interesting and informative: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article4310435.ece
edit: touchstones not cooperating..
Jamilia by Chingiz Aïtmatov. Translated by James Riordan. This beautiful little gem of a book is set on the Kyrgzstan steppe during the war. The narrator is 15-year-old Seit, who has to engage in arduous toil on the farm as the men and his older brothers are away at war. He is burdened with responsibilities of labor beyond his years, as he is now the jigit – the protector and breadwinner in the family. The women in the village are tasked with harvesting the fields, carrying heavy loads of grain, taking the lambs and calves out to pasture, and so on, work they would not ordinarily be required to do.
Seit spends his days working alongside his young, beautiful jenei (sister-in-law) who is every bit as industrious as the older women in the family. She calls him kichine bala, little boy, as is required by family custom. These are terms of respect; they are not allowed to call each other by name. Seit absolutely adores his graceful, high-spirited, strong jenei, who loves to sing.
Her husband, Sadyk, is in hospital recuperating from wounds sustained in the war and occasionally writes home, but as custom demands, rarely even mentions Jamilia in his letters. Meanwhile, back home, with her lively and forthright personality, Jamilia attracts a lot of attention from the young men around.
There is one man, though, who spends a lot of time in their company, of necessity, but he remains an aloof. Injured at war, Daniyar is now in their midst. But he is the strong and silent type. As time passes, Seit sees Jamilia draw Daniyar out of his shell and a beautiful, but forbidden, relationship evolves between them.
The writing is magnificent, especially the paragraphs describing the depth of the enigmatic Daniyar's character. This book was written way back in 1957, and was only translated into English in 2007 by James Riordan who must be commended for the splendid translation!
The author, Chingiz Aïtmatov, died in July 2008, and I found this obituary interesting and informative: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article4310435.ece
edit: touchstones not cooperating..
10avaland
>9 akeela: I have picked up another book by Aitmatov, an older translation, The Day Lasts More Than a Hundred Years, which seems to be the only other thing available in English by him (that I've been able to find).
11kidzdoc
The Wandering Falcon by Jamil Ahmad
The Wandering Falcon is a moving collection of interconnected short stories set in the remote tribal areas that border Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran, which all feature one character, Tor Baz, who began life as the child of two lovers who have fled from their village and spent his life as a wanderer throughout the region's villages, a man who belongs to no particular tribe but is able to gain the respect of those he encounters. Life in these areas is difficult, due to the harsh climate; the rough terrain; the sometimes brutal justice administered to those who break tribal customs and laws; the hostile relationships between neighboring tribes; and government officials, who draw and enforce fixed boundary lines between countries where none existed before, thus impeding the centuries old way of life of these nomadic tribes.
Despite these hardships and restrictions, the people portrayed in this book are full of life and pride in themselves and their tribes, and their stories are both unique and universal.
Jamil Ahmad began his career as a Pakistani civil servant in Balochistan, compiled notes about the people he met there, and originally wrote these stories in the mid-1970s. He retired, moved to Islamabad, and was inspired to rewrite them in 2008 at the age of 75, when the book was initially published. These regions, known as the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, have gained more importance in recent years, as they are home to the Taliban and other insurgent groups that have waged war against the Pakistani and Afghan governments and their Western allies. Although these stories were written well before the onset of the wars in Afghanistan and the strife in Pakistan, Ahmad provides valuable insights into the people who live there, in an engaging manner that made for a quick and enticing read.
Steve Inskeep of National Public Radio recently traveled to Islamabad and interviewed Jamil Ahmad. Ahmad's fascinating story, which includes additional insights about the people in his book, can be heard online at http://www.npr.org/2011/06/16/137216570/wandering-falcon-describes-pakistans-tri....
The Wandering Falcon is a moving collection of interconnected short stories set in the remote tribal areas that border Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran, which all feature one character, Tor Baz, who began life as the child of two lovers who have fled from their village and spent his life as a wanderer throughout the region's villages, a man who belongs to no particular tribe but is able to gain the respect of those he encounters. Life in these areas is difficult, due to the harsh climate; the rough terrain; the sometimes brutal justice administered to those who break tribal customs and laws; the hostile relationships between neighboring tribes; and government officials, who draw and enforce fixed boundary lines between countries where none existed before, thus impeding the centuries old way of life of these nomadic tribes.
Despite these hardships and restrictions, the people portrayed in this book are full of life and pride in themselves and their tribes, and their stories are both unique and universal.
Jamil Ahmad began his career as a Pakistani civil servant in Balochistan, compiled notes about the people he met there, and originally wrote these stories in the mid-1970s. He retired, moved to Islamabad, and was inspired to rewrite them in 2008 at the age of 75, when the book was initially published. These regions, known as the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, have gained more importance in recent years, as they are home to the Taliban and other insurgent groups that have waged war against the Pakistani and Afghan governments and their Western allies. Although these stories were written well before the onset of the wars in Afghanistan and the strife in Pakistan, Ahmad provides valuable insights into the people who live there, in an engaging manner that made for a quick and enticing read.
Steve Inskeep of National Public Radio recently traveled to Islamabad and interviewed Jamil Ahmad. Ahmad's fascinating story, which includes additional insights about the people in his book, can be heard online at http://www.npr.org/2011/06/16/137216570/wandering-falcon-describes-pakistans-tri....
12shawnd
Does anyone know of novels by native Turkmen, from Turkmenistan. I heard about someone named Kekilov, an author, but I can find nothing. Anything out there in English?
13StevenTX
Kyrgyzstan:
Jamilia by Chinghiz Aitmatov, 1957
Jamilia is a stunningly beautiful novella whose only flaw is being so short that we must all too soon leave it behind.
The story takes place on a collective farm in the author's native Kyrgyzstan, then a part of the USSR, during the Second World War. All of the able-bodied men are away at the front, leaving to the women, children, aged and disabled the arduous job of bringing in the annual harvest of grain so essential to the nation's survival. The narrator of the story is a teenage boy, Seit, a budding young artist who has temporarily given up his studies to take over as the man of the family.
Seit has a crush on his slightly older sister-in-law, Jamilia, whose soldier husband, at last report, was recuperating in a distant hospital from unknown causes. Jamilia is a vivacious and assertive young woman, totally unlike any that Seit has known. Seit becomes both her defender and admirer, until passion takes matters in a direction that neither of them can predict or control.
True to his artistic inclinations, the narrator's descriptions of the steppes and valleys of Kyrgyzstan are sumptuous and enticing. There are only a few hints about the customs and characteristics of the Kirghiz people. Nor is there much said about collective farming or the Soviet system. The focus is on the people and the land, making Jamilia a story of timeless appeal.
Chinghiz Aitmatov's writing won accolades from both the USSR and West, and he seems to have flourished under both communism and capitalism, being both an adviser to Mikhail Gorbachev and, before his death in 2008, the Kirghiz ambassador to the EU and NATO. Though his earlier works were in the Kirghiz language, he wrote Jamilia and most of his later works in Russian. An earlier English translation of Jamilia is available free online at http://www.angelfire.com/rnb/bashiri/Stories/Jamila.html.
Jamilia by Chinghiz Aitmatov, 1957
Jamilia is a stunningly beautiful novella whose only flaw is being so short that we must all too soon leave it behind.
The story takes place on a collective farm in the author's native Kyrgyzstan, then a part of the USSR, during the Second World War. All of the able-bodied men are away at the front, leaving to the women, children, aged and disabled the arduous job of bringing in the annual harvest of grain so essential to the nation's survival. The narrator of the story is a teenage boy, Seit, a budding young artist who has temporarily given up his studies to take over as the man of the family.
Seit has a crush on his slightly older sister-in-law, Jamilia, whose soldier husband, at last report, was recuperating in a distant hospital from unknown causes. Jamilia is a vivacious and assertive young woman, totally unlike any that Seit has known. Seit becomes both her defender and admirer, until passion takes matters in a direction that neither of them can predict or control.
True to his artistic inclinations, the narrator's descriptions of the steppes and valleys of Kyrgyzstan are sumptuous and enticing. There are only a few hints about the customs and characteristics of the Kirghiz people. Nor is there much said about collective farming or the Soviet system. The focus is on the people and the land, making Jamilia a story of timeless appeal.
Chinghiz Aitmatov's writing won accolades from both the USSR and West, and he seems to have flourished under both communism and capitalism, being both an adviser to Mikhail Gorbachev and, before his death in 2008, the Kirghiz ambassador to the EU and NATO. Though his earlier works were in the Kirghiz language, he wrote Jamilia and most of his later works in Russian. An earlier English translation of Jamilia is available free online at http://www.angelfire.com/rnb/bashiri/Stories/Jamila.html.
14kidzdoc
Pakistan
Our Lady of Alice Bhatti by Mohammed Hanif
The latest novel by Mohammed Hanif, author of the Booker Prize longlisted novel A Case of Exploding Mangoes, is set in contemporary Karachi, Pakistan in the Sacred Heart Hospital for All Ailments, a public hospital formerly established by the Catholic Church and led by a Catholic chief medical officer but staffed by Muslim doctors and nurses. Alice Bhatti is a newly hired nurse who trained at Sacred Heart, but was forced to leave due to her outspoken Christian beliefs and a trumped up conviction of attempted murder. She is single, attractive and well endowed, which makes her the source of unwanted attention from male patients and visitors to Sacred Heart. She is friends with Noor, a teenage street urchin who has managed to obtain a jack of all trades position at Sacred Heart while caring for his mother, who is dying from three cancers. Noor is also friends with Teddy Butt, a bodybuilder with a violent temper who works with but is not a member of the G Squad, a shadowy arm of the Pakistani police which captures, tortures and kills insurgents that terrorize the civilian population.
Teddy falls in love with Alice, who suddenly agrees to marry him after rejecting his initial advances. Their flawed relationship, Teddy's troubled activities with the G Squad and Alice's apparent ability to bring the dead and dying to life form the major subjects of this novel. Unfortunately, I found Our Lady of Alice Bhatti to be quite implausible, as its stories about medical practice and the daily workings of a large public hospital strained credulity, and its characters were dull and inscrutable. The novel consisted of a series of connected events rather than a cohesive story, and by the end I had completely lost interest in what happened to Alice, Teddy and Noor.
Our Lady of Alice Bhatti by Mohammed Hanif
The latest novel by Mohammed Hanif, author of the Booker Prize longlisted novel A Case of Exploding Mangoes, is set in contemporary Karachi, Pakistan in the Sacred Heart Hospital for All Ailments, a public hospital formerly established by the Catholic Church and led by a Catholic chief medical officer but staffed by Muslim doctors and nurses. Alice Bhatti is a newly hired nurse who trained at Sacred Heart, but was forced to leave due to her outspoken Christian beliefs and a trumped up conviction of attempted murder. She is single, attractive and well endowed, which makes her the source of unwanted attention from male patients and visitors to Sacred Heart. She is friends with Noor, a teenage street urchin who has managed to obtain a jack of all trades position at Sacred Heart while caring for his mother, who is dying from three cancers. Noor is also friends with Teddy Butt, a bodybuilder with a violent temper who works with but is not a member of the G Squad, a shadowy arm of the Pakistani police which captures, tortures and kills insurgents that terrorize the civilian population.
Teddy falls in love with Alice, who suddenly agrees to marry him after rejecting his initial advances. Their flawed relationship, Teddy's troubled activities with the G Squad and Alice's apparent ability to bring the dead and dying to life form the major subjects of this novel. Unfortunately, I found Our Lady of Alice Bhatti to be quite implausible, as its stories about medical practice and the daily workings of a large public hospital strained credulity, and its characters were dull and inscrutable. The novel consisted of a series of connected events rather than a cohesive story, and by the end I had completely lost interest in what happened to Alice, Teddy and Noor.
15Nickelini
Afghanistan
The Swallows of Kabul, Yasmina Khadra, 2002, translated from French (author is Algerian)
cover comments: suits the book well
Comments: This short novel is about a small group of people who are trying to carry on with life despite the oppression of the Taliban in Afghanistan.
Why I Read This Now: It seemed like something I might be in the mood for.
Recommended for: readers who want to take a literary journey to Afghanistan.
The Swallows of Kabul, Yasmina Khadra, 2002, translated from French (author is Algerian)
cover comments: suits the book well
Comments: This short novel is about a small group of people who are trying to carry on with life despite the oppression of the Taliban in Afghanistan.
Why I Read This Now: It seemed like something I might be in the mood for.
Recommended for: readers who want to take a literary journey to Afghanistan.
16GlebtheDancer
A couple of months ago i read Farewell Gul'sary by Aitmatov. It is out of print now, but is worth a look if you are a fan. It is the story of an old man (Tanabai) and the last day of life for his old horse (Gul'sary). The man looks back at his life through his relationship with Gul'sary, focusing largely on his espousal of then disillusionment with communism. The use of the dying horse as a focal point for his memory is really well done, and evokes the contrast between a proud equine community and the sacrifices called for by collectivisation and the party system.
17spiralsheep
"For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbours, and laugh at them in our turn?"
I read Unmarriageable, by Soniah Kamal, which is a novel retelling Pride and Prejudice but set in contemporary Pakistan. Most attempted Pride and Prejudice retellings are pale imitations because they substitute Jane Austen's comedy of manners about life in society, that happens to have a central romance plot (or three), for a "romance" novel which is about one romantic relationship. Unmarriageable however is faithful to Austen's range as a comedy of manners about life in society, that happens to have a central romance plot (or three). It thoroughly retells the complex of characters, plots, and subplots, from the original but wholly translated to contemporary Pakistan. I especially enjoyed how true the characters are to Austen's portrayals, with the minor exception of Annie dey Bagh (Anne de Bourgh) who I'm glad to say was allowed a few lines of her own in this new work.
Unmarriageable also adds English and Pakistani and Indian literary intertextuality beyond the framework of Pride and Prejudice. My favourite is a fleeting moment when the protagonist Alys accidentally meets Darsee while he's escorting tourists named Thomas Fowle, Harris Bigg-Wither, and Soniah (no last name) who is Harris Bigg-Wither's girlfriend. Although a reader wouldn't need to be interested in this meta layer to enjoy the main family saga.
By the end of the first short chapter Kamal had reused the famous opening line from Pride and Prejudice, rewritten it in the context of Pakistani society, and subverted that rewriting, made an actually amusing Miss Havisham reference, made a truly funny Romeo and Juliet reference, introduced her protagonist and milieu, and made me laugh several times (although more of the book's humour is amusing social satire than laugh aloud comedy).
4.5*
Quotes (too many choices!)
Lol: "She gazed at the bulletin boards plastering the walls and boasting photos where Naheed beamed with Dilipabad's VIPs. They were thumbtacked in place to allow easy removal if a VIP fell from financial grace or got involved in a particularly egregious scandal."
Cemetery: "A row of ashoka trees, vibrant and healthy, created a man-planted border, their roots feeding from blood and bones on both sides, and Alys slipped through the trunks and into, it seemed, another cemetery. Dirt paths wound through overgrown vegetation and eroded marble headstones with British names in faded lettering. She walked on, scared now that she was so deep inside the graveyard. Moonlight spread down her back like ice. All was quiet except for crickets and her footsteps, crunching twigs. She saw a form leaning against a wall, an unnatural fiery glow emanating from where a mouth should be.
Alys screamed. The form screamed.
A girl stepped out of the shadows, a lit cigarette dangling from bony fingers, a scrawny braid curling down one shoulder to her waist. She was wearing red sandals and a purple-and-green shalwar kurta topped with a red cardigan with white plastic buttons."
The only major fault was the fake history in the notes at the back: "Lord Macaulay's Address to the British Parliament on 2nd February 1835" is a well-known fake that's been around since at least 2002 (sometimes supposedly about India and sometimes supposedly about Africa). Parliament was closed and Macaulay was in India where what he actually said was this: https://perma.cc/F3G9-TXB8 (which you don't need to read). To quote Abraham Lincoln, "Don’t believe everything you read on the internet."
I read Unmarriageable, by Soniah Kamal, which is a novel retelling Pride and Prejudice but set in contemporary Pakistan. Most attempted Pride and Prejudice retellings are pale imitations because they substitute Jane Austen's comedy of manners about life in society, that happens to have a central romance plot (or three), for a "romance" novel which is about one romantic relationship. Unmarriageable however is faithful to Austen's range as a comedy of manners about life in society, that happens to have a central romance plot (or three). It thoroughly retells the complex of characters, plots, and subplots, from the original but wholly translated to contemporary Pakistan. I especially enjoyed how true the characters are to Austen's portrayals, with the minor exception of Annie dey Bagh (Anne de Bourgh) who I'm glad to say was allowed a few lines of her own in this new work.
Unmarriageable also adds English and Pakistani and Indian literary intertextuality beyond the framework of Pride and Prejudice. My favourite is a fleeting moment when the protagonist Alys accidentally meets Darsee while he's escorting tourists named Thomas Fowle, Harris Bigg-Wither, and Soniah (no last name) who is Harris Bigg-Wither's girlfriend. Although a reader wouldn't need to be interested in this meta layer to enjoy the main family saga.
By the end of the first short chapter Kamal had reused the famous opening line from Pride and Prejudice, rewritten it in the context of Pakistani society, and subverted that rewriting, made an actually amusing Miss Havisham reference, made a truly funny Romeo and Juliet reference, introduced her protagonist and milieu, and made me laugh several times (although more of the book's humour is amusing social satire than laugh aloud comedy).
4.5*
Quotes (too many choices!)
Lol: "She gazed at the bulletin boards plastering the walls and boasting photos where Naheed beamed with Dilipabad's VIPs. They were thumbtacked in place to allow easy removal if a VIP fell from financial grace or got involved in a particularly egregious scandal."
Cemetery: "A row of ashoka trees, vibrant and healthy, created a man-planted border, their roots feeding from blood and bones on both sides, and Alys slipped through the trunks and into, it seemed, another cemetery. Dirt paths wound through overgrown vegetation and eroded marble headstones with British names in faded lettering. She walked on, scared now that she was so deep inside the graveyard. Moonlight spread down her back like ice. All was quiet except for crickets and her footsteps, crunching twigs. She saw a form leaning against a wall, an unnatural fiery glow emanating from where a mouth should be.
Alys screamed. The form screamed.
A girl stepped out of the shadows, a lit cigarette dangling from bony fingers, a scrawny braid curling down one shoulder to her waist. She was wearing red sandals and a purple-and-green shalwar kurta topped with a red cardigan with white plastic buttons."
The only major fault was the fake history in the notes at the back: "Lord Macaulay's Address to the British Parliament on 2nd February 1835" is a well-known fake that's been around since at least 2002 (sometimes supposedly about India and sometimes supposedly about Africa). Parliament was closed and Macaulay was in India where what he actually said was this: https://perma.cc/F3G9-TXB8 (which you don't need to read). To quote Abraham Lincoln, "Don’t believe everything you read on the internet."
18labfs39
I just read Jamilia by Chingiz Aitmatov and want to add my accolades to those by akeela, avaland, StephenTX, and seemingly anyone else who has read this beautiful novella. The descriptions of the Kyrgyz steppes are stunning, and I loved how the land reflected the emotions of the characters.
19labfs39
PAKISTAN
Burnt Shadows by Kamila Shamsie
Published 2009, 370 p.
Hiroko Tanaka is a young woman in love with a German dreamer who longs for a world where nationality ceases to define identity. Unfortunately, Hiroko will witness the devastating effects of nationalism over and over again throughout her life. From the the atomic bombing of Nagasaki in 1945 to the partition of India in 1947 to the proxy cold war fought in Afghanistan to the aftermath of the September 11th bombing in the US, Hiroko and her family struggle to survive in a world that is always being defined as us vs them.
Burnt Shadows is beautifully written with a compelling storyline. The characters are almost always outsiders in some way, struggling to define who they are and where they belong. Misunderstandings and betrayals carry consequences that play out over decades and sometimes generations, but so too does familial loyalty and love. Highly recommended.
Burnt Shadows by Kamila Shamsie
Published 2009, 370 p.
Hiroko Tanaka is a young woman in love with a German dreamer who longs for a world where nationality ceases to define identity. Unfortunately, Hiroko will witness the devastating effects of nationalism over and over again throughout her life. From the the atomic bombing of Nagasaki in 1945 to the partition of India in 1947 to the proxy cold war fought in Afghanistan to the aftermath of the September 11th bombing in the US, Hiroko and her family struggle to survive in a world that is always being defined as us vs them.
Burnt Shadows is beautifully written with a compelling storyline. The characters are almost always outsiders in some way, struggling to define who they are and where they belong. Misunderstandings and betrayals carry consequences that play out over decades and sometimes generations, but so too does familial loyalty and love. Highly recommended.
20labfs39
AFGHANISTAN
The patience stone: sang-e saboor by Atiq Rahimi, translated from the French by Polly McLean
Published 2008, 141 p.
An unnamed woman attends to her husband in a room of their house somewhere in Afghanistan. He has been shot in the neck by a fellow fighter and is unconscious. Shells from tanks fall around their house and gunfire erupts even during a purported ceasefire. At first the woman is tender in her ministrations and prays continually for his deliverance. But as the days pass with no change in her husband, she begins to find relief in confessing all her secrets to him, as though he were the fabled patience stone, which according to Persian folklore absorbs all the speaker's grievances until it explodes, taking all the speaker's worries with it.
Although the writing is very sparse (some have likened it to a play script), the emotions evoked by the woman's revelations are complex and layered. Like many Afghani woman, her life has been subjugated to the strictures of her father, her husband, society, and religious politics. Her attempts to exert control over her life, even by giving voice to her feelings and thoughts, have met with violence, so she has learned to remain silent. It is only now, with her husband unconscious and hostage to her ministrations, does she feel free to reveal her innermost secrets.
The patience stone: sang-e saboor by Atiq Rahimi, translated from the French by Polly McLean
Published 2008, 141 p.
An unnamed woman attends to her husband in a room of their house somewhere in Afghanistan. He has been shot in the neck by a fellow fighter and is unconscious. Shells from tanks fall around their house and gunfire erupts even during a purported ceasefire. At first the woman is tender in her ministrations and prays continually for his deliverance. But as the days pass with no change in her husband, she begins to find relief in confessing all her secrets to him, as though he were the fabled patience stone, which according to Persian folklore absorbs all the speaker's grievances until it explodes, taking all the speaker's worries with it.
Although the writing is very sparse (some have likened it to a play script), the emotions evoked by the woman's revelations are complex and layered. Like many Afghani woman, her life has been subjugated to the strictures of her father, her husband, society, and religious politics. Her attempts to exert control over her life, even by giving voice to her feelings and thoughts, have met with violence, so she has learned to remain silent. It is only now, with her husband unconscious and hostage to her ministrations, does she feel free to reveal her innermost secrets.
21labfs39
AFGHANISTAN
A Thousand Rooms of Dream and Fear by Atiq Rahimi, translated from the Dari by Sarah Maguire and Yama Yari
Published 2002, English translation 2006, 152 p.
A man wakes up beaten and bloody in the sewer beside the road unsure of who he is or how he got there. Over the next 24 hours his memory comes back in bits and pieces, told in reverse chronological order in alternating chapters with the present. Within the span of a few days, the life of an ordinary young man is destroyed during the violent, hopeless period of coups and invasion that defined the 1970s in Afghanistan. A grim but moving story of loss and unfulfilled hope.
This is the second book I've read by Atiq Rahimi. The first, The Patience Stone, was translated from the French, this one from the Dari. Both stories depict lives ruined by violence and upheaval, and end without hope. Both are short and told in quick, simple language that nonetheless carries emotional impact.
A Thousand Rooms of Dream and Fear by Atiq Rahimi, translated from the Dari by Sarah Maguire and Yama Yari
Published 2002, English translation 2006, 152 p.
A man wakes up beaten and bloody in the sewer beside the road unsure of who he is or how he got there. Over the next 24 hours his memory comes back in bits and pieces, told in reverse chronological order in alternating chapters with the present. Within the span of a few days, the life of an ordinary young man is destroyed during the violent, hopeless period of coups and invasion that defined the 1970s in Afghanistan. A grim but moving story of loss and unfulfilled hope.
This is the second book I've read by Atiq Rahimi. The first, The Patience Stone, was translated from the French, this one from the Dari. Both stories depict lives ruined by violence and upheaval, and end without hope. Both are short and told in quick, simple language that nonetheless carries emotional impact.
22labfs39
AFGHANISTAN
Earth and Ashes by Atiq Rahimi, translated from the Dari by Erdağ M. Göknar
Published 2000, English translation 2002, 81 p.
Earth and Ashes was Rahimi's first novel, and the first film that he directed. It's the story of Dastaguir and his grandson, who have been displaced and are waiting for a ride into the Karkar coal mine region where Dastaguir's son, Murad, works. Dastaguir has bad news to bring to Murad, and over the course of the novella we learn what that news is. This is the third work by Rahimi that I've read, and I've liked them all. Some reviewers have written that his books feel script-like, and I can understand their point. But the tradeoff is that his writing is very cinematic; I can visualize the settings and characters as though I had seen them.
Rahimi was born and raised in Afghanistan, but fled when the Soviets invaded. He was granted political asylum in France and attended the Sorbonne. Taking a break from producing documentaries for French television, in 2000 Rahimi wrote Earth and Ashes, which was a bestseller in Europe and South America. He subsequently directed a movie version of the book, and it was awarded a prize at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival.
Earth and Ashes by Atiq Rahimi, translated from the Dari by Erdağ M. Göknar
Published 2000, English translation 2002, 81 p.
Earth and Ashes was Rahimi's first novel, and the first film that he directed. It's the story of Dastaguir and his grandson, who have been displaced and are waiting for a ride into the Karkar coal mine region where Dastaguir's son, Murad, works. Dastaguir has bad news to bring to Murad, and over the course of the novella we learn what that news is. This is the third work by Rahimi that I've read, and I've liked them all. Some reviewers have written that his books feel script-like, and I can understand their point. But the tradeoff is that his writing is very cinematic; I can visualize the settings and characters as though I had seen them.
Rahimi was born and raised in Afghanistan, but fled when the Soviets invaded. He was granted political asylum in France and attended the Sorbonne. Taking a break from producing documentaries for French television, in 2000 Rahimi wrote Earth and Ashes, which was a bestseller in Europe and South America. He subsequently directed a movie version of the book, and it was awarded a prize at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival.
23Gypsy_Boy
I can no longer recall where or how I first learned about Naiyer Masud, a scholar (Professor of Persian at Lucknow University) and writer of short stories. Somewhere, many years ago, I had run across a recommendation for the two collections of his stories translated into English: The Snake Catcher and Essence of Camphor. I eventually found them both in used bookstores and, several years after acquiring them, decided to sit down and read them.
I don't think "revelation" is too strong a word. I was so taken with the stories that I looked for whatever else I could find of his. By then, a (more-or-less complete) Collected Stories had just been published by Penguin India (2015). I have been reading the stories, dipping in and out of the book. It is well over 650 pages, so it will take a while to complete. I have probably read at least half the book by now and decided to start this thread.
As many authors as I have loved or been impressed by over the years, Masud is one of the very few who has made me wish I were fluent in his language (Urdu) so I could read him in the original. His voice is unique and remarkable. Let me quote at some length from the introduction by Muhammad Umar Memon, a professor at the University of Wisconsin and Masud's primary translator. Memon writes of discovering Masud, of Masud's works, and of translating Masud--an act that cannot have been easy as he (Masud) was fluent in English among other languages and was, understandably, extremely precise about the translations. Memon does, however, identify what I think is so special about Masud:
"Masud's fictional world is tenaciously elusive. It seems to pull the reader straight into the centre of a vortex--at once provocative and inaccessible. Even while failing to understand his stories, one is unable to walk away from their haunting ambit. Somehow they seem to retrieve for the reader a part of their memory buried deep in the liminal folds of consciousness otherwise preoccupied with the more immediate problems of mundane existence. It is a part that needs to be discovered, patiently, more through feeling and introspection than by reason. The moment reason is engaged, what it sees is a formidable scrambling of logical coordinates, always leading back to the same labyrinth, never reconstituting a discernible entity."
Understanding Masud's work through feeling and introspection, not reason, is key. Most stories have an element of that...unreality, dream-state, not-quite-rational...sense that keeps a reader off-balance. Is what I am reading literally true or is it a dream? Does it matter? You're always just the smallest bit uncertain. It's not "magical realism" and yet it shares a bit of the other-reality of that kind of writing. As Memon writes,
"Reading Masud evokes the sensation of being thrown headlong into relentless circularity.... Here one encounters order, neatness and decorum, qualities that dispel any notion of 'unreality.'... The shimmeringly elusive quality of the stories may derive from a number of factors, not least from the author's rare ability to trim down language to its most essential. His terse and highly clipped prose suns even the slightest trace of fustian rhetoric, so stark in its suppression of qualifiers it unsettles the mind. Hardly any idioms or verbal pyrotechnics of any kind."
I find most of Masud's stories absolutely indelible. And I know that, whenever the day finally arrives that I finish the last story, I will be both sad and depressed...and eager to start reading them all over again.
P.S. For those who might be interested, I know of one story that I enjoyed very much that is available free online:
https://minds.wisconsin.edu/bitstream/handle/1793/12005/15nosh.pdf?sequence=2&am...
I don't think "revelation" is too strong a word. I was so taken with the stories that I looked for whatever else I could find of his. By then, a (more-or-less complete) Collected Stories had just been published by Penguin India (2015). I have been reading the stories, dipping in and out of the book. It is well over 650 pages, so it will take a while to complete. I have probably read at least half the book by now and decided to start this thread.
As many authors as I have loved or been impressed by over the years, Masud is one of the very few who has made me wish I were fluent in his language (Urdu) so I could read him in the original. His voice is unique and remarkable. Let me quote at some length from the introduction by Muhammad Umar Memon, a professor at the University of Wisconsin and Masud's primary translator. Memon writes of discovering Masud, of Masud's works, and of translating Masud--an act that cannot have been easy as he (Masud) was fluent in English among other languages and was, understandably, extremely precise about the translations. Memon does, however, identify what I think is so special about Masud:
"Masud's fictional world is tenaciously elusive. It seems to pull the reader straight into the centre of a vortex--at once provocative and inaccessible. Even while failing to understand his stories, one is unable to walk away from their haunting ambit. Somehow they seem to retrieve for the reader a part of their memory buried deep in the liminal folds of consciousness otherwise preoccupied with the more immediate problems of mundane existence. It is a part that needs to be discovered, patiently, more through feeling and introspection than by reason. The moment reason is engaged, what it sees is a formidable scrambling of logical coordinates, always leading back to the same labyrinth, never reconstituting a discernible entity."
Understanding Masud's work through feeling and introspection, not reason, is key. Most stories have an element of that...unreality, dream-state, not-quite-rational...sense that keeps a reader off-balance. Is what I am reading literally true or is it a dream? Does it matter? You're always just the smallest bit uncertain. It's not "magical realism" and yet it shares a bit of the other-reality of that kind of writing. As Memon writes,
"Reading Masud evokes the sensation of being thrown headlong into relentless circularity.... Here one encounters order, neatness and decorum, qualities that dispel any notion of 'unreality.'... The shimmeringly elusive quality of the stories may derive from a number of factors, not least from the author's rare ability to trim down language to its most essential. His terse and highly clipped prose suns even the slightest trace of fustian rhetoric, so stark in its suppression of qualifiers it unsettles the mind. Hardly any idioms or verbal pyrotechnics of any kind."
I find most of Masud's stories absolutely indelible. And I know that, whenever the day finally arrives that I finish the last story, I will be both sad and depressed...and eager to start reading them all over again.
P.S. For those who might be interested, I know of one story that I enjoyed very much that is available free online:
https://minds.wisconsin.edu/bitstream/handle/1793/12005/15nosh.pdf?sequence=2&am...
24Trifolia
Kyrgyzstan: Jamilia by Tsjingiz Ajtmatov - 3 stars
This book was brought to my attention and recommended in several ways, so when I finally got my hands on it, I didn't hesitate. But maybe the recommendations made my expectations too high. Certainly, the story is beautifully written: when her husband goes to war, young Jamilia is left behind with her in-laws. Her brother-in-law falls in love with her, but when a stranger comes to the village, the situation changes. I can understand why this story will appeal to readers, but somehow this book just didn't appeal to me. I certainly didn't think it was bad, just not great.
This book was brought to my attention and recommended in several ways, so when I finally got my hands on it, I didn't hesitate. But maybe the recommendations made my expectations too high. Certainly, the story is beautifully written: when her husband goes to war, young Jamilia is left behind with her in-laws. Her brother-in-law falls in love with her, but when a stranger comes to the village, the situation changes. I can understand why this story will appeal to readers, but somehow this book just didn't appeal to me. I certainly didn't think it was bad, just not great.
25labfs39
Set in Kazakhstan, author is from Kyrgyzstan
The Day Lasts More than a Hundred Years by Chingiz Aitmatov, translated from the Russian by John French
Published 1980, English translation 1983, 352 p., Indiana University Press
This is a novel of striking juxtapositions. The main plotline takes place over the course of a single day, and yet the past is ever present both in reflections and in legends. The focus is a tiny settlement at a railway intersection surrounded by the vastness of the Central Asian steppe, yet other nations and even aliens from outer space have a role. It is an example of socialist realism with its heroic railway worker, yet is subversive with its mankurts men who have been captured, tortured, and brainwashed into mindless slaves with no memory or identity. It is village prose and yet lauds the advances of technology. Finally, it is a novel written in Russian for a Russian or Russified audience, and yet seems to advocate for the retention of national identity and religion. And it is a novel by a Kyrgyz author set in Kazakhstan.
Yedigei was a soldier in WWII but suffered from shell shock and returned home early. Unable at first to perform the hard labor he is assigned, he finds a place in a remote settlement helping maintain the lines at a railroad junction. He and his wife are taken in by Kazangap, an older worker who is the lynchpin of the tiny community. The book opens with Yedigei learning that Kazangap has died, and the frame for the rest of the book is the journey Yedigei undertakes on his camel to take Kazangap to a cemetery for burial according to Muslim tradition. Along the way, Yedigei ruminates on his life, and especially on the fate of another family who joined their community for a time years ago.
A subplot involves the nearby (fictitious) cosmodrome, where rockets are launched after scientists from a join Soviet-US venture make contact with another intelligent species.
Despite its length (and the horribly damaged copy I was reading), I found this novel very compelling, as well as touching. I grew to care about Yedigei and his relationships with Kazangap and the members of the other family, as well as the troublesome, yet magnificent male camel, Karanar. It's a novel that would lend itself well to discussion, and I continue to think about aspects of the novel, especially after reading the introduction, which I did once I finished the book. I can see why the book is popular with readers of all stripes as it can be interpreted in a myriad of ways.
The Day Lasts More than a Hundred Years by Chingiz Aitmatov, translated from the Russian by John French
Published 1980, English translation 1983, 352 p., Indiana University Press
This is a novel of striking juxtapositions. The main plotline takes place over the course of a single day, and yet the past is ever present both in reflections and in legends. The focus is a tiny settlement at a railway intersection surrounded by the vastness of the Central Asian steppe, yet other nations and even aliens from outer space have a role. It is an example of socialist realism with its heroic railway worker, yet is subversive with its mankurts men who have been captured, tortured, and brainwashed into mindless slaves with no memory or identity. It is village prose and yet lauds the advances of technology. Finally, it is a novel written in Russian for a Russian or Russified audience, and yet seems to advocate for the retention of national identity and religion. And it is a novel by a Kyrgyz author set in Kazakhstan.
Yedigei was a soldier in WWII but suffered from shell shock and returned home early. Unable at first to perform the hard labor he is assigned, he finds a place in a remote settlement helping maintain the lines at a railroad junction. He and his wife are taken in by Kazangap, an older worker who is the lynchpin of the tiny community. The book opens with Yedigei learning that Kazangap has died, and the frame for the rest of the book is the journey Yedigei undertakes on his camel to take Kazangap to a cemetery for burial according to Muslim tradition. Along the way, Yedigei ruminates on his life, and especially on the fate of another family who joined their community for a time years ago.
A subplot involves the nearby (fictitious) cosmodrome, where rockets are launched after scientists from a join Soviet-US venture make contact with another intelligent species.
Despite its length (and the horribly damaged copy I was reading), I found this novel very compelling, as well as touching. I grew to care about Yedigei and his relationships with Kazangap and the members of the other family, as well as the troublesome, yet magnificent male camel, Karanar. It's a novel that would lend itself well to discussion, and I continue to think about aspects of the novel, especially after reading the introduction, which I did once I finished the book. I can see why the book is popular with readers of all stripes as it can be interpreted in a myriad of ways.
27Gypsy_Boy
>24 Trifolia:
I am not sure how I missed your comments, but I am glad to see someone who had more or less the same take on this book that I did. I am always puzzled by those who go into raptures about it. I thought the story cliched and, in places, even the writing was dismayingly so. Not bad, certainly, but disappointing. Given his reputation, I will read more of his work, particularly given labsf 39's latest positive review.
I am not sure how I missed your comments, but I am glad to see someone who had more or less the same take on this book that I did. I am always puzzled by those who go into raptures about it. I thought the story cliched and, in places, even the writing was dismayingly so. Not bad, certainly, but disappointing. Given his reputation, I will read more of his work, particularly given labsf 39's latest positive review.
28labfs39
>27 Gypsy_Boy: I liked the descriptions of the steppes and nature in general in Jamilia, but the plot was mediocre at best. It was his first popular work, written in 1958. The Day Lasts More Than a Hundred Years was written in 1980. By then, Aitmatov was a more accomplished author with more interesting things to say. He still writes well about the steppe, but his characters are much more interesting with real depth to them, imo. That said, not everyone will like the split narrative, especially given it involves contact with an alien species.
