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3.86 AVERAGE
3.86 AVERAGE
challenging
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
challenging
emotional
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
super dense, think I’m not familiar enough with uzbek to appreciate this. translator afterword provided better insight that I maybe should have read earlier (esp about the poetry)
This recent winner of the 2019 ERBD Literature Prize makes me thankful for my AtW reading challenge. Ismailov's work is challenging if like me, you don't know much about the Great Game or 19th-century Turkestanian court culture. However, the language and poetry are lovely, and the novel makes me want to learn more about these topics. I also hope this book spurs English translations of other Uzbek works, especially by this novel's protagonist, Abdulla Qodiriy.
Uzbek poetry, the Great Game and Stalinist purges can be found all in one novel based on the lives of 20th century author and poet, Abdulla Qodiriy and Oyxon a nineteenth century princess and poetess. Normally I despise narratives within a narrative because one story usually piques my interest more than the other and then I find the other strand an unwelcome distraction. However, in this novel the two strands are both equally gripping and tend to mirror or echo one another to some extent. Qodiriy spends the entirety of the novel in a Soviet prison, whilst Oyxon is trapped in her gilded cage in the sultan's harem. There are also some slight fantastical elements as Qodiriy starts to lose his grip on reality in the mundanity of prison routine and escapes more and more to his unpublished novel on Oyxon. I found this a rewarding read after having read Return of A King, which is a history of the British role in the Great Game in Afghanistan. A lot of the same figures are mentioned in passing such as Ranjit Singh and Dost Mohammed Khan and to be able to recognise these names when mentioned made the novel more enjoyable. However, the novel is perfectly enjoyable without having an in-depth knowledge of 19th century Central Asian history. I look forward to more of Hamid Ismailov's writing.
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Minor: Death, Rape, Violence
What a great book!! The stories are woven together so intricately and you learn a lot about Uzbek literature, the great game and Stalin dictatorship. The way you don't know what's real anymore at some point, and the meta moments about lost manuscripts or how the characters and the author all merge in and out of each other had me in the palm of its hand.