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lawtina4567's review
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
1.5
karinlib's review
3.0
2.5 stars really. I really wanted to love this book, but there were so many things about it that I didn't like. I will give the pros and cons.
The Railway is a story set in Uzbekistan town of Gilas between 1900 and 1980, and the Rail Road and the station are central to the story.
Pros: The Railway is a tragic comedy. Indeed there are some very funny scenes. Ismailov is able to incorporate a lot of Uzbek history in this rather concise novel.
Robert Chandler, the translator put in lots of footnotes which really helped.
Cons: There are so many characters in this book, that I had to print out the list of characters in the beginning of the book, and I referred to it, up to the end.
The adult language and plot in this book were over the top, and I really felt it was unnecessary to the book.
I did like that Solzhenitsyn, Sartre and Camus made an appearance in this book.
The Railway is a story set in Uzbekistan town of Gilas between 1900 and 1980, and the Rail Road and the station are central to the story.
Pros: The Railway is a tragic comedy. Indeed there are some very funny scenes. Ismailov is able to incorporate a lot of Uzbek history in this rather concise novel.
Robert Chandler, the translator put in lots of footnotes which really helped.
Cons: There are so many characters in this book, that I had to print out the list of characters in the beginning of the book, and I referred to it, up to the end.
The adult language and plot in this book were over the top, and I really felt it was unnecessary to the book.
I did like that Solzhenitsyn, Sartre and Camus made an appearance in this book.
jon288's review
5.0
Uzbekistan. Surprisingly witty and interesting, with lots of slightly caracatured characters
curatoriallyyours's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
This was a confusing collection of stories set in the town of Gilas, along the Silk Road in Uzbekistan. Many of the gigantic cast of characters were pretty awful people and some engaged in incredibly violent activity that was uncomfortable to read about. There were some moments of humour and poetic writing but this was not a book I would want to engage with again.
caroline_norrish's review
dark
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape, Pedophilia, Sexual violence, and Child abuse
emmajanereads's review against another edition
challenging
dark
funny
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
runeclausen's review
3.0
I barely know where to begin with this one. What a journey. And not, unfortunately, a exclusively positive one.
The cover of the book touts a review saying "Imagine One Hundred Years of Solitude set on the empty plains of Central Asia". This was actually a citing that made me very exciting, but it took the worst parts of 100 YoS but not a lot of the good ones. The story is seemingly an incoherent set of events and happenings following a extremely expansive gallery of characters (there's a 8 page character-list at the back of the book!!) that seemingly doesn't have a lot to do with each other, and the stories not overlapping with each other a whole lot, until there's a somewhat tying up of all the characters into the same story at the very end.
Most of the book is not even concerned with the titular Railway, but instead recounts various more of less fantastic stories of the inhabitants of the uzbek town of Gilas, characters of all kinds of ethnicities, religions and social-statuses.
Ismailov does however do one thing I like a lot, and that is the mixing of western philosophers (Beauvoir, Sarte etc.) with Soviet leaders, philosophers, authors, Persian poets, Uzbek and Kyrgyz cultural personalities and much more, weaving a multi-cultural tapestry bringing the whole world together in Gilas. Chingiz Aitmatov, the most famous Kyrgyz author, whom i've also read before even makes an appearance.
The book is heavy in soviet and uzbek cultural and historical references, luckily theres a vast number of footnotes to explain a lot of them, but it still takes an effort to comprehend everything that is going on.
I'm still not at all sure what the themes and main storyline of this book actually is, or what even happened for the most part, but somehow it was still enjoyable - atleast a times.
The cover of the book touts a review saying "Imagine One Hundred Years of Solitude set on the empty plains of Central Asia". This was actually a citing that made me very exciting, but it took the worst parts of 100 YoS but not a lot of the good ones. The story is seemingly an incoherent set of events and happenings following a extremely expansive gallery of characters (there's a 8 page character-list at the back of the book!!) that seemingly doesn't have a lot to do with each other, and the stories not overlapping with each other a whole lot, until there's a somewhat tying up of all the characters into the same story at the very end.
Most of the book is not even concerned with the titular Railway, but instead recounts various more of less fantastic stories of the inhabitants of the uzbek town of Gilas, characters of all kinds of ethnicities, religions and social-statuses.
Ismailov does however do one thing I like a lot, and that is the mixing of western philosophers (Beauvoir, Sarte etc.) with Soviet leaders, philosophers, authors, Persian poets, Uzbek and Kyrgyz cultural personalities and much more, weaving a multi-cultural tapestry bringing the whole world together in Gilas. Chingiz Aitmatov, the most famous Kyrgyz author, whom i've also read before even makes an appearance.
The book is heavy in soviet and uzbek cultural and historical references, luckily theres a vast number of footnotes to explain a lot of them, but it still takes an effort to comprehend everything that is going on.
I'm still not at all sure what the themes and main storyline of this book actually is, or what even happened for the most part, but somehow it was still enjoyable - atleast a times.
_rusalka's review
1.0
If I had to choose a two word phrase to sum up this book it would be "Semen Sprinkler".
I hated this book. I do not know if I wasn't clever enough for it. Maybe I wasn't able to suspend disbelief enough. Maybe I have less tolerance than others for shit, semen, child rape, or rape than others.
Magical realism is a thing which I appreciate and get and realise it will be hit and miss. That wasn't my problem with the book although I realised early on this was not going to be a book I enjoyed. The book is non-linear, looking at all the weird and wonderful creatures/people that live in this town over a century. Lives and stories tangle. That all makes sense.
But there was an off vibe from the beginning of the book that solidifies as the book goes on. And that I have no time for. I feel ikky from reading it. I don't really find shit or semen jokes funny. And I don't know if they are jokes or not in this book. But the amount of people that turned into a fricking semen sprinkler system in this book was ridiculous. Could have put a timer system on them and saved the world from drought. And I didn't understand why! All of the sudden these men would turn into a torrent of semen.
Less emotional and back to the world of practicality - the footnotes are at the end of the book. And they are numerous, and exhausting, and when you do not give a shit about what you are reading and have to flick 200 pages to find the footnote, you get annoyed. And then the footnotes reference the footnotes. Just fuck off at that stage, honestly.
Lexx asked if I was going to write an amusing review of this book, and I just can't. I feel sick I have read it. It was a bloody slog and I gained very little from the process besides mental images I will be trying to expunge from my brain forevermore. Just... don't.
I hated this book. I do not know if I wasn't clever enough for it. Maybe I wasn't able to suspend disbelief enough. Maybe I have less tolerance than others for shit, semen, child rape, or rape than others.
Magical realism is a thing which I appreciate and get and realise it will be hit and miss. That wasn't my problem with the book although I realised early on this was not going to be a book I enjoyed. The book is non-linear, looking at all the weird and wonderful creatures/people that live in this town over a century. Lives and stories tangle. That all makes sense.
But there was an off vibe from the beginning of the book that solidifies as the book goes on. And that I have no time for. I feel ikky from reading it. I don't really find shit or semen jokes funny. And I don't know if they are jokes or not in this book. But the amount of people that turned into a fricking semen sprinkler system in this book was ridiculous. Could have put a timer system on them and saved the world from drought. And I didn't understand why! All of the sudden these men would turn into a torrent of semen.
Less emotional and back to the world of practicality - the footnotes are at the end of the book. And they are numerous, and exhausting, and when you do not give a shit about what you are reading and have to flick 200 pages to find the footnote, you get annoyed. And then the footnotes reference the footnotes. Just fuck off at that stage, honestly.
Lexx asked if I was going to write an amusing review of this book, and I just can't. I feel sick I have read it. It was a bloody slog and I gained very little from the process besides mental images I will be trying to expunge from my brain forevermore. Just... don't.
tscott71's review
3.0
A hit or miss jumble of stories in chapters that are very interesting or terribly dull.