Scan barcode
A review by naddie_reads
Of Strangers and Bees: A Hayy Ibn Yaqzan Tale by Hamid Ismailov
4.0
Written in Ismailov's inimitable style by weaving several storylines which do not quite intersect but instead run parallel with one another, "Of Stranger and Bees" is probably the author's best work yet -- at least, out of all the ones that have been translated into English. The narrative incorporates the journey of three individuals: the exiled Uzbek writer Sheikov (who is presumably a stand-in for Ismailov himself, though Ismailov himself makes an 'appearance' in the novel several times), the polymath Ibnu Sina (or Avicenna to the Western world), and the relentless bee who toils day after day in its hive.
While The Devils' Dance highlights the fate that awaits Uzbek writers & learned professionals who show 'democratic tendencies', this particular novel only touches on this lightly. Instead of being imprisoned like so many other of his compatriots, in this tale Sheikov manages to escape to Europe and depends on his language skills and strangers' kindness in order to begin his life anew. When he has a dream that insists that Ibnu Sina is still alive and is roaming the Earth in various disguises, Sheikov creates a narrative where he imagines Ibnu Sina's travels and accomplishments whenever he reaches a new destination in his own journey. In between all this, there are small interludes where a bee called Sina makes an appearance in the book, and it's here where we find some faith-related philosophies and soliloquies that fit Sheikov's journey. All these components together are interwoven in such a way that makes the whole of this book, which ultimately leads Sheikov to this revelation:
While The Devils' Dance highlights the fate that awaits Uzbek writers & learned professionals who show 'democratic tendencies', this particular novel only touches on this lightly. Instead of being imprisoned like so many other of his compatriots, in this tale Sheikov manages to escape to Europe and depends on his language skills and strangers' kindness in order to begin his life anew. When he has a dream that insists that Ibnu Sina is still alive and is roaming the Earth in various disguises, Sheikov creates a narrative where he imagines Ibnu Sina's travels and accomplishments whenever he reaches a new destination in his own journey. In between all this, there are small interludes where a bee called Sina makes an appearance in the book, and it's here where we find some faith-related philosophies and soliloquies that fit Sheikov's journey. All these components together are interwoven in such a way that makes the whole of this book, which ultimately leads Sheikov to this revelation:
Now I understood something: all my searching- whether for the right room, or Avicenna, or the lost Stranger among the pages of old manuscripts or in countries developed or developing, whether his name was Vissens or Sheikhov, or whether they were bees, drinking in the secrets of the eternal soul along with their nectar- in truth, it had been a search for myself, for how I belonged to something more important than the small idle details of everyday events in this inhospitable world. We find ourselves only when we lose ourselves in the Other.