| Title | : | A Man Was Going Down the Road |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | - |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Kindle Edition |
| Number of Pages | : | 492 |
| Publication | : | First published January 1, 1973 |
A Man Was Going Down the Road Reviews
-
I spent the first two and a half months of 2015 voraciously reading every book about Georgia I could get my hands on. When I learned about A Man Was Going Down The Road, I thought: THIS will be the pièce de résistance of my reading!
The book was written by Otar Chiladze (1933-2009), one of Georgia's great 20th-century writers, after all. It was supposed to be about Jason, Medea and the Golden Fleece, It was set in the Colchian city of Vani--a city that is today an archaeological treasure chest just 30 km or so from Lanchkhuti, the town where I spent a week during my stay in that country.
Instead it became something more--far more--one of the most challenging and rewarding books on any subject that I have read in recent years. Unraveling the book became for me a task akin to unspooling strings of Georgian letters or twisting my tongue into the shape of six-syllable Georgian words.
I got a little ways into the book before I left the USA for Georgia, planning to finish it on the trip. Two things came up. First, other books pushed their way into my life during my time there. Second, five pages were enough to tire my eyes and put me into dreamland. Eventually I got to where I could read fifty pages before moving on to other reading for a time, This never proved to be a page-turner. It remained a challenge.
This is what I learned while reading the book.
It isn't really about Jason & Medea
Chiladze has more in mind than just retelling a beloved myth. This is a book about Georgia, and when Jason flees the book with Medea and the Golden Fleece, the story doesn't follow them to Greece.
The setting is the court of King Aetes, and the book begins when the boy, Phrixos, and his ram are pulled from the sea and adopted by the king. The legend grows that Phrixos had ridden the flying ram from Greece across the Black Sea, but the reality will set in that Phrixos is merely a plant by the faraway Cretan king, Minos. Phrixos marries Aetes's daughter, Chalciope, and their relationship, initially happy enough to produce four sons, grows distant, marred by Phrixos's longing for his homeland.
Jason sweeps in. Medea beguiles the fleece from her father's throne room, and they are gone by page 130. There are 300 pages left!
The rest of the book focuses on three characters: Ukheiro, a Minoan spearman and husband of a Colchian exile named Marekhi, who is injured in the invasion of Vani and forced to spend the rest of his life embroidering a sail with images from his life; Parnaoz, the son of Ukheiro whose birth brings about his mother's death and whose star-crossed love for Ino, anchors the final half of the book and Popeye, grandson of Ukheiro whose service to the usurper, Oqajado makes him the book's bad guy.
Are these characters Colchian/Georgian? Parnaoz is half Colchian through his mother, but Ukherio's family are transplants and invaders. Parnaoz will return to Crete for a time, where he will meet Daedelus and Icarus. He will hold the hope of ridding the family--and Vani--of the despicable Popeye, but he is plagued by indecisiveness.
There are plenty of recognizable Georgians in the book, though. Medea is wonderfully drawn. Consider this scene where she is torn between loyalty to her sister and her growing obsession with Jason:'I want to die, sister, to die!' Medea yelled through clenched lips, genuinely wondering why the whole palace couldn't hear her, why nobody was running towards her. The word 'love' made Medea tremble so much that she found it hard to enounce it even to herself. This little word, so harmless at first sight, comprised so much resistance and unhappiness, and implied such terrible visions, that Medea felt she was gasping for breath, drained of strength and dissolving in the air, becoming as light and insubstantial as air. Saying the word and feeling guilty were the same thing, as if falling in love meant you had to commit a crime, and if you wanted, you had to express and assert your love. (102)
There is a Georgian vintner, Bakha, whose stocks lie at the base of 40 stone steps and whose daughter is unromantically married off to Popeye. There is a mysterious bandit, Shubu, whose presence offers freedom to the romantic runaways, Parnaoz and Ino. Other minor characters will leap out to those who have spent more than the two weeks in Georgia on which my observations are based.
It's written by a master of classical style
I can't speak for the original format that Chiladze wrote the book in--whether it was prose or verse, or the rhythm of his sentences. Donald Rayfield--but his use of Homeric similes is striking. Consider this simile describing Ukheiro's injured state:That is how time had passed, like a piece of cloth ripped when transfixed on a javelin tip, laing bare a country, leaving it shattered like a woman wodowed at her own wedding, and then dying itself (154).
For more, ready my full review on my blog at
http://dittestgc15.blogspot.com/2015/... -
This is a novel at once extraordinary and difficult, surreal and yet carried along by a strange, detached intimacy. Events seem to occur at a remove from the reader, but the characters are raw and unforgettable, and it is their inner lives which hold the tale together. Over the course of the novel, the inhabitants of Vani are born, beget children, grow old, and die, and all the while the sea retreats from their town. Everyone seems at least dimly conscious that they are acting out a play written by fate, at once inscrutable and inevitable. The chief actors of the drama are not the heroes of the myths from which Chiladze liberally borrows; they are petty despots whose power is crumbling, physically and psychologically crippled mortals trapped in mourning for their loved ones, wives and husbands incapable of understanding one another, innocent children discovering how little the world cares for them, and men and women consumed by merciless obsession, many of them agonizing over the pain they cause others in trying to realize their dreams.
Major figures from Greek legend do make it into the novel, passing through on the way to their respective dooms far offstage: Jason, Medea, Minos, and Daedelus are among them. A fantasia of classical and ancient near eastern tones make their way onto a distinctively Georgian palate that also has room for talking parrots, castrated stablemen, and the frosty Caucasus. But the book's magic is not in the retelling of myth, which it does not directly attempt; it is in the subtle reworking of worn themes into an altogether original, majestic, and poignant tragedy. This is the Heroic Age of the ancient world, and we find it is our own, full of incomprehensible fortunes and broken people. Chiladze's sibylline vision of the past encompasses them all.
Though it was Chiladze's first novel when it was published in 1972, it feels rather like the work of an experienced if eccentric craftsman. His writing style is bold and intoxicating, shifting fluidly between characters' points of view and wandering states of mind, then viewing them suddenly from a distance, as if the reader inhabited a timeless space created by their thoughts and fantasies. Surreal images and penetrating metaphors abound, mingling so completely--and at times ambiguously--with concrete occurrences that they seem no longer dispensable literary artifice, but the essential fabric of the characters' world.
The translator, Donald Rayfield, claims that the book is an allegory for the Soviet occupation, and while I believe him, it is clear that the novel aims much higher than that, to say something about being human. It offers little hope for those of us who seem, like Chiladze's creations, out of place in the world——but if one is patient, one will find that Chiladze has prepared a banquet of human hopes and miseries that gleams with curious enchantment, and whose often bitter flavor is laced with the honey of dizzying poetic insight. -
This one belongs to not-so-easy-but-really-worth-reading category.
It's not for beginners as long as it contains more about characters' inner universe and relationships than action and drive. Each human feeling including love, fear, envy and strive for freedom is put forward using varied heroes.
The action takes place in the ancient Georgian city of Van, whose culture is rather different from modern cities and exactly this makes the novel unique.
Author's artistic narrative is so deep and genuine that you have to read between the lines to grasp all the wisdom.
So if you think you're advanced book lover I strongly recommend this masterpiece to you. -
I don’t want to encourage a superstitious in me by reading too much into why the first book of 2023 was the most promising and the most disappointing novel I have ever encountered. It is a shame that Chiladze, who can write in such enchanting ways about already existing mythological characters like Medea and Aeetes, at the same time has a limited imagination when it comes to his own character-building. Still, an amazing read, especially for someone who knows and cares about one or two things about Georgian history.
-
დიდი პოეტის ვეებერთელა პროზა.
-
I'm sorry to spoil the endless praise for this book but someone had to already say the truth: it's not very good. The author slows down the book immensely by having mundane actions be over-described at great length using a never-ending tidal wave of parables and allegories that simply leave the story itself as a lengthy slog, going as far as delivering such lengthy diversions four times on a single page. Almost like the author wants to show off just how darned clever he is and how deep he can be with his allegories, look and be amazed !
The plot of the book is also confusing. The author jumps around, skips immense stretches of time and then has to put the already sluggish plot on hold just to wind back and related the past history of a character he just introduced for the first time, despite them always having had a relation to the main characters.
The big plot of the Great King Minos is so convoluted, requiring an orphaned foundling set adrift on a ram to not only not drown, but to be rescued, accepted into Van society, marry into the Royal Family and have sons that Minos can use to get the golden hide. A plan that takes two generations to come to fruition and which Minos just expects to happen all on it's own without any interference or guidance whatsoever.
Then there is the fact that once the first section of the book ends, the quality takes a major nose dive. When Childaze had to deal with the characters of Euripides' tragedy, he was under at least some obligation to have something happen and to bother to portray and establish characters properly. But then after the first third ends, the plot of the Argonautica is swiftly abandoned, all of it's characters removed from the book permanently, and the focus shifts to made up character Pharnaoz.
Now Pharnaoz is probably some sort of avatar for Chiladze, because he is used for two things: constantly moan about not being able to change his destiny while doing nothing to change his destiny, vainly trying to come off as "tortured", and to spout dozens of pages of philosophy to further impress the reader about how knowledgeable the author is and about how "deep" his protagonist is. The fact he is devoting two thirds of the book to this endlessly whinning, lethargic, mopey loser while the characters of Euripides get one third and never get resolution in the book, might speak about the young, budding author's vanity but I'm not going to make that claim.
What is certain is, the second Pharnaoz is born and the Argonauts are left behind as a mere memory, the lethargy of Pharnaoz and the endless parable-peddling of Chiladze's narrator combine to make the already slow book take on a glacial pace, and slowly work towards a most unsatisfying ending.
The first third of the book alone brings this up to 2 stars. -
შეიძლება სუბიექტური ვიყო, მაგრამ ამაზე სრულყოფილი რომანი ჯერ არ წამიკითხავს!!! ენით შეუძლებელია იმის აღწერა, რაც ამ ნაწარმოების კითხვის დროს გემართება.. გენიალური და მსოფლიო ლიტერატურაში ალბათ ერ���–ერთი ყველაზე დიდი წიგნია.
დღემდე არ მესმის როგორ არ მისცეს ასეთი რომანების ავტორს ნობელის პრემია. სარამაგუს ან გიუნტე��� გრასს არაფერს ვერჩი, თუმცა ამ დონის ლიტერატურა მაგიურ რეალიზმში ალბათ მხოლოდ მარკესს აქვს(ჭილაძესთან ერთად რასაკვირველია).
თუ არსებობს must read მსოფლიო ლიტერატურა, ეს რომანი მის სიაში ერთ–ერთი პირველია, ისევე როგორც ჭილაძის სხვა ასევე უდიდესი რომანები.
https://ka.wikipedia.org/wiki/გზაზე_ე... -
ღმერთო, ეს რა იყო!
ასეთი უმშვენიერესი ქართული პროზა ჯერ მე არ წამიკითხავს. ასე მგონია, მთლიანი ქართული ენა იმიტომ ვისწავლე და ცხოვრებაში გამოცდილებები იმიტომ დავაგროვე, რომ ეს წიგნი წამეკითხა და გამეგო. ყველა გვერდზე რაღაც გენიალური წერია! მსუყე ცხოვრებისეული მიგნებების ერთ წინადადებაში ასე იდალირად მხატვრულად ჩატევა თუ შეეძლო ვინმეს, არ მეგონა! შედარებებზე არაფერს ვამბობ.
გენიალური მწერალია ჭილაძე, არ მესმის, ყველა ქუჩის თავში ამ კაცის ძეგლი რატომ არ გვიდგას ან საერთოდ ოთარ ჭილაძის სახელობის ქვეყანა რატომ არ ვართ? -
არიქა, ბერძენიაო.
არიქა, ლტოლვილიო.
სტუმარი ღვთისააო.
მეფეზე ნაკლებ ოჯახში როგორო?!
მეფის ასულზე ნაკლები რანაირადო.
ჩვენიანიო, ჩვენი სიძეო, ჩვენი უფლისწულების მამაო.
სამადლოდ წყაროც გაუკეთა ზღვამრავალ ვანს. "ბერძნის წყარო".
მერე?
მერე შემოპარული ყოფილა ეს გაიძვერა. მის მობრძანებას მერე სხვები მოჰყვნენ, ფუჭი თუ ნაღდი იმედებით ავსებულები - აბა, აქ ჩვენი თანამოძმე ყოფილაო, აბა ვერძიო, აბა ჩვენი კუთვნილიო... თავისას სხვისიც გააყოლეს, მერე ჯარი მოვიდა, მერე აოხრება, გაპარტახება, ოყაჯადო...
ეხლა?
ეხლა "ბერძენი" "რუსით" ჩავანაცვლოთ და იგივეა //
როდის დაიწერა ეს წიგნი, როდინდელ ამბავზე და მაინც იგივე წრეზე მივდივართ ((( -
2020 (3/5)
განვასრულე, ამჯერად ბოლომდის. მძიმე წიგნია და დამთრგუნველი, როგორც არსობრივად, ასევე ენობრივად. მაგრამ ეს უკანასკნელი პლუსი არაა. ზოგჯერ მრჩებოდა შთაბეჭდილება, რომ ამდენი შედარება ზედმეტად მსუყე იყო და ტექსტს ამძიმებდა, ისევე როგორც დაუსრულებელი სიმბოლოები. ნამდვილად მნიშვნელოვანი ტექსტია ქართულ ლიტერატურაში. ვეჭვობ, მომავალში კვლავ მივუბრუნდები.
2016 (2/5)
წიგნი სამი ნაწილისგან შედგება - აიეტი, უხეირო, ფარნაოზი. ნებისყოფა არ მეყო, ბოლო ნაწილი აღარ წამიკითხავს და არა მგონია სწორედ ის ყოფილიყო, რაღაც იმდენად საოცარი, რომ საერთო შთაბეჭდილება შემეცვალა. ზოგადად, 3 ვარსკვლავს ალბათ თავისუფლად დავუწერდი, რომ არა იმედგაცრუება. როდესაც დიდი ხნის განმავლობაში გესმის , ეს ის წიგნია, რომელიც წაკითხული უნდა გქონდეს, მეოცე საუკუნის ერთერთი საუკეთესო, თუ არა საუკეთესო, რომანი და ა.შ. , კითხულობ, უფრო სწორედ, ვერ კითხულობ და ის არ აღმოჩნდება, რასაც ელოდი - ცუდია.
თავიდან მეგონა, რომანი "იმ" იასონსა და მედეაზე იყო. ვფიქრობ, ეს წიგნი მათზე იმდენადაა, რამდენადაც საქართველოზეა. წიგნში იკვეთებიან ქართული ხასიათები, ლაღი, თავისუფალი, გულუბრყვილო. ღვინის სარდაფებში დიონისოს სძინავს, ბავშვის გამლახავს ხელი უხმება ( ნაციონალების შემომხაზველივით :D ), უცხოს შვილივით , უფრო მეტიც, მეფურად იღებენ. უკვირთ, თუკი ვინმე პურს მოითხოვს, ანუ მათხოვარს ჯერ არ იცნობენ. მერე აღმოჩნდება, რომ უცხოს, ნებით თუ უნებლიედ, არეულობა შემოაქვს და სიცრუე. ვანი ( ზღაპრული საქართველოს მითიური მოდელი?), თავისი დარიაჩანგის ბაღით ( გერმანულ გამოცემას სწორედ ასე ჰქვია) თანდათან იცვლება, ცრუ მეფეებს იცვლის და სიცრუეც უფრო მეტად ეპარება, ადამიანები ხუნდებიან თავიანთ უბედურებებთან ერთად.
ერთი რამ, რაც მომეწონა, ავტორის მიერ საკუთარი გმირების ღრმა და მრავალპლანიანი წარმოსახვაა. არის შემთხვევები, როდესაც ერთი პერსონაჟი სრულიად სხვა კუთხით გაჩვენებს თავს. ყველა საკუთარ ისტორიას ინახავს და უხეიროსავით წელმოწყვეტილი იმ ქსოვილზე ქარგავს, საკუთარ დასახიჩრებული სხეულის დასაფარად რომ გადაუფარებია. -
I think this is a very fine book but I struggled my way through it somewhat. It wanders and rambles. I suspect Chiladze was making discreet comments on the Soviet suppression of Georgian culture and society and I did not know enough to appreciate this so some elements seemed obscure and repetitive, whereas other sections were brilliant and extraordinary. I am glad to have read it but was a little relieved to finish it.
-
A strange book, in which the stories are told and developed as streams of thought of the characters, jumping from one to another. It is not hard to follow, but it is very tormented - most thoughts are about the inevitability of fate and remorse for real or perceived guilt. Chiladze can write beautifully, and I marked several notable passages. But overall I found the book very anguishing.
-
#readtheworld Georgia
#didnotfinish -
მიყვარს
-
Чтобы понять и получить от этой книги этакое "guilty pleasure", надо быть серьезно так побитым жизнью, пройти огонь, воду и медные трубы и в итоге все равно остаться неудачником, ничего не добившимся в жизни. Практически каждый персонаж подходит под такое описание- там все неудавшиеся люди, ненавидящие, завидующие друг другу, борящиеся за какие-то эфемерные ценности. Больше всего огорчило то, что книга не про аргонавтов, как могло показаться из описания. Ясон и Медея там появляются в первой трети, больше их там не будет. Остальное- мутная и зачастую очень нудная история семьи этих самых неудачников, обиженных судьбой(имя главы семьи, Ухеиро, в принципе так и переводится- дурной, неудавшийся). Самое странное, что судьбы персонажей совершенно не волновали меня- картонные болванчики, мотивация которых мало понятнa. Им проще страдать и ныть, копаться в прошлом, чем делать что-то.
-
Really not sure what the author was trying to do. უსაშველოდ გაწელილი წიგნი.
-
Немного магического реализма - как раз сейчас читаю «Шёл по дороге человек» грузинского писателя Отара Чиладзе (не слышала о нем раньше, хотя он был номинирован на Нобелевскую премию по литературе). С этой книгой как-то иначе смотрю на грузинскую литературу вообще; раньше я могла припомнить разве только «Витязя в тигровой шкуре» Руставели, которого проходят в школе)
Герои древнегреческой мифологии в хитрозакрученных пером рассказчика лабиринтах захватывают куда сильнее, нежели игры Престолов. Как и в жизни, шаблона принятия решений не существует. Все истории в своей разности и единстве — это поиск путей, присущая таким поискам неопределенность, а также запоздалое понимание происходящего вокруг.
Необычная, чарующая и волнующая книга. -
dense, hallucinatory, a work very interested in drilling down into the depths of even the most basic and fleeting emotions. outrageously rich in naturalistic imagery and simile (homeric, as others have noted) and very vivid in its portrayal of the doomed and the bitter and the wronged.
proofreading/spelling errors a bit more frequent than i would hope, hard to follow the chronology at times, and the middle third drags a bit too much. -
Georgia
Written in 1973 while Georgia was occupied by the Soviet Union the story begins with the Greek legend of Jason and the Golden Fleece. It is also the author’s interpretation of life as a version of the ancient story of Gilgamesh with an undertone of Georgian domestic and political life. -
ეს წიგნი უბრალოდ სასწაულია. მთელი ცხოვრება ერთი კაცის სახით. წიგნი ალეგორიები..
ფარნაოზი სიკეთე.. რომლის შვილიც გაფრინდება და კვდება.. და კუსა ბოროტება.. ვისაც შვილი უნდა და მკვდარ ბავშვებს აჩენს...
ეს წიგნი სასწაულია. უბრალოდ სასწაული. -
I really struggled with this book, many times I was sorely tempted to DNF it. The plot is set in amcient times when Jason visits Colchis and leaves with the Golden Fleece of the flying ram and Medea the daughter of King Aeertes. The plot meanders a lot.
The mythical Greek intervention in Colchis is subtly told by Chiladze as an allegory of Russia’s and the Soviet Union’s subversion and conquest of Georgia. The subtlety as lost on me.
I found it difficult to identify with the characters, for example Bedia dies entangled in his fishing nets, his widow then drags his body in the nets through the town of Vani to his hovel, for one last visit to his house before dragging it out to sea, a sea Bedia had tried to tether with a rope to the land.
It all felt very surreal at times
My rating 3 out of 5. -
"ეს იმდროინდელი ამბავია, როცა ვანი ზღვისპირა ქალაქი იყო; როცა კოლხეთის მიწაზე პირველმა ბერძენმა დადგა ფეხი და მორიდებულად ითხოვა თავშესაფარი. ზღვამაც სწორედ იმ დღეს გაბედა და ხანგრძლივი ყოყმანის შემდეგ პირველი ნაბიჯი გადადგა უკან."
-
2.75 - the middle sagged which was disappointing after such a strong part one. I know I’d enjoy this more if I knew more Greek mythology and could fully appreciate the historical backdrop of Georgia. In terms of style, I had a hard time keep track of the tense because of the winding tangents.
-
რეალობას ვერ ვხედავთ - ვეძებთ. რეალობას ვერ ვხედავთ - ვცლით.
-
განუმეორებელი.
-
დამღალა
ძალიან დამღალა
უფრო ხარისხიანად უნდა წამეკითხა ალბათ
თუმცა...
