Jamilia

Jamilia is a sweet and beautiful story. It is the kind of story I would think that I wanted to write when I was bogged down in my own novel which is about four times as long (not that long, Jamilia is only 96 pages). It is set in Kyrgyzstan, one of the Republics that came out of the breakup of the

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Soviet Union. It is Turkic in central Asia, mountainous. It is in a time of war. It is not specific which. It mentions German, but given that the author was born in 1928 and that the main character is a 15 year old boy, Seit, it is probably WWII. The village doesn't experience any battles. Rather the war is present through the young men who have gone away.

The sense of place and culture is very strong in this book. The boy belongs to a large extended family which lives in two houses both managed by his mother. The second house is lived in by the second wife of his father. She had lived there with her first husband, who died leaving her with two small sons. Seit explains, "We could not abandon a widow and her sons, so our kinfolk married my father to her." The tradition of large families was left from nomadic times.

Now the two small sons are grown, and have gone off to war. Seit refers to these men as his older brothers. One of them has married the daughter in law Jamilia. Seit feels akin to Jamilia and is a little in love with her. This is true, though their relationship, like many relationships in the village, is shaped by tradition. For instance, Jamilia's husband does not write directly to her, but to the family. She is barely mentioned in the letter. Seit and Jamilia do not call each other by first names, but he calls her, jenei, and she calls him, kichine bala - little boy, which is the custom to call a husband's younger brother.

The story happens in the course of a summer. A man, Daniyar, not totally a stranger, but an orphan who grew up mostly in nearby Kazakstan, returns to the village. Because the three of them are set to do a task together, delivering grain for the soldiers, they are thrown together, and Seit experiences the growing relationship between Jamilia and Daniyar. He doesn't simply watch it, but experiences it as his own awakening to another kind of perception of the world.

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This beautiful little gem of a book is set on the Kyrgzstan steppe during the war. The narrator is 15-year-old Seit who engages in arduous toil alongside the women left behind in the village, while the men are away at war.

As Seit spends his days working with his young, beautiful and industrious

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jenei (sister-in-law), he comes to adore the spirited Jamilia, who loves to sing.

Her husband, Sadyk, is away and occasionally writes home but, as custom demands, rarely even mentions Jamilia in his letters. Meanwhile, her lively and forthright personality attracts a lot of attention from the young men around.

But there is one man, Daniyar, who remains aloof. Injured at war, he 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 observes a beautiful – but forbidden – relationship evolve between the two.

The writing is charming with some outstanding bits. Though it was written in 1957, the book was only translated into English, in 2007, by James Riordan who must be commended for his splendid work.

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Fifteen-year-old Seit is the proud jigit, or protector and breadwinner, for two households while his brothers are away fighting the Germans. He's infatuated with his beautiful, older sister-in-law, Jamilia, and accompanies her on grain deliveries. They are joined by a quiet, wounded ex-soldier, and

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Seit observes their interactions with interest.

This little novella is beautifully written, and it is worth reading just for the descriptions of the Kyrgyz steppes. The land is both a backdrop for the story, and a mirror reflecting the emotions of the characters. The book reminds me of [The Issa Valley], with it's gorgeous descriptions of nature and the gentle boy narrator.

Chingiz Aitmatov is perhaps the premier author of Kyrgyzstan. He wrote in both Kyrgyz and Russian, translating between the two, and [Jamilia] was his first success. In addition to his literary career, he was an ambassador to the EU, Nato, etc.

I highly recommend [Jamilia] and will be looking for more of Aitmatov's works.

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Atmospheric.

This was a short book, at just 96 pages. An excellent translation from Kyrgyz, full of feeling and wonderful descriptions of the countryside of Kyrgyzstan.

Set during WWII, the men of the villages are all off fighting at the front while the day to day running of the farms is left to

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women, youngsters and the injured. Grain must be transported over many miles to collection points from whence it is delivered to the fighting soldiers. Seit, the narrator, his sister-in-law, Jamila and Daniyar, an injured soldier are responsible for making the daily trecks to the collection depot from their village.
Gradually we get to know the the characters and watch their interactions during these long journeys.

The book is described as a love story but it is also a taste of life in a remote part of the world, at a particular time in history.
Unfortunately my copy pretty much told the story on the back cover, so there were no surprises, but it was still an interesting read, atmospheric and spare.

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A lovely, almost poetic, novella that talks of art, music and love in addition to hard labor in the midst of difficult times in Russia during WWI.

Jamilia is a beautiful and charming story told from an artist's perspective. It's a heart warming and poetic story about love and how it creeps up on you unexpectedly. Jamilia is the type of story you can read many times over. I highly recommend it.

This was a wonderfully moving love story that packed a punch for such a small book. It felt like an old folk tale.

A Russian romance among the peasant labourers in WW11. The returned soldier Daniyar wins Jamilia's heart with his beautiful singing and she leaves her home and her husband. I'd love to have heard his singing, but the prose felt a little flat to me. Has a folk tale feel about it.

Jamilia is a quick read. At around twenty-thousand words, the novella reads more like a short story with a little more build up. There's not much time for character development or setting, but that doesn't hinder the story in the slightest. Jamilia is a great piece of observation. It wonderfully

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captures the perspective of a child whose understanding of the world is rather juvenile. It also effectively shows a budding romance from an outside perspective. There's nothing thrilling or magical here, but it is a well-told story that introduces the reader to the people and traditions of Kyrgyzstan.

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This was a favorite of mine when I first read it. It comes with high praise: Louis Aragon called this short novel the most beautiful love story in the world. I was a bit afraid it would not stand the test of time. But it did.
In just over a hundred pages he brings to life a time and place which is

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very foreign to us: Kirgizstan during the Second World War. The men are off fighting, the women are doing the work in the fields, charged with growing the food to sustain the fighters. The Kirgiz society has just moved from a nomadic existence to the settled life in the soviet kolkhozes. Said, a young boy himself, but the man in charge of the household, tells us about these days. Nested like a sketchy painting inside his recounting, is the love story of Jamilia and Danijar. With just a few half understood glimpses powerful feelings are evoked. The ending is bittersweet and left me with a mixture of satisfaction and yearning, much as it did Said.

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A small gem

I was excited to read Chingiz Aitmatov, I have read some excellent short fiction stories from him earlier and I had heard a lot about Jamilia.

However I must admit I was rather disappointed and I am not sure whether to ascribe that to the translator or the actual story.

I gave it three stars because

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it is still well written and the metaphors were those which arose my suspicion to as how well this book had actually been translated. Several places it appeared that the descriptions of the country side were too boasted, to over descriptive. In other places it appeared that it didn't really catch the dialogue between the characters.

Jamilia is not a love story as such, it's more of a projection of the young women (in this case young and beautiful) that were left behind during the war and the men in the same position, either too weak to fight or returned too injured to participate and with the small town intrigues that happen in such a situation.

There are three characters in the story and they are very well described, but the actual plot lacks grunt. It's too simple and I have to say - to me. I found it to be slightly over-sentimental, simplistic and a little boring to be quite honest.

I think it would apply to a certain type of reader and another not. If you are into mainstream feel good books, not mentioning particulars, then it will read well. However if you like a controversial, thick, unusual or direct plot that rivets, it's not it. So thus I believe I have rated it well and fair.

I hardly have any money to spend but I love reading a good book. I am happy I got a second hand copy because at least I have the book with the cover of the beautiful face on the cover. I doubt I will read the story again though.

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The writing style is simple to the point I felt it was intended for an elementary school audience, but the story is good. It's interesting, inspiring, and maybe gives a little insight into the world of rural Kyrgyz during World War II.