Nataliya's Reviews > Jamilia

I think the confusion about what this Aitmatov's 1958 short lyrical novella actually *is* stems from the often-quoted remark by the French writer Louis Aragon, hailing it as 'the most beautiful love story in the world'.

It *is* a love story of sorts, but it's *not* a romance. Seeing it as just a tale of two lovers is akin to reducing 'Anna Karenina' to nothing more but Anna and Vronsky's affair.

Love in this novella is far more than simply romance. It has a multitude of faces; it encompasses everything - from tender attraction between two young people to kind familial affection to deeply ingrained love for the quiet beauty of your homeland to the love of art and longing for self-expression.



In 1943, a small Kyrgyz village on the shores of a turbulent river in the shadow of the mountain range was teetering on the edge between old tribal life and the new expectations of Soviet living. Tribal laws still held strong, but the former nomads were now living in the villages and working in kolkhoz; patriarchal customs were observed, but since young men were away at the war the work fell on the shoulders of children and women.

Sait is a fifteen-year-old boy teetering on the brink of adulthood, the only son of his family not at war, a boy doing adult work, a boy who never dared to open his heart to the passion of art that lay deep within it - what kind of a craft is painting pictures anyway? In the naive remnants of his innocence, he feels fiercely protective of Jamilia, his sister-in-law, whose husband is away at war. It is through Sait's naive, mesmerized and often confused but yet astute eyes that we get to experience this short lyrical story of love, beauty and growing up.



It is through Sait's eyes that we see the development of that quiet, subdued love that grows between Jamilia, his sister-in-law, a young boisterous woman, the lively heart of every gathering, and Daniyar, a wounded soldier, quiet and introspective and therefore easily dismissed by those accustomed to domineering and outwardly assertive dzhigits. Sweet it may be, but there's nothing particularly new in this touching love that the old weary world has not seen before - its slow development from sometimes thoughtless teasing, its growth from eventual admiration, respect and understanding that sings to the souls of those involved.

"This was a man deeply in love. He was in love, I felt, not just with another person; it was a different, enormous love - love for life, for the land. Yes, he saved this love in himself, in his music; he lived for this love. An indifferent person could not have sung like that, no matter how good of a voice he had."

What is amazing is the unexpected effect of this love, of which he is but an observer, on young Sait. It is through Jamilia and Daniyar's experiences that he opens his eyes to the overwhelming beauty of the land itself that surrounds him - the nature and the history, both ancient and present. It is through them that his heart opens to encompass the love for his land with which all the pages of this too-short of a book are saturated. The magic of Daniyar's voice - inspired by his feeling for Jamilia - uncovers the beauty of the world and allows it to deeply touch Sait's soul.

"This whole world of beauty and unrest was revealed to me through Daniyar's song. Where did he learn all this, who told him all this? I understood that such love for his land could have come only from someone who longed for it with his whole heart of many years; who earned this love through suffering. As he was singing, I could see him - a small boy, wandering along the roads in the steppe. Was it then that the songs about homeland were born in his soul? Or was it when he was marching the fiery miles of the war?

Listening to Daniyar, I wanted to fall on the ground and firmly, like a son, embrace it - if only because it could inspire such love in a person. For the first time I felt inside me the awakening of something new, something I couldn't even name yet, but it was something irresistible, the need to express myself, yes, express - not just see and feel the world myself, but to bring my vision, my thoughts and feelings to others; to tell people about the beauty of our land with as much inspiration as Daniyar had. I was trembling with unexplained fear and happiness for something unknown. But back then I haven't yet realized that I needed to take up a paintbrush."

And it is through Jamilia and Daniyar - through their decision to pursue their hearts - that Sait dares to consider his own love and his own desires. It is through them that the boy - or perhaps, now a young man - discovers his own passion, until then deeply buried under the weight of duty, denial and tradition. Daniyar's songs open his eyes to the beauty around them. Jamilia's determination and courage allow his to see the possibilities before him.

"If I just could to some degree reproduce Daniyar's song! It had almost no words; without words it was able to reveal the great soul of humanity. I haven't heard a song like that before or since: it was unlike either Kazakh or Kyrgyz songs, and yet it had both of them in it. Daniyar's music absorbed the best melodies of the two brotherly peoples, and wove them together into one unforgettable song. It was the song of the steppes and the mountains, at times brightly soaring like the Kyrgyz mountains, at times vastly rolling, like the Kazakh steppes."

This 'most beautiful love story in the world' is such precisely because of this - because of the exhilarating, all-encompassing love and admiration for life and land that stems from every word in it, going lightyears beyond the simple romance, pouring its soul out on the pages, beckoning the reader to look past the familiar and into the heart of real wondrous beauty, and to find something wonderful deep inside our souls on this journey.

"I remembered them leaving the village, and I had an irresistible desire to set out on the road, set out just like they did, courageously and decidedly, on the difficult road to happiness."

"I look at them and hear Daniyar's voice. It beckons me to set out on a journey - and so I need to get ready. I will walk through the steppe to my village, I will find new colors there.

Let Daniyar's melody resonate in every one of my brush strokes! Let Jamilia's heart beat in every one of my brush strokes!"

4.5 stars.