What do You think about Ali And Nino: A Love Story (2000)?
282 pages. Donated 2010 May.As is true of all great literature, Kurban Said's Ali and Nino has timeless appeal. Set in the years surrounding the Russian Revolution and the rise of the Soviet Union, Said's tale of an Azerbaijani Muslim boy in love with a Georgian Christian girl is both tender and disturbingly prescient. The novel, first published in 1937, begins as Ali Khan Shirvanshir is finishing his last year of high school: We were a very mixed lot, we forty schoolboys who were having a Geography lesson one hot afternoon in the Imperial Russian Humanistic High School of Baku, Transcaucasia: thirty Mohammedans, four Armenians, two Poles, three Sectarians, and one Russian. The multi-ethnic Baku, it seems, stands at a crossroads between West and East, and, as the smug Russian professor informs his pupils, it is their responsibility to decide "whether our town should belong to progressive Europe or to reactionary Asia." For Ali Khan Shirvanshir there is no doubt--he belongs to the East; his beloved Nino, however, is "a Christian, who eats with knife and fork, has laughing eyes and wears filmy silk stockings." Far away, to the West, there are rumblings of war. When the Russian Revolution begins, Ali Khan chooses not to fight; the Czar's fate is of little interest to a Muslim living in far away Transcaucasia. But the young man senses that another, greater danger is gathering on his country's borders--an "invisible hand" trying to force his world into new ways, the ways of the West. He assures his worried father that, like his ancestors, he is willing to die in battle, but at a time of his own choosing. In the meantime, he courts Nino and eventually marries her in the teeth of scandal and opposition. This union of East and West is at times a difficult one as Ali Khan finds himself lured further and further into European ways. When Soviet troops invade, however, he must choose once and for all whether to stand for Asia or Europe. One of the many pleasures Ali and Nino offers is Kurban Said's lovingly rendered evocations of Muslim culture. Another is his compassionate portrait of the protagonists' difficult but profound relationship. Modern readers coming to this novel in the wake of the fall of Communism, outbreaks of sectarian violence, and the rise of religious fundamentalism will find disturbing parallels in its cautionary chronicle of cultures colliding and a way of life brutally destroyed. In the end, however, it is not historical accuracy, but rather the charm and passion of the title characters that lifts Said's only novel into literature's highest ranks. --Alix Wilber
—Ruth
This sucked me in right from the start, and I had a really hard time putting it down, despite the fact that it says, "a love story" on the cover. I'm just not generally a fan of love stories--so many of them seem so trite and unbelievable, and so I will admit that I put off reading this for a long time. Shame on me. Anyway, what hooked me is that this really isn't just a love story between a man of Azerbaijan and a woman of Georgia, although yes, that's obviously a huge part of it, but it's also a love story between a man of Azerbaijan and his country and his people and his way of life, all of which are in danger of being swallowed up by Europe and by war. And I think that's more the love story implied by the blurb on the front of the book than is the romance between Ali and Nino. I thought this was beautifully written, and so, also, beautifully translated, and I felt like I could really see the struggle between the two very different ways of life portrayed here, and I could sympathize with both of the main characters and their respective backgrounds and points of view. Both Ali and Nino have flaws that typify their families' cultures, and I found the ways that the two of them clashed at once believable and very symbolic. I've seen reviews complaining that they were not well developed enough as characters, but, as I said before, since I felt this story was much more about the clash between Asia and Europe than about the romance, I thought this worked perfectly--Ali and Nino both felt real enough to allow me to care for them, and also not so...unique...that it took away from the broader picture I think Kurban Said (I'll stick with his pen name here) was trying to paint.I will admit that I cried at the end.I'm very glad I finally gave this a chance, because I think it's kind of unforgettable.
—Lara
Ali and Nino: A Love Story. Believe me dear reader, there is nothing guaranteed to make me run further or faster from a book than printing the words "love story" on the front cover. Listen... that's the gently pitter patter of my size 41's disappearing into the distance....Bleurgh. No love here.But this exceptional book made it onto the mountainous TBR pile which is currently threatening to cause my living room floor to collapse, for one major reason. It was praised and recommended by the greatest sulky travel misanthrope, Mr Paul Theroux. I love Theroux's travel books because not only are they excellent reading material, Theroux is a conscientious and giving writer who provides you with a constant list of books relating to his travels which he has found significant (even if he outright detests them), inspiring, informative or just downright unusual. The discovery of Ali and Nino came from reading Ghost Train to Eastern Bazaar his 2008 revisiting of a journey by rail across over 1/6th of the worlds land mass. Theroux cites it as a hidden gem. Golly-gosh-darnit he was right... again (for previous correct assertions on hidden gems I'd refer you to Carlo Levi's Christ Stopped at Eboli which was mentioned in Theroux's Pillars of Hercules where he circumnavigates the Mediterranean wearing a sun hat and a frown).Ali and Nino are childhood sweethearts; he, a Shiite Muslim from noble bloodlines and she a Greek Orthodox Princess from Georgia. Together they inhabit the oil-soaked, palatial and multi cultural landscape of Azerbaijan; a melting pot of wealth, religion and culture influenced by Georgian, Armenian, Turkish and Russian fusion over many centuries. The advent of World War I tears holes in the community in which they live forcing both Christian and Muslim alike to make a choice- look to the West, Europe and rapid secular change or cling to the East and the poetry, spiritualism and tradition of a hundred generations. I cannot express adequately how poetic this book is, nor how beautifully penned the landscapes, sariyes, palaces, bazaars and camis. Added to the beauty of this book is the long standing mystery over its author and the original publication - originally it was believed that the book was written by an Austrian Baroness under an assumed nom de plume, however it is now more likely that Kurban Said was the alter ego of Lev Nussimbaum, a Jew who converted to Islam and escaped Azerbaijan during the Russian Revolution.A classic as timeless and mesmerising as the shifting desert sands.
—Shovelmonkey1
