A Captive of the Caucasus

by Andrei Bitov

Russians visit the Caucasus with a sense of homecoming, Andrei Bitov--one of the Soviet Union's most gifted stylists--has remarked. They find there a world familiar from the moral and philosophic landscapes of Pushkin, Lermontov, and Tolstoy. In Lessons of Armenia, the first of the two personal memoirs that constitute this book, Bitov explores the way Pushkin's "confines of boundless Russia" seem never to be truly escapable. Though held in thrall by Armenia, a captive of the Caucasus, Bitov the traveler is a captive, however alienated, of his homeland, too.
Bitov's works characteristically proceed from and comment on one another, and the realization of captivity leads to a different journey; the second account, Choosing a Location, an entertaining impressionistic record of his travels in Soviet Georgia, is Bitov's quest for his own place and time. Compellingly conceived and spectacularly crafted, A Captive of the Caucasus is an intellectually spirited inquiry into the persistent idea of homeland and the individual's identity, cultural and creative.
When Lessons of Armenia first appeared in the Soviet Union in 1969, censors deleted its subtitle, "Journey Out of Russia," and made numerous small cuts. This translation restores all the deletions. Choosing a Location could not be published in the Soviet Union.

Genres: Russian Literature, Russia, Travel

323 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 1992

About the author

Andrei Georgiyevich Bitov is the author of Pushkin House, Captive of the Caucasus and The Monkey Link, among other works. He is a cofounder of the Russian PEN club and has received numerous awards and honors, including being named a Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters by the French government. He lived in Moscow and St. Petersburg.

Reviews

[Josh]

My second Bitov book and a real surprise: okay, now here (I started to think around page 30 or so) is a GREAT writer. His eye is clear, capacious, and, as in Pushkin House, very restless - though again the restlessness is the whole point of the construction, since what Bitov seems to be trying to do is discover a more sufficient (or less insufficient: he makes it clear that he considers this book a failure) method. The result is a travel book that examines the consciousness of the traveller as much as it does the places travelled to - although there are plenty of fascinating scenes and details about Armenia and Georgia, Bitov's destinations. I'd even go a step further: A Captive of the Caucusus inaugurates a new type of russian eye, one with ties to the domesticating Hellenism of its ancestors (Madelstam is all over this book), but with an EXPLICIT interest in the process of writing that, to me at least, seems startling and new. By the end of this book, I would have listened to Bitov describe anything, from snow to skyscrapers to the David Bowie version of "The Little Drummer Boy" (?!) that has just come on the radio behind me. The connecting intelligence at work. Too bad the rest of his travel journals (seven that I can find) have yet to be translated.

Read this book if you want to get an idea of what nonfiction, and specifically travel writing can do. Bitov is still alive and writing, and needs to be payed closer attention.

[Cassandra Kay Silva]

This book is hard to categorize. Its Bitov's musings on his travels in Armenia and Georgia. Everything relates back to his relationship with Russia, and his relationships with other people. He takes a lot of time on human interest, and spends some time digressing on human existence and other such matters of authors and everything around him. I suppose its a travel log. Its also a very personal memoir. I think his writing is fantastic, he is great with words, but the digressive style really grated on me, also sometimes it seemed like a bit much, and some of the tangents . This is really very creative free writing the structure is there but its as if he has purposely chosen to ignore it. I would read something by this author again though, he is a great writer.

[Lex Poot]

I am ambivalent. When I read his impressions of sites he is visiting I want to jump on the next plane. I had my tablet beside me to look them up.
Alas his encounters with Armenians made me uncomfortable. Made me skipping these parts of the book. At first he expressed certain feelings for the cousin of his friend moving to jerevan to study. He expressed the same feelings for the 10 year old daughter of the friend of his friend.

[Leo Poroshin]

Interesting. One of Russia's most famous nonconformist authors was sort of forced into exile to Transcaucasia. His Armenian sketches are well-written and very warm. Georgian-slightly cooler. But the inimitable style is present throughout.