Brueghel Moon

by Tamaz Chiladze

The novel of the famous Georgian writer, poet and playwright Tamaz Chiladze focuses on moral problems/issues, arisen as a result of too great a self-assuredness of psychologists. Its main character is an up-to-now successful psychotherapist, whose wife has left him. One day she suddenly realised that her marriage is nothing more than "fact/reality born out of habit" and her family is a branch of a hospital. For her husband she wasn't a beloved wife but just a patient. The heroine finds an exit from the vicious circle of misunderstanding and insensitivity.

Genres: Contemporary

96 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

Tamaz Chiladze (Georgian: თამაზ ჭილაძე)was a Georgian writer, dramatist and poet. He was the elder brother of a Georgian writer Otar Chiladze.

Reviews

[Mandy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Another interesting title from the Dalkey Archive Press in their Georgian Literature series, this rather disjointed and not very convincing novel from famous Georgian writer, poet and playwright Tamaz Chiladze is not an easy or engaging read. The main protagonist is a psychotherapist who has been successful until now, but when he has to confront the fact of his wife leaving him, has also to confront the fact that he has seen her all along as a patient rather than an individual. At least, that’s what I think it is about. There’s also a weird sub-plot involving an astrophysicist and a “Visitor” and this fantasy element didn’t seem to integrate well with the rest of the book. The narrative crosses several timelines, perspectives and worlds and each chapter is from a different perspective. Depression and psychiatry appear to be the main themes, but to be honest I couldn’t really get to grips with the book. Set in Tbilisi, it nevertheless didn’t feel particularly Georgian to me, but I may well have missed something. This edition includes an interview with the author which is definitely helpful, but I still remain fairly bemused. Pleased, however, to have discovered an author and a work of literature from another country and culture.

[Nouf✩ · Rating 3 out of 5]

هذه رواية غريبة للغاية.

[endrju · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a rather disjointed story about a psychiatrist, his ennui and his unfortunate love life. It's short novel so I couldn't really develop any relation to the character or the story, except that I felt the SF part of the novel was really uncalled for and it really stuck out as pointless. In my humble opinion, the author should've stuck to psychiatrist's inner life more and should've developed those themes more. Perhaps it would've saved the novel.

[Taso mkheidze · Rating 4 out of 5]

ერთ დღისთვის, კარგად წასაკითხი წიგნია

[Tebro Pkhikidze · Rating 3 out of 5]

ცოტა უცნაური წიგნია - ფსიქოანალიზი, სამეცნიერო ფანტასტიკა, ოჯახური დრამები, ეროტიკა, დეტექტივიც კი .. ოსტატურად არის დაწერილი, მაგრამ, დასასრული მაინც გაუგებარი დამრჩა-რა დარჩა ლევანს ამ ყველაფრიდან? ის, რომ თამრიკო მოენატრა და მისი დაბრუნება გადაწყვიტა? ეგ ხომ დასაწყისშივე იცოდა. შვილთან განშორების მომენტი და მისი მონატრება ისედაც წითელ ხაზად გასდევს მთელ რომანს. მოკლედ რომ ვთქვა - ისეთი წიგნია, რომ წაიკითხავ და რაღაცას გრძნობ კითხვის დროს, მაგრამ, ბოლოს - დიდი არაფერი გრჩება. ისე, ვფიქრობ, რომ ფილმად კარგი იქნებოდა.

[Ilia Nachkebia · Rating 3 out of 5]

საინტერესო სიუჟეტია, წიგნს სამ ნაწილად გავყოფდი, ბოლო თავში სამივე ნაწილი ლოგიკურად ერთვის ერთმანეთს და ამბავი იკვრება ერთ მთლიანობად; მაგრამ ერთი წაკითხვით წიგნის სიმბოლური შეტყობინება ვერ ამოვიცანი, იქნებ არც აქვს, რადგან თავად თამაზი ამბობს, ერთი ამოსუნთქვითაა დაწერილიო; ორიოდ სიტყვით თვითონ თამაზსაც შევეხები, ჩემთვის სამაგალითო ადამიანია, მისი გაცნობა "55 ამბით" შევძელი, ამიტომ დიდი პატივისცემა მაქვს არამხოლოდ თამაზის, არამედ ძმების მიმართ;

[Hannah · Rating 2 out of 5]

Global Read Challenge 88: Georgia

I really couldn't get into this book, but I'm willing to believe it it is me and not the book. Maybe I just didn't get it. There were parts where I had no idea what was happening and the pov changed way too quickly and often. It is pretty short but still felt like it dragged. But there were some really well written descriptions and scenes.

[Ahmed · Rating 3 out of 5]

لم استطع انهئ الرواية ، ما شعرت بانتماء مع الشخصيات او حب كبير للأحداث ، فلسفة الكاتب الجميلة حثت اني اكمل الكتاب'
وصفه رائع والأمثلة رهيبة وخصوصا في التحدث عن النفس والإنسان عشقت تلك السطور

[Ahlam · Rating 3 out of 5]

‏في النهاية ستدرك أن المرء يمكنه أن يتعلم من نفسه فقط. علينا أن نتعلم من أجل أن ننسى وننسى كي نتعلم المزيد.
2.5/5

[Nika Vardiashvili · Rating 4 out of 5]

ერთმა მეგობარმა მითხრა თამაზ ჭილაძეს საუკეთესო ქართველ Sci-Fi ავტორად თვლიანო. ძნელია არ დავეთანხმო!

[Tanya]

What a bizarre description up here of the plot of this novel... Just totally inaccurate.

[Alison Brady · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF... :/

[Abdelrhman Magdy · Rating 2 out of 5]

رواية مش مفهوم الغرض منها و النهاية ناقصة بالاضافة انها ضعيفه على مستوي بناء الأحداث و مفيش فيها شئ مبهر

[Marwa Qais · Rating 3 out of 5]

أحداث هذه الرواية ذكرتني بروايات موراكامي

[Hanan Hafiz · Rating 2 out of 5]

"في النهاية ستدرك أن المرء يمكنه أن يتعلم من نفسه فقط، علينا أن نتعلم من أجل أن ننسى، وننسى كي نتعلم المزيد.."

[Meghan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This review contains spoilers, but no more than you would get by reading the interview with the author at the start of the book.

Let's start on the first page, in the interview with Chiladze (I'm not quite sure who is interviewing him, the book itself or the aliens or the translator or a random person):

"[A] writer is the last surveying representative of the ancient caste of clairvoyants or oracles."

A very astute quote as I had a weird, anticipatory relationship with this book. Each time I thought "What's going on here?" or "Why did we go through all that stuff with Ia and Tamriko" (I've also established that my new favourite name is Ia) or "How does this all tie together", the the next page, bam it's answered. Clearly, we have the relationship between author and reader that he discusses in the introduction. So me and Chiladze, hanging out, him waiting for me to get to the next part, at least in some sort of weird, metaphysical readers/authors space.

Yeah, and that's not even the weird part of the story. We haven't got there yet.

The Brueghel Moon is a novella about a psychiatrist, Levan, who has a former patient, Nunu, visit him, then he goes to a garden party, and gets involved with the wife of an ambassador, Ana-Maria. Actually, the time line is a bit messed up so Levan might have gone to the garden party and then had Nunu visit him. It doesn't matter; the point of the book isn't about time. There's only ninety pages, so not much can happen. Levan, who starts out the book whining about white man problems, i.e. he's middle class and bored and unfulfilled and self-sabotaging, spends a fair amount of the book whining about white man problems and ends the book still trapped in his white man problems. Ana-Maria also whines a fair deal about her rich white woman problems, i.e. she's rich and bored and unfulfilled and self-sabotaging. Nunu doesn't whine so much. Instead, she talks about how she had sex with aliens and begat a child and I would say this was a spoiler except it's pretty much discussed in the opening interview of the first four or five pages of the book, completely ruining any surprise or impact that alien sex (very vanilla and barely described, besides the alien appears to be roughly human) might have had. Come on. Alien, out of nowhere versus alien foretold? Alien out of nowhere has got to win at all costs.

In any case, the alien story comes around and joins with the Ana-Maria story, all nicely wrapped up in a bow, and it's kind of satisfying. I appreciate in a novel with a psychiatrist, there's none of this "Is Nunu's story real or is Nunu's story a hallucination" subplot because I'm totally over that as a literary device. I don't really know why Ana-Maria would be interested in Levan, other than I guess he was kind to her. He's too whiny for my taste. Levan seems interested in Ana-Maria for the reason men are often interested in women in stories: she is attractive. Other than that, her personality is kind of dull too. Nunu was pretty awesome, but, likely as to her growing up under Soviet rule, she's a bit passive and accepting of what happens to her too, although her escape from the mental hospital was pretty awesome. You go Nunu, you get your whistle and march on away.

Still, and I feel I need to keep belabouring this point, there are aliens that appear in this novella. Aliens.

The narrative switches around, first person, second person, third person, back to first. We get to see inside Levan and Nunu's head, never Ana-Maria's, but since Ana-Maria seems to vocalize every thought she has to Levan, we're likely not missing much. The switching narrative voice works pretty well with the swaps sometimes being so subtle that it takes a page or two before you realize that now we're back inside Levan's head or the like. Normally narrative switching bothers me, but this was done well. Conversations seem artificial, a lot of "Now I will explain some point" but I don't know how the Georgian language works, so maybe that's more a structure of the language and the translation. There's a few shout-outs to Tolstoi: happy families becoming unhappy and the like. It's a decent, short read. I'm glad it wasn't any longer.

Really, I don't know what else to say. Aliens.

The Brueghel Moon by Tamaz Chiladze went on sale January 13, 2015.

I received a copy free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

[علي أبو زين · Rating 3 out of 5]

لأول مرة أقرأ لأديب من جورجيا.. قمر بروغل رواية نفسية إنسانية غريبة.. بطلاها إمرأة تعاني من اضطرابات نفسية وزوجها الطبيب غير القادر على التعامل السليم معها..
الرواية تمتد على ثمانية فصول واستخدم الكاتب في السرد تقنية الضمائر الثلاثة فمرات يكون الراوي ضمير الغائب ومرات أخرى المتكلم ومرة وحيدة المخاطب.. وهذه التقنية ذكرتني برواية قديمة وهي (كتاب رجل وحيد) للكاتب الصيني صاحب نوبل غاو كسنغجيان..
الرواية فيها حوارات طويلة وعمق سردي وغموض وغرابة وفلسفة وخيال وعلم نفس واجتماع كما يظهر تيار الوعي أيضا فيها.. إلا أن فرط استخدام تلك التقنيات أساء إلى المتعة في بعض الأحيان إذ شعرت أحيانا أنني أضيع وأنا أقرأ وكأن الرواية تفلت من بين يدي فأحتاج إلى أن أعود إلى الوراء وأعيد قراءة صفحات ومما زاد الطين بلة تواضع الترجمة..
على كل الرواية جيدة..
التقييم: ٧/١٠

[Alek Teplicki · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was weird. it got confusing at parts, and was also sad with the main characters wife leaving him. It was however interesting to get a look into psycologists mind. One thing I liked about this book was how it opened, the first thing the readers see is his wife leaving him which seems to strike us just as it does him. Its interesting also to see how he deals with a break up.

[Marina Sofia · Rating 3 out of 5]

My first Georgian novel ever - so it was interesting from that perspective. There were passages and POV that I really enjoyed, but the shifts from one to the other were rather abrupt and confusing. Perhaps not as explicit or obviously structured as I'd have liked.

[!Tæmbuŝu]

Reviewed by The Complete Review

[Noor Bakr · Rating 1 out of 5]

It is very boring and not understanded

[Luka Fadiurashvili · Rating 5 out of 5]

https://ka.wikipedia.org/wiki/ბრეიგელ...