Hadji Murat - review

Author: Leo Tolstoy
Title: Hadji Murat
Publisher: Hesperus
Released: 2003 (originally published in 1912)

And I should reiterate to readers of my reviews on this site, that it's not often I get emotional about a piece of art. The last thing I remember reviewing on this site (although actually it wasn't the last) was 'In This World' a film that actually made me cry. That rarely happens though. I can really like something, but because of (what feels like) the lifetimes of experience that I have, I rarely get so shocked, so taken away from what I know, that my emotions will really stir up to the point that they may manifest themselves physically.

So having said that, this beautiful and incisive and sad novel did that for me. I don't know what to make of it. It's short, but took me a few months to read (for more experienced readers I'm guessing it's the sort of book you can finish in a day). It also seems to be quite all over the place, but in reality, it's just making comment on many things. Speaking of which this review is going to be all over the place, and I make no apologies for that; it's the price I pay for being out of practice and getting back into it, but rest assured, this is a book that I would love to, and could easily, discuss for days with someone.

What drew me to it a few months ago was the title. I had no idea Tolstoy had written anything like this, where the main character was a Muslim!?? It was quite surprising. And then to read the blurb or the introduction, and to hear that apparently he cast him in a .... POSITIVE light? Well I was extremely intrigued and wanted to find out more, so I did something I don't often do, I bought it there and then! I mean, a positive light! It's rare enough that Muslims are looked on as human in much of the American media, and this book really does give me hope that people can look outside of their own borders and appreciate other cultures and customs. Tolstoy does more than that on this occasion though, he actively takes on the world-view of the outsider, and used it perhaps at the time, to make comment on much of what was going on in his society that he didn't approve of.

With almost stunning sensitivity and accuracy, Tolstoy tells the story of Hadji Murat a noble and legendary Chechen fighter who for many complicated circumstances has now given himself up to the Russian government. I won't give you the story, because.. Why would I? I'll just tell you what it does. I was shocked at the subtlety that Tolstoy showed in capturing Hadji Murat's character, shocked because Tolstoy shows such an acute awareness of Islamic culture, what drives a noble Muslim like Hadji Murat, and 98% of the time he gets it just right. Any Muslim will surely feel that Tolstoy has perfectly captured one of their own brothers on paper. His status as a legendary writer was confirmed for me within a few pages (I'd never completely read any of his books before) as he so perfectly relayed this character, through subtle actions, glances, insights into his thoughts as well as an even more subtle awareness of the things that the main character doesn't say or do. It's not only a joy to read, but it's easy to read. And the simple style, which I've always found so appealing, and have always employed myself in my own writing, is worked to absolute perfection here, leaving plenty of room for the reader and his/her mind. Even if some of the peripheral characters portrayed seem extreme or black and white in one way or the other, the overall systems of situations we find them in are so realistic (in their insanity) that all these characters become as believable as reality.

It's also a novel that left me, at its rather sudden ending, wondering what relevance 'this or that paragraph/chapter' actually had on the story. But that's just it, everything is relevant. From the great introduction, it is stated that this book, Tolstoy's final published book before his death, was re-worked and re-written over a period of many years, until he was finally satisfied with it. The beautifully symbolic opening, and the equally powerful ending, leaves you in no doubt that this novel is heavy. Heavy. HEAVY. And the parts that are not heavy serve to reinforce other observations that Tolstoy makes, like the bureaucracy of politics, the smell of war, the attitudes of war-time people and the strange way these attitudes adapt to some sort of normality with regards to human behaviour. The endless amount of characters he introduces, and so eloquently describes, all serve to make this, as I said, a story. What feels like a real-life story.

His cold observational style also works to great effect, especially when you constantly detect a heart behind all of the observations that are made. Tolstoy is clearly outraged at some of the awful behaviour he sees in life- and puts into this book. However he tells it as it is, and let's his clear dislike for certain characters show through his ever-so-subtle writing to the point where the reader and writer have joined together in their conclusions or likes and dislikes. You don't know where he ends and you begin. Also, on his observational style, some of the deaths described are so honest and gruesome that you will actually hurt (emotionally) when reading them. Again, this is reality. Even if it's not reality, even if the deaths are embellished for fiction, I can at least say surely that this is how reality should be "told". Every time you read something you're accepting someone's reality, you're being "told" something in a certain way. It just so happens that I find Tolstoy's way of seeing things (in this book!) more real and certainly more incisive than most other writers I've read. The way this book is written, despite the darkness of it, you can't help but consider and reflect on all of its themes afterwards. Tolstoy was some writer, and this is an amazing work.

Y.Misdaq aka Yoshi, 20th & 21st July 2005

I read it by candlelight, and I don't like monitors much.. however I've just found it online in E-text format, so feel free..... to print it off and read it somewhere nice!