A Man Was Going Down the Road
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| Author | Otar Chiladze |
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| Original title | გზაზე ერთი კაცი მიდიოდა |
| Translator | Donald Rayfield |
| Country | Georgia |
| Language | Georgian |
| Genre | Magic realism, Allegory, Mythology, Historical Fiction |
| Publisher | Garnett Press |
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Publication date
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1973 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 436 pages |
| ISBN | |
A Man Was Going Down the Road (Georgian: გზაზე ერთი კაცი მიდიოდა) is a novel written by Otar Chiladze in 1973. It was translated into English by Donald Rayfield in 2012.
A Man Was Going Down the Road begins with the Greek legend of Jason and the Golden Fleece and the consequences for the obscure kingdom of Colchis after the Greek Jason comes and abducts Medea. But it is also an allegory of the treachery and destruction that ensued when Russia, and then the Soviets, annexed Georgia, as well as Chiladze's interpretation of life as a version of the ancient Anatolian story of Gilgamesh, and a study of Georgian life, domestic and political, in which women and children pay the price for the hero's quests, obsessions and doubts.
The novel is written in three parts, spanning generations. The first part, Aeëtes, tells the story of Phrixus and his upbringing by King AEetes, the king of Colchis. In his new land, Phrixos would always be an outsider “like a cuckoo’s egg” and forever in debt to the people who saved him and reared him. This is also the tale of Jason, the Argonauts, and the Golden Fleece. Jason arrives from Greece to steal the golden wool, but kidnaps Medea, the daughter of King AEetes, as she drugs her father in order to also steal the golden fleece of the winged ram. Young and handsome, Jason is regarded as a hero, although a “wrongdoer.”
Part II, Ukheiro, is of a warrior, who breaks his leg in battle. His wife Marekhi dies in childbirth and Ukheiro’s 10-year-old daughter Popina looks after her father and the new-born boy, Parnaoz. While waiting for death – for he can no longer fight as a warrior – Ukheiro takes up embroidery. His son Parnaoz falls madly in love with Ino, the seventh daughter of black-eyed Malalo. But theirs is a troubled relationship, and he has a competitor. Parnaoz’s sister Popina has a son, Popeye, whose father flees at news of the pregnancy. As Popeye grows, he too falls in the love with Ino. The rivalry between Parnaoz and his nephew Popeye is intense, and Parnaoz eventually leaves Colchis for Crete.
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