Kazhes pierakstu burtnīca

Despite the fact that Aitmatov is considered one of the best writers of the former Soviet Union this book left me cold. It probably was a sign of something when it was written, it would probably provoke some people, but nowadays it seems more dated than those 80`s pop songs "Duran Duran" loved to perform so much. The plot is quite advanced - it combines the unifying story of Akbara the she-wolf and her he-wolf with a very long name, apart from it there`s the life of an idealistic man who`s been thrown out of a christian seminary because of his new vision of god, then there are two shepards - a good one and a bad one (the good one is named Boston, while the other`s name was too complicated for my memory, I`m no expert of Kyrgiz names after all). All characters in the book seem somewhat flat, especially it goes for the inserted part about Jesus and Pilate (it can be clearly felt that Aitmatov thought of himself as the new Bulgakov). As a matter of fact the only thing I got from this book was a pessimistic feeling just because it`s very depressing, apart from that it seems a bit dull and boring, which clearly isn`t a particulary good sign of anything. Preachiness and dated content ruined everything for me.