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Amazon.co.uk Review
Steavenson's unusual title betrays the honesty which distinguishes her book. Leaving Time magazine for Tblisi is a strange career move, but Steavenson does not try to dress it up with false excuses; instead, revealing a world of poverty intertwined with drunken camaraderie and undiluted joyousness, her choice explains itself through her experiences. While her anecdotes are episodic, it becomes clear that this randomness is essential to life in Tblisi, where best friends may shoot each other, the electricity supply is as predictable as the political situation, and a person's humanity is judged by their ability to drink toasts into the morning--and survive.
With her training as a reporter, Steavenson's sentences are often curt, and she can describe places with long lists that mask their emotional atmosphere. However, this is more than compensated for by her honesty, the stark beauty of her evocations of landscape, and the sense that she has really penetrated the surface of Georgia. She writes with obvious love of this messed-up place and its people, and this is enough: "Georgia," she writes, "would make a fool out of anyone with the temerity of prediction. The best we can do is to respect our family, love our friends, open a bottle of wine, drink it, and then open another one."--Toby Green --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Simon Sebag-Montefiore, author of Prince of Princes: The Life of Potemkin
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THERE WAS A MAP of the world on the wall in my office and for some reason I had stuck a pin in Tbilisi. Read the first page
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Customer Reviews
"Bored young woman visits obscure country" may not be the most promising scenario for any book, but SIS somehow avoids the sentimentality or condescension of much travel writing. It's also a step or two removed from the travelogue/humour genre: for the most part, Georgians come across not as "funny foreigners" so much as friends and neighbours who are getting on with their lives, often in circumstances that happen to be highly bizarre.
Georgia being the enigma that it is, there was no shortage of good stories for Steavenson to tell about it. She recounts them well - observing one, taking note and then moving on to the next. The effect's highly satisfying, and she artfully wraps up the book by drawing as inconclusive a conclusion as the subject deserves. My one little complaint about the book is that I think she might've got more mileage out of the "thousand red roses" episode. Mind you, she would have had to try really, really hard...
If you want a comprehensive history or academic analysis of Georgian politics, turn elsewhere. But if you enjoy a fantastic read full of good stories about a crazy place, look no further.
the Caucasus, written in laughter and pain. Ms Steavensons personal involvment makes the stolen stories her own. Read more
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