To Hell with Poets

by Baqytgul Sarmekova, Mirgul Kali (translator)

Winner of an English PEN Translates Award

"Baqytgul Sarmekova offers wry, darkly humorous portraits of ordinary Kazakh people held in the snare of patriarchy, cultural tradition, and postsocialist upheaval… Mirgul Kali deftly recreates the atmosphere of these everyday tensions as they quietly seethe just below the surface." --PEN/Heim judges' citation

Vivid, hilarious and unsettling, the tragicomic characters of To Hell With Poets reflect the inner discord of the modern Kazakh. The stories move between the city and the aul, postsocialist and capitalist worlds, tradition and modernity. Incisive and unapologetic, Sarmekova refuses to hold back, offering a sharp and honest rendering of daily life in Kazakhstan.

Genres: Short Stories, Kazakhstan, Fiction, Poetry, Asia, Literary Fiction, 21st Century

112 pages, Paperback

Published March 28, 2024

Reviews

[Rachel Louise Atkin · Rating 2 out of 5]

This might be the only English PEN winner I just have not enjoyed. It is a very tiny short story collection focusing on Kazakhstan life and culture. The stories are all only about 5 pages long maximum and they are all about very mundane things so there’s not really anything to get stuck into in terms of content or length. There was one story which was slightly longer that I felt was written really well and left an impression on me but unfortunately I didn’t care about any of the stories as they just didn’t come alive at all. I definitely want to read another book translated from Kazakh to find one that I actually like as I’m sad to be disappointed in this one.

[sarah]

Bleakly funny, enjoyed this much more than I expected.
faves: dognity and the night the rose wept (v ernaux-esque)

[giada · Rating 4 out of 5]

reading around the world one book at a time 2024: kazakhstan

This very short collection offers a compelling insight into the life of Kazakhstan, and it’s probably one of the collections I enjoyed the most this year. The stories are pretty short themselves, usually around five pages each, but Sarmekova is able to pack a punch in each of them — I enjoyed her wit and the way she managed the timing and weight of each element (I’m thinking especially of Dognity, but that is true of many of these stories). Some of the imagery is pretty recurrent, a way to show that all the people in the stories are pretty interchangeable and are represented more as a concept than as actual people. The most vivid image I have of the book is the figure of a wife wearing a white hijab blurring into the smoke of the cooking station: I’m sure it’s something that was described at least twice in the book, and I wouldn’t be surprised if I missed more times such a specific scene was mentioned.

I’d be interested in reading Sarmekova’s longform writing, even if just in the form of a novella, so that I can definitely say I like her writing, but if you pick up this book because you want a simple snapshot of rural Kazakh life I think you’ve struck gold.

[Natalie]

Brief but often very unsettling short stories that have continued to linger with me days after reading them. My personal standouts: "The Brown House and the White Zhiguli," "Dognity," "To Hell with Poets," "Boarbai," "Ice Cream," and "One-Day Marriage."

This was second collection of short stories written by a woman from Kazakhstan, my first being Amanat: Women’s Writing from Kazakhstan. Despite this collection's smaller page count, I think the tensions of modern Kazakh life depicted here can be quite subtle due to the brevity of each story. If you're interested in reading more literature from Kazakhstan (and rightfully so!) I'd recommend reading Amanat: Women’s Writing from Kazakhstan first, at least for its foreword and its translators' note, both of which give some literary and historical context into Kazakhstan.

[Jane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ashamed I can’t read this in its original language but very exciting that this is one of the first Kazakh books published in English !! (Love you tilted axis press)
I’m not a big reader of short stories but I really enjoyed each one as they capture the different aspects of Kazakh society trapped in the contradictions between modernity and tradition. Some really great reflections on women’s rights in the country and the incessant sexist attitudes many women still endure today. My favourite stories were “Superstitions” and “The Warmth”.
The translation (done by a family friend!!) is excellent and manages to convey a lot of the cultural specifics without being too didactic.

[Biblibio · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think this collection might be somewhere in the 3.5 range, but I feel like its unique voice bumps it up a bit. I will note that this collection is a bit of a downer, with almost each story having a grain of hope at its center that quickly gets squashed in the face of a difficult reality. It makes for somewhat depressing reading, but it's also the type of book that really feels like a door into a world I otherwise wouldn't know much about. The bleakness doesn't feel intentionally cruel, thankfully, but it's still a fairly melancholic book. Either way, I'm glad to have read it.

[Jenia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Short stories illustrating daily life in Kazakhstan. Didn't get much out of it tbh. Everyone cheating each other and trying to get ahead - like other post-Soviet countries. But without the black humour that makes reading about the daily misery "enjoyable"

[Maria · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dognity had me crying real big tears on the subway

[Raegan Allen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Shoutout to Tilted Axis for publishing an English translation of some scrumptious contemporary Kazakh fiction !!!!! Yall are the real deal

[Pedro · Rating 4 out of 5]

3,5 ⭐

Para comenzar, aclaremos que no es de poesía como indican los tags de GR (¿Alguno leyó el libro o se guían por el título?); el libro incluye veinte cuentos escritos entre 2015 y 2019. Son cuentos cortos, en los que lo central no es tanto la trama ni el final, sino los personajes que lo protagonizan, su psicología y su cultura; como si fuera una serie de retratos.

Están situados en diversos lugares propios del país: el hogar en la estepa, el pueblo, la gran ciudad (Astana, Atyrau, Almaty), e incluye una serie de términos propios de la cultura kazaja así como de otros países de la región.

Así, hay menciones del aul, como espacio vital que rodea al hogar, e incluye sus dependencias, posiblemente originado en el nomadismo (creo haber visto un concepto similar en Cielo azul, que acompaña a una familia de pastores transhumantes en Mongolia); al toi, una ceremonia festiva ritual donde se tira la casa por la ventana, para agasajar y también impresionar a los invitados; dombyra (o dombra), instrumento musical de dos cuerdas y la música que se ejecuta con ella; o ainalaayn, término afectuoso utilizado para dirigirse a niñas o mujeres jóvenes (en algún lugar vi que originalmente se utilizaba en forma más restrictiva). He incluido estas aclaraciones ya que son términos aparentemente intraducibles, y el libro no incluye un glosario.

https://youtu.be/CogzbX_AqU4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azYCS...

Pero más allá de estos aspectos folklóricos o pintorescos, los cuentos son muy buenos, en general un poco melancólicos o tristes (bordeando, y evitando el sentimentalismo), y muy bien escritos; no debe haber sido sencillo para la traductora trasladar las sutilezas del lenguaje a otro idioma. Los varones, sobre todo los del ámbito urbano, no suelen quedar muy bien parados. Y en el fondo se percibe una cierta pátina de nostalgia frente a la urbanización.

Muy buenos cuentos, de un ámbito que me resultó muy lejano y original. Una escritora que vale la pena tener en cuenta.

[Layla I. · Rating 5 out of 5]

A series of short stories about the reality, often twisted and depressing, of life for Kazakh people in the city and countryside. Many of the stories hit similar beats all while exposing different corruptions of Kazakh society, showing the flaws of common men or women that they may refuse to see. A few have almost-happy/bittersweet endings, shining dim light in the humorous darkness of the world shaped by Sarmekova and Kali. Doesn't exactly leave you hopeful after reading, but shows glimpses of a universal humanity, laughing at itself.

[Mirjana (Mirjana_bere) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Zbirka kratkih zgodb, v bistvu bolj vinjet, iz Kazahstana. Dobimo vpogled v življenje, odraščanje, staranje, razlike med podeželjem in mestom, odnose med moškimi in ženskami, še vedno preveliko patriarhata in misoginije.

Pisateljica pokaže tudi veliko dobrega v ljudeh, je pa v vsaki zgodbi tudi nekaj žalostnega - dogodek ali spoznanje.

Meni je bila zanimiva tudi izbira jezika, saj je kar nekaj besed ostalo v kazahščini - brez razlage v knjigi, a so se hitro našle na spletu, kjer so slike pogosto povedale še več in tako dodale branju.

[Shalini · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sometimes, the way we discover a book is just as intriguing as the book itself. I stumbled upon this little gem at the Lighthouse Bookshop in Edinburgh, which sparked a great conversation with the bookseller about its publisher, Tilted Axis. This collection of short stories offers a woman’s perspective on life in a deeply patriarchal society. It also marks my first encounter with literature from Kazakhstan—and it’s certainly piqued my curiosity to learn more about the country and its culture.

[Jeanine · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5/5

Kazakhstan is the first book in my journey to read around the world. I enjoyed that this book was full of short stories, but I think some things may have made more of an impact before being translated.

[Marina Sofia · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was such an interesting way to explore a culture that is entirely unfamiliar to me.

[Plainqoma · Rating 4 out of 5]

unsettling, just my kind of book. best giler! really enjoyed reading this book.

[MoonLit Tomes · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was deeply immersive and I loved the writing style. It is no secret that I love short stories so yeah.I would reccomend

[Patricia · Rating 4 out of 5]

These short stories were so cleverly written and I loved how they managed to convey post soviet life in Kazakhstan

[Helena · Rating 2 out of 5]

The girls that get it, get it. Unfortunately I didnt get it

[Minam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gosh that was such a wild ride 😣😭

[Chrissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Picked this up in the library. I liked the short stories, and that they were actually short. I liked the view into life and culture of Kazakhstan, and found the many character sketches interesting.

[Elphin Taylor · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 really great character studies and snapshots into daily life, a couple of them definitely linger

[Jammie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pas mal mais pas assez long

[Anwen Hayward · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is such a hard one to pin down. I really, really enjoyed it – I read it in one sitting – but if you asked me to summarise exactly what it’s about, I’d really struggle, hence the incredibly brief synopsis above! It’s such a fluid, multi-faceted collection, which is pretty impressive given that it’s only 104 pages long.

The blurb on the back of the book makes it clear that the main theme that links the stories here is tension, this idea that modern Kazakhstan is struggling to identify itself in a capitalist world, still holding onto ideas of rurality that don’t mesh with a modern notion of what a city should be. There are characters here who are struggling to define their boundaries – in relationships, in their construction of their personal identities, in their workplaces – and I think this is perhaps the other main theme: the lack of rigidity between concepts, the notion that something can be held in tension against itself as well as against something else.

My favourite stories were The Brown House and the White Zhiguli, Boarbai, and The Brown Ram Lamb. I noticed when reading that I was particularly drawn to the way that Sarmekova depicts the reluctant acceptance of the inevitable – in each of the above stories, a character must make peace with something that they find detestable. The sale of a house, a marriage proposal from a repulsive man, the sale of a favourite lamb. There’s a strange sense of doom that lingers throughout most of the stories, this idea that what must happen will happen and all you can do is grit your teeth and face it head on, and although this could easily translate into passivity on the part of the characters, I actually felt that it instead conveyed resilience, albeit a deeply unwilling version.

[Bookish.Issy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Short stories, abruptly ending (similiar to how Mariana Enrquez ends her short stories). Its more like a snippet of someone's life and then we leave.

I have put it on my book exchange pile as I don't have any interest in reading it again.