Pain dealers, -a review of the doctor of philology

“PAIN DEALERS”, - a review of the doctor of philology Inna Bezirganova

   The publishing house "Deda Ena" published a collection of stories by Samson Gelkhvidze "PAIN DEALERS".

   A few words about the author. He is a civil engineer by profession. In 1989 he defended his Ph.D. thesis, from 1980 to the present day he has been working in various educational institutions and research institutes of the Georgian Academy of Sciences, and is the author of many scientific papers and inventions.

   He began to take his first steps in poetry and prose in 1984. “Dealers in Pain” is his first collection, in which Samson Gelkhvidze, by his own admission, tries to stop the “flying time with an arrow”.

   The heroes of his stories are our contemporaries, who found themselves by the will of historical destinies in the difficult socio-economic conditions of the post-Soviet space. This is also a kind of “lost generation”, to use a well-known literary term. It tries in vain to sort out its relations with the world. Lermontov's lines also come to mind: "I look sadly at our generation, its future is either empty or dark." Our contemporary experiences similar feelings: “After all, something was always missing in life ... and the search for this unknown, missing ... led him either into a rage because of the unsuccessful searches, then into fatigue, devastation and despondency, coupled with the bitterness of hopelessness and the impossibility of success in these searches.”

    The heroes of Gelkhvidze cannot find their place in life, they are doomed to throwing, wandering ... They listen to their inner voice, think a lot, philosophize, but they are not able to experience a “social, spiritual orgasm”, that is, to free themselves, take off, feel the fullness of life, be realized. The fleeting time, the inability to hold the moment, the frailty of being, the realization of this causes the heroes of Gelkhvidze a sharp pain. In one of the stories, the image of a pink-blue sailboat appears - hope ... But, alas, it floats by so quickly that a person barely has time to realize the significance of the moment. “The moment flies uncontrollably, but we wring our hands and again we are condemned to go past and past,” - again a classic, this time Gumilev.

   Another futility, according to Gelkhvidze, is the relationship between a man and a woman. The heroes of his stories, as a rule, cannot find personal happiness, break up or are simply unloved by their chosen ones.

   The minor intonation of his stories refers us to the era of romanticism, because the poets and writers of that time also experienced a keen sense of incompatibility with the surrounding reality. “And we hate, and we love by accident,” wrote the same Lermontov, a melancholic poet who never managed to come to terms with life.

   The reason for the spiritual impasse in which the heroes of Samson Gelkhvidze found themselves is social unfulfillment. And yet - the eternal human problem: the impossibility of finding happiness on earth. This is what the book “PAIN DEALERS” is about.

                Doctor of Philology - Inna BEZIRGANOVA


Newspaper “Free Georgia”,
12/13/2002, No. 273