The Amorous Detective by Jumber Khantadze: book review

The Amorous Detective and Other Stories (2012) by Georgian author, Jumber Khantadze, is set in Soviet Georgia between 1937 and the 1970s, mainly in Tbilisi, Georgia, but also in Leningrad and Moscow.

There are 10 short stories in chronological order in this extra-thin book of 71 pages. This makes easy and quick reading while dipping into tales that place the author in times of war, and times of reconstruction in the aftermath of war, and settling into married life with a young son.

Khantadze (1933-) is a doctor of chemistry and prolific author. In this translated collection of stories, he writes of his grandmother, and a Soviet government official’s son called Mels (after Marks, Engels, Lenin, and Stalin) in 1937. Many of the stories are of the German Prisoners of War (POWs) in the 1940s during the Second World War (1939-1945), sent to Georgia to aid the reconstruction process, of roads and buildings, but also to provide technical assistance, such as scientific research.

There are comical situations, such as the Russian-Georgian football match in the Tbilisi stadium in 1946. And in the 50s and 60s with his son, such as when his son attends the “English kindergarten” and wants plimsoles and trainers because “everybody has them.” The author had not even heard the terms before as gym shoes were new to the region, and could only be bought on the black market. “I nearly died from telling my son so many lies.”

He finishes with tales of travel to the places in the Soviet Union. The holiday in a Soviet hotel in Leningrad in 1972 and his travel to Moscow with a friend whom had just been released from prison recount incidents of illegal fortunes made by some officials in the Soviet system.

The brevity of the stories enables the reader to gain only snapshots of this historical period. Nevertheless the stories are interesting, witty and reminiscent of times before the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

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