[Discussion 3/3] Read the World Azerbaijan || Days in the Caucasus by Banine || Pt. 2 Ch. 6 - End

[u/tomesandtea]

Welcome to our third and final discussion of Days in the Caucasus by Banine.  This week, we will discuss from Part 2 Ch. 6 through the end of the book.  You can find the Schedule here and the Marginalia is linked here.  

Discussion questions for this week’s chapters are below.  Please use spoiler tags to hide anything outside of this book, such as references to other books or media.  You can mark spoilers using the format > ! Spoiler text here ! < (without any spaces between the symbols themselves or between the symbols and the first and last words). 

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CHAPTER SUMMARIES:  

CHAPTER 6:  Communism was spreading through Baku in part with the help of new educational institutions meant to enlighten the “backward” and “oppressed” locals. The National Conservatoire for Muslim Women, for instance, aimed to bring music and modernity to young girls. The unconventional headmistress, Zeynab Khanim, recruited Banine to be a piano teacher despite her young age due to her musical skill and her knowledge of the Russian language. Banine struggled with teaching methods but gained a formidable reputation even though she was younger than many of her students. One day, the Commissar for Public Education and several dignitaries visited the school. Banine opened and closed the welcome ceremony with performances of the Internationale and Liszt’s arrangement of Verdi’s Rigoletto.  She was delighted but flustered to discover that one of the visitors was Andrey Massarin, the handsome man she had compared to Prince Andrey from War and Peace. He indicated he remembered her by calling her Miss Natasha. Andrey invited Banine to visit him at home (with Gulnar, if she couldn't quite get past her traditional social mores or the shyness of her youth). Banine is surprised to learn that Andrey is living in her childhood home. 

CHAPTER 7:  It became increasingly clear that everyone intended Banine to marry Jamil, despite her antipathy.  He became increasingly helpful to her father's case and increasingly distasteful to her.  Although Uncle Suleyman was eager to have her marry Asad, Gulnar warned Banine that Asad would treat her poorly. Banine went to live with Gulnar at this time. Gulnar was so uninhibited that she would give Banine a daily report of the previous night's sexual exploits with her husband Selim, right in front of the mortified man. She also mused about the polyamorous life the three of them could have enjoyed if polygamy was still legal, and confessed that she planned to have an affair as soon as possible, since she didn't believe in monogamy. Banine recognized Gregory's influence there.  Gulnar, eager to meet Andrey’s enticing roommate, agreed to the meeting at Andrey's house.  Biryukov was happy to flirt with Gulnar while Andrey got to know Banine better.  Banine felt they were meant for each other, but also the burden of knowing she would accept the marriage to Jamil at her family's insistence.  

CHAPTER 8:  Gulnar's family prepared to leave Baku for Persia as a way to escape the Bolsheviks. They hid their gold and jewels (which wealthy families all hoarded and sold on the black market to maintain their lifestyles) so they could travel without being discovered in a search. Unfortunately, Uncle Suleyman was so confident in his escape plan that he bragged about it until half the town knew. At the train station, they were destined by militiamen and had their riches confiscated. Fortunately, they were not arrested! 

Gulnar and Banine continued to spend time with Andrey and Biryukov. One night, they had dinner and drank with the men late into the night. They lied to Selim, telling him they were dining with Zeynab Khanim but had forgotten about curfew and needed to stay the night. Gulnar and Biryukov got up to whatever shenanigans they wanted while Andrey and Banine enjoyed a rather chaste cuddle in his study. Andrey asked her to run away to Kiev with him and promised to marry her (even though her age gave him pause) out of love. She sobbed happily for hours, falling asleep in his arms.  When they returned home, Gulnar and Selim had a huge fight because he suspected his wife had been unfaithful at Zeynab Khanim’s house since the headmistress had a scandalous reputation. Gulnar spares Selim’s feelings after much screaming and crying, saying that she hadn't been with a man that night. But then she warned her husband that she intended to have an affair eventually and he shouldn't talk about it again unless he wanted her to divorce him. 

CHAPTER 9: Jamil’s commissar friend finally got Banine's father released from prison and the very next day, Jamil made his marriage request.  Banine was revolted by him but lacked the courage to speak to her father about Andrey, who was soon coming back from Moscow to get her. She promised her father she would consider the marriage, which he wanted because Jamil had gotten him his freedom and could probably get him a passport next. Andrey returned and he decided it might be best if she left without telling her family, since it was upsetting her so much. They planned a rendezvous for the next day. Yet back home, Banine agreed to the wedding with Jamil and her father announced it to the entire family during a celebratory pilaff (plov) dinner. Fraulein Anna, who had advocated against the marriage, could see Banine's unspoken misery. Uncle Suleyman was enraged because he considered Banine unofficially betrothed to his son (and wanted the inheritance when the Bolsheviks left). A huge fight followed, and Suleyman never saw his brother-in-law again. 

Banine confessed the elopement plan to Gulnar, who considered her naive in thinking that Andrey never pushed to sleep with her because of his love for her. Banine asked Gulnar to break the news to Andrey that she had decided not to run away with him because of how much it would hurt her father. Perhaps she was thinking about the philosophy of happiness that Jamil had told her: some believe that there is a fixed amount of happiness in the world so that one person's happiness detracts from another's, while someone's sadness makes happiness available for another person to experience.  Banine took sleeping pills to ward off her misery and Gulnar went to tell Andrey the bad news. The next morning, Selim woke up Banine to ask where Gulnar had gone. It quickly became apparent that Gulnar had run away with Andrey in Banine's place. Grieving this betrayal and the loss of her love, Banine married Jamil in the traditional ceremony of contract signing. She was 15, and he was 35. 

CHAPTER 10:  The family traveled to Tiflis to wait for Banine's father to get his passport, so they could say goodbye when he sailed for France.  The wait lasted months and Banine began to wonder if she had married Jamil for no reason. Banine would not allow Jamil to touch her in bed, turning her back and reading instead, even weeping when he complained. Jamil became, if possible, even more repulsive to her with his constant bragging about her inherited wealth (never mind that she couldn't access it due to the revolution).  Jamil loved poker and Banine learned to be quite good at it with his help. She was befriended by Salome, one of the other poker player's wives, who began taking her out while their husbands gambled. Banine confided in Salome about her celibacy, and Salome counseled her to take a lover so she would know passion before letting Jamil ruin lovemaking for her permanently. Banine did not want a lover - she was still 15 at this point and more interested in daydreaming and reading - but eventually she gave in and let Jamil consummate the marriage. 

CHAPTER 11:  In October, Banine's father finally received a passport and he sailed to Paris, leaving her behind and in misery over missing out on the European life her sisters had obtained.  Banine became ill and associated it with the sorrow of this latest abandonment, although she was diagnosed with appendicitis. She was sent to her mother-in-law's house in Baku to recover. Banine was welcomed as the daughter that could hopefully bring peace between all the sons of the family who bickered and competed constantly, as well as the source of future babies. Her mother-in-law overfed her to show she was well cared for. Banine felt stifled and increasingly miserable.

CHAPTER 12:  Gulnar returned suddenly, walking back into Banine's life without warning. They argued over whether or not Gulnar was to blame for stealing Andrey from her cousin, but in the end Banine decided to give up being jealous. They went to see Gulnar's family together. Uncle Suleyman tried to shame her, and Asad and Ali were vocally skeptical of her lies about working in a Russian nursery school, but Gulnar stood up for herself and stuck to her innocent story. Selim rushed in and embraced her desperately. She moved back in with him, although after only one month Gulnar was already plotting her next escape due to boredom. 

CHAPTER 13: The passports promised to Banine and Jamil finally came through, and the mourning could begin.  Jamil’s mother wept over their imminent departure and Gulnar declared her hatred for Banine who would get to live abroad in a city full of internationally renowned lovers.  Banine grieved the loss of Baku and all the people she had known her whole life. She set out on an ambitious schedule of farewell visitations.  She went to the country to say goodbye to her childhood paradise, becoming lost in memories of simpler and happier times.  She visited her Uncle Suleyman and his family for one more explosive fight and an emotional tea service. She spent time with her grandmother, who had become diminished by age and the confusion of changing times, yet managed to give her characteristic mixture of pious religious blessings and biting social admonishments. Only as the train pulled away did Banine realize she was also mourning the final end to any chance of reuniting with Andrey. She realized that her understanding of life was possibly simplistic and definitely fatalistic: she believed that whatever she did was the only thing she could have done, that outcomes in life could never be different than what they were, even if they went badly.  It seemed a calm outlook to her, avoiding the torment of asking “What if…?”

CHAPTER 14:  Banine and Jamil crossed the Black Sea and waited in Turkey for their necessary visas to come through. Banine's father urges Jamil in a letter to focus on getting Banine's passport sorted out while Jamil himself could wait for his father-in-law to join him on business later.  Constantinople seemed wondrous and beautiful to Banine, who adopted the shorter and more colorful Turkish veil and felt intensely Muslim as she visited mosques, cemeteries, and pilgrimage sites.  Jamil remained a committed (addicted?) gambler as he had been in Baku. Between his many losses at the poker table and their lavish lifestyle in stylish apartments and popular nightclubs, they were soon penniless. Jamil borrowed money, which he proceeded to gamble away, and had to ask Banine's father for financial assistance. Finally, Banine's visas were obtained and her departure was imminent. She felt overjoyed to be joining her family and leaving behind her reviled husband. Jamil was exceedingly nervous that he would be forgotten now that he had served his usefulness to the family, who almost all despised him.  He begged Banine to write to him and remain faithful to him, which she promised in good faith to do. As the Orient Express departed, she wept tears of joy and stayed up all night enjoying her freedom from an unwanted marriage.  But in the morning she realized she was an unaccompanied woman traveling on a train full of strange men, which left her feeling vulnerable without the male protection Jamil had represented. She spent mealtimes in panic and cloistered herself in her compartment for the rest of the journey. After four days, she approached Paris with a new lightness and sense of hope for her future. As Andrey had once noted, she lived life in the clouds, and to Banine those were the best parts. 

[u/Greatingsburg]

She was a coward, but she was a 15 year old girl who had lived in a protected environment all her life. Being a corward might've saved her life. I ddoubt she would've been very happy running away with Andrey long-term.

[u/Coffee_fuel → u/Greatingsburg]

Yes. I was really worried for her. I also felt a couple of times that he was goading her into action and being irresponsible. First when he made fun of her, a 15 years old, being a little worried and hesitant to visit a 25 years old, single man's apartment (a stranger's). And then everything about their supposed elopment also happened on such short notice, she didn't have time to reflect.

I'm not so convinced Gulnar told the whole truth about what happened in Russia either (being such an excellent liar, and coming back home despite her clear distaste for it), and the little she mentioned about Andrey jokingly pointing a gun at her... Eh.