"The Big Bacchanal” is another strange, mystical book by Besik Kharanauli, created on the border between two genres, prose and poetry. The text also has its own mythos, however, and this mythos, as in the majority of Kharanauli’s works, was inspired by Georgian mythology and folklore.

 

The book’s main protagonist, the author himself, decides to hold a great feast (and it is this celebratory process, this large-scale banquet, that the author calls “The Big Bacchanal”) and invites numerous guests to the feast from all over the Caucasus.

 

In view of the birthplace of Besik Kharanauli (he is from Pshavi, an area stretching over the Caucasus mountain range and home to one of Georgia’s ethnic minority groups), the Caucasus is for him a microcosm of the entire world. Accordingly, the guests the author invites come not from one specific location but from all over the Earth.

 

The author sets about choosing a location large enough to hold a supra for his myriad guests, but due to the topography of the Caucasus, he cannot find anywhere sufficiently wide and flat, only mountains, ridges, and inaccessible, impregnable rocks and gullies. There isn’t enough space for a bridal party – it would be difficult even for three men to stand in line with their legs apart.

 

Paralysed by this train of thought, the author hears a comforting voice telling him to hold the supra not here, in the realm of the mortal, but in the netherworld. And thus begins his “Journey to the Netherworld” in search of a place to hold a great banquet. His journey is similar to that taken by Dante Alighieri, but in this book, everything is much more symbolic and metaphorical, with each occurrence having its own past rooted in mythology and folklore.

 

“Man can endure anything but the loss of paradise.” For the author, this knowledge is the most important factor preventing him from wavering in his resolve to select a location and hold the biggest feast of his life as a guest of the netherworld.

 

At the supra of the “Big Bacchanal”, where the author himself acts as tamada, the Master of Ceremonies, and proposes all the most important toasts, he recalls numerous characters and episodes, some from his own memories and others from legends and myths. These characters come to life and add to the chatter around the banquet table with their exploits. Talking with them induces in the author feelings of both sadness and happiness. They remind him of his failings while also hinting at his worth. The reader also joins in this sharply intelligent feast, full of paradoxes and metaphors, becoming an enthusiastic participant. In this carnival of life and death, sin and virtue, deception and truth, the reader also sees paradise, a mirage of the invisible, unknowable world on the other side, and together with the author prepares for new adventures.

 

The actual text of “The Big Bacchanal”, meanwhile, will provide every reader with an unforgettable adventure, for the author has made sure from the very first page to order up a feast, not a famine.