"Goats and Shakespeare" by Fazil Iskander, summary

This book is a literary cross-section of human social and spiritual life, combining satirical parables, autobiographical prose, everyday stories, and philosophical reflections. Published in 2004, the collection brings together works created over several decades. The author’s keen observation is combined with an analysis of totalitarian mechanisms, the nature of power, moral choice, and individual dignity.

This edition is part of Fazil Iskander’s 2004 "Collection in 10 Volumes," where it occupies volume 9. The series also includes volumes containing the novel "Sandro from Chegem," the story "The Constellation of Kozlotur," and the works "Man and His Environs," "Chick’s Childhood," and "Sofichka."

A satirical parable about power and fear

The central theme of the first part of the book is the philosophical parable "Rabbits and Boa Constrictors." The action takes place in the African jungle. A one-eyed boa constrictor named Squint tells a young fellow the story of a rabbit that rebelled inside his belly, causing Squint to be run over by elephants and lose an eye. Meanwhile, Rabbit Pensive makes a discovery: the boa constrictors’ paralyzing hypnosis is merely the rabbits’ own fear.

The rabbit kingdom is ruled by a King who maintains power by instilling fear in his enemies and promising the imminent development of the mythical "Cauliflower." The Ponderer’s discovery threatens the foundations of the royal system. The Ponderer speaks at an emergency meeting. The King and the Chief Scientist attempt to refute the Ponderer’s discovery, appealing to tradition, the Breeding Table, and patriotic anger.

The court rabbit, Resourceful, agrees to become a herald in exchange for a cabbage leaf gifted by the Queen. On the Neutral Path, he reveals the location of the Pensive to the boa constrictors with his singing. Pensive, along with his apprentice, Thirsty, conducts a successful experiment on a young boa constrictor, proving the inability to be hypnotized by ear twitching and sneezing. However, shocked by the betrayal of his kin, Pensive deliberately allows himself to be swallowed, passing on the teachings to Thirsty.

The King banishes Resourceful to the desert, and the boa constrictors send the young boa constrictor there as well. In the desert, the Hermit Boa strangled Resourceful without any hypnosis. Returning to his tribe, the Hermit leads the tribe in place of the deceased Great Python and teaches the boa constrictors a new method of strangulation. The rabbits adapt to the new conditions: they continue to reproduce at an accelerated rate and steal from the natives’ gardens, remaining loyal to the King for the sake of their usual servile benefits.

Autobiographical and everyday prose

The story "Goats and Shakespeare" returns the narrative to the Abkhazian village of Chegem. The twelve-year-old protagonist herds goats and reads a volume of Shakespeare. The teenager compares the animals’ cunning with the courtly intrigues of the playwright’s plays, deriving a formula for human nature. In the novella "Terem-Teremok," young Moscow writers arrive in a Siberian town and end up in a secret hotel for the party elite. A sumptuous banquet with delicacies quickly gives way to a return to the drab Soviet reality.

In the short story "The Young Architect and the Beauty," Pavel Bogatyrev courts a town beauty, but she rejects him after seeing his old student coat. Years later, Pavel becomes a successful craftsman, and the former beauty is the wife of a general, who has lost her former charm. The story "There Lived an Old Man with His Old Woman" describes the widow of a one-legged invalid from Chegem. The woman attempts to send crutches to her deceased husband through a seriously ill neighbor, but he recovers, unwilling to share a coffin with someone else’s crutches.

The novella "Authority" tells the story of physicist Georgy Andreevich, who earned the respect of his twelve-year-old son by winning a badminton match in order to introduce him to reading classic books. In the story "The Boy and the War," the child listens to Abkhazian guests reminisce about the horrors of the war in Gagra and the death of Dr. Georgy, wondering whether people become kinder with time.

The story "The Merry Killer" is based on the author’s observations at a pardon commission: a young man agreed to stab his neighbor’s husband to death for 400 rubles and cheerfully urged her on while he fell asleep. The novella "Wilhelm’s Gold" describes the historian Zaur Chegemba, who is carrying archival extracts on German financing of the Bolsheviks on a commuter train. Zaur endures the taunts of a hungover passenger while saving the valuable documents.

In the short story "Mimosa in the North," engineer Raul Kamba leaves Abkhazia for the North due to emotional distress. At a construction site, Raul implements a new wage system, sends a plane to fetch mimosa for the female workers, and suddenly dies of a stroke. In the story "The Shepherd and the Roe Deer," the shepherd Datusha, nicknamed Chistyulya, risks his life by descending on a rope into a bottomless pit and rescuing a trapped roe deer, then releasing it.

The short story "The Ardent Dreamer and the Tyrant" describes a meeting between village teacher Leonty Luarsabovich and Stalin. The teacher proposes that the leader publicly admit to not paying the book royalties tax in order to cultivate honesty among the people. Stalin feigns approval of the idea, but secretly orders the assassination of the visionary. In the short story "The Loving Couple," a cynical tobacco grower offers his fiancée to a wealthy elderly businessman at the Sukhumi restaurant "Amra" in order to secure a job.

The story "Rotten Intelligentsia and Scams" describes the author’s encounter with a former classmate, Zhora, who has gone into crime and become a restaurant manager. Zhora asks the author to create aphorisms for the restaurant’s walls, but he rejects every idea for supposed political or social implications. The final domestic plot, "Fell from a Tree, Successfully Shaked His Brains, and Grew Smarter," mocks the foolishness of a woman who tries to explain her husband’s success by citing his childhood fall from a tree.

Philosophical miniatures and essays

The collection is complemented by short essays and parables. In "Traffic Light," the author reflects on the legal culture of citizens waiting for the green light on an empty road. The short story "Mercy" examines the psychology of begging under the blind eyes of a musician in an underground passage. The essay "The Executioner" addresses the issue of the death penalty and the nature of violence, and the parable "A Dream of God and the Devil" presents a heavenly dialogue about conscience, responsibility, and the paths of humanity.

In the short story "Writer’s Day," the author ironically describes the bureaucratic obstacles involved in obtaining sleeping pills at a writers’ clinic, where the head doctor absconded with the money. The story "Uninvited Guest" depicts Tamara Ivanovna, who refused to acknowledge a relative who had returned from exile out of fear of reprisals. In "The Plot of Existence," the author reflects on society’s loss of bearings, showing through the fate of Manitsa, a Chegem farm girl, how fidelity to one’s roots brings happiness.

In the philosophical dialogue "At the Dacha," the characters debate faith, civilization, and Russia’s historical destiny. The sketch "Antip Went to Kazantip" conveys the vernacular and worldly wisdom of a rural poet. "Night Carriage" describes a wrecked train, where the author humorously struggles with the door swinging open. In "Parisian Shop," the author finds himself in the role of an unwitting ticket inspector, engaging in a silent dialogue with an elderly Frenchman, and the sketch "A Dream of God and the Devil" reveals the philosophical idea that kindness and conscience remain the only supports of a person.