"Simon" by Narine Abgaryan, summary

Narine Abgaryan’s novel, published in 2020, revolves around the funeral of an elderly mason and well-known bon vivant in the provincial Armenian town of Berd. The plot revolves around the fates of the deceased man’s four former lovers and his widow, whose difficult life experiences find relief and warmth thanks to Simon’s sincere, masculine care and compassion. In 2021, the work won first place in the readers’ vote for the national literary prize "Big Book."

Seeing off

In the town of Berd, on the eve of his 79th birthday, Simon, a mason — the life of the party, a generous reveler, and a tireless admirer of women — dies of a sudden stroke. In life, he sincerely idolized each of his chosen women, and upon parting, he always gave them a memorable piece of jewelry. His widow, Melania, had long since learned to take her husband’s escapades with humor, only occasionally causing a scene involving the smashing of old, chipped dishes.

At the morgue, the deceased was dressed in a suit, but due to a stroke, his ears had acquired a permanent bluish tint. Relatives and neighbors are heatedly debating how to disguise this defect. The elderly, half-blind Katinka suggests a folk remedy: smearing the ears with melted duck fat and applying a camphor compress. To prevent the compresses from falling off, Simon is wearing his great-grandson’s large wireless headphones.

Gradually, the deceased’s former lovers gather in the house: Sev-Mushegants Sophia, Tevosants Eliza, Bochkans Susanna, and the widow Sylvia. The women sit around the coffin with Melania, drinking homemade wine and sharing intimate memories of their experiences.

Pendant

Sylvia, an accountant at a canning factory, had early on become an old woman, devoting herself entirely to caring for her newborn grandson. Her adult daughter, Anna, came to her native Berd from Voronezh to give birth. Sylvia had previously graduated with honors from university and married a party official, Romik, in Ijevan. The marriage ended in tragedy: a painful spasm prevented her from having sex, and her husband and mother-in-law considered her insane.

After their daughter’s birth, Romik brutally beat his wife, forcibly took the child from her, and committed Sylvia to the Sevan Psychiatric Hospital for two years. A torn piece of her baby’s diaper helped her maintain her sanity. After her discharge, Sylvia learned of her father’s death and tried in vain to get her daughter back through the courts. Romik forbade the mother from seeing the child. Sylvia returned to Berd, withdrew into herself, and for fifteen years secretly collected a large dowry for her daughter in hopes of reuniting with him.

In the autumn of 1985, heavy rains flooded the city, and Simon, a mason, came to repair the washed-out threshold of her house. They began a warm, year-and-a-half-long affair, which helped her heal from a long-standing emotional trauma. Upon learning of the affair, Melania confronted the plant director, after which Sylvia asked her lover to leave. As a parting gift, Simon left her a volume of Vaan Teryan’s poetry and a gold heart-shaped pendant.

Years later, a neighbor, Kira, met Anna by chance in the student dorm and brought her to Berd. Sylvia was reunited with her adult daughter and sent a truckload of her accumulated dowry to her wedding, earning the respectful nickname "The Widow" among the townspeople.

Perfume

Eliza grew up an unsociable, withdrawn, and uneducated girl in the family of a hospital nurse. Her father died early of consumption, and her mother took out her anger on her youngest daughter, reproaching her for her stupidity. The girl found solace in an old abandoned chapel, where she spent hours singing strange, drawn-out chants before a stone cross with a figure of the Savior.

At seventeen, Eliza married foreman Tigran, who agreed to the marriage out of spite for his longtime lover, Shushan. Upon learning of his wife’s pregnancy, Tigran secretly resumed meeting with Shushan at the local newspaper office. On the eve of her due date, Eliza caught her husband with his rival.

In shock, she ran to the chapel, where her water broke prematurely. Her foster sister, the holy fool Kosaya Vardanush, called for help and helped save the baby. Eliza later gave birth to a second son, but after the death of her elderly in-laws, she filed for divorce and raised the boys alone.

Her sons emigrated to the United States, leaving Eliza alone. One day, Simon overheard her singing in chapel and was deeply moved by the beauty of her voice. The five-month romance that followed gave Eliza the joy of physical and spiritual intimacy. Simon freed her from her ingrained inferiority complex by convincing her that her body smelled like mountain honey.

Before leaving for America to join her sons, Eliza visited her elderly great-aunt and learned a family secret: during the famine-stricken winter of 1920, her own grandmother had locked her two-year-old son in a barn in the freezing cold to save her eldest daughter. This discovery explained her late mother’s eternal bitterness. Simon gave Eliza a bottle of floral perfume as a keepsake, the scent of which she cherished for many years.

Pearl

Atelier dressmaker Sophia married Beniamin, a relay factory adjuster, for the sake of a snow-white wedding dress she’d seen in a Polish fashion magazine. The couple truly loved each other, but their marital bliss was marred by four consecutive miscarriages.

Her desperate husband left for Kazakhstan to find work and prepare housing for the family’s relocation. Sofia grieved deeply during their separation, and at her mentor Marina’s anniversary, she became close with Simon. Their short-lived romance ended with the news of her pregnancy. Sofia sent a telegram to her husband confessing and requesting a divorce.

An insulted Beniamin rushed back to Berd, smashed his attacker’s car with a hunting rifle, and was jailed for fifteen days. Simon also ended up behind bars for an altercation with the duty officer, Ilya. The men were held in adjacent cells, constantly hurling threats through the wall.

At the height of the conflict, Sofya fell off a stool, broke both wrists, and was hospitalized with a threatened miscarriage. Beniamin was released early, after which he returned to Kazakhstan, handing over funds for his wife’s support.

In February, Sophia gave birth to a daughter, Vasilisa. A year and a half later, Beniamin returned, welcomed the girl as his own, and gave her his last name. The couple later had twin boys.

As a memento, Simon left Sofia a strand of cultured pearls. Many years later, Vasilisa’s second husband, Katinka’s great-grandson Bagrat, sacrificed his own life to save his grandson Simon by swerving the steering wheel of his car on a bridge.

Drawings

Susanna grew up in the darkest part of Sadovaya Street, where her neighbors were the half-witted Bezymyannaya and terrified repatriates. The house was dominated by a bitter, domineering grandmother who drove her two unmarried daughters mad for years and drove her daughter-in-law to the point of attempting to poison her with javel water. At night, the old woman uttered terrifying curses, which left Susanna with a lifelong hypersensitivity to outside sounds.

As a schoolgirl, Susanna became friends with Melania, and during her senior year, Simon fell head over heels in love with her. The lovers made plans together, but on graduation day, her rejected classmate, Caro, kidnapped her, locked her in a cellar, and defiled her. Simon and his friends tracked down the kidnapper and beat him, but the proud Susanna felt defiled and refused to marry him, unwilling to endure the gossip.

She spent six painful years married to the hated Caro, systematically tormenting him with nagging, and then left. Soon came the news of her younger brother’s death in the army. Distraught with grief, Susanna was saved by Simon, who had returned to her. He moved into her house, patiently nursed her back to health, and taught her to paint still lifes of fruit.

A year later, Melania tried to beg her friend for her husband’s return. In the midst of their conversation, Bezymyannaya threw a heavy cast-iron iron from the yard, injuring Melania. Susanna, completely disillusioned with her former life, sold her father’s house, and left for Echmiadzin, taking only Simon’s sketches with her. She subsequently began painting silk scarves, married a gravely ill man, and stoically bore the burden of family responsibilities.

Sea

The soul of the deceased Simon rises above the town and observes his own funeral ceremony. He sees his widow Melania treating guests to wine, and his grieving friend Elijah weeping in the backyard. Each of the four main women in his life places a parting gift in the coffin: Silvia leaves a pendant, Elisa perfume, Sophia pearl beads, and Susanna paper drawings. Melania places her worn wedding ring on her husband’s little finger.

The priest, Ter Matteos, begins the funeral prayer. At this moment, the salty waters of the mythical sea rise from the bottom of the gorge, the one Simon’s late mother told him about as a child.

Simon’s soul tries to float away, but is held back by a thin golden thread around his ankle. Diving into the depths, he sees the deceased holy fool Vardanush holding the wooden spindle of the Nameless One. Vardanush breaks the thread, freeing his spirit to eternal rest.