Book Review: Elkhan Elatli – Blackmail: A Young Girl's Nightmare

Cavanşir Gadimov

8 Jan, 2025

Book Review: Elkhan Elatli – Blackmail: A Young Girl's Nightmare

Elkhan Elatli's book, "Blackmail" (original title: Şantaj) is a psychological novel about a young girl who comes from a village to Baku to study at university. It tells the story of the difficulties she faces there and a series of events that darken her life and give her nightmares, including blackmail, as the title suggests. Let's delve into the details of this blog post, which includes the plot of this fluent novel by the Azerbaijani author, the themes it explores, and my review of the book.

Elkhan Elatli – Blackmail Novel and My Book Review

I saw my aunt reading a book with great interest. When I asked her what she was reading, she told me that she was reading a novel by Elkhan Elatli, who is generally known for his detective works. However, she also told me that she had another book that she had finished reading and gave me the novel "Blackmail." Let me state from the outset that the novel "Blackmail" attracts attention from the first pages with its simple narration and fluency. It is a book that you can't put down once you pick it up and can finish in a short time. In addition, its subject is very current, addressing issues that exist in our society and are sometimes not talked about much. It also draws attention to a series of social problems as sub-themes, such as the lives of students and the lives of people migrating from villages to big cities.

Before going into more detail about the book, let me give a warning right away. I saw the "18+" sign on the back cover of Elatli's book "Blackmail" much later. Some parts, especially the parts describing sexuality, are for adult readers. Of course, there is no explicit description. However, it is still necessary to mention this warning, which is also placed on the back cover of the book.

The Narrative Style of "Blackmail": Blurring the Lines Between Fiction and Reality

The story in the novel is told in the first person by Ülker, the main character of the book. Before Ülker's own story begins, a paragraph with the note "Author" is added in the first pages. Here, the "Author" states that a young girl from among his readers sent him her own life story and asked him to write it as a novel. Of course, after this short note, the main character named Ülker begins to tell her experiences in her own words. From this point of view, it gives the novel the impression of being a true story.

In fact, within the novel, Ülker frequently mentions her favorite author, going to his signing events, getting her books signed, and showing the author the story she wrote. With all of this, Elkhan Elatli is actually making references to himself. However, he never explicitly states that he is the "author" in the novel.

After reading the novel, I looked to see if Elatli had any statement about whether the story in the novel was real, but I could not find such information. From this point of view, we can say that this novel is written by giving the impression of a true event. However, it can be said that the author was inspired by similar events in real life while creating this story.

A series of works that are told as if they were true events but are completely fictional come to my mind. For example, Yann Martel's "Life of Pi" has such a narrative. Similarly, Michael Crichton's "The 13th Warrior" (first published under the title "Eaters of the Dead: The Manuscript of Ibn Fadlan, Relating His Experiences with the Northmen in AD 922") is also a fictional book written in the style of telling a true story.

I remember a similar situation in the "Fargo" series. Although an expression such as "the events depicted here are true stories, only the names of the characters have been changed out of respect for the victims" is used at the beginning of each episode, we can say that this is just a kind of narrative technique that the producers added to the fiction to make the series have a greater impact on the audience.

Ülker and Amir: Exploring Key Characters and Themes of Oppression in "Blackmail"

The main character of the novel, Ülker, is a young girl living in a village in western Azerbaijan. Influenced by her Azerbaijani language and literature teacher, she loves reading. She even lives with the desire to become a teacher like him. She also admires a crime writer, often referred to as "the author" in the novel, who is mostly a reference to the book's author, Elkhan Elatli, and she tries to write stories herself.

Ülker's most striking problem is not being understood by her family. It is noticeable that she is isolated as a girl and restricted by certain prohibitions. Since Ülker is the narrator in the novel, she constantly talks about freedom. She complains about the restriction of her freedom as a woman. The focus is mostly on not receiving love from her father. We see that in the society she lives in, girls and women are generally viewed only through the concept of "honor." Ülker is constantly pressured by her family, her father, and her male friends with the thought that they could "harm her honor." For this reason, Ülker states that she never received love from her father. Her father thought, "If I show my daughter too much attention, interest, and love, she will become spoiled and disgrace me."

Because of this, Ülker's desire to go to Baku, study at university there, and become a teacher is initially met with a negative response from her father and family. However, even when they later agree, they allow her to go with a series of conditions.

For Ülker, going to Baku, studying, and then becoming a teacher are, in a sense, the first steps to being free. However, in her first years in Baku, she also experiences feelings that she thinks are falling in love for the first time. These are things that her family would never accept. She encounters a series of negative events in relationships where she sometimes dreams of "getting married in the future." One of these events is the photos she sent to someone she thought she loved; these photos, taken in her underwear, will later become her nightmare. As the title of the book suggests, it will turn into blackmail. After that, this girl, who looked to the future with hope, will experience very difficult moments that she never even dreamed of. Ülker also narrates her experiences, sometimes admitting her mistake.

Among the other striking characters of the novel is a young and handsome man named Amir. Although he is seen at first glance as a perfect man and the most ideal husband candidate for Ülker, later events develop in a completely different direction. Amir, who behaves as he wants with the girl he wants, causes an uproar when he sees the slightest mistake in a matter that Ülker sees as "honor." Then he reveals his true self. He becomes Ülker's biggest nightmare.

Themes Explored in "Blackmail": A Look at Azerbaijani Society Through Fiction

The novel explores a number of themes related to Azerbaijani society. Let's briefly mention some of them.

Women: A number of issues related to the status of women in society are explored. As I mentioned earlier, Ülker's desire to get an education is initially met with negativity. In addition, topics such as the first relationships of young girls with the opposite sex and experiencing different emotions are discussed through Ülker and her roommates. Regarding love, affection, and how love can turn into hatred if a relationship fails, here’s a quote from the book:

“Did I love? So what? I wish I hadn't loved. And how much distance is there between love and hate? At most, the distance between the eyebrow and the eye...” (p. 241)

Student Life: The novel touches upon the difficulties faced by students in Azerbaijan, such as poor nutrition, as a sub-theme. Ülker's search for a rented apartment with her friends is a problem; the problems in the apartment they find, the difficult conditions, and, in addition, their poor nutrition are among the striking student problems.
Life in the Village and in the Big City: Ülker and her family live in a village. However, her aunt and her family have migrated and live in Baku. The author makes a comparison between the lives of these two families, especially regarding their nutrition. The part that caught my attention is as follows:

“Contrary to my expectations, my aunt's family was very poor. They ate fried eggplant, fried potatoes, cheap sausage, pasta, rice soup, and things like that. The meat that Uncle Safa brought once a month from somewhere didn't taste like meat; it was impossible to tell what kind of meat it was.
I was not used to such a life. Even if we didn't have much in the village, our food was plentiful, high-quality, and organic. The villagers slaughtered a calf in turn, and Kenan would bring five or ten kilograms at a time. And it was pure veal raised in the village. We had our own sheep, and sometimes my father would slaughter them, and on that day we would definitely make kebab in the yard. Our breakfast table had pure churned butter, cheese made by my mother herself, village eggs, grape molasses, and sometimes even honey.” (pp. 48-49) (Note: The citations have been translated from Azerbaijani to English by me.)

Final Thoughts on "Blackmail": A Critical Look at Character Portrayal and Themes

At the beginning of this book review about the novel "Blackmail," I mentioned that the work has a fluent narrative. Its subject makes the reader curious, and there will be moments of high tension that you will not want to put down. However, I want to criticize the author on one point.

He portrays the main character, Ülker, as a beautiful and attractive girl. However, in the plot of the novel, he presents every man who appears before the main character as either malicious or with bad traits. Leaving aside the fact that her father and brother are cold towards Ülker, every man she meets and dates wants to sexually abuse her. It doesn't stop there; her university professor, classmates, even the taxi driver she meets in the neighborhood... Almost all male characters in the novel are portrayed negatively. I can say that the theme of men seeing women as sexual objects and constantly trying to use them is excessively emphasized. Alongside so many negative male characters, at least a few honorable, honest, and compassionate male characters could have been included.

In conclusion, I can say that this book by Elkhan Elatli, which I read, is a readable and successful novel in terms of its fluent narrative, interesting subject, and attention to current social problems.