Born in Istanbul in 1952 to a wealthy industrialist family, Orhan Pamuk has become one of Turkey's most internationally celebrated writers. His novels often deal with the complex interplay between Islamic traditions and modern European values. His writing has increasingly dealt with postmodern concepts of identity, reality, and the instability of narration, communication, and history. Since his first novel was published in 1979, Pamuk has received numerous awards in his home country and beyond, more...
Born in Istanbul in 1952 to a wealthy industrialist family, Orhan Pamuk has become one of Turkey's most internationally celebrated writers. His novels often deal with the complex interplay between Islamic traditions and modern European values. His writing has increasingly dealt with postmodern concepts of identity, reality, and the instability of narration, communication, and history. Since his first novel was published in 1979, Pamuk has received numerous awards in his home country and beyond, including the prestigious IMPAC Dublin Award in 2003 for his novel MY NAME IS RED, a murder mystery set in 16th-century Istanbul that is narrated, in part, by the corpse of the victim. In 2005 Pamuk was charged with insulting Turkey by referring to the Armenian genocide in an interview, an offense punishable with up to three years in prison. The case was particularly controversial because it came at a time when Turkey was eagerly seeking admission to the European Union, and the attack on free speech threatened to derail their bid. When the government refused to participate in the case, the charges were dropped. In 2006, Pamuk won the Nobel Prize for literature.less...
David wrote a review on Snow (Vintage International)
When I read the first chapter of this book I thought it sounded good, nice descriptions told in such a way that you feel like you are there. The idea of the novel which I got from the first chapter was also good, intriging, the idea of a man, a poet and a secularist who exiled himself from Turkey returns after all these years to a town on the edge of his country where politics and religion become much more serious, entwined and focused. He comes to investigate a series of suicides of young women and I found myself, like him, asking why they had occured. It made me want to read on. The idea that he would find himself trapped in this place due to the snow storm certainly added to my interest so read on expecting to read an interesting novel.
After a while however, my perception of the novel changed. I did enjoy quite a lot the way political Islam was explained through the use of the characters which I thought quite skillful and well developed. I enjoyed that plot, the tension between east and west and how Pamuk showed in reality that the conflict is far too oversimplified in the minds of its protaganists, portrayed quite well through his characters. The complex relations between religion, state, history and politics in Turkey was well portrayed. These were the novel's strengths.
Where it got lost and bogged down however was in what I will call the other plot (even though it is related to the main theme), that of the relationship between Ka and Ipek. There was far too much repetition of Ka's emotional and physical longing for Ipek. His running around time and again, his longing to be with here, his daydreams of what their life together could be like. This part of the novel would have been welcome in my opinion but for the fact of its irrelevant excess. I understood the first and definitely the second time how he felt for her and how she felt for him. Their relationship was central to the plot and the theme of the novel and the conflict was played out quite well between them. They both embodied the complexity of the conflict between east and west, religion and secularism, perception and reality, and were a fine juxtaposition to some of the characters in the novel who viewed the conflict through a manichean lens. However it was spolied through too much emphasis on the emotional feelings of Ka.
Overall a potentially good if not great book, but in my opinion spoiled.
When I read the first chapter of this book I thought it sounded good, nice descriptions told in such a way that you feel like you are there. The idea of the novel which I got from the first chapter was also good, intriging, the idea of a man, a poet and a secularist who exiled himself from Turkey returns after all these years to a town on the edge of his country where politics and religion become much more serious, entwined and focused. He comes to investigate a series of suicides of young women and I found myself, like him, asking why they had occured. It made me want to read on. The idea that he would find himself trapped in this place due to the snow storm certainly added to my interest so read on expecting to read an interesting novel.
After a while however, my perception of the novel changed. I did enjoy quite a lot the way political Islam was explained through the use of the characters which I thought quite skillful and well developed. I enjoyed that plot, the tension between east and west and how Pamuk showed in reality that the conflict is far too oversimplified in the minds of its protaganists, portrayed quite well through his characters. The complex relations between religion, state, history and politics in Turkey was well portrayed. These were the novel's strengths.
Where it got lost and bogged down however was in what I will call the other plot (even though it is related to the main theme), that of the relationship between Ka and Ipek. There was far too much repetition of Ka's emotional and physical longing for Ipek. His running around time and again, his longing to be with here, his daydreams of what their life together could be like. This part of the novel would have been welcome in my opinion but for the fact of its irrelevant excess. I understood the first and definitely the second time how he felt for her and how she felt for him. Their relationship was central to the plot and the theme of the novel and the conflict was played out quite well between them. They both embodied the complexity of the conflict between east and west, religion and secularism, perception and reality, and were a fine juxtaposition to some of the characters in the novel who viewed the conflict through a manichean lens. However it was spolied through too much emphasis on the emotional feelings of Ka.
Overall a potentially good if not great book, but in my opinion spoiled.