It shows how fierce the competition for International Booker should be that this one didn't even make to the short list. The narrative style is a bit It shows how fierce the competition for International Booker should be that this one didn't even make to the short list. The narrative style is a bit too sentimental for my liking but its a beautiful story and I liked this novel much better than the only other book I read from this author - 'A horse walks into a bar' (which actually won the booker and shouldn't have IMO)...more
One can't talk about 'enjoyment' driven from a book with a such sensitive objective but we do read novels for 'pleasure'. Maybe there should be anotheOne can't talk about 'enjoyment' driven from a book with a such sensitive objective but we do read novels for 'pleasure'. Maybe there should be another word for the reason why we read novels - 'fulfilling' doesn't cut it, 'satisfying' is not enough. This is why I don’t write reviews anymore. I dont have a language powerful enough to write reviews. Personally, I tend to think of myself as a cynical customer and a book has to sell its world to me in the time I devote to reading it. If it does, I gain from the transaction.
This book didn't sell itself to me. It picks up elements that are too big and fails to provide a satisfactory combination. There are too many scenes of gruesome bullying. The narrator and his friend are bullied by what looked like all the rest of the class. Except for two, all the other bullies have no character development at all. There are also apparently no bystanders or neutral children in the class - only sadist bullies and the bullied victims. I would like to think that even a class of school children has more diversity in terms of personality than that. In here, there is boy who basically has other boys acting as his minions.
Another problem is attitudes. Most adults in the book seem to be oblivious to the signs that the kids may be bullied. This includes teachers, parents, and doctors. Then from very first chapters it is trying to provide a romantic element to the friendship between the two kids. The philosophical attitude taken by two of the children (a bullied girl and a male bully) sounds implausible for their age besides being too naive for any adult reader. The girl is okay with being bullied because it must be happening for a reason, it has to (I can see the desire of those in pain to look for a reason for their suffering so I can understand her attitude to some extent until she went haywire in the end). The boy is okay with bullying others because nothing matters. The picturesque scene in the second last chapter which is the high point of the book tries to give the thing a mythical turn. Thus the book tries to romanticize, philosophize and mythologize something like bullying but it still failed to sell to me.
For all that to sell, the book had to have complex characters and some excellent prose which it doesn't either. Most reviews I have read seem to like the prose in the book but I really didn't. At times, it was just too dull despite dealing with a sensitive matter....more
It was okayish love story but it is too big for my liking.
There are a few very beautiful chapters ( three that come to my mind are -'sometimes', the oIt was okayish love story but it is too big for my liking.
There are a few very beautiful chapters ( three that come to my mind are -'sometimes', the one about cigarette butts and the last chapter) but mostly this book suffers from too much of detail. The problem is narrator suffers from instinct of archivist and feels compelled to note down every detail possible howsoever irrelevant (including community gossips of Turkish upper class and movie industry) - he himself admits to doing as much because he wants to create a museum of his love story. It is musing that a book I read recently 'The Curtain' has Milan Kundra talking about how an archivist instinct is dangerous for art because it treats better and worse art equally. The narrator suffers from safe problem- he doesn't stop to think what is relevant to story. It helped Pamuk to also write about Turkish rich and film industry which was okay but those chapters must alternate with main theme of narrator's unrequited love which get annoyingly repeative.
To be honest, I am not that big a fan of museums in general - which are exercises in people rather than what they stood for. I'm more of art gallery type....more
It's actually two seperate stories conjoined by two things - a minor detail and the obsession of the narrator of the second part with events of the fiIt's actually two seperate stories conjoined by two things - a minor detail and the obsession of the narrator of the second part with events of the first. The repeation of the routine of the protagonist in the first part, the trouble narrator faces when dealing with borders (in a police state where everything is border-ed) in second part and the haunting role played by a dog in both parts are some of the elements that details the oppresuve atmosphere in which both the oppressor and opressed suffer....more
International Booker long list always bring some amazing books whose existence I would never have known about. This one is a mixture of Marquez and RuInternational Booker long list always bring some amazing books whose existence I would never have known about. This one is a mixture of Marquez and Rushdi's varients of magical realism set in Iran. There might be a few imperfections and there are a few things I didn't fully understand but I loved most of it.
If you like reading about book lovers, you will love it, and there are Iranian fantasy creatures and ghosts and there are love stories and it is a novel about political and social atmosphere of Iran and there are ghosts and there is also a needlessly and ridiculously long sentence - just like this one but far bigger and the prose is simply beautiful. Sometimes it seemed that Azar was trying to use all literary devices ever invented but this is definitely one of best novels from among the few I have read from Iran....more
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