Endless repetition of an ordinary miracle…
Orhan Pamuk brings the unpredictable and incomprehensible vicissitudes of this chaotic world together in the simple symmetry of a snow flake. Voices from the East and the West collide in a harmonious cacophony. The irreconcilable debates between modernization and tradition, patriotism and betrayal, the community and the individual, are woven together in a beautiful Turkish tapestry by an author who stands both within and without the community he is talking about.
The narrator who is also the writer of the book is reminiscent of unreliable narrators from Conrad or Marquez who put together information collected from a series of equally unreliable sources, bringing into question the sanctity of any chronicle. What is history but a set of points of view that masquerade as facts on the pages of history textbooks. What is forgotten is equally important as that which is remembered. Pamuk brings to fore the necessity to understand the “silence of an empty line”.
The book begins and ends with a journey. The narrator’s friend, Ka comes from Istanbul to Kars, a small town in Turkey and years later, the narrator himself brings the cycle to an end as he travels back to Istanbul with memories, snapshots and incomplete poetry of love gained and lost. The novel at one level is a simple narration of human nature and relationships. Man-woman, father-daughter, siblings, friends, what keeps them together and draws them apart from time to time and how the human heart responds to desires that are not in tune with their times.
At another level, the author brings in the political and religious backdrop that defines the lives of the people in this town. Surrounded by Soviet Georgia, Armenia, and Iran, Kars is at the crossroads of disparate neighbours, civilizations and trade routes that make for difficult individual identity. Ka comes to Kars ostensibly to investigate the series of suicides by girls coerced by the state to give up their head scarf which is a symbol of their religious identity. Really his aim is to unite with Ipek, the woman he believes he is in love with. In the process he meets people who throw up questions about the existence of God, the difference between faith and fear, the overlapping of art and life in theatre and the choice between foolish ideals of the youth and pragmatism that comes with age. The newspaper editor who foretells news that is yet to happen becomes another symbol of the dichotomy between freewill and predestination. Does man only follow the designs of God and State or does he have any say in his ordinary life. Does ordinary life have any value or voice at all.
The book challenges the western reader to read and think beyond the lines. It forces you to re-look at a world that is painted in strong shades of religious and political turmoil, very different from the systematic and ‘civilized’ occident. There are real people breathing beneath the newspaper reports and academic records. Just because something is different doesn’t necessarily mean it is problematic.
Orhan Pamuk brings the unpredictable and incomprehensible vicissitudes of this chaotic world together in the simple symmetry of a snow flake. Voices from the East and the West collide in a harmonious cacophony. The irreconcilable debates between modernization and tradition, patriotism and betrayal, the community and the individual, are woven together in a beautiful Turkish tapestry by an author who stands both within and without the community he is talking about.
The narrator who is also the writer of the book is reminiscent of unreliable narrators from Conrad or Marquez who put together information collected from a series of equally unreliable sources, bringing into question the sanctity of any chronicle. What is history but a set of points of view that masquerade as facts on the pages of history textbooks. What is forgotten is equally important as that which is remembered. Pamuk brings to fore the necessity to understand the “silence of an empty line”.
The book begins and ends with a journey. The narrator’s friend, Ka comes from Istanbul to Kars, a small town in Turkey and years later, the narrator himself brings the cycle to an end as he travels back to Istanbul with memories, snapshots and incomplete poetry of love gained and lost. The novel at one level is a simple narration of human nature and relationships. Man-woman, father-daughter, siblings, friends, what keeps them together and draws them apart from time to time and how the human heart responds to desires that are not in tune with their times.
At another level, the author brings in the political and religious backdrop that defines the lives of the people in this town. Surrounded by Soviet Georgia, Armenia, and Iran, Kars is at the crossroads of disparate neighbours, civilizations and trade routes that make for difficult individual identity. Ka comes to Kars ostensibly to investigate the series of suicides by girls coerced by the state to give up their head scarf which is a symbol of their religious identity. Really his aim is to unite with Ipek, the woman he believes he is in love with. In the process he meets people who throw up questions about the existence of God, the difference between faith and fear, the overlapping of art and life in theatre and the choice between foolish ideals of the youth and pragmatism that comes with age. The newspaper editor who foretells news that is yet to happen becomes another symbol of the dichotomy between freewill and predestination. Does man only follow the designs of God and State or does he have any say in his ordinary life. Does ordinary life have any value or voice at all.
The book challenges the western reader to read and think beyond the lines. It forces you to re-look at a world that is painted in strong shades of religious and political turmoil, very different from the systematic and ‘civilized’ occident. There are real people breathing beneath the newspaper reports and academic records. Just because something is different doesn’t necessarily mean it is problematic.
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