Alphabet Authors ~ P is for Pamuk

I found this idea on Simon's blog @ Stuck in a Book. He picks an author for each letter of the alphabet, sharing which of their books he's read, which I ones he owns, how he came across them etc.

I might not do it exactly as he does but I will try to get to all the letters of the alphabet over time.

Orhan Pamuk belongs to my favourite authors. And here are all the books I read by him. Well, those are also all the books that have been translated into either English or German. I don't think I will ever learn Turkish well enough in order to be able to read a book in that language.

- "My Father's Suitcase" (TR: Babamın Bavulu) - 2007

- "The Black Book" (TR: Kara Kitap) - 1990
- "Cevdet Bey and His Sons" (TR: Cevdet Bey ve Oğulları) - 1982

- "The Innocence of Objects" (TR: Şeylerin Masumiyeti) - 2012
- "Istanbul" (TK: İstanbul - Hatıralar ve Şehir) - 2003
- "The Museum of Innocence" (TR: Masumiyet Müzesi) - 2008
- "My Name is Red - 1998 * 

- "The Naïve and the Sentimental Novelist" (TR: Saf ve Düşünceli Romancı) - 2011
- "The New Life" (TR: Yeni Hyat) - 1994

- "Nights of Plague" (TR: Veba Geceleri) - 2021
- "The Red-Haired Woman" (TR: Kırmızı Saçlı Kadın) - 2016
- "Silent House" (TR: Sessiz Ev) - 1983
- "Snow" (TR: Kar) - 2002   
- "A Strangeness in my Mind" (TR: Kafamda Bir Tuhaflık) - 2014

- "To Look Out the Window/Pieces from the View: Life, Streets, Literature" (TR: Manzaradan Parçalar: Hayat, Sokaklar, Edebiyat/Der Blick aus meinem Fenster. Betrachtungen) - 2008
- "The White Castle" (TR: Beyaz Kale) - 1985

Facts about Orhan Pamuk:
Born    7 June 1952 Istanbul, Turkey
He has received several prizes, i.a. the French Légion d'honneur Officier, the International Dublin Award, the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade (Friedenspreis), and many more.

He was the first Turkish author to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature.
He was also awarded several doctorates, honoris causa, i.a. in Berlin, Paris and St. Petersburg as well as in Yale and other. 
After issuing a statement about the Armenian genocide and mass killings of Kurds, he was charged for publicly insulting the Republic. After eight world-renowned authors supported him, the charges were dropped.

He has one daughter (Rüya which means dream) with his first wife.

Quotes:

"My job is not to explain Turks to Europeans and Europeans to Turks, but to write good books."

"You know, there are people who love their fatherland by torturing. I love my country by criticizing my state."

Orhan Pamuk "who in the quest for the melancholic soul of his native city has discovered new symbols for the clash and interlacing of cultures" received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2006.

Orhan Pamuk received the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade (Friedenspreis) in 2005.

I contribute to this page: Read the Nobels and you can find all my blogs about Nobel Prize winning authors and their books here.

You will find more information on his homepage.

* * *

This is part of an ongoing series where I will write about a different author for each letter of the alphabet. You can see them all here.

Pamuk, Orhan "To Look Out the Window"

Pamuk, Orhan "To Look Out the Window" aka "Pieces from the View: Life, Streets, Literature" (Turkish: Manzaradan Parçalar: Hayat, Sokaklar, Edebiyat) - Der Blick aus meinem Fenster. Betrachtungen - 2008

An interesting book by Orhan Pamuk in which he discusses many topics. Whether it's his childhood in Istanbul, his family, politics or his job as a writer, literature, art, he simply has something interesting and worth knowing to say about everything.

That is certainly the main reason why this author is one of my favorites. I hope he writes a new novel soon.

Book description (translated from the German copy):

"Whether it's the crumbling plaster of Istanbul houses or the Turkish flag, whether it's his father or the terrifying nature of Dostoyevsky's demons - with Orhan Pamuk everything becomes a complex universe. Pamuk observes coolly and tells moving stories. Autobiographical, narrative, politics, art and literature: his essays are the sum of different and contradictory experiences - an incredible stroke of luck."

As you can see from my Wikipedia link, there is an English title, though I could not find the book. Still, I hope it has been translated into English.

Orhan Pamuk "who in the quest for the melancholic soul of his native city has discovered new symbols for the clash and interlacing of cultures" received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2006.

Orhan Pamuk received the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade (Friedenspreis) in 2005.

I contribute to this page: Read the Nobels and you can find all my blogs about Nobel Prize winning authors and their books here.

Read my original review here. 

#ThrowbackThursday. Istanbul - Memories of a City

Pamuk, Orhan "Istanbul - Memories of a City" (aka Istanbul - Memories and a City) (Turkish: İstanbul: Hatıralar ve Şehir) - 2003

Orhan Pamuk is one of my absolute favourite authors. I have been to Istanbul in 1984 and was very impressed with the city.

If I hadn't loved Istanbul already, I certainly would so now. Orhan Pamuk grew up in Istanbul and knows the city better than many, I would say. With this book, he wrote a love letter to a city.

If Istanbul is considered the bridge between East and West, Orhan Pamuk should be declared the ambassador between the two worlds.

Orhan Pamuk "who in the quest for the melancholic soul of his native city has discovered new symbols for the clash and interlacing of cultures" received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2006.

Orhan Pamuk received the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade (Friedenspreis) in 2005.

I contribute to this page: Read the Nobels and you can find all my blogs about Nobel Prize winning authors and their books here.

Read my original review here. 

Top Ten Tuesday ~ Most Anticipated Books

 

"Top Ten Tuesday" is an original feature/weekly meme created on the blog "The Broke and the Bookish". This feature was created because they are particularly fond of lists at "The Broke and the Bookish". It is now hosted by Jana from That Artsy Reader Girl.

Since I am just as fond of them as they are, I jump at the chance to share my lists with them! Have a look at their page, there are lots of other bloggers who share their lists here.

This week, our topic is Most Anticipated Books Releasing In the Second Half of 2022

I am still waiting for a few books to be released as a paperback or to be translated into a language known to me but I have posted about them before (see here). I have some of those books, some of them books are still not out the way I like them (paperback and preferably the original language) but I'm still waiting for these.

Falcones, Ildefonso "Painter of Souls" (El pintor de almas) (Goodreads)
(waiting for translation)

Jonuleit, Anja "Das letzte Bild" (Goodreads)

Pamuk, Orhan "Nights of Plague" (Veba Geceleri/Die Nächte der Pest) (Goodreads)
(waiting for translation)

Rimington, Celesta "The Elephant's Girl" (Goodreads)

Zeh, Juli "Über Menschen" [About People] - 2021

Then there are a few new books by some of my favourite authors that will be published until the end of the year. Can't wait.

Atwood, Margaret "Fourteen Days: An Unauthorized Gathering" - 2022 (Goodreads) *

Kingsolver, Barbara "Demon Copperhead" - 2022

Oates, Joyce Carol "Extenuating Circumstances - 2022 (Goodreads)

Oates, Joyce Carol "Babysitter" - 2022 (Goodreads)

Tellkamp, Uwe "Der Schlaf in den Uhren" - 2022 (Goodreads)

* Funnily enough, the English cover is to be revealed, but the cover of the German translation has been made public already.

I am sure I will find many more books I should look forward to when I see what others have posted.

📚 Happy Reading! 📚

Pamuk, Orhan "The Naïve and the Sentimental Novelist"

Pamuk, Orhan "The Naïve and the Sentimental Novelist" (Turkish: Saf ve Düşünceli Romancı) - 2011

One of my favourite authors talks about one of my favourite subjects: books. What could go wrong?

Nothing. Orhan Pamuk talks about his view of writing, his approach to literature in just the same enchanting way as he describes the characters in his novels. He goes through various forms of writing for all of which he gives good examples from well-known literature (see list below). He uses a lot of Russian literature, especially comes back to "Anna Karenina" a lot.

This is an introduction to literature, how to understand it and what to make of it. It would probably be a great book for students of any language but certainly those who study literature. I have yet to find a book by this fabulous author where I don't learn at least a little. Here, I have learned a lot.

If he hadn't received it already, I would have suggested him for the Nobel Prize many times, but certainly after this book.

From the back cover:

"From the Nobel Prize-winning novelist, an inspired, thoughtful, and deeply personal book about reading and writing novels. 

In this fascinating set of essays, based on the talks he delivered at Harvard University as part of the distinguished Norton Lecture series, Pamuk presents a comprehensive and provocative theory of the novel and the experience of reading. Drawing on Friedrich Schiller’s famous distinction between 'naïve' writers - those who write spontaneously - and 'sentimental' writers - those who are reflective and aware - Pamuk reveals two unique ways of processing and composing the written word. He takes us through his own literary journey and the beloved novels of his youth to describe the singular experience of reading. Unique, nuanced, and passionate, this book will be beloved by readers and writers alike."

Orhan Pamuk "who in the quest for the melancholic soul of his native city has discovered new symbols for the clash and interlacing of cultures" received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2006.

Orhan Pamuk received the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade (Friedenspreis) in 2005.

You can read more about the books I read by one of my favourite authors here.

I contribute to this page: Read the Nobels and you can find all my blogs about Nobel Prize winning authors and their books here. Read my other reviews of the Nobel Prize winners for Literature.

List of books and/or authors mentioned:
Abū Nuwās (al-Ḥasan ibn Hānī al-Ḥakamī) (~756-814)
Albrecht, Michael von (1933-)
Alighieri, Dante (1265-1321)
Allston, Washington (1779-1843)
Aristoteles "Physics" (Φυσικὴ ἀκρόασις/Phusike akroasis) ~4th century
Auden, W.H. "The Shield of Achilles" - 1952
Austen, Jane (1775-1817)
Bakhtin, Michail (1895-1975)
Balzac, Honorée de "Father Goriot" (Le Père Goriot) - 1835
- "The Human Comedy" (La Comédie humaine) - 1829–48
Barnes, Julian "A History of the World in 10½ Chapters" - 1989
Beaudelaire, Charles (1821-67)
Beauvoir, Simone de (1908-86)
Benjamin, Walter (1892-1940)
Bhabha, Homi K. (1949-)
Borges, Jorge Luis (1899-1986)
Bourdieu, Pierre (1930-2002)
Broch, Hermann (1886-1951)
Brod, Max (1884-1968)
Bulgakov, Michail "The Master and Margarita" (Мастер и Маргарита/Master I Margarita) - 1866-67
Butor, Michel (1926-2016)
Cabrera Infante, Guillermo "Three Sad Tigers" (Tres tristes tigres) - 1967
Calvino, Italo "Invisible Cities" (Le città invisibili) - 1972
- "If on a Winter's Night a Traveller" (Se una notte d’inverno un viaggiatore) - 1979
Çelebi, Evliya (1611-83)
Cervantes, Miguel de "Don Quixote, vols. 1 and 2" (El Ingenioso Hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha) - 1605-1615
Christie, Agatha "Murder on the Orient Express" - 1934
Coetze, J.M. (1940-)
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor "Biographia Literaria or Biographical Sketches of My Literary Life and Opinions" - 1817
- "The Rhyme of the Anicent Mariner" - 1798
Conrad, Joseph (1857-1924)
Cortázar, Julio "Hopscoth" (Rayuela) - 1963
Defoe, Daniel "Robinson Crusoe" - 1719
Desai, Kiran (1971-)
Dick, Philip K. (1928-82)
Dickens, Charles "David Copperfield" - 1850
- "Oliver Twist" - 1838
Diderot, Denis (1713-84)
Dikbaş, Nazim (1973-)
Dostoevsky, Fyodor "The Brothers Karamazov" (Братья Карамазовы/Brat'ya Karamazovy) - 1879-80
- "Demons" aka "The Possessed" (Бесы/Bésy) - 1871´-72
Eco, Umberto (1932-2016)
Ekrem, Recaizade Mahmut "Araba Sevdazi" - 1896
Eliot, George (1819-80)
Eliot, T.S. "Hamlet and his Problems" - 1919
Faulkner, William "As I lay dying" - 1930
- "The Sound and the Fury" - 1929
- "The Wild Palms/The Old Man or If I Forget Thee Jerusalem" - 1939
Fielding, Henry "The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling" - 1749
Firdausi, Abu l-Qasem-e (940-1020)
Flaubert, Gustave "Madame Bovary" (Madame Bovary) - 1857
- "Sentimental Education" (L’Éducation sentimentale) - 1869
Forster, E.M. "Aspects of the Novel" - 1927
Foucault, Michel "What Is an Author?" (Qu’est-ce qu’un auteur?) - 1969
Frank, Joseph "Dostoevsky: The Miraculous Years" - 1995
García Márquez, Gabriel (1927-2014)
Gautier, Théophile (1811-72)
Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von (1749-1832)
Greenblatt, Stephen (1943-)
Habermas, Jürgen (1929-)
Hakmen, Roza (1956-)
Handke, Peter (1942-)
Hedayat, Sadegh "The Blind Owl" (بوف کور/Boof-e koor) - 1936
Heidegger, Martin (1889-1976)
Highsmith, Patricia (1921-95)
Homer "Iliad" (Ἰλιάς, Iliás)
- "Odyssey" (Ομήρου Οδύσσεια, Odýsseia) - 800-600 BC
Horace "The Art of Poetry" (Ars Poetica) ~19 BC
Huyssen, Andreas (1942-)
Iser, Wolfgang (1926-2007)
James, Henry "The Golden Bowl" - 1904
Joyce, James "Finnegans Wake" - 1939
- "Ulysses" - 1922
Kafka, Franz "The Metamorphosis" (Die Verwandlung) - 1912
Kundera, Milan "The Unbearable Lightness of Being" (Nesnesitelná lehkost bytí) - 1984
Le Carré (1931-2020)
Lem, Stanisław (1921-2006)
Leskov, Nikolai "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District" (Леди Макбет Мценского уезда Ledi Makbet Mtsenskovo uyezda) - 1865
Lessing, Gotthold Ephraim "Laocoon: or, The limits of Poetry and Painting" (Lakoon oder Über die Grenzen der Malerei und Poesie) - 1766
Lukács, György "The Theory of the Novel" (Theorie des Romans) -1974
Mann, Thomas "Buddenbrooks: The Decline of a Family" (Buddenbrooks) - 1901
- "The Magic Mountain" (Der Zauberberg) - 1924
Manzoni, Alessandro "The Betrothed" (I Promessi Sposi) - 1827
Melville, Herman "Bartleby, the Scrivener" - 1853
- "Moby Dick or The Whale" - 1851
Molière "The Miser" (L'avare) - 1668
Montaigne, Michel de (1533-1592)
Murasaki, Lady Shikibu "The Tale of Genji" (源氏物語/Genji Monogatari) - early 11th century
Nabokov, Vladimir Vladimirovich "Lolita" - 1955
- "Pale Fire" - 1962
Naipaul, V.S. "Finding the Centre" - 1984
- "In a Free State" - 1971
Nerval, Gérard de "Sylvie" (Sylvie) - 1853
Nietzsche, Friedrich (1844-1900)
Ortega y Gasset, José - 1883-1955
Pamuk, Orhan "The Black Book" (Kara Kitap) - 1990
- "Cevdet Bey and His Sons" (Cevdet Bey ve Oğulları) - 1982
- "Istanbul - Memories of a City" (İstanbul: Hatıralar ve Şehir) - 2003
- "The Museum of Innocence" (Masumiyet Müzesi) - 2008
- "My Name is Red" (Benim Adim Kirmizi) - 1998
- "The Silent House" (Sessiz Ev) - 1983
- "Snow" (Kar) - 2002
- "The White Castle" (Beyaz Kale) - 1985
Perec, Georges "Life; A User's Manual" (La vie mode d'emploi) - 1978
Poe, Edgar Allen "The Philosophy of Composition" - 1846
 - "The Raven" - 1845
Proust, Marcel "In Search of Lost Time" (À la recherche du temps perdu) - 1913-27
- "Swann's Way" (Du côté de chez Swann) - 1913
Rabelais, François (~1483-94-1553)
Robbe-Grillet, Alain (1922-2008)
Rousseau, Jean-Jacques "Confessions of Jean-Jacques Rousseau" (Les Confessions) - 1782
- "Julie; or, The New Heloise" (Julie ou la Nouvelle Héloïse) - 1761
Rumi "Masnavi" (Masnavi-ye-Ma'navi/مثنوی معنوی‎) ~1273
Sartre, Jean-Paul "The Words" (Les Mots) - 1964
Schiller, Friedrich "Über naive und sentimentalische Dichtung" (On Naïve and Sentimental Poetry) - 1795
Shakespeare, William "Macbeth" - 1606
Shklovsky, Viktor (1893-1984)
Şoray, Türkan (1945-)
Stendhal "The Charterhouse of Parma" (La Chartreuse de Parme) - 1839
- "The Red and the Black" (Le Rouge et le Noir) - 1830
Sterne, Laurence "The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman" - 1759-67
- "Sentimental Journey through France and Italy" - 1768
Strindberg, August "The Son of a Servant" (Tjänstekvinnans son) - 1886
Sue, Eugène (1804-57)
Tanizaki, Jun'ichirō "Naomi" (痴人の愛/Chijin no Ai) - 1925
Tanpınar, Ahmet Hamdi "The Time Regulation Institute" (Saatleri Ayarlama Enstitüsü) - 1961
Thomas, Bernard "Old Masters" (Alte Meister) - 1895
Tolstoy, Leo "Anna Karenina" (Анна Каренина/Anna Karenina) - 1877
- "War and Peace" (Война и мир/Woina I Mir) - 1868/69
Vargas Llosa, Mario "Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter" (La tía Julia y el escribidor) - 1977
Woolf, Virginia "Mrs. Dalloway" - 1925
- "The Waves" - 1931
Wordsworth, William (1770-1850)
Yourcenar, Marguerite "The Abyss" (L'Œuvre au noir) - 1968
- "Memoirs of Hadrian" (Mémoires d'Hadrien) - 1951
- "That Mighty Sculptor, Time" (essay "Ton et langage dans le roman historique" from "Le Temps, ce grand sculpteur") - 1983
Zola, Émile "Nana" (Nana) - 1880

Top Ten Tuesday - Top Ten Most Anticipated Releases for the Second Half of 2020

"Top Ten Tuesday" is an original feature/weekly meme created on the blog "The Broke and the Bookish". This feature was created because they are particularly fond of lists at "The Broke and the Bookish".

It is now hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl.

Since I am just as fond of them as they are, I jump at the chance to share my lists with them! Have a look at their page, there are lots of other bloggers who share their lists here.

Most Anticipated Releases for the Second Half of 2020

I'm not necessarily waiting for a certain next book unless it's a sequel. That's especially difficult with German ones since here books first get published in hardback and only years later (at least it seems like it) in paperback.

Anyway, I have checked out recommendations on Goodreads and also looked out for new books by some of my favourite living authors and come up with the following list. Some of the books might not appear this next half of the year but they are about to be published.

Abulhawa, Susan "Against the Loveless World"

Follett, Ken "The Evening and the Morning" (prequel to "The Pillars of the Earth")

Hansen, Dörte "Mittagsstunde" [Lunchtime]

Lawson, Mary "Before the Snow". I think this was published as "A Town Called Solace"

Oates, Joyce Carol "Night. Sleep. Death. The Stars."

Osman, Richard "The Thursday Murder Club"

Pamuk, Orhan "The Naive and the Sentimental Novelist"

Rutherfurd, Edward "China"

 Weir, Alison "Katheryn Howard: The Tainted Queen"

These are some of the books that will appear soon. There are lots of authors where I would love to read a new book … if only they would write one.

Pamuk, Orhan "The Red-Haired Woman"

Pamuk, Orhan "The Red-Haired Woman" (Turkish: Kırmızı Saçlı Kadın) - 2016

Did I mention already how much I love Orhan Pamuk? (Of course I did!) He always finds a new way to portray his country, the people who live there, the uniqueness of a place between East and West.

Same as his other books, I really loved this story about a young guy between child- and adulthood. He lost his father early on and tries to find the father figure in his boss.

In the three different parts of this novel, we find parts of classic tales, "Oedipus Rex" (Sophocles, Σοφοκλῆς, 497/6 – 406/5 BC) and "Rostam and Sohrab" from the epos Shahnameh (Persian: شاهنامه‎, romanized: Šâhnâme) by Abul-Qâsem Ferdowsi Tusi (Persian: ابوالقاسم فردوسی طوسی‎; c. 940–1020), or just Ferdowsi. Whilst I haven't read either of them, I think most readers are well aware of the stories. Again, two similar tales on the same theme, the former Western, the latter Eastern.

What I also like about Orhan Pamuk and his writing is that he doesn't just combine East and West, he also combines history and present. He explains what is going on in present day Turkey in his own way. And he uses a lot of symbolism that is easy to understand. Just brilliant.

And then there is always a way where he brings us closer to Eastern culture, e.g. by mentioning "Shahnameh" but also other work of arts, like Ilya Repin's painting "Ivan the Terrible and His Son Ivan" or "Oedipus and the Sphinx" by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres. He can only widen our horizons.

From the back cover:

"On the outskirts of a town, thirty miles from Istanbul, a master well-digger and his young apprentice are hired to find water on a barren plain. As they struggle in the summer heat and develop a filial bond neither has known before, the boy finds an irresistible diversion - The Red-Haired Woman, an alluring member of a travelling theatre company, causing a horrible accident to befall on the well-digger and making the boy flee to Istanbul. A beguiling mystery tale of family, romance, tradition and modernity, by one of the great storytellers of our time."

Orhan Pamuk "who in the quest for the melancholic soul of his native city has discovered new symbols for the clash and interlacing of cultures" received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2006.

Orhan Pamuk received the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade (Friedenspreis) in 2005.

You can read more about the books I read by one of my favourite authors here.

I contribute to this page: Read the Nobels and you can find all my blogs about Nobel Prize winning authors and their books here.

Pamuk, Orhan "The New Life"

Pamuk, Orhan "The New Life" (Turkish: Yeni Hyat) - 1994

I've said it before, I'll say it again, Orhan Pamuk is one of my favourite authors. He never fails to surprise.

In this novel, the protagonist reads a book. Sounds familiar?

Now, even reading a brilliant book doesn't mean it will change your entire life. But in this case, it does. Osman is a student in Istanbul. He gives up his studies, leaves his family and friend behind and goes on a long journey through Turkey with no destiny or motive.

It's not just the story itself that's so fascinating, it's the way the author tells it. He has a special way of describing people and situations, the story unfolds in quite a unique way, it's full of symmetry. His puns and allusions to life in Turkey are so Interesting. He is one of their most important authors.

I am looking forward to his next novels.

From the back cover:

"'I read a book one day, and my whole life was changed.'

So begins The New Life, Orhan Pamuk's fabulous road novel about a young student who yearns for the life promised by a dangerously magical book. He falls in love, abandons his studies, turns his back on home and family, and embarks on restless bus trips through the provinces, in pursuit of an elusive vision. This is a wondrous odyssey, laying bare the rage of an arid heartland. In coffee houses with black-and-white TV sets, on buses where passengers ride watching B-movies on flickering screens, in wrecks along the highway, in paranoid fictions with spies as punctual as watches, the magic of Pamuk's creation comes alive."

Orhan Pamuk "who in the quest for the melancholic soul of his native city has discovered new symbols for the clash and interlacing of cultures" received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2006.

Orhan Pamuk received the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade (Friedenspreis) in 2005.

You can read more about the books I read by one of my favourite authors here.

I contribute to this page: Read the Nobels and you can find all my blogs about Nobel Prize winning authors and their books here.

Pamuk, Orhan "A Strangeness in my Mind"

Pamuk, Orhan "A Strangeness in my Mind" (Turkish: Kafamda Bir Tuhaflık) - 2014

Orhan Pamuk is definitely one of my favourite authors. I love reading Nobel Prize winners and he won the Nobel Prize. I love reading the winners of the German Peace Prize and he won the German Peace Prize (before winning the Nobel Prize). I love reading Turkish books and he writes Turkish books. So, what's not to love?

In this novel, he describes the life of a Turkish guy who marries the sister of the girl he has fallen in love with. The characters are about my age which makes it even more interesting, comparing my life with that of similar people in Turkey. You get to know the protagonist and his family and friends very well and you get to like them, no matter what.

What I also like about his books is that he doesn't shy away from talking about political problems in the country. How do poor people move up on the social ladder? They don't. What about women's rights? There hardly are any. How do they treat minorities (like the Kurds)? Not good.

As always, the author's home city Istanbul plays a major part in this novel. You can see in his portrayal that he loves his city but that he also sees the negative parts of it.

A great account of ordinary people, a lovely tale that starts good but grows on you with every page you turn.

From the back cover:

"A Strangeness In My Mind is a novel Orhan Pamuk has worked on for six years. It is the story of boza seller Mevlut, the woman to whom he wrote three years' worth of love letters, and their life in Istanbul.

In the four decades between 1969 and 2012, Mevlut works a number of different jobs on the streets of Istanbul, from selling yoghurt and cooked rice, to guarding a car park. He observes many different kinds of people thronging the streets, he watches most of the city get demolished and re-built, and he sees migrants from Anatolia making a fortune; at the same time, he witnesses all of the transformative moments, political clashes, and military coups that shape the country. He always wonders what it is that separates him from everyone else - the source of that strangeness in his mind. But he never stops selling boza during winter evenings and trying to understand who his beloved really is.

What matters more in love: what we wish for, or what our fate has in store? Do our choices dictate whether we will be happy or not, or are these things determined by forces beyond our control?

A Strangeness In My Mind tries to answer these questions while portraying the tensions between urban life and family life, and the fury and helplessness of women inside their homes."

Orhan Pamuk "who in the quest for the melancholic soul of his native city has discovered new symbols for the clash and interlacing of cultures" received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2006.

Orhan Pamuk received the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade (Friedenspreis) in 2005.

You can read more about the books I read by one of my favourite authors here.

I contribute to this page: Read the Nobels and you can find all my blogs about Nobel Prize winning authors and their books here.

Pamuk, Orhan "Cevdet Bey and His Sons"

Pamuk, Orhan "Cevdet Bey and His Sons" (Turkish: Cevdet Bey ve Oğulları) - 1982

Orhan Pamuk is not only one of my favourite Turkish authors, he is also one of my favourite authors ever. He has a certain quality to talk about people and events that makes you believe you are right there with them. Whether it is about a murder in the middle ages (My Name is Red) or he tells us about his life (Istanbul), he brings Turkey and Islamism closer to us, he makes us understand a lot of things we wouldn't know without him.

In this book he tells the story of Cevdet, a merchant in Konstantinopel (now Istanbul) at the beginning of the last century. He describes his life in a vivid way and then moves on to the next generation, his sons and their friends in a pre-WWII Istanbul until he finally reaches his grandson in 1970. We follow the family Bey from the Ottoman Empire until their independence, the whole history of the 20th century. We read about the wars, Kemal Attatürk and his visions, the changes that go through the people of what we now call Turkey, the Sultans and their empire and how they got on with their new life. A story about a wealthy family but also about the people around them who were not so fortunate.

A great story by a great author.

From the back cover:

"The story of a small shop owner in Abdulhamid’s last years and one of the first Muslim merchants Cevdet Bey and his sons covers three generations from the beginning of the century to the present day, and it’s also the story of Turkish Republic’s private life. Through the adventures of a family which lives in Nişantaşı, it looks into the indoor lifestyles, the new life in apartments, big families that are becoming westernized, going shopping in Beyoğlu, listening to radio on Sunday afternoons..."

Books mentioned:
Balzac, Honoré de "Le Père Goriot" (Old Father Goriot) (Rastignac)
Karaosmanoğlu, Yakup Kadri "Ankara"
Stendhal "Le Rouge et le Noir" (The Red and The Black/Rot und Schwarz)

Orhan Pamuk "who in the quest for the melancholic soul of his native city has discovered new symbols for the clash and interlacing of cultures" received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2006.

Orhan Pamuk received the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade (Friedenspreis) in 2005.

You can read more about the books I read by one of my favourite authors here.

I contribute to this page: Read the Nobels and you can find all my blogs about Nobel Prize winning authors and their books here.

Tanpınar, Ahmet Hamdi "The Time Regulation Institute"

Tanpınar, Ahmet Hamdi "The Time Regulation Institute" (Turkish: Saatleri Ayarlama Enstitüsü) - 1961

Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar was not known to me until now. Except that one of my favourite authors, Orhan Pamuk, says that he is his favourite author. Could there be a better recommendation?

The story is satire at its best. What do we not need? Bureaucracy. And what do we need even less than bureaucracy? An institute that is worth nothing, that does not serve any purpose and that is full of people who are related to its creator.

The author manages to tell a hilarious tale of an adventurer who uses mankind's weaknesses against itself. The protagonists Hayri Irdal and his opponent Halit Ayarci could not be any different and, yet, they complete each other perfectly. They represent both the old and the modern Turkey, the bridge between Orient and Occident. Together they form "The Time Regulation Institute" that wants to ensure that everyone has the correct time. Even read without the background, it is a hilarious story and Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar manages to get you interested every single second you are reading the book.

It's as contemporary now as it was more than half a century ago when it was written. Next to a pleasurable story, it gives you a brilliant insight into Turkish culture and history.

If you like Turkish authors, this is a MUST.

We discussed this in our international book club in January 2015.

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2025.

From the back cover:

"A literary discovery: an uproarious tragicomedy of modernization, in its first-ever English translation

Perhaps the greatest Turkish novel of the twentieth century, being discovered around the world only now, more than fifty years after its first publication, The Time Regulation Institute is an antic, freewheeling send-up of the modern bureaucratic state.

At its center is Hayri Irdal, an infectiously charming antihero who becomes entangled with an eccentric cast of characters - a television mystic, a pharmacist who dabbles in alchemy, a dignitary from the lost Ottoman Empire, a “clock whisperer” - at the Time Regulation Institute, a vast organization that employs a hilariously intricate system of fines for the purpose of changing all the clocks in Turkey to Western time. Recounted in sessions with his psychoanalyst, the story of Hayri Irdal’s absurdist misadventures plays out as a brilliant allegory of the collision of tradition and modernity, of East and West, infused with a poignant blend of hope for the promise of the future and nostalgia for a simpler time."

Pamuk, Orhan "My Father's Suitcase"

Pamuk, Orhan "My Father's Suitcase" (Turkish: Babamın Bavulu) - 2007

The title of this collection refers to the first story in the book, the lecture Orhan Pamuk gave in Stockholm when he accepted the Nobel Prize for Literature. I read the German translation ("Der Koffer meines Vaters. Aus dem Leben eines Schriftstellers") that does not only have the addition to the title "From the life of an author" but also has 344 pages as opposed to the English one with only 28 pages. There are a lot more stories in the German one. He has put them together in subcategories titled "Life", "Istanbul", "America", "Reading and Books", "My Books are My Life", "Pictures and Texts", "Politics and Citizenship" and "Paris Review" where he publishes his interview for Paris Review.

The parts of this book are more like articles rather than short stories. I learned a lot about one of my favourite writers. I had the feeling I got closer to Orhan Pamuk, the writer, but also to Orhan Pamuk the private man. He talks to us about Turkey, its history and its contemporary politics, Istanbul, as always, where Orhan Pamuk is, Istanbul is not far. But we can also learn what he thinks about writing and how to be a writer.

A great book, I am happy that it was translated into German. Even if they will never translate all of it into English, try to read at least "My Father's Suitcase", it is a wonderful story.

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2025.

Buchbeschreibung:

"'Two years before his death, my father gave me a small suitcase full of his writings, hand writings and notebooks.'

Orhan Pamuk gave a speech called 'My Father’s Suitcase' when he received the Nobel Prize in Literature in December 2006. This emotional speech which sincerely conveys the spirit of Pamuk’s thirty two years of writing effort, had a deep, worldwide impact. This book combines 'My Father’s Suitcase' which is a basic text about writing and living with Pamuk’s two other speeches in which the same subjects and problems are discussed from other perspectives. 'The Implied Author', the speech that Pamuk gave when he received the Puterbaugh Prize given by World Literature magazine, in April 2006 is about the psychology of writing and the urge and adventure of being a writer. Pamuk’s other speech, 'In Kars and in Frankfurt' that was given when he received the Peace Prize given by the German Publishers Associations in October 2005 is investigating the power of the writer to put himself in another’s place and the political consequences of this very natural human talent. My Father’s Suitcase consists of three speeches that are seen as a whole by their writer.

It’s a unique, personal book on what writing is, how to become a writer, life and writing, the writer’s patience and the secrets of the art of novel (from the author's website)"

Orhan Pamuk "who in the quest for the melancholic soul of his native city has discovered new symbols for the clash and interlacing of cultures" received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2006.

Orhan Pamuk received the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade (Friedenspreis) in 2005.

You can read more about the books I read by one of my favourite authors here.

I contribute to this page: Read the Nobels and you can find all my blogs about Nobel Prize winning authors and their books here.

Pamuk, Orhan "Snow"

Pamuk, Orhan "Snow" (Turkish: Kar) - 2002

Ka is a Turkish poet who lives in Germany but visits a town in Turkey called Kars. While he is there, they have a heavy snowfall and nobody can leave or enter the town. The Turkish name for snow is "kar". What a coincidence!

Anyway, while he staying in Kars, a revolution is taking place in the little city. We can follow the way of this from the early beginnings, we can see every little piece of what those who want to overthrow the government want, what they are prepared to do, and what the government tries to do to repulse them. Because this takes place in a small town, it is easy to see the whole picture.

I know the author is not much liked in certain circles in his country and this is the book where I understand it best. Nobody likes criticism, especially if you know you're wrong. I admire him even more after this book which is certainly not his easiest one.

Orhan Pamuk manages to point out the differences between East and West, to draw a clear images of the political problems Turkey is facing and still writing a beautiful story in the midst of it all. I think I mentioned before that I love this author. Even if I wasn't interested in what is going on in Turkey at all, I still would like to read his books, he has a great writing style. And he manages to create a new world in every one of his books.

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2025.

From the back cover:

"Dread, yearning, identity, intrigue, the lethal chemistry between secular doubt and Islamic fanaticism–these are the elements that Orhan Pamuk anneals in this masterful, disquieting novel. An exiled poet named Ka returns to Turkey and travels to the forlorn city of Kars. His ostensible purpose is to report on a wave of suicides among religious girls forbidden to wear their head-scarves. But Ka is also drawn by his memories of the radiant Ipek, now recently divorced. Amid blanketing snowfall and universal suspicion, Ka finds himself pursued by figures ranging from Ipek’s ex-husband to a charismatic terrorist. A lost gift returns with ecstatic suddenness. A theatrical evening climaxes in a massacre. And finding god may be the prelude to losing everything else. Touching, slyly comic, and humming with cerebral suspense, Snow is of immense relevance to our present moment."

Orhan Pamuk "who in the quest for the melancholic soul of his native city has discovered new symbols for the clash and interlacing of cultures" received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2006.

Orhan Pamuk received the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade (Friedenspreis) in 2005.
I contribute to this page: Read the Nobels and you can find all my blogs about Nobel Prize winning authors and their books here.

Pamuk, Orhan "The White Castle"

Pamuk, Orhan "The White Castle" (Turkish: Beyaz Kale) - 1985 

Orhan Pamuk belongs to my favourite authors. I have read quite a few of his books already, my reviews you can find here.

This novel is as intriguing as "My Name is Red" which was the first Pamuk novel I read and which made me fall in love with his writing.

The author transports us back into the Venice and Istanbul/Constantinople of the 17th century. His tale is about two men who are as different and yet as similar as possible to each other who come from the two different parts of the world. We learn about the differences between the Orient and the Occident at the time but also about their common goals, about man's goals through the ages.

This is the story about a Venetian who gets captured and transported to Turkey where he becomes the slave of a man who could be his identical twin.

We discover a lot about the different characters of the two men as well as the different characters of men leading their lives in the two countries. The characters not only change knowledge but also memories and ideas. They fight together for the future.

If you are interested in Turkey and its Ottoman background, this novel is a must. If you like to read entertaining stories, this is also one of the greatest you might come across for quite a while. This novel was written quite a while before "My Name is Red" and there are similarities between the two. So, if you have read this one, carry on with the other.

What I like most about Pamuk's writings is that he doesn't just tell us about his part of the world, he also makes us think about ourselves and what our goals and meaning in life is. Perhaps that is what draws me most to the literature of this master.

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2025.

From the back cover:

"From a Turkish writer who has been compared with Borges, Nabokov, and DeLillo comes a dazzling novel that is at once a captivating work of historical fiction and a sinuous treatise on the enigma of identity and the relations between East and West. In the 17th century, a young Italian scholar sailing from Venice to Naples is taken prisoner and delivered to Constantinople. There he falls into the custody of a scholar known as Hoja -- "master" -- a man who is his exact double. In the years that follow, the slave instructs his master in Western science and technology, from medicine to pyrotechnics. But Hoja wants to know more: why he and his captive are the persons they are and whether, given knowledge of each other's most intimate secrets, they could actually exchange identities. Set in a world of magnificent scholarship and terrifying savagery, The White Castle is a colorful and intricately patterned triumph of the imagination."

Orhan Pamuk "who in the quest for the melancholic soul of his native city has discovered new symbols for the clash and interlacing of cultures" received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2006.

Orhan Pamuk received the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade (Friedenspreis) in 2005.

I contribute to this page: Read the Nobels and you can find all my blogs about Nobel Prize winning authors and their books here.

Pamuk, Orhan "Silent House"

Pamuk, Orhan "Silent House" (Turkish: Sessiz Ev) - 1983

Turkey in the late 20th century. Three siblings, a sister and two brothers, visit their grandmother who lives outside of Istanbul. Everyone seems to have their own problems. While everyone tries to solve their specific issues in their own special way - those who see the bigger issue, want to solve the bigger issue and we see especially the political upheaval of the time. Those with more personal problems reflect more on themselves, show their selfish side - stories of the past interfere with today's life.

The family is an unhappy one, and the story touches many different topics, there are different classes, different generation, the Orient and the Occident with Turkey's transition from one to the other, political extremes, like in most of Orhan Pamuk's novels, you have it all. There are the family members that are not among them anymore, there are political.

The story is told by alternating narrators, a kind of storytelling I particularly love. In listening to the different characters, we can see and understand each one of them better and can follow the story from many different aspects. Orhan Pamuk has a rare talent in that he is able to talk in all kinds of different voices, old people, young people, boring people, interesting people, active people, sick people. He makes every character stand on his own and it is easy to distinguish who is who.

The author has said that in each of the different characters is something about him, he was one of them at different times of his life. Interesting.

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2025.

From the back cover:

"In an old mansion in Cennethisar, a former fishing village near Istanbul, an old widow Fatma awaits the annual summer visit of her grandchildren. She has lived in the village for decades, ever since her husband, an idealistic young doctor, first arrived to serve the poor fishermen. Now mostly bedridden, she is attended by her faithful servant Recep, a dwarf and the doctor's illegitimate son. They share memories, and grievances, of the early years, before Cennethisar became a high-class resort.
 
Her visiting grandchildren are Faruk, a dissipated failed historian; his sensitive leftist sister, Nilgun; and Metin, a high school student drawn to the fast life of the nouveaux riches, who dreams of going to America. But it is Recep's nephew Hassan, a high-school dropout, lately fallen in with right-wing nationalists, who will draw the visiting family into the growing political cataclysm issuing from Turkey's tumultuous century-long struggle for modernity."

I have read several other books by Orhan Pamuk which you can find here.

Orhan Pamuk "who in the quest for the melancholic soul of his native city has discovered new symbols for the clash and interlacing of cultures" received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2006.

Orhan Pamuk received the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade (Friedenspreis) in 2005.

I contribute to this page: Read the Nobels and you can find all my blogs about Nobel Prize winning authors and their books here.

Pamuk, Orhan "The Museum of Innocence"

Pamuk, Orhan "The Museum of Innocence" (Turkish: Masumiyet Müzesi) - 2008

Until now, I have loved every single book I read by Orhan Pamuk. That hasn't changed after reading this piece of art. The author has a wonderful eye for detail, he manages to describe anything in a way that you imagine having it in front of your eyes, feeling the sentiments the characters feel. You rejoice with them and mourn with them. A wonderful author who will hopefully write many many more books.

In this story, shortly before marrying, a guy falls in love with another girl. He becomes totally obsessed with her, his whole life changes, he becomes one of those creepy guys who follow a girl around without ever having a chance of going out with her. Still, the years pass and so does his relationship with the world in general and the girl in particular. The protagonist collects all sorts of stuff that reminds him of the girl and the relationship and puts it together in an apartment and eventually starts a museum with his collection. All this is described in a unique way, you feel the years passing along, they seem to go slow and fast at the same time, just as in real life.

This book reads almost like a biography and I had the feeling that the author passed on parts of himself. He actually appears in the book under his real name which is quite funny. And the novel doesn't miss out on humour, either, it is both sad and funny at the same time. We also follow the protagonist, not just on his visits into life but also into his soul. There is 1uite a philosophical approach at times. This book leaves you quite breathless for a while. It is magnificent. I love the author.

After the success of the book, Orhan Pamuk has established an actual "Museum of Innocence". (Unfortunately, the website I found is only in Turkish: Museum of Innocence/Masumiyet Müzesi but there is a gallery in English in the Guardian)

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2025.

From the back cover:

"The Museum of Innocence - set in Istanbul between 1975 and today - tells the story of Kemal, the son of one of Istanbul's richest families, and of his obsessive love for a poor and distant relation, the beautiful Füsün, who is a shop-girl in a small boutique. The novel depicts a panoramic view of life in Istanbul as it chronicles this long, obsessive, love affair between Kemal and Füsün; and Pamuk beautifully captures the identity crisis experienced by Istanbul's upper classes who find themselves caught between traditional and westernised ways of being. For the past ten years, Pamuk has been setting up a museum in the house in which his hero's fictional family lived, to display Kemal's strange collection of objects associated with Füsün and their relationship. The museum will be called The Museum of Innocence and it opens in 2010."

Orhan Pamuk "who in the quest for the melancholic soul of his native city has discovered new symbols for the clash and interlacing of cultures" received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2006.

Orhan Pamuk received the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade (Friedenspreis) in 2005.

I contribute to this page: Read the Nobels and you can find all my blogs about Nobel Prize winning authors and their books here.

Pamuk, Orhan "The Black Book"

Pamuk, Orhan "The Black Book" (Turkish: Kara Kitap) - 1990 

A man is looking for his wife who disappeared. He is roaming the streets of Istanbul in order to look back at their past. He mainly relies on the help of two columnists. That is about the plot of this story. But there is so much behind it, so many "meetings", present meets past, East meets West, religion meets secularism.

Orhan Pamuk manages to describe his home town in such a way that you really want to visit it (again), he makes it so interesting, the changing of people and cultures. This book is not just one novel, it's many short stories intertwined with each other, different people telling the story, part of it written by the two columnists so that you have different voices throughout the novel.

As with his other books, I really enjoyed the book of this outstanding author.

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2024.

From the back cover:

"Galip is a lawyer living in Istanbul. His wife, the detective novel–loving Ruya, has disappeared. Could she have left him for her ex-husband or Celâl, a popular newspaper columnist? But Celâl, too, seems to have vanished. As Galip investigates, he finds himself assuming the enviable Celâl's identity, wearing his clothes, answering his phone calls, even writing his columns. Galip pursues every conceivable clue, but the nature of the mystery keeps changing, and when he receives a death threat, he begins to fear the worst.

With its cascade of beguiling stories about Istanbul, The Black Book is a brilliantly unconventional mystery, and a provocative meditation on identity. For Turkish literary readers it is the cherished cult novel in which Orhan Pamuk found his original voice, but it has largely been neglected by English-language readers. Now, in Maureen Freely’s beautiful new translation, they, too, may encounter all its riches."

Further fantastic readings: "My Name is Red" and "Istanbul - Memories of a City"

Orhan Pamuk "who in the quest for the melancholic soul of his native city has discovered new symbols for the clash and interlacing of cultures" received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2006. 

Orhan Pamuk received the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade (Friedenspreis) in 2005.

I contribute to this page: Read the Nobels and you can find all my blogs about Nobel Prize winning authors and their books here.

Pamuk, Orhan "My Name is Red"

Pamuk, Orhan "My Name is Red" (Turkish: Benim Adim Kirmizi) - 1998

Every year, when the new Nobel prize winners are announced, I wait eagerly for literature recipient. Seldom have I been disappointed with their books. This year was no exception, on the contrary.

Orhan Pamuk is one of those rare authors who seem to have reinvented the art of writing. His style is quite unique. Even though he settles his story in the 13th century, it applies to actual problems and facts in a way nobody else seems to be able to do. I have since read quite a few of his books, he is absolutely fabulous.

The narrator of the novel changes in every chapter which gives you an insight into the whole story that is beyond comparison. You don't just get the view of quite a few of the characters (including the person who gets murdered right at the beginning of the story) but also of animals and the painting around which the story revolves. This novel doesn't just give you an insight into Islam and art, a tour around Istanbul and life 700 years ago, it is an expression of the quest for the meaning of life.

A wonderful author. One of my favourites.

And here is a brief compilation of our discussion in the book club (years after I read this for the first time). There are a couple of small spoilers in there, so if you haven't read the book, you might not want to read this.

There were a lot of topics, not such an easy read. Many characters, lots of unexpected situations and philosophies. It was not just a murder mystery, there are so many layers. Someone found the book too large. We liked the chronology in the back of the book, unfortunately, it wasn't in all the different editions.

The book didn't grip you right away, only after about 100 pages does it get really interesting. Great writing. No doubt. The author obviously likes to shock his readers. Some couldn't put it down after a while, others still didn't finish it.

His language is quite florid, like Persian that was at its peak at that time, then the arts fell out of favour.

The author uses imagery very well, very colourful writing. He compares the art of the Eastern and Western world, the different way of painting, the religion and culture. Miniaturist Painting was prevalent though that region and time. Art, science, philosophy, concept of making everything realistic is going out of fashion, everything is more abstract now, see the pointillism. Orhan Pamuk wanted to be an artist, he educates us about art history. We enjoyed learning about the art part, depending on who was speaking, seeing how dedicated they were. The descriptions of Istanbul were very good, those of us who had been there enjoyed it especially. We would like to read something else about that time period.

His look at the world is fascinating.

We also had a talk about different cultures and how much they should assimilate when in a foreign country. We agreed that nobody should give up their own culture (but definitely abide by the law of the host country) but try to bring them together, social media is a good help.

We had a discussion about why they always use beautiful young boys or men for their pleasure.
We also wondered why Osman pierced his eyes.

Most of us were surprised who the murderer was.

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2024.

From the back cover:

"In the late 1590s, the Sultan secretly commissions a great book: a celebration of his life and his empire, to be illuminated by the best artists of the day - in the European manner. At a time of violent fundamentalism, however, this is a dangerous proposition. Even the illustrious circle of artists are not allowed to know for whom they are working. But when one of the miniaturists is murdered, their Master has to seek outside help. Did the dead painter fall victim to professional rivalry, romantic jealousy or religious terror?

With the Sultan demanding an answer within three days, perhaps the clue lies somewhere in the half-finished pictures . . . Orhan Pamuk is one of the world's leading contemporary novelists and in My Name is Red, he fashioned an unforgettable tale of suspense, and an artful meditation on love and deception."

We discussed this in our international book club in February 2013 and in our international online book club in December 2019. 

I also really enjoyed "The Black Book" and "Istanbul - Memories of a City"

Orhan Pamuk "who in the quest for the melancholic soul of his native city has discovered new symbols for the clash and interlacing of cultures" received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2006. 

Orhan Pamuk received the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade (Friedenspreis) in 2005.
 
I contribute to this page: Read the Nobels and you can find all my blogs about Nobel Prize winning authors and their books here.