Scan barcode
musicsaves's review against another edition
3.0
FIRST LINE REVIEW: "From a very young age, I suspected there was more to my world than I could see: Somewhere in the streets of Istanbul, in a house resembling ours, there lived another Orhan so much like me that he could pass for my twin, even my double." And by wandering the streets of Istanbul and the memories they evoke, Orhan eventually finds that other Orhan, the one who will become a Nobel Prize-winning author. I read this book in preparation for my own wanderings of the Istanbullu streets next month. Now I feel ready to lose myself there and, perhaps, find another Ivan.
apfelahmed's review against another edition
2.0
تذكر دائما : لا تقرأ السيرة الذاتية لكاتب قبل ان تقرأ أعماله الأخرى
ملحوظة: يبدو ان في حياة كل كاتب عظيم مدينة أسطورية مدهشة تؤثر في تكوينه و تلهمه (نجيب محفوظ و القاهرة مثلا) و هكذا دواليك
لابد لي من زيارة جديدة مرة أخرى لهذا الكتاب عندما أقرأ أعمال أخرى لأورهان
ملحوظة: يبدو ان في حياة كل كاتب عظيم مدينة أسطورية مدهشة تؤثر في تكوينه و تلهمه (نجيب محفوظ و القاهرة مثلا) و هكذا دواليك
لابد لي من زيارة جديدة مرة أخرى لهذا الكتاب عندما أقرأ أعمال أخرى لأورهان
diana_skelton's review against another edition
3.0
"I felt as uneasy as anyone in the family about the devotion of deeply religious people. My fear, which I shared with everyone in the Turkish bourgeoisie, was not of God, but of the fury of those who believed in Her too much. … In the secular fury of Ataturk's new republic, to move away from religion was to be modern and Western; it was a smugness in which there flickered from time to time the flame of idealism. But that was in public. In private life, nothing came to fill the spiritual void."
"The fragility of people's lives in Istanbul, the way they treat each other, and the distance they feel from the centers of the West, make Istanbul a city that newly arrived Westerners are at a loss to understand, and out of this loss they attribute to it a 'mysterious air'. … In Istanbul the remains of a glorious past and civilization are everywhere visible. No matter how ill-kept they are, no matter how neglected or hemmed in their are by concrete monstrosities, the great mosques and other monuments of the city, as well as the lesser detritus of empire in every side street and corner--the little arches, fountains, and neighborhood mosques--inflict heartache on all who live amongst them."
"The fragility of people's lives in Istanbul, the way they treat each other, and the distance they feel from the centers of the West, make Istanbul a city that newly arrived Westerners are at a loss to understand, and out of this loss they attribute to it a 'mysterious air'. … In Istanbul the remains of a glorious past and civilization are everywhere visible. No matter how ill-kept they are, no matter how neglected or hemmed in their are by concrete monstrosities, the great mosques and other monuments of the city, as well as the lesser detritus of empire in every side street and corner--the little arches, fountains, and neighborhood mosques--inflict heartache on all who live amongst them."
poutinetandoori's review against another edition
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
4.0
La mélancolie du livre est presque contagieuse... on éprouve une certaine lourdeur à la lecture.
mafm22's review against another edition
5.0
Maybe the fifth star is for novelty. I think this is the first book I've read about Turkey written by a Turk. If I'd read other, this might have been 4 stars.