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A review by iagonizing
The Black Book by Orhan Pamuk
3.0
God I am finally done with this book, I thought it was never going to end. Though there are chapters that completely me drew me in, I think that ultimately I do not know enough about Turkey to be able to appreciate the more opaque sections, which made them drag on and on. The narration alternates between the story and some articles published by one of the characters. It is less about plot and more about ideas concerning identity: what is identity, how people influence our identities, how our wanting to be other people changes us, how Istanbul deals with being stuck between east and west, how modernization changes identities, how you can pass off as another person without effecting any change etc. etc. Interesting stuff to think about for a while.
What I liked:
1) The ambiance is like a film noir. Galip is looking for his missing wife, Ruya and his cousin Jelal. In this search we get taken to a lot of hidden-in-plain-sight places in an always-snowing Istanbul: a multi-generational apartment building that has seen better days, a store that sells everything, a mannequin maker, a cafe meeting between three scholars, a palace with a prince who tries to see his own city. It's all super atmospheric and lived-in, and always a little bit unnerving, somehow.
2) Some of the articles interspersed with the narration are very interesting. There is about 15 of them, but the ones I liked most are: The one about the potential day that the Bosphorus dries up, the one about three writers offering tips to a newbie and throwing backhanded shade at one another, the one about a mannequin maker who creates figurines that nobody likes because they look too lifelike and people want western-looking mannequins, the one about Aladdin's shop and how he deals with customers asking him for the absurdist items and the bad attitude they give him, and the one about a mirror that reflects reality just a little bit differently.
What I liked:
1) The ambiance is like a film noir. Galip is looking for his missing wife, Ruya and his cousin Jelal. In this search we get taken to a lot of hidden-in-plain-sight places in an always-snowing Istanbul: a multi-generational apartment building that has seen better days, a store that sells everything, a mannequin maker, a cafe meeting between three scholars, a palace with a prince who tries to see his own city. It's all super atmospheric and lived-in, and always a little bit unnerving, somehow.
2) Some of the articles interspersed with the narration are very interesting. There is about 15 of them, but the ones I liked most are: The one about the potential day that the Bosphorus dries up, the one about three writers offering tips to a newbie and throwing backhanded shade at one another, the one about a mannequin maker who creates figurines that nobody likes because they look too lifelike and people want western-looking mannequins, the one about Aladdin's shop and how he deals with customers asking him for the absurdist items and the bad attitude they give him, and the one about a mirror that reflects reality just a little bit differently.