A review by mallard_duck
10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World, by Elif Shafak
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
A good book if you want to remind yourself why patriarchy is the worst, I guess?
Here's a girl from an increasingly religious family, riddled with misplaced guilt and unable to find justice after being sexually abused by a relative, who decides to run away from home to seek a better life in a big city - where she becomes easy prey to traffickers and sold into forced sex work. Her best friend, a trans woman who becomes a sex worker because that's one of the only career paths available to her. Another naive girl with no support from family who believes in lofty promises of work in a foreign country but ends up sold to a brothel instead. A woman who ran away from her abusive husband to start a new life elsewhere, the fear of being found (and brutally murdered) by him always casting shadow on her life. A dwarf trying to make a life in a world that'd rather not see her. Finally, two men: one a somewhat idealistic revolutionary, the other living a quiet life tinged with regret that doesn't feel like his own. As the backdrop to their stories, perhaps a seventh character of itself, is the tumultously changing Turkey of the second half of the 20th century.
Now, despite starting with a murder, this story isn't a detective novel, or even a crime novel, really. It is a character study: using Leila's death as a trigger point, Shafak delves into the lives of those six distinct characters, exploring how their experiences shaped them and how their lives eventually became intermingled. The writing is good, the whole book - entertaining, although I'd hardly call it outstanding or unique. Each individual story follows a path that's both believable and extremely predictable, even to a reader not very familiar with the Turkish, Middle Eastern, and African societies. I hesitate to call it a bunch of cliches because that sounds unnecessarily un-flattering, plus the characters are realistic - there are thousands of people just like Leila, Nalan, Sinan, Jameela, Zeinab, or Humeyra in the world - and calling something so close to real world experiences cliches doesn't sound right either. But I feel like I've read too many testimonies from people exactly like the ones in 10 minutes 38 seconds - to the point, perhaps, of becoming somewhat numbed to them, especially when a book has so little actual action-based plot that these character studies have to carry it from beginning to end.
Lastly, I'm not sure if this was an attempt to match the language to the times (the events of the book take place largely before the 1990s), but the terms transvestite and transsexual being used interchangeably definitely kept throwing me off.
Here's a girl from an increasingly religious family, riddled with misplaced guilt and unable to find justice after being sexually abused by a relative, who decides to run away from home to seek a better life in a big city - where she becomes easy prey to traffickers and sold into forced sex work. Her best friend, a trans woman who becomes a sex worker because that's one of the only career paths available to her. Another naive girl with no support from family who believes in lofty promises of work in a foreign country but ends up sold to a brothel instead. A woman who ran away from her abusive husband to start a new life elsewhere, the fear of being found (and brutally murdered) by him always casting shadow on her life. A dwarf trying to make a life in a world that'd rather not see her. Finally, two men: one a somewhat idealistic revolutionary, the other living a quiet life tinged with regret that doesn't feel like his own. As the backdrop to their stories, perhaps a seventh character of itself, is the tumultously changing Turkey of the second half of the 20th century.
Now, despite starting with a murder, this story isn't a detective novel, or even a crime novel, really. It is a character study: using Leila's death as a trigger point, Shafak delves into the lives of those six distinct characters, exploring how their experiences shaped them and how their lives eventually became intermingled. The writing is good, the whole book - entertaining, although I'd hardly call it outstanding or unique. Each individual story follows a path that's both believable and extremely predictable, even to a reader not very familiar with the Turkish, Middle Eastern, and African societies. I hesitate to call it a bunch of cliches because that sounds unnecessarily un-flattering, plus the characters are realistic - there are thousands of people just like Leila, Nalan, Sinan, Jameela, Zeinab, or Humeyra in the world - and calling something so close to real world experiences cliches doesn't sound right either. But I feel like I've read too many testimonies from people exactly like the ones in 10 minutes 38 seconds - to the point, perhaps, of becoming somewhat numbed to them, especially when a book has so little actual action-based plot that these character studies have to carry it from beginning to end.
Lastly, I'm not sure if this was an attempt to match the language to the times (the events of the book take place largely before the 1990s), but the terms transvestite and transsexual being used interchangeably definitely kept throwing me off.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Sexual violence, Ableism, Domestic abuse, and Sexism
Moderate: Transphobia
Minor: Miscarriage and Self harm
There are a lot of heavy themes in this book, especially around sex work (including trafficking).