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3.52 AVERAGE
3.52 AVERAGE
I must confess I struggled with this book in the beginning. The details were overbearing at times and I just wanted the story to move along a little bit faster. I was angry at the protagonist Kemal and Fusun. I felt that this man was insisting on being miserable. On making choices that just didn't make sense. I still don't understand why. But perhaps the conclusion of the book gave me closure without a syrupy happy ending. If the only thing I took away from this book that standing in someone else's shoes takes humility and empathy that is enough to make the book worth being read.
I want to start my review by saying that the way you feel about a book or a story is largely a factor of your personality, choices, phase of life, expectations.
I have read Orhan Pamuks "My name is red" and it set the benchmark too high.
This book is nothing like, My name is red and far from it in terms of story line and writing style.
The protagonist, Kemal, young, educated in America, belonging to a rich business Turkish family of Istanbul is soon to be engaged to Sibel, who is his equal in lifestyle and status, in 1975 Istanbul . One day Kemal meets his distant step cousin, 18 year old Fusun at a shop and is drawn to her. They soon develop a secret relationship while preparations for Kemals engagement are underway. Kemal is entangled in the two relationships but slowly and steadily, Fusun is all he ever thinks about.
The story is about Kemal and Fusun. In his obsession for Fusun, he starts collecting objects related to Fusun, anything and everything that reminded him of her, and eventually memorabilia from all the places he lived at, visited or spent time at while he thought of Fusun. All of these objects make the Museum of innocence.
Museum of Innocence is as much about Kemal and Fusun as it is about Istanbul. The author has captured Istanbul, in 1975 and following years in great detail, including but not limited to the society, culture, gossips, fashion trends, movies, restaurants, streets, food, liasons. I'm sure it'd be such a revelation to someone who has lived in Istanbul for an extended period of time.
The writing is detailed but painfully so. As a reader, I felt it lacked depth, also because everything is being narrated to us from Kemals perspective.
I couldnt relate to Kemal at any point and found him entitled, spoilt with no real struggle in his life without depth, and thus was left feeling annoyed and disappointed as the story progressed.
I feel the time and generation I'm from, I couldnt find love in the relentless pursuit of a girl.
500 something pages and i was disappointed . Again not every book is for everyone.
I have read Orhan Pamuks "My name is red" and it set the benchmark too high.
This book is nothing like, My name is red and far from it in terms of story line and writing style.
The protagonist, Kemal, young, educated in America, belonging to a rich business Turkish family of Istanbul is soon to be engaged to Sibel, who is his equal in lifestyle and status, in 1975 Istanbul . One day Kemal meets his distant step cousin, 18 year old Fusun at a shop and is drawn to her. They soon develop a secret relationship while preparations for Kemals engagement are underway. Kemal is entangled in the two relationships but slowly and steadily, Fusun is all he ever thinks about.
The story is about Kemal and Fusun. In his obsession for Fusun, he starts collecting objects related to Fusun, anything and everything that reminded him of her, and eventually memorabilia from all the places he lived at, visited or spent time at while he thought of Fusun. All of these objects make the Museum of innocence.
Museum of Innocence is as much about Kemal and Fusun as it is about Istanbul. The author has captured Istanbul, in 1975 and following years in great detail, including but not limited to the society, culture, gossips, fashion trends, movies, restaurants, streets, food, liasons. I'm sure it'd be such a revelation to someone who has lived in Istanbul for an extended period of time.
The writing is detailed but painfully so. As a reader, I felt it lacked depth, also because everything is being narrated to us from Kemals perspective.
I couldnt relate to Kemal at any point and found him entitled, spoilt with no real struggle in his life without depth, and thus was left feeling annoyed and disappointed as the story progressed.
I feel the time and generation I'm from, I couldnt find love in the relentless pursuit of a girl.
500 something pages and i was disappointed . Again not every book is for everyone.
Way too long. Repetitive. It'd been better if if was like 300 pages shorter but the author's prose is very nice. Still, I don't recommend it, as it turns into a torture after the first like 20 chapters and it doesn't say anything that interesting. The author repeats the words love and happiness to the extent I started to believe he didn't know the meaning or cared about it, but maybe using these words ad nauseam made him feel like he was writing something deep when it just took all meaning out of these words.
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This is a strange book. I really enjoyed the writing. To be honest, I love the writing. On the other hand I cringed every time the protagonist addressed the readers to talk about his little pet museum. I recognize similar feelings from lovelorn moments in my life, and even the best moments of reciprocal love--the way simple objects take on their own power. That's real.
I know the point is to not be embarrassed and cringe as we share those intimate, even embarrassing moments from our lives. But besides the distraction it caused me every time the protagonist became self-aware to talk about his collection with supposed museum attendees, it was the air of importance and expectation that droves of people, school buses full of kids even, would be going to visit.
I know the point is to not be embarrassed and cringe as we share those intimate, even embarrassing moments from our lives. But besides the distraction it caused me every time the protagonist became self-aware to talk about his collection with supposed museum attendees, it was the air of importance and expectation that droves of people, school buses full of kids even, would be going to visit.
I'm not sure what to think of this book. I loved Pamuk's memoir, Istanbul: Memories and the City. But this novel, which covers much of the same material from a fictional perspective, with a woman, instead of a city as the focus of attention, was a frustrating read. The cataloging of every meaningful interaction with Fusun, the focus of Kemal's obsession, and the collecting of thousands of objects she touched or that are associated with her, does capture something ... a period of time? Reading this novel was in many ways like sitting trapped at a table with a very self-involved person who talks endlessly about things that might be entertaining in small doses, but become mind-numbing the longer the person continues to talk. My biggest problem with Kemal was this: "Like most Turkish men of my world who entered into this predicament, I never paused to wonder what might be going on in the mind of the woman with whom I was madly in love, and what her dreams might be; I only fantasized about her." I read somewhere that it is Fusun whom Orhan Pamuk identifies with. So is he portraying through Kemal the West's idealized, but very limited understanding of Turkey? One very lovely idea Pamuk expounds upon through Kemal is that of the value of "sitting together" ... "Touching in the most innocent way upon my main reason for being there -- my desire to be in the same place as Fusun -- the word "sit" suited me perfectly. Unlike those intellectuals who deem it a solemn duty to deride the people and who believe that the millions of people in Turkey who talked of "sitting together" every evening were congregating to do nothing, I, to the contrary, cherished the desire expressed in the words "to sit together" as a social necessity amongst those bound by family ties, of friendship, or even between people with whom they feel a deep bond, though they might not understand its meaning." Maybe that is what I am taking away from this novel, the experience of having "sat" with Kemal, and in a way, with Orhan Pamuk.
Intimidating looking but immensely readable. Although you may want to slap the protagnist several times throughout. After a brief 2 month love affair Kemal becomes obsessed with Fusan - an obsession that shows itself in his 'collection' of objects that are associated with her and their display in his Museum of Innocence. You, the reader, are walking through the Museum & the book is your accompaniment, telling Kemal's story.
Ultimately I finished it feeling frustrated, asking myself "Well what did I read all that for?!"
I'm not entirely sure what I was supposed to learn from it, other than that obsessive love is not good for you.
Ultimately I finished it feeling frustrated, asking myself "Well what did I read all that for?!"
I'm not entirely sure what I was supposed to learn from it, other than that obsessive love is not good for you.
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
In general, I admire Orhan Pamuk's writing, and especially enjoyed "A Strangeness in My Mind" about a yoghurt seller who wanders the streets of Istanbul, and his accidental love marriage. I also enjoyed "Silent House." But hmmm...The Museum of Innocence is something of a trial, and I wish that someone would write a feminist critique of it. (I've looked.) The Museum of Innocence is the tale of Kemal, a rich Istanbul playboy, and his obsessive love for the lovely "shopgirl," Fusun, with whom he begins a passionate affair just six weeks or so before his formal engagement to Sibel, his high-society fiancee.
When Fusun disappears just after the engagement party, Kemal sinks into a miasma of obsessive infatuation. When he does eventually find her she is married to another man, and for the next eight years he spends every other evening or so dining with her family, watching television together, ogling her every move and nose twitch, brushing against her, stealing her lipsticks and the family salt-shakers, as well as the dog on top of their TV set, and thwarting her dreams of becoming a movie actress.
No spoilers here, but after enjoying a brief moment of happiness with Fusun after eight years of this compulsion, Kemal decides to set up a museum devoted to every tchotche associated with his love, including an enormous pile of cigarette butts smeared with her lipstick. (Pamuk has set up a real version of this "Museum of Innocence" in Istanbul.) It's never really clear what Fusun's true thoughts and feelings are, since the novel is narrated almost entirely by Kemal, with a brief appearance by Pamuk near the end.
There are some fascinating descriptions of Istanbul in the 1970s and 1980s and the street battles between Leftists and nationalists, as well as the 1980 Turkish coup d'état and its curfews. The Istanbul street scenes are highly evocative, including an early and eerie description of lambs being slaughtered in honor of Eid al-Adha, a portent perhaps of what is to come.
When Fusun disappears just after the engagement party, Kemal sinks into a miasma of obsessive infatuation. When he does eventually find her she is married to another man, and for the next eight years he spends every other evening or so dining with her family, watching television together, ogling her every move and nose twitch, brushing against her, stealing her lipsticks and the family salt-shakers, as well as the dog on top of their TV set, and thwarting her dreams of becoming a movie actress.
No spoilers here, but after enjoying a brief moment of happiness with Fusun after eight years of this compulsion, Kemal decides to set up a museum devoted to every tchotche associated with his love, including an enormous pile of cigarette butts smeared with her lipstick. (Pamuk has set up a real version of this "Museum of Innocence" in Istanbul.) It's never really clear what Fusun's true thoughts and feelings are, since the novel is narrated almost entirely by Kemal, with a brief appearance by Pamuk near the end.
There are some fascinating descriptions of Istanbul in the 1970s and 1980s and the street battles between Leftists and nationalists, as well as the 1980 Turkish coup d'état and its curfews. The Istanbul street scenes are highly evocative, including an early and eerie description of lambs being slaughtered in honor of Eid al-Adha, a portent perhaps of what is to come.
This admittedly well-crafted book would have worked better as a horror story than a romance. A man seduces a teenager, destroying her prospect of a happy marriage in a society uncomfortable with premarital sex, and then proceeds to systematically destroy her career prospects. Isn't it romantic...
The Museum of Innocence is a novel of obsession and the things that we hold on to (sometimes without reason) to remind us of those situations.
Kemal is a young man in Turkey during the mid-1970s, a time of great change and modernization in the country. He's engaged to be married to Sibel. One day, he runs into Fusun, a distant relation, and falls in love with her and forms a relationship with her. Fusun is hurt by Kemal not breaking off the relationship with Sibel and leaves him. Kemal is then wrought with guilt and breaks his engagement with Sibel.
He then becomes absolutely obsessed with Fusun and begins collecting the most random things that he relates to Fusun and the time they shared (spoons that she has eaten from, etc.) Over the next several years, he strikes up a relationship with Fusun's family in order to get close to her.
I found it a little creepy about how long Kemal held onto his obsession but on the other hand, it's very human to hold onto the past sometimes.
Kemal is a young man in Turkey during the mid-1970s, a time of great change and modernization in the country. He's engaged to be married to Sibel. One day, he runs into Fusun, a distant relation, and falls in love with her and forms a relationship with her. Fusun is hurt by Kemal not breaking off the relationship with Sibel and leaves him. Kemal is then wrought with guilt and breaks his engagement with Sibel.
He then becomes absolutely obsessed with Fusun and begins collecting the most random things that he relates to Fusun and the time they shared (spoons that she has eaten from, etc.) Over the next several years, he strikes up a relationship with Fusun's family in order to get close to her.
I found it a little creepy about how long Kemal held onto his obsession but on the other hand, it's very human to hold onto the past sometimes.