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3.52 AVERAGE
3.52 AVERAGE
I have spent 19 days reading this novel. At a rate of an average of 3 books a month for the year 2013, this will mean I am further away from my own record than I was back in May. It's been worth it.
I wish the novel had been 200 pages shorter though, but I don't know if I would have felt Kemal's obsession so much if it weren't for the extension of a novel and the chapters dedicated to Füsun's way of eating, watching movies or smoking. Maybe they were necessary, in all their dullness.
But what I really, really, really loved was the ending. Not the story's ending, the novel's. I liked the point were Pamuk shows up and is asked to finish the story himself (ironic, I know). And that last line almost made me cry (doesn't happen very often).
It's a beautiful novel, and one I might re-read at some point in my life.
I wish the novel had been 200 pages shorter though, but I don't know if I would have felt Kemal's obsession so much if it weren't for the extension of a novel and the chapters dedicated to Füsun's way of eating, watching movies or smoking. Maybe they were necessary, in all their dullness.
But what I really, really, really loved was the ending. Not the story's ending, the novel's. I liked the point were Pamuk shows up and is asked to finish the story himself (ironic, I know). And that last line almost made me cry (doesn't happen very often).
It's a beautiful novel, and one I might re-read at some point in my life.
"Let everyone know, I lived a very happy life."
Everytime I pick up a book with a sad premise, I want to read it to renew the conviction that heartache is universal and then I don't want to read it because I know what a sad state I'll be in when I finish it. This was one of those books and I wanted to stop 10 pages in but I didn't. Beautifully written with a few slow bits in between, but gripping. A tale of a man's pursuit of happiness - a sad tale.
Everytime I pick up a book with a sad premise, I want to read it to renew the conviction that heartache is universal and then I don't want to read it because I know what a sad state I'll be in when I finish it. This was one of those books and I wanted to stop 10 pages in but I didn't. Beautifully written with a few slow bits in between, but gripping. A tale of a man's pursuit of happiness - a sad tale.
Rating: 2.75* of five
Five hundred pages of long-face about a pair of star-crossed lovers.
They're cousins. Only not really. And it's set in Istanbul in 1975, with excursions to the present.
I know more about Istanbul in 1835 than 1975, though the latter is within my own lifespan. (Okay, okay, WELL within my own lifespan.) I like Turkish history because it's so improbable and so full of moments when they snatched defeat from the jaws of victory! I like alternate history so I love those moments where things could have gone either way...rich fodder for imaginings.
I thought this book, about the life lived by a wealthy man who seduces his poor, estranged teenaged cousin in his mother's extra apartment would fill in a gap for me.
Ew.
The obsessiveness with which this poor schmoe turns his very real guilt over his cousin's blighted life into a passion for collecting the minutuae and ephemera of that life is, well, distasteful. It's just amazing to me to imagine that kind of passionate hold a person has over another, and for such a negative reason.
The cousin dies, of course, because no bad girl can live, right? And the man withers and wastes away, insisting to the author (who appears as himself, called "Orhan Bey," in what I can only describe as a grandstandy little bit of Maguffinry) that he's led a happy life, tell the story of the happy life, as he's about to die at, what, sixty? Codswallop! He's led a miserable half-life, and quite appropriate too, and frankly the only thing that keeps this from being a 50s Ann Bannon lesbian romance is the gender of the protagonist and the Nobel Prize for Literature that Orhan Bey has won.
Read at your own risk.
Five hundred pages of long-face about a pair of star-crossed lovers.
They're cousins. Only not really. And it's set in Istanbul in 1975, with excursions to the present.
I know more about Istanbul in 1835 than 1975, though the latter is within my own lifespan. (Okay, okay, WELL within my own lifespan.) I like Turkish history because it's so improbable and so full of moments when they snatched defeat from the jaws of victory! I like alternate history so I love those moments where things could have gone either way...rich fodder for imaginings.
I thought this book, about the life lived by a wealthy man who seduces his poor, estranged teenaged cousin in his mother's extra apartment would fill in a gap for me.
Ew.
The obsessiveness with which this poor schmoe turns his very real guilt over his cousin's blighted life into a passion for collecting the minutuae and ephemera of that life is, well, distasteful. It's just amazing to me to imagine that kind of passionate hold a person has over another, and for such a negative reason.
The cousin dies, of course, because no bad girl can live, right? And the man withers and wastes away, insisting to the author (who appears as himself, called "Orhan Bey," in what I can only describe as a grandstandy little bit of Maguffinry) that he's led a happy life, tell the story of the happy life, as he's about to die at, what, sixty? Codswallop! He's led a miserable half-life, and quite appropriate too, and frankly the only thing that keeps this from being a 50s Ann Bannon lesbian romance is the gender of the protagonist and the Nobel Prize for Literature that Orhan Bey has won.
Read at your own risk.
I kept oscillating between 4 and 5 stars for a while, and typically when I do that I end up with 4, because 5 has to be so simple a choice. But nothing about Pamuk is simple. It's hard to love/hate his central characters. They're like life: messy. The only reason I wanted to take away a star was because of the long, seemingly mundane, part before the story again gathers momentum/control at the end. But then it's intentionally that: repetitive and mundane, and driving us to desperation along with Kemal, the love-to-hate and hate-to-love kinda protagonist. But there is so much in the book that one has to let go that minor affliction.
Caution: Not for everyone. Okay, not for most people who would be reading this review. Pick up at your own risk.
Caution: Not for everyone. Okay, not for most people who would be reading this review. Pick up at your own risk.
This is a story of a love triangle involving Kemal - son of a wealthy Turkish family, his fiancee Sibel - daughter of another rich family and Füsun, a young shopgirl by who Kemal is obsessively attracted to.
By telling the story of these three young people, the author describes the behavior of Istanbul bourgeoisie in the 1970s.
Once Kemal breaks their marriage engagement, Sibel decides to move on and marries another man. Kemal and Sibel will only re-encounter each other 31 years later.
Throughout his obsession and fantasy, Kemal starts to collect small Füsun’s personal objects in order to remind him of the great moments of love shared with Füsun. On the other hand, his beloved decides to marry a future film maker instead of saying with Kemal.
When Kemal’s life turns upside down (no spoilers here), he decides to build “the museum of innocence” which gives the tittle to this book.
This museum is based on several personal museums built in honor of famous writers and artists, such as:
The F.M.Dostoevsky Museum
Saint Petersburg's Vladimir Nabokov House Museum
Musée Marcel Proust
The Spinozahuis museum
Luigi Pirandello's House Museum
The Baltimore Poe House and Museum
Casa Museo Mario Praz - one of the author’s favorite.
Musée Flaubert d'histoire de la médecine
Even if this book is excessively long, the author manages to keep the reader’s attention since this book is written with several hints of poetry and humor as well.
4* Snow
2* My Name is Red
3,5 The Museum of Innocence
TR Silent House
By telling the story of these three young people, the author describes the behavior of Istanbul bourgeoisie in the 1970s.
Once Kemal breaks their marriage engagement, Sibel decides to move on and marries another man. Kemal and Sibel will only re-encounter each other 31 years later.
Throughout his obsession and fantasy, Kemal starts to collect small Füsun’s personal objects in order to remind him of the great moments of love shared with Füsun. On the other hand, his beloved decides to marry a future film maker instead of saying with Kemal.
When Kemal’s life turns upside down (no spoilers here), he decides to build “the museum of innocence” which gives the tittle to this book.
This museum is based on several personal museums built in honor of famous writers and artists, such as:
The F.M.Dostoevsky Museum
Saint Petersburg's Vladimir Nabokov House Museum
Musée Marcel Proust
The Spinozahuis museum
Luigi Pirandello's House Museum
The Baltimore Poe House and Museum
Casa Museo Mario Praz - one of the author’s favorite.
Musée Flaubert d'histoire de la médecine
Even if this book is excessively long, the author manages to keep the reader’s attention since this book is written with several hints of poetry and humor as well.
4* Snow
2* My Name is Red
3,5 The Museum of Innocence
TR Silent House
This novel explores the many facets of love from obsession to sentimentality with the backdrop of a developing and chaotic 1970s Turkey. I'm left breathless and in awe of Pamuk's writing and scope of vision. His characters have so much dimension and humanity in them that they feel as if they could be neighbors down the street. I highly recommend this book to those who have a love for exploring the human condition and immersing themselves in vivid and detailed descriptions.
A pesar de que una odia al personaje principal, es una historia compleja, donde no hay blancos ni negros sino muchos tonos de grises. Amor, desesperación, sueños, todo enmarcado en la vida cosmopolita de Estambul de mediados del siglo XX. El uso que hace Pamuk del lenguaje es maravilloso (sospecho que también el traductor tiene mucho que ver).
I can say with some conviction that there is no better book that can explain the inexplicable this well. Highly recommended. It is my opinion that if someone finds this book boring then they just lack emotional intelligence.
3.5/5
I am always impressed with the quality Pamuk's writing. His turns of phrase are incredible. The reader is taken inside the mind of Kemal and his obsessions with exquisite, beautiful detail. However, for much of the book, I was a bit jaded with the plot: A man's over the top infatuation with a woman portrayed with little depth...this is a story I have heard before. I came to realize, however, that this may be intentional. The reader is meant to understand the course of the novel through the perspective of a man with a profound obsession. Indeed, by the end of the book, it seems that this story serves as a collection of all of the minutiae of Kemal's experience loving Füsun, that is, a written museum, so to speak. Indeed, the book (as is explicitly stated towards the end) is meant to be the "line" that connects all the objects Kemal collected together. Still, at times it got a bit tedious.
As a frequent museum-goer, I really enjoyed the descriptions/contexts of the items Kemal collected throughout the book. I left the book with some new, interesting ideas about the nature of museums, displays, and collections. Fascinating!
I am always impressed with the quality Pamuk's writing. His turns of phrase are incredible. The reader is taken inside the mind of Kemal and his obsessions with exquisite, beautiful detail. However, for much of the book, I was a bit jaded with the plot: A man's over the top infatuation with a woman portrayed with little depth...this is a story I have heard before. I came to realize, however, that this may be intentional. The reader is meant to understand the course of the novel through the perspective of a man with a profound obsession. Indeed, by the end of the book, it seems that this story serves as a collection of all of the minutiae of Kemal's experience loving Füsun, that is, a written museum, so to speak. Indeed, the book (as is explicitly stated towards the end) is meant to be the "line" that connects all the objects Kemal collected together. Still, at times it got a bit tedious.
As a frequent museum-goer, I really enjoyed the descriptions/contexts of the items Kemal collected throughout the book. I left the book with some new, interesting ideas about the nature of museums, displays, and collections. Fascinating!
više mi se svidela čudan osećaj u meni
jako mi je bila naporna sredina knjige gde on samo odlazi, gleda je, skuplja knjige, pravi film
doduše, početak je bio fantastičan, baš sam očekivala da će završiti na kraju sa verenicom
toliko me je oduvao kraj da nisam imala srca da završim knjigu do kraja
jako mi je drago što sam zaista bila u muzeju, Istanbul je najbolje mesto na svetu i zbog toga će njegove knjige uvek biti fantastične jer opisuju grad na najlepši mogući način
jako mi je bila naporna sredina knjige gde on samo odlazi, gleda je, skuplja knjige, pravi film
doduše, početak je bio fantastičan, baš sam očekivala da će završiti na kraju sa verenicom
toliko me je oduvao kraj da nisam imala srca da završim knjigu do kraja
jako mi je drago što sam zaista bila u muzeju, Istanbul je najbolje mesto na svetu i zbog toga će njegove knjige uvek biti fantastične jer opisuju grad na najlepši mogući način