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ammbooks's review against another edition
4.0
I read this book...and hesitate to use the word enjoyed. It was disturbing on many levels. the same kind of disturbing as The Road
bsmorris's review against another edition
3.0
This book was highly recommended to me as an examination of Turkish women trying to balance modernity with Islam. However, I was too annoyed by Ka's inability to be happy or honest and didn't feel it gave as much insight into the women as promised. Not the book's fault really; just my own misled expectations. Maybe I'll read it again sometime and will understand it better.
alundeberg's review
The beginning of Orhan Pamuk's Snow is rather long and boring, but since it is an exploration of the tensions between the East and West, secularism and religion, progressivism and provincialism, and written by the great Orhan Pamuk and the book magic should kick in at any time, I continued reading. I gave it one week of my reading life, made it to page 150 (of 426), and can attest that is still long and boring. For a book about such deep topics, it is incredibly shallow. Ka, a Turkish poet and exile, returns to Turkey after living in Germany for 12 years and heads to the economically depressed Kars, a town located in the equivalent of a Turkish Siberia, to meet up with an old crush and to investigate why so many young women are committing suicide. The women are caught between the state's law forbidding the use of head scarves and wearing them in keeping with their religious beliefs, and their battle is heightened when the director of the local college forbids female students from wearing them on campus. See? Interesting premise. But Ka and all of the other characters are two-dimensional and unlikable, speak in riddles, and seem like part of one long thought experiment. It felt like reading Vonnegut where you're wondering what on earth is happening but without the zaniness and fun. I cannot muster the enthusiasm to plow through the rest of this Snow.
jackgoss's review against another edition
1.0
I am more interested in the falafel that I plan to cook for the book club meeting than I am in discussing this book.
For one, I didn't enjoy reading Snow. And didn't like any of the characters to even try to get into the literary stuff in the book.
For two, I'm pretty sure I'll be the only one in the group who bothered to finish. (The women in my group are all smarter than me a know that reading tedious books isn't worth their time.) Snow only started to get worth discussing at the end, so the few things I'd like to discuss won't be anything anyone else has read.
Also: That was probably the most depressing sex scene I've ever read.
For one, I didn't enjoy reading Snow. And didn't like any of the characters to even try to get into the literary stuff in the book.
For two, I'm pretty sure I'll be the only one in the group who bothered to finish. (The women in my group are all smarter than me a know that reading tedious books isn't worth their time.) Snow only started to get worth discussing at the end, so the few things I'd like to discuss won't be anything anyone else has read.
Also: That was probably the most depressing sex scene I've ever read.
spinstah's review against another edition
I got partway into this -- probably less than half -- and just did not find it compelling. It kept getting put aside in favor of other things, and I finally gave up and returned it to the library.
jenmcmaynes's review against another edition
5.0
Beautifully written; I loved the way each chapter was almost a self contained story, yet still functioned as part of the overall plot. It reminded me of either an old fashioned novel or A Thousand and One Nights. I won't pretend that I understood the complicated politics presented, because I didn't. But I found the Eastern portrayal of Western thoughts enlightening, as well as the way they generalized and dismissed other factions in their own city. And the themes of love, jealousy, shame, and hatred are universal and handled really well. I really enjoyed this book, and definitely would like to read more by Pamuk.
lavoiture's review against another edition
I really, really wish that I could read this book. I've been wanting to read it for a long time, but when I started to read it, I couldn't focus. I would read a page and have no idea what I'd just read. It's very heavy and detailed, and not a lot happens (at least in the first 50 pages or so). I'll try again at some point in my life...
steve_urick's review against another edition
1.0
Maybe it was the translation, but the conversations and actions of the characters did not make sense.