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josiegz 's review for:
The Museum of Innocence
by Orhan Pamuk
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.