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A review by lynguy1
Snow by Orhan Pamuk
3.0
Snow by Orhan Pamuk is literary fiction that brings some tough themes to the reader. Political intrigue, philosophy, romance, secularism, religious fanaticism, East-West relations, radicalism, Western ideals, suicide, murder, and torture are all explored in this novel.
Ka is a Turkish poet who has recently returned to Turkey from Germany after 12 years as a political exile. While he comes back for his mother’s funeral, he also heard that a girlfriend has recently divorced her husband and heads to Kars, their home town. He arrives during a blizzard and the roads and trains are closed. Ka tells people that he is in town as a journalist to do stories on the municipal elections and on the young women who have been committing suicide in Kars. What happens next is somewhat eventful, but also very introspective.
Unfortunately, Ka is an annoying character and very immature for his age. The star character is the city itself. Kars is an actual city in northeast Turkey. Through the novel, we learn something of its history. Due to its location, the city has had a turbulent past and is something of a fusion of nationalities, cultures, and ethnicities. The world-building was fantastic and I was able to clearly picture the snowbound city. The story line had great potential and does reflect on some contemporary issues, but felt more like vignettes than a cohesive novel.
While this book is much more about telling than showing during a large part of it, readers do get glimpses of poverty, hopelessness, anger, regrets, freedom of thought, the loss of innocence, and loneliness, and the search for happiness along with the other themes mentioned above. It is researched well and reasonably well-written, but somewhat slow.
If you enjoy politics, learning about other countries and cultures, and/or slice of life novels, then this may be one you wish to consider. This book is very relevant to today.
Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own and are not biased in any way.
Ka is a Turkish poet who has recently returned to Turkey from Germany after 12 years as a political exile. While he comes back for his mother’s funeral, he also heard that a girlfriend has recently divorced her husband and heads to Kars, their home town. He arrives during a blizzard and the roads and trains are closed. Ka tells people that he is in town as a journalist to do stories on the municipal elections and on the young women who have been committing suicide in Kars. What happens next is somewhat eventful, but also very introspective.
Unfortunately, Ka is an annoying character and very immature for his age. The star character is the city itself. Kars is an actual city in northeast Turkey. Through the novel, we learn something of its history. Due to its location, the city has had a turbulent past and is something of a fusion of nationalities, cultures, and ethnicities. The world-building was fantastic and I was able to clearly picture the snowbound city. The story line had great potential and does reflect on some contemporary issues, but felt more like vignettes than a cohesive novel.
While this book is much more about telling than showing during a large part of it, readers do get glimpses of poverty, hopelessness, anger, regrets, freedom of thought, the loss of innocence, and loneliness, and the search for happiness along with the other themes mentioned above. It is researched well and reasonably well-written, but somewhat slow.
Spoiler
However, the author does a self-insertion into the story which I did not like.If you enjoy politics, learning about other countries and cultures, and/or slice of life novels, then this may be one you wish to consider. This book is very relevant to today.
Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own and are not biased in any way.