A review by zoereadsnrambles
My Name Is Red by Orhan Pamuk

4.0

this book was a wild ride. i mean as the novel begins, a miniaturist has been murdered and thrown down into an abandoned well. we know this because the victim tells us. this sets up the novel in such an interesting way because it makes the reader think that this novel is going to be a murder mystery, but it isn't. my first thought about this book was "wow this is going to be such an interesting murder mystery story", and the other second thought was that this book was going to be about the love story between black and shekure. i am aware that having these two simultaneous thoughts about this is ironic given that this book is all about liminal states ... the liminal states between two art styles, liminal states between love and security, liminal states between life and death, liminal states between guilt and pride, liminal states between objective and subjective truth, liminal states between fiction and reality. i think that these liminal states are what make this book so special. even at the end, the author blurs the line between fiction and nonfiction which was super interesting to me. 

i wasn't expecting to like this book as much as i did. although it's not an easy book to read, the writing flows seamlessly and i loved the structure of the book, with chapters from various POVs, some appearing only once, some multiple times, some VERY non-conformist and original.