A review by kieranhealy
My Name is Red by Orhan Pamuk

4.0

A wildly interesting, complex book, “My Name is Red” is multiple things wrapped into a murder mystery. Part philosophical treatise on art, part historical narrative, part love story and all interesting. A review of this book could go on and on, but what is most fascinating to me was the way the author effortlessly changes narrators from chapter to chapter, but never losing the plot or over complicating it. Touching on theology, history, and myth, it actually, at one point, tells a chapter from the point of view from the color red. It works. But the flaw for me was that at times, it digressed too far into art theory and downright bloviation later in the book. When things are getting really interesting, the reader is forced to wade through a tertiary characters ramblings about art nobody can see, and it gets tiresome. At nearly 700 pages, there were easily 100 pages or so of rambling that could have been lifted without story or musing vibe suffering the loss.

Ultimately my life is richer for having read this book, but sadly my interest in it began to fail with about 150 pages to go, and it limped to the end. When the murderer is revealed and multiple plot lines resolved, it all felt as if it were an afterthought and needlessly strung out. A shame because otherwise this is an incredible novel.