Take a photo of a barcode or cover
filaughn 's review for:
Death in Troy
by Bilge Karasu
I feel very torn on my thoughts about this book. I think it's one I'll have to re-read in a few months to really think about. It's an older book by a Turkish author concerning a gay man growing up and coming of age in 1940s - 1950s Turkiye.
The style is very unique. At first the chapters are from many different points of view, and there is no effort to clarify who is narrating - so it can be confusing and you have to really work to figure out what is going on. As the book goes on, it gets more and more clear that a particular person (Mushfik) is the main character, and the stories center on him. Eventually there are even headers telling you who is narrating a particular section. The writing is often beautiful, but also has a lot of run-on sentences mixed in. This is purposefully done to communicate interior monologue, but adds to the work required to get this book in full.
This book has a real sense of sorrow and loss and looking back on things. Mushfik as a character is developed and changes over the course of the book. There are some chapters that almost stand alone as short stories, often reading almost like prose poems (like when he gets a hotel room, or when two characters meet up outside a church). The women in the book are not as well developed. On one hand, that is a clear flaw and something that always bugs me in books. On the other hand, this book really is specifically about men, relationships between men, and so on.
The style is very unique. At first the chapters are from many different points of view, and there is no effort to clarify who is narrating - so it can be confusing and you have to really work to figure out what is going on. As the book goes on, it gets more and more clear that a particular person (Mushfik) is the main character, and the stories center on him. Eventually there are even headers telling you who is narrating a particular section. The writing is often beautiful, but also has a lot of run-on sentences mixed in. This is purposefully done to communicate interior monologue, but adds to the work required to get this book in full.
This book has a real sense of sorrow and loss and looking back on things. Mushfik as a character is developed and changes over the course of the book. There are some chapters that almost stand alone as short stories, often reading almost like prose poems (like when he gets a hotel room, or when two characters meet up outside a church). The women in the book are not as well developed. On one hand, that is a clear flaw and something that always bugs me in books. On the other hand, this book really is specifically about men, relationships between men, and so on.