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A review by neerajams
Snow by Orhan Pamuk
3.0
The glowing reviews of this book make me think I'm the one who's missing something. I was never quite enthralled by Snow, though I consistently felt that I was on the verge of something great, but the something never came.
And maybe that was on purpose. A small Turkish town's political conflict between the secularist militant faction and the fanatical Islamists was used only as a backdrop for the main story of a selfish, lonely poet's return to Turkey to obsessively pursue a college sweetheart. His desires and jealousies drive his wavering political allegiances more than any political beliefs he actually holds. The same is true for the other characters in the novel, so that at the end you're left feeling that the political conflict Pamuk depicts is not one of ideology and grand history, but one of egotism and personal history.
Even this could have been compelling if Pamuk's style wasn't so detached. As a reader, you're forced to guess at the motivations of the characters - motivations that often seem petty, misguided and, in the end, a little boring.
And maybe that was on purpose. A small Turkish town's political conflict between the secularist militant faction and the fanatical Islamists was used only as a backdrop for the main story of a selfish, lonely poet's return to Turkey to obsessively pursue a college sweetheart. His desires and jealousies drive his wavering political allegiances more than any political beliefs he actually holds. The same is true for the other characters in the novel, so that at the end you're left feeling that the political conflict Pamuk depicts is not one of ideology and grand history, but one of egotism and personal history.
Even this could have been compelling if Pamuk's style wasn't so detached. As a reader, you're forced to guess at the motivations of the characters - motivations that often seem petty, misguided and, in the end, a little boring.