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hnahreads 's review for:
The Bastard of Istanbul
by Elif Shafak
3.5/5 stars is probably more accurate than 4 stars for this review. I came for the pretty cover, got annoyed at the hyperbolic writing, but stayed for the characters.
I found the actual prose a little overblown and a little too laboured over to have a seamless reading experience with this text. There were moments when it just felt like the author was trying too hard to make it ‘literary’ and so ended up detracting from the actual enjoyment a little.
That said, I did find the plot engaging. I couldn’t write a summary of it if I tried, as it was more an unfolding and overlapping of different narratives with little pieces being revealed one at a time. All the characters had lives that were intertwined and I found the way that Shafak developed and built on their own narratives to be highly interesting. They did feel a little reduced - a lot of the characters were reduced to a single defining trait, but the way they came together was really fascinating.
I though Shafak wove the different threads of the story together in quite a clever way, and the build up was excellent. You could see it coming and feel the dread build and build until it spilt over, and I found that final climax really enthralling.
There were an abundance of different commentaries on identity and a struggle to find ones own place in the world, and these mashed and clashed to form the main tension of the novel. Voicing this through two different 19 year old girls was done well, as there was both an openness to their discussion and an inherent defensiveness which conveyed the kind of sensitivity that hangs around not having a core identity really well.
Overall, I think the plot carried this. The characters weren’t always brilliantly developed, but they were enough for me to ignore the occasionally overdone writing. (Which given that it’s in a second language, feels like a harsh criticism to have. But it was the major cause of my review being pulled down a little so...)
I found the actual prose a little overblown and a little too laboured over to have a seamless reading experience with this text. There were moments when it just felt like the author was trying too hard to make it ‘literary’ and so ended up detracting from the actual enjoyment a little.
That said, I did find the plot engaging. I couldn’t write a summary of it if I tried, as it was more an unfolding and overlapping of different narratives with little pieces being revealed one at a time. All the characters had lives that were intertwined and I found the way that Shafak developed and built on their own narratives to be highly interesting. They did feel a little reduced - a lot of the characters were reduced to a single defining trait, but the way they came together was really fascinating.
I though Shafak wove the different threads of the story together in quite a clever way, and the build up was excellent. You could see it coming and feel the dread build and build until it spilt over, and I found that final climax really enthralling.
There were an abundance of different commentaries on identity and a struggle to find ones own place in the world, and these mashed and clashed to form the main tension of the novel. Voicing this through two different 19 year old girls was done well, as there was both an openness to their discussion and an inherent defensiveness which conveyed the kind of sensitivity that hangs around not having a core identity really well.
Overall, I think the plot carried this. The characters weren’t always brilliantly developed, but they were enough for me to ignore the occasionally overdone writing. (Which given that it’s in a second language, feels like a harsh criticism to have. But it was the major cause of my review being pulled down a little so...)