Scan barcode
A review by corinnekeener
10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World by Elif Shafak
3.0
We read 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World by Elif Shafak for episode 59 of The Bookstore. It's a podcast about books and you can find it anywhere fine podcasts are sold.
After death, scientists have observed the brain to remain functioning for up to 10 minutes and 38 seconds. This is when we find the book's main character, Leila, murdered and discarded in a dumpster, her brain recalling the events of her life, from birth and childhood to being sold into sex work in Istanbul, marrying, losing her husband, and making a group of friends who are more like family, before it stops functioning forever.
It's a good organizing concept for a novel and the reason I picked it up.
The first section of the novel is what I described above. It's full of beautiful descriptions and truly humanizing events that make Leila into a fully developed character that it's hard not to root for. Imagining her life and beginnings and then comparing them to her fate is an actual emotional experience.
The second section concerns her rag-tag group of friend-family as they attempt to save Leila's body from an eternity in a pauper's cemetery. It's also where this book flies off the rails and lands somewhere in a cartoon tantalizingly close to having one of the characters do a 180 turn and step on a rake that then smacks them in the face.
I can't underscore how jarring the switch in tone was for my reading experience. I thought the book wanted the characters to honor Leila's life and legacy, but theyliterally throw her body off of a bridge with the cops watching, who shoot one of her friends because they believe this group of caricatures has murdered a woman. Am I supposed to believe the police of Istanbul wouldn't attempt to recover the body and then return it to the pauper's cemetery once they realize who it belongs to? . There's also a short part of the book that explains that Leila was murdered by some religiously motivated weirdo and his friend who are on a sex-worker killing spree which seems to try to push a psychological thriller b-plot that completely undermines the authenticity of what Shafak seems to be saying about what it means to be a woman in Turkey - or anywhere in the world for that matter.
If it weren't for it's incredibly beautiful and very vivid first section, this review would warrant fewer stars.
After death, scientists have observed the brain to remain functioning for up to 10 minutes and 38 seconds. This is when we find the book's main character, Leila, murdered and discarded in a dumpster, her brain recalling the events of her life, from birth and childhood to being sold into sex work in Istanbul, marrying, losing her husband, and making a group of friends who are more like family, before it stops functioning forever.
It's a good organizing concept for a novel and the reason I picked it up.
The first section of the novel is what I described above. It's full of beautiful descriptions and truly humanizing events that make Leila into a fully developed character that it's hard not to root for. Imagining her life and beginnings and then comparing them to her fate is an actual emotional experience.
The second section concerns her rag-tag group of friend-family as they attempt to save Leila's body from an eternity in a pauper's cemetery. It's also where this book flies off the rails and lands somewhere in a cartoon tantalizingly close to having one of the characters do a 180 turn and step on a rake that then smacks them in the face.
I can't underscore how jarring the switch in tone was for my reading experience. I thought the book wanted the characters to honor Leila's life and legacy, but they
If it weren't for it's incredibly beautiful and very vivid first section, this review would warrant fewer stars.