My Name Is Red (Vintage International)

by Orhan Pamuk

book data

2,739 ratings, 3.69 average rating, 556 reviews (more data...)

rating	frequency	%
5		26%
4		34%
3		24%
2		9%
1		4%

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published

August 27th 2002 (first published 2000) by Vintage

binding

Paperback, 432 pages

characters

Shekure, Eniste, Black

literary awards

IMPAC Dublin Award 2003

isbn

0375706852 (isbn13: 9780375706851)

description

At once a fiendishly devious mystery, a beguiling love story, and a brilliant symposium on the power of art, My Name Is Red is a transporting tale set...more

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09/26/07

Lissa rated it:

I tried very hard to really like this book. But, I suppose it's impossible to succeed in everything.

My Name Is Red is both historical fiction and a murder mystery. It takes place in 1591 (according to the timeline at the end of the book). The over-arching motion of the plot centers around the death of a master miniturist in the Sultan's court. The death is revealed in the first chapter, though the reasons surrounding the his death are much slower in being revealed. What is known, alm...more I tried very hard to really like this book. But, I suppose it's impossible to succeed in everything.

My Name Is Red is both historical fiction and a murder mystery. It takes place in 1591 (according to the timeline at the end of the book). The over-arching motion of the plot centers around the death of a master miniturist in the Sultan's court. The death is revealed in the first chapter, though the reasons surrounding the his death are much slower in being revealed. What is known, almost at the outset, is that his death is related to a book that the Sultan has commission that is to be illustrated in the European style, with respect to perspective and a view of the world as an actual person sees it (as opposed to how Allah would see it). Enishte Effendi, the person in charge of the manuscript, calls his childhood apprentice Black Effendi back from Persia to Istanbul to help investigate the murder and help him finish the Sultan's book. Within this overarching plot is the plight of Enishte's daughter Shekure, whose husband went to war four years prior and never came back. Black has been pining away for her during his twelve year absence from Istanbul, though he is not the only man who is interested in becoming her new husband. Amongst the plot and subplot, there are multiple discussions of style and individualism and what it means to be a father/father-figure, among other topics.

The story is told in a sort of Faulkner-esque fashion, with each chapter being told in the perspective of different characters in the story. These characters are sometimes alive, and sometimes dead (as in the first chapter entitled "I am a corpse"). Also, sometimes the chapters are told in the sort-of perspective of the drawing from Enishte's book - I say sort of, because they're really told from the perspective of a coffee house storyteller who is pretending to be what is depicted in Enishte's book. Are you confused yet?

The was my first issue with this book: at the beginning, it's very confusing. Not knowing a lot about the muslim faith, it took many chapters before I figured out what exactly was wrong with the way Enishte wanted to illustrate his manuscript. My second problem with this book was all of the exposition. There is too much time spent on the exposition on topics like love and style that are obliquely connected with the plot. Certainly these expositions add greater depth to the different characters, but after a while it started to get a little tedious. Thirdly, Pamuk does not inhabit his different narrators in the way that David Mitchell (Ghostwritten, Cloud Atlas) manages to. As a result, the book feels a little bit flat. Fourthly, the ssubplot with Shekure adds very little to the book. I found her to be an incredibly unappealing character, and I found myself wishing that the murderer would murder her next.

All of that being said, the book does have a certain flair to the writing. Some of the exposition is really though-provoking. I also thought that the stories told from the perspective of drawings and corpses and even colors were interesting additions to the plot. In sum, I'm not sorry I read it, but I was expecting more out of it.
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08/12/07

Rishi Sidhu rated it:

Read in February, 2007

Couldn't finish it, but made a valiant effort to get half-way through. Boring as heck, not a novel, but a treatise on miniaturism on 16th/17th century Turkey. Perhaps not finishing a book doesn't give you license to review it harshly, but while the style of writing was interesting and creative, and was a valiant effort, it was just...boring. It seems like he write in a style to resemble the period he was writing about, but there was so little plot with so much exploration of characters, it fe...more

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09/27/07

علی rated it:

bookshelves: novels

Read in November, 2007

It’s not a historical, though there is sort of history in it (Istanbul, Ottoman Empire, 1591). The mystery death of two master miniaturists doesn’t make it a murder mystery novel either. It’s not a philosophical novel though there are lots of discussions about illusrtation in European style concerning perspective, and traditional Eastern illustrating, which sees the world in the way Allah would see it.
What amazed me is, how Pamuk has taken a now forbiden discussion, 5 centuries back...more It’s not a historical, though there is sort of history in it (Istanbul, Ottoman Empire, 1591). The mystery death of two master miniaturists doesn’t make it a murder mystery novel either. It’s not a philosophical novel though there are lots of discussions about illusrtation in European style concerning perspective, and traditional Eastern illustrating, which sees the world in the way Allah would see it.
What amazed me is, how Pamuk has taken a now forbiden discussion, 5 centuries back, to stablish a better situation to discuss about tabus, concerning the distinctions between Islamic states and Western Europe. It's how the so-called Islamic style of illuminating lost it’s values to the so-called Frankish mode of painting, painting the earthly wealth, rather than images of what God creates on earth. In another word, demonstrating the creative abilities of the artist (European style) which Enishte effendi finds fascinating is forbiden in Islam, as if it’s kind of competing with God in creating. That’s why some other master miniaturists kill him to not loose their stabilities and honour as artists.
In means that those who are not seeing the realilty of life and human being (idealists) are going to loose their style and power. This describes the restrained violence of the culture clashes which are so relevant to our world at this time through the allegory of artistic expression as European manner of representing the world, and that of the Islamic faith, in the novel!
اگرچه وقایع داستان در دوران عثمانی (1591) می گذرد اما نمی شود گفت "تاریخی"ست. جنایی هم نیست اگرچه وقایع حول و حوش دو قتل اتفاق می افتد. و اگرچه بحث، بیشتر در مقایسه ی دو شیوه ی هنری، مینیاتور جهان اسلام و نقاشی ونیزی یا مکتب فرانسوی ست، اما رمان در مورد فلسفه ی هنر هم نیست. یعنی نه آنقدر تاریخ در آن هست و نه فلسفه و نه جنایت. اهمیت اساسی در لایه ی دوم رمان است، همان گونه که در "برف"، رمان دیگر پاموک. دغدغه ی فکری پاموک مساله ی جاری زمان ماست، مقایسه و تقابل جهان اسلام و سنت از یک سو و جهان غرب و مدرنیته در سوی دیگر. مساله ای که ذهن اغلب روشنفکران در جهان اسلام را به خود مشغول داشته. انتخاب دو شکل تصویر سازی در دو جهان، به دلیل فلسفه ای که در پس ساختار مینیاتور (یک بعدی بودن آن و پرهیز از خلق دوباره ی جهان) و هنر نقاشی غربی (دید سه بعدی هنرمند از جهان) وجود دارد، انتخاب بسیار ظریف و استادانه ای ست از سوی پاموک، برای نشان دادن تقابل میان دو گونه تفکر در جهان معاصر، یکی سنتی و اقتدارگرا و دیگری مدرن و دموکرات. یکی در فراموشی انسان در مقابل خدا و دیگری در اهمیت به انسان به عنوان هسته ی اصلی جامعه ی بشری.
با انتخاب زمان تاریخی در گذشته، پاموک این فرصت را به خود داده تا در مورد بسیاری مسایل که صحبت کردن از آنها امروزه ممنوع است، به راحتی و در کمال آزادی صحبت کند
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07/24/07

Darcy rated it:

bookshelves: keepers

Generally, when a book starts out with a chapter entitled "I Am A Corpse," you know it's going to be pretty good.

The novel is set up so that each chapter introduces a different narrator, including (but not limited to), Black, Black's uncle, Shekure, a dog, a horse, the murderer and various artists in the workshop. This type of structure for a mystery novel isn't new--Wilkie Collins, for example, employed it several times, most notably in The Moonstone--and it is an effecti...more Generally, when a book starts out with a chapter entitled "I Am A Corpse," you know it's going to be pretty good.

The novel is set up so that each chapter introduces a different narrator, including (but not limited to), Black, Black's uncle, Shekure, a dog, a horse, the murderer and various artists in the workshop. This type of structure for a mystery novel isn't new--Wilkie Collins, for example, employed it several times, most notably in The Moonstone--and it is an effective way to structure a story so as to hide the whodunit. Each character only tells as much as he, she or it knows and in Pamuk's novel even the murderer hides his or her identity.

The structure in "My Name Is Red," though is less designed to sustain suspense and more to allow room for the various philosophical discussions concerning the purpose of art and, perhaps more importantly, the distinctions between Islamic states and Western Europe. The Frankish mode of painting, particularly of portraiture--to glorify the subject, to paint him or her in terms of his/her earthly wealth and power, to distribute such an image openly as a show of control, to demonstrate the creative abilities of the artist--is at the center of these debates and discussions. Black's uncle finds such images alluring and fascinating while others see them as abhorent. Master Osman, for example, sees himself as being forced to choose between the centuries old Islamic traditions he venerates and the more modern and distinctly foreign style he despises. Such a choice is not made easily, as the artists themselves discover. The Frankish method celebrates the individuation of the artist--it prizes the signature of the artist as much as the commissioner of the image. This reverence for the artist, as much as for the piece of art, proves to be a great temptation to the men involved and leads directly to the murder.

The structure, however, also allows for a second discussion, not about art but about writing on art. As much as this is a novel concerning visual images, it is also a novel about ekphrasis--the verbal description of art. Ekphrasis has the effect of slowing down a narrative, of interrupting it. Thus, in Homer's Illiad, the great battle scene is suddenly punctured by a lengthy description of Achilles' shield. Pamuk plays with this model repeatedly. When the image of the horse, described several times in the novel, is given a voice of its own the narrative is not interrupted, but rather the description of the image becomes the narrative. And, moreover, as the image speaks it refutes the fundamental principles underlying Master Osman's devotion to Islamic traditions of art. Pamuk can hardly resist the joke--this is a novel about art in which not a single image appears, except the map at the beginning and the ones we create in our minds as we imagine the images described. But, are we creating an image of the ideal horse, the horse of God, or one we can actually touch, taste, and smell?(less)

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11/28/08

Santh memories rated it:

(review of isbn 9791112401)

bookshelves: classic_fiction, historic_fiction, my-collections, world_fiction

“Orang yang buta dan orang yag melihat tidaklah sama” (Fatir: 19).

Sebuah novel yang disajikan dengan penuturan dari sudut pandang tiap tokohnya. Gabungan antara sejarah dengan misteri pembunuhan yang berlatar di kota Istanbul pada masa kekuasaan Sultan Murat III di Kesultanan Utsmaniyah, khususnya pada musim salju tahun 1591.
Buku ini dibuka dengan pembunuhan seorang penyepuh emas – Elok Effendi – yang sebenarnya sedang terlibat dalam proyek pembuatan buku yang dipesan ...more “Orang yang buta dan orang yag melihat tidaklah sama” (Fatir: 19).

Sebuah novel yang disajikan dengan penuturan dari sudut pandang tiap tokohnya. Gabungan antara sejarah dengan misteri pembunuhan yang berlatar di kota Istanbul pada masa kekuasaan Sultan Murat III di Kesultanan Utsmaniyah, khususnya pada musim salju tahun 1591.
Buku ini dibuka dengan pembunuhan seorang penyepuh emas – Elok Effendi – yang sebenarnya sedang terlibat dalam proyek pembuatan buku yang dipesan langsung oleh Sultan. Dalam proyek rahasia ini banyak melibatkan para iluminator (3 iluminator) yang diberi nama julukan “Kupu-Kupu”, “Bangau” dan “Zaitun”. Dari pembuatan proyek ini kita akan membaca sejarah lampau tentang cerita-cerita dari Al-Quran, penaklukan banyak negara, penjarahan, berpindahnya banyak literatur, hasil karya seni, kitab, lukisan, dll. Atau bisa dikatakan dari proyek ini bisa dipahami tentang mulai mendesaknya budaya Barat ke negara-negara Islam (Timur). Terlihat pula usaha-usaha para seniman besar untuk mempertahankan apa yang sudah diwariskan secara berabad-abad – atau tergoda untuk mengikuti “gaya” baru.
Adapula seorang Hitam yang telah kembali dari 12 tahun pengembaraannya. Selama 12 tahun itu pula dia membawa cinta untuk perempuan dari masa kanak-kanaknya.
Mengenai seni melukis itu sendiri, kita akan dibawa pada banyak cerita – kitab – yang menggambarkan banyak peristiwa – melihat seperti apa yang dilihat Allah – bahkan sampai termasuk pemilihan warna. Kita akan dikejutkan dengan banyak contoh keterserahan kepada dunia seni ini – yang dianggap sebagai pelanggaran agama – jika dibandingkan dengan seni kaligraf. Betapa merindunya para seniman agung – yang sudah mencapai usia lanjut – dengan keadaan menjadi buta (bahkan ada yang sengaja membuat mata mereka buta). Karena dengan buta mereka akan melihat lebih banyak warna seperti yang dilihat Allah.
Dan untuk menyingkap siapa si pembunuh itu sendiri bisa dilihat dari “gaya” melukis ketiga ilustrator berbakat yang juga terlibat dalam pembuatan buku Sultan – bahkan lebih spesifik mencari siapa yang melukis lubang hidung kuda secara aneh!
Membaca buku ini kita dibawa pada keadaan muram di Istanbul – perkampungan miskin, banyak orang buta, peperangan, pemberantasan terhadap hal-hal yang melanggar agama, nasib dan hak perempuan kala itu, ketidaksukaan terhadap kaum sufi, darwis, dsb (bahkan kopi-pun disinggung di sini!).

Komen:
aku sama sekali nggak “ngeh” soal lukis-melukis. Jadinya cukup lambat untuk bisa mengerti buku ini – yang secara semuanya bercerita tentang seni melukis (bahkan teknis banget), cerita-cerita dibalik banyak hasil karya agung sekaligus para maestronya.

sejarah Turki pada masa itu sangat sulit – belum lagi mengingat semua kronologis peristiwa yang ada…plus nama-nama yg cukup sulit dan susah dihafal (paling apal ya Hitam ama Shekura hehehe).

musti dua kali baca tentang Kupu-Kupu, Bangau dan Zaitun, serta bakat dan sifat-sifat mereka, cara mereka bertutur, dll

but, finally I finished it (ya walaupun endingnya menurutku terlalu mendadak dan tidak terlalu ngagetin…hmm…mungkin kecondongan ngebandingin ama cerita-cerita Agatha Christie kali ya…
hehehe)

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12/14/07

laura rated it:

Read in January, 2008

recommended to laura by: book club

this book sort of felt like a text from an art history elective i never went to but had to study for the final...with all its intricate descriptions of artworks that were interesting, but too unfamiliar to respectably imagine, i skimmed paragraphs and pages waiting to get the chunky parts of the story. i really wish it had pictures to be honest.

as one member of my book club said "i feel like i need to read this book again, but i wish i never read it in the first place". th...more

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08/02/07

Leslie rated it:

Read in August, 2007

recommends it for: people with patience

Saying I liked it or didn't like it doesn't really capture the complexity of my experience with this book. Part murder mystery, part love story, and part historical novel about the book-art in the ottoman empire....I thought it was right up my alley. Maybe I expected to have more of an emotional connection but it was all very intellectual and somehow that frustrated me...churned up my stomach which was quite contented on the diet of all-fluff, all-the-time. Reading this was like eating roasted...more

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03/28/08

Desiree rated it:

bookshelves: mademesmart

Read in May, 2008

recommended to Desiree by: Erin Effendi Slonaker, Literary Brat
recommends it for: art enthusiasts, dinner party attendees who would like to discuss the history of Turkish miniatures

MP bet me $20 that I wouldn't like this book. The Brats were enthralled by this, because they can't remember the last time I whole-heartedly liked a book we read.

I liked and enjoyed the book, right until about page 350 (of 500) when I absolutely did not want to read any more about the philosophy of 16th century Islamic art nor flowery speeches about famous Turkish miniatures. Pamuk does himself a lot of injustice by making the book twice as long as it needs to be. I stopped caring an...more

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08/28/07

Z rated it:

Read in August, 2007

This book took me about three weeks to a month to finish, which included a period of 10 days or so when I was out of town and didn't touch it. Though I was in the middle of the book at the time, I didn't miss it at all. That kind of says it all for me.

My Name is Red is based on a unique storyline, set in the late 1500s in Turkey. One of the Sultan's miniaturists has been murdered, and the art as it exists in the country is changing, unable to escape the influence of Venetian portrait...more This book took me about three weeks to a month to finish, which included a period of 10 days or so when I was out of town and didn't touch it. Though I was in the middle of the book at the time, I didn't miss it at all. That kind of says it all for me.

My Name is Red is based on a unique storyline, set in the late 1500s in Turkey. One of the Sultan's miniaturists has been murdered, and the art as it exists in the country is changing, unable to escape the influence of Venetian portraiture. That the book is well-researched is undeniable. I certainly learned something about the art and traditions of the time through it. However, unless you enjoy very, very slow reads, My Name is Red may not be worth spending a lot of your time over. About 500 pages long, it felt more like 1000 to me, because Pamuk allows the story to progress only at a halting pace, and by the end of it, I honestly didn't care who the murderer was or how the story was going to end. My main problem was with the characters -- they are incredibly flawed, to an extent that one feels virtually no compassion or sense of identity with any of them, and some amount of that is necessary if one is to feel truly involved or engaged in a story. It could also be the very setting -- both time and location -- that alienates them from the reader, but there's more to it than that -- I didn't like any of them.

One of the nice things about the book was the changing voice of the author in every chapter. Different protagonists tell their story in chapters like "I am Black" or "I am Shekure" and that definitely adds some interest to the tale. I could do with whatever of that I could find.

Although I am quite the fan of Pamuk's works -- I especially enjoyed Snow -- I have to say this book is the perfect example of hype being much more important in the success of a work than substance. Huge parts of it are simply boring -- no other word for it! It's a gainful read in that it isn't everyday fare and is certainly somewhat of a novelty in contemporary literature, with interesting historical information and a unique Eastern perspective, but it's just not the masterpiece it's been made out to be.(less)

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05/25/07

Sarah rated it:

Read in November, 2006

Orhan Pamuk won the Nobel Prize for literature this year. Described as “part murder mystery, part love story,” I found this to be an absorbing novel, but what most interested me, and the reason that I recommend this book to you, were the passages which attempt to describe the late sixteenth-century Istanbul miniaturists’ attitudes towards art. My Name is Red, though it seems to be only loosely based upon historical fact, deals with the repercussions of the meeting of two visual worlds: Ven...more Orhan Pamuk won the Nobel Prize for literature this year. Described as “part murder mystery, part love story,” I found this to be an absorbing novel, but what most interested me, and the reason that I recommend this book to you, were the passages which attempt to describe the late sixteenth-century Istanbul miniaturists’ attitudes towards art. My Name is Red, though it seems to be only loosely based upon historical fact, deals with the repercussions of the meeting of two visual worlds: Venetian portraiture and Islamic illustration.

Also, Pamuk writes some of the most fascinating lists I’ve read. I must admit that when I encounter lists in novels I usually skim them, but I found Pamuk’s lists engrossing throughout. I have typed out a few passages that I found especially significant, but they work better in context, of course.

Describing a painting of a horse.
“It is a handsome horse: a horse of the Ottoman line. It is a symbol that would demonstrate to the Venetian Doge Our Sultan’s wealth and the regions under his control. But on the other hand, as with everything the Venetian masters depict, this horse was also to be more lifelike than a horse born of God’s vision, more like a horse that lived in a particular stable with a particular groom in Istanbul so that the Venetian Doge might say to himself, ‘Just as the Ottoman miniaturists have come to see the world like us, so have the Ottomans themselves come to resemble us,’ in turn, accepting Our Sultan’s power and friendship. For if you draw a horse differently, you begin to see the world differently [emphasis added]. Despite its peculiarities, this horse was rendered in the manner of the old masters” (266).

Note the clever implications regarding Pamuk’s own novel.
Did a painting become legendary for what it was or for what was said about it? (266).

The musings of one of the Istanbul miniaturists.
My paintings reveal what the mind, not the eye, sees. But painting, as you know quite well, is a feast for the eyes. If you combine these two thoughts, my world will emerge. That is:
ALIF: Painting brings to life what the mind sees, as a feast for the eyes.
LAM: What the eye sees in the world enters the painting to the degree that it serves the mind.
MIM: Consequently, beauty is the eye discovering in our world what the mind already knows (281).
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10/02/07

Melody rated it:

(review of isbn 0375406956)

bookshelves: bookgroup, historical

Read in October, 2007

recommended to Melody by: Sara

My rating is more like 2 1/2 stars - because I do want to encourage you to read it. It is a curious mix of murder mystery, religion, violence, sex and art. I felt like I was reading the King James Version of some religious document that covered all these subjects. Very odd to have someone proclaim his praises to God or Allah in this case, and then recall how lovely it was to bugger the pretty boys.

The book is told through the eyes of several narrators - the miniaturists, their m...more

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06/05/07

Siria rated it:

bookshelves: 20th-century, by-poc, crime-fiction, historical-fiction, turkish-fiction

Read in February, 2006

A triumph of hype over substance, I thought. I'm not sure whether this is because of Pamuk himself, or whether the astonishingly stiff and formal style of the narrative can be attributed to the translator, but I was very much underwhelmed by this. The aspects of the novel which covered the differences between Western Christian and Islamic perceptions of art and aesthetics were certainly interesting; there were also some moments of true inventiveness and creativity, such as the chapters which wer...more

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08/01/07

Bina rated it:

Read in June, 2007

recommends it for: miscreants, artists, infidels

I guess this is in the realm of historical fiction: a murderous tale set in the mystical landscape of 16th century-Istanbul, populated by book illuminators and sultans.

In the Faulknerian (Faulkner-esque?) tradition, it paints a narrative in layers, with each chapter an account from the point of view of a different character. Everyone has a voice, from incorrigible gossips and forlorn lovers to a painting of a tree and death itself.

Here's a gem from Pamuk:

"...more

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02/26/09

Jason Weeks rated it:

bookshelves: fiction, reviewed

“My Name is Red” is many things at once: a love story, a murder mystery, a historical tale with parallels to modern times. In 1591, Black returns to Istanbul after twelve years abroad. The woman he loves, Shekure, is raising her two children alone after her husband failed to return from a military campaign. Charged by the Sultan to assemble an illuminated book using techniques borrowed from the Europeans, Black’s beloved Uncle has secretly assembled the finest group of miniaturists in the ...more “My Name is Red” is many things at once: a love story, a murder mystery, a historical tale with parallels to modern times. In 1591, Black returns to Istanbul after twelve years abroad. The woman he loves, Shekure, is raising her two children alone after her husband failed to return from a military campaign. Charged by the Sultan to assemble an illuminated book using techniques borrowed from the Europeans, Black’s beloved Uncle has secretly assembled the finest group of miniaturists in the city. When one of them is murdered, love, art, philosophy and religion interplay in a tightly structured and complex novel of ideas, beliefs, and detective work.

Each chapter is devoted to the first-person point of view of a single character, including the murdered miniaturist and his murderer, other miniaturists, Black and Shekure, and the neighborhood match-maker; even the subjects of sketches used by a storyteller in a coffee shop get their say. This device allows Pamuk to tell the tale from many angles and to develop nuanced and distinctive characters. Black, for instance, has pined for Shekure for so long that his unrequited love propels and subsumes all his thoughts and actions:

“Maybe you’ve understood by now that for men like myself, that is, melancholy men for whom love, agony, happiness and misery are just excuses for maintaining eternal loneliness, life offers neither great joy nor great sadness.”

Black may be considered the primary character, but as in any good work of literature, plot and conflict do not revolve around a sole protagonist. The miniaturists themselves are central to the discussions of art and the reactions of their religious contemporaries; “My Name is Red” is thus, first and foremost, a political novel disguised as a historical mystery with art at center stage:

“An artist’s skill depends on carefully attending to the beauty of the present moment, taking everything down to the minutest detail seriously while, at the same time, stepping back from the world, which takes itself too seriously, and as if looking into a mirror, allowing for the distance and eloquence of a jest.”

The Koran forbids depicting Allah, and the miniaturists in “My Name is Red” are persecuted by fundamentalists who belief their illustrations are an affront to their faith. Pamuk's novels obliquely comment on current affairs, and the issues he writes about in “My Name is Red” are still contentious today. It isn’t any wonder that Pamuk's life has been threatened or that the Turkish government recently arrested a group of men plotting to kill him.

Despite the risk of didacticism in the novel and the threat of persecution in real life, Pamuk still pulls off a great story within a story. Black's courtship of Shekure isn't as radiant as Ka's courtship of Ipek in "Snow," and the philosophical discussions and historical analysis of Islamic art are sometimes repetitive and tend to slow the action, but in the end, “My Name is Red” successfully integrates multiple strands of storytelling into an illuminating and colorfully woven tapestry of art, history, and the human condition. In Pamuk's world, the past and the present are eerily similar - and that's both comforting and sad at the same time.

Read more of my reviews at: http://www.borrowedtimes.blogspot.com/

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01/07/09

Matthew rated it:

Someone or other once said that "self-confidence is knowing what you can't do well, and avoiding it." While that perspective sounds like a recipe for a fairly limited life, there's an element of truth to it -- particularly when it comes to writing.

There's a kind of writerly skill that almost never gets mentioned in book reviews, because it precedes anything that appears on the page. It's the process of choosing a plot and structure for the as-yet-nonexistent novel: part ins...more Someone or other once said that "self-confidence is knowing what you can't do well, and avoiding it." While that perspective sounds like a recipe for a fairly limited life, there's an element of truth to it -- particularly when it comes to writing.

There's a kind of writerly skill that almost never gets mentioned in book reviews, because it precedes anything that appears on the page. It's the process of choosing a plot and structure for the as-yet-nonexistent novel: part inspiration and part calculation, a kind of half-conscious gestation during which the writer chooses a quarry that matches their particular strengths and weaknesses. We can call this the cunning of the author, which consists of (to revisit the maxim above) knowing what you can't do well, and avoiding it -- or better yet, turning that shortcoming to your advantage.

My Name Is Red is possibly the best example of "writerly cunning" I've ever encountered. Ostensibly, the plot is a kind of stylized murder-mystery: at the Ottoman court in Constantinople, a miniaturist (manuscript illuminator) is killed while working on an innovative, possibly blasphemous book, and everyone scrambles to find out whodunnit. Within this "frame story" however, My Name Is Red is something much more: narrated by something like seven primary characters (with voices from a few secondary characters, and even inanimate objects, chiming in), it's a debate about individuality vs. tradition, and the nature of selfhood.

According to Ottoman tradition, a miniaturist should not have a recognizable painting style, and should not even sign their own work: they should function as anonymous clerks, revealing God's creation. Contact between this tradition and Venetian (western European) painting, in which individual style was highly valued, inevitably led to upheaval within the Ottoman artistic world. Each of the characters in this novel is torn between the "old way" of doing things, in which the significance of individuals (both in art and in life) is minimized, and the tempting (but perhaps blasphemous) idea that individual style has value and should not be hidden. In a reductionist sort of way, we might call this a tug-of-war between group- and individual-based notions of identity.

All of this is interesting enough, but Pamuk's stroke of genius is this: he simply cannot (it seems) convincingly write from multiple distinct points of view.

Brilliant.

By writing a novel told by multiple characters, each of whom longs to have an individual style -- but all of whom sound exactly the same -- Pamuk illustrates dramatically the pathos of these characters, and the cognitive distance between the worlds they hope to bridge. This is a feat of writerly cunning and ingenuity that left me, quite simply, in awe.

On the other hand, as a reader, much of My Name Is Red left me cold. The sameness of all the voices in the novel does begin to grow tedious after awhile, and the stories-within-a-story told by various characters felt like contrived digressions. This is more a writer's book than a reader's -- but as a work of authorial architecture, it is a masterpiece.(less)

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12/20/08

Mark rated it:

Read in March, 2006

After enjoying Snow so much I decided to go and seek out Orhan Pamuk's other famous title. It is a historical murder mystery set in Istanbul during the time of the sultans. The story revolves around the murder of a famous miniaturist and the controversy surrounding a new style of painting he was either for or against. With the fairly recent uproar over the depiction of the prophet in Denmark the religious and artistic debates that this book fleshes out are even more intriguing. The characters in...more

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06/27/09

Kikuko rated it:

Read in June, 2009

I was lent this book by a friend, and I have to be honest; it wouldn't have been a book I would have picked up on my own. It's something of a half-art history lesson, half murder mystery. Unfortunately for this book, however, there are points where it gets dry, and so it is difficult at times to keep reading until the parts that are quite profound or special.
There are times when the book feels overly pretentious, nothing more than a lecture on the miniaturists of the Ottoman Empire; and t...more

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05/09/09

Linawings rated it:

I guess it is not a simple thing to write such a book as it involves rather profound knowledge about history of miniature painting in 16th century in Ottoman Empire and in the whole Eastern and Western developed world.. I was wondering why this theme interests so much Orhan Pamuk and how the book could become such a hit while discussing the interesting but rather specific theme of the meaning of miniature painting in the light of Muslim religion. For me personally was interesting to touch this t...more

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06/25/09

Lara Amber rated it:

(review of other edition)

bookshelves: fiction

Read in June, 2009

While the book descriptions focus on this story being a "murder mystery" the mystery takes a backseat to the descriptions of the characters and their views on life (each chapter has a new narrator). It was difficult at times to abandon modern Western sensibilities when confronted with some of the less savory aspects of 16th century Istanbul: widespread pederasty (seeing women uncovered was horribly bad, but sleeping with boys, acceptable?) and treating of women as property.

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01/18/09

Heidi rated it:

Read in January, 2009

i found this book to be very poetic.
it is a double murder mystery mixed with romance, action, history and humanism. i did not figure out who committed the murders until it was revealed at the end.
i was a bit tired by the frequent references to homosexual desires of and toward young illuminating apprentices. perhaps it was that way in the world where this story takes place, but it was a bit heavy in its references.
otherwise, i think that i shall read more Pamuk in the future.
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"... en el país de los infieles francos todos los perros tienen dueño. Al parecer los pasean por las calles arrastrándolos con cadenas al cuello como si fueran los más miserables esclavos. Dicen que además introducen a esos pobres perros a sus casas y que incluso los meten en sus camas. ... No son cosas que los francos puedan comprender el que los perros paseemos en manadas y gavillas por la calles de nuestro Estambul..." More quotes...