book data
781 ratings,
3.33
average rating, 99 reviews
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published
November 18th 1999
by Gallimard
(first published 1985)
details
Paperback, 258 pages
literary awards
isbn
2070411060
(isbn13: 9782070411061)
description
From a Turkish writer who has been compared with Borges, Nabokov, and DeLillo comes a dazzling novel that is at once a captivating work of historical …more
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 1,197)
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5 stars (111)
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4 stars (237)
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3 stars (271)
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1 star (41)
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avg 3.33
editions: all | this edition
editions: all | this edition
Are we really so different from one another? Why am I not the magnificent white castle that sits on top of the hill but a rusty, creaking and nonsensical monstrosity wrought in hopes of "proving things to them", stuck in mud and sinking to its death with poor, accidental participants in it? Why can't I be you? If I knew who you were, where you come from and what you thought of while eating lunch with your family on an idle summer day of your youth? Are there really things to be found i...more
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Read in January, 2009
THE WHITE CASTLE
~ Orhan Pamuk ~
Pernah gak sih dalam diri ini dan diri kalian semua terbersit keinginan, bermimpi atau bercita2 untuk melakukan dan merasakan sesuatu yang berbeda? Sesuatu yang gak biasa Qta lakukan… Sesuatu yang bukan diri Qta… Sesuatu yang tidak lazim terjadi pada diri Qta… hingga membuahkan terjadi revolusi pada diri Qta…
Pernah kan????
Dan gak mungkin rasa itu hanya sekali timbulnya…
Kan Qta masih manusia, masih terlalu banyak komp...more
~ Orhan Pamuk ~
Pernah gak sih dalam diri ini dan diri kalian semua terbersit keinginan, bermimpi atau bercita2 untuk melakukan dan merasakan sesuatu yang berbeda? Sesuatu yang gak biasa Qta lakukan… Sesuatu yang bukan diri Qta… Sesuatu yang tidak lazim terjadi pada diri Qta… hingga membuahkan terjadi revolusi pada diri Qta…
Pernah kan????
Dan gak mungkin rasa itu hanya sekali timbulnya…
Kan Qta masih manusia, masih terlalu banyak komp...more
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Read in August, 2009
5 Bintang buat Covernya..wah menarik banged..agak sedikit ga jelas apa maksudnya tapi terlihat keren dan bagus..
Cerita tentang Seorang budak asal venesia dan Tuannya yang berasal dari Turki..pada awalnya mereka berdua adalah seorang ilmuwan yang belajar secara otodidak..namun Sang Tuan mulai dipercaya menjadi peramal bagi sang Sultan...Ia meramal dengan mengarang2 sebuah cerita dan menafsirkan mimpi sesuai dengan kehendaknya sendiri..
sebenernya ni cerita bikin pusing ya.....more
Cerita tentang Seorang budak asal venesia dan Tuannya yang berasal dari Turki..pada awalnya mereka berdua adalah seorang ilmuwan yang belajar secara otodidak..namun Sang Tuan mulai dipercaya menjadi peramal bagi sang Sultan...Ia meramal dengan mengarang2 sebuah cerita dan menafsirkan mimpi sesuai dengan kehendaknya sendiri..
sebenernya ni cerita bikin pusing ya.....more
Read in November, 2008
I really liked The White Castle. However, I am at a loss on how to write a review. The novel can be described as deceptively simple. The book is short. It is written in first person narrative. At times, the narrator hints that the book is a diary of sorts. Yet, unlike a typical diary, the narrator seeks less to describe his thoughts and feelings, then to lay out his life events in linear sequence. It is as if the narrator wants to document the events in his life for posterity; as if he deems the...more
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Read in December, 2009
I neither loved nor hated The White Castle. I'd like to give it 3.5 stars, and it may have rated 4 stars, if I could have been a better reader and read the book in fewer sittings.
The issue of identity is cumbersome in fiction and I'm not positive Pamuk nails it here, but he puts in a remarkable effort. The narration is slow, ruminative, and evolving, much like an identity. There are intertwinings of personalities and characteristics, thoughts and histories. In a way, the narration, ...more
The issue of identity is cumbersome in fiction and I'm not positive Pamuk nails it here, but he puts in a remarkable effort. The narration is slow, ruminative, and evolving, much like an identity. There are intertwinings of personalities and characteristics, thoughts and histories. In a way, the narration, ...more
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Akhirnyaaa....dapet juga buku ini. Bener-bener perjuangan yang panjang dan pengorbanan yang besar buat dapetin buku ini. Hunting lewat toko buku online ke beberapa site. Tapi gak dapet2 dan bilang kalo stoknya habis. Terakhir saya coba ke inibuku.com. Sempet sedih juga coz mereka sempet confirm kalo bukunya ga dapet, udah 2 kali order tapi stoknya tidak ada, dan menanyakan apakah mau mengganti pesanan buku atau tidak. Lalu saya jawab saya akan lihat dulu buku-buku yang ada di katalog inibuku.com...more
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2 comments
I liked White Castle. It was a short book, detailing a neurotic Turk and his Italian slave. The 'similarity' between doesn't really become that important until near the end - when Pamuk unweaves his complex web and all that came before makes perfect sense.
Pamuk is a talented writer. Perhaps the translation may have taken the flow out of the book, and his writing can get a bit dreary at times but his themes and imagery are second to none. I read Snow before I read this but regard Whi...more
Pamuk is a talented writer. Perhaps the translation may have taken the flow out of the book, and his writing can get a bit dreary at times but his themes and imagery are second to none. I read Snow before I read this but regard Whi...more
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Read in July, 2009
wah! akhirnya selesai juga.
Dengan sudut pandang 'aku' adalah seorang budak dari venesia, buku ini menceritakan tentang bagaimana jika kita menjalani kehidupan orang lain.
sang 'aku' tertangkap oleh armada laut Turki, dan berkat kecerdasannya (serta akal bulusnya) ia menerima nasib yang lebih beruntung dari pada teman2 tawanan lainnya. setelah berhasil bertemu dengan sang sultan, ia yang semula tawanan, menjadi budak seorang cendikia Turki, Hoja. Dan tak dapat disangkal o...more
Dengan sudut pandang 'aku' adalah seorang budak dari venesia, buku ini menceritakan tentang bagaimana jika kita menjalani kehidupan orang lain.
sang 'aku' tertangkap oleh armada laut Turki, dan berkat kecerdasannya (serta akal bulusnya) ia menerima nasib yang lebih beruntung dari pada teman2 tawanan lainnya. setelah berhasil bertemu dengan sang sultan, ia yang semula tawanan, menjadi budak seorang cendikia Turki, Hoja. Dan tak dapat disangkal o...more
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4 comments
Read in March, 2009
recommended to Rumi by:
Theodore Reitscheff
I can't help the feeling that there was something in this book I didn't quite get. Despite this I enjoyed the most part of it because of the enchanting narrating style (which wasn't exactly at its best at the end, I think). I could also identify with the notion of having someone very similar, the feeling that this person is somehow stealing everything personal, even your own life away from you. Though my situation was quite different and happily didn't last for such a long time, at times I felt ...more
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Turkey
This novel may remind you a little of the Star Trek--The Original Series episode "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield" in which two people seen by others as extremely similar to each other see themselves as quite different. While this plot is not the same as the 1966 Star Trek episode's, there are some similarities. The Italian narrator describes being captured at sea, thrown into a Turkish jail, and eventually winning the favor of a powerful patron (though as a slave)....more
This novel may remind you a little of the Star Trek--The Original Series episode "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield" in which two people seen by others as extremely similar to each other see themselves as quite different. While this plot is not the same as the 1966 Star Trek episode's, there are some similarities. The Italian narrator describes being captured at sea, thrown into a Turkish jail, and eventually winning the favor of a powerful patron (though as a slave)....more
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Read in March, 2009
This book is ok. It's a nice light read -- especially as compared to some of Pamuk's other works such as The Black Book.
However, to call this a treatise on the difference in identity between East and West (as the back cover proclaims) is a gross overstatement. Yes, Pamuk's trademark discussion of identity is there, but the "comparison" between East/West is flimsy at best. The fact that the two main characters are from Istanbul and Venice, respectively, and that their l...more
However, to call this a treatise on the difference in identity between East and West (as the back cover proclaims) is a gross overstatement. Yes, Pamuk's trademark discussion of identity is there, but the "comparison" between East/West is flimsy at best. The fact that the two main characters are from Istanbul and Venice, respectively, and that their l...more
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Read in December, 2008
This is a short novel, a novella, actually. Yet it took me a long time to finish it. Part of it is the Unreliable Narrator. I do not dislike them, and some of my favorite books make use of them, but they always slow things while I overanalyze the text. Then, the main subject, identity, and what makes us unique compared to what makes us similar, is quite close to my own core fears, so I had to read it in small doses. Finally, Pamuk (or maybe it is the translator's fault) is still finding his own ...more
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Read in January, 2008
There is something about Pamuk's writing style that brings me back to his works everytime, even though I feel too much is lost in translation from the original Turkish. The storyline of The White Castle is not gripping, though it is certainly interesting enough to make a reader want to finish the book. There is a steady undertone of philosophy that is perhaps more significant than the mundane who-did-what-and-when of an ordinary plot.
An Italian traveller is taken captive by a Turkis...more
An Italian traveller is taken captive by a Turkis...more
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Read in November, 2004
As always,in this book Pamuk is a great storyteller. Here he meets an Italian and a Turkish scholars who resemble so much each other that in fact they are identical.The mysterious "Hoja" wants to understand what makes the individuality of a person. He undertakes various experiments and his final goal is to be totally transformed into his Italian twin.
Is it possible to live another`s life? Is it possible to understand someone fully,as if he is you? What is identity and what define...more
Is it possible to live another`s life? Is it possible to understand someone fully,as if he is you? What is identity and what define...more
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The White Castle adalah novel historis karya peraih nobel sastra 2006 – Orhan Pamuk yang berutur mengenai jati diri, pertentangan dan persahabatan antara seorang budak Italia dengan seorang cendekiawan Ottoman di abad ke 17.
Kisah yang ditulis menurut sudut pandang pemuda Italia terpelajar sebagai narator (namanya tak pernah disebutkan hingga akhir) dalam kisah ini, diawali ketika ia sedang berlayar dari Venesia menuju Napoli. Di tengah perjalanan, kapalnya berpapasan dengan armada ...more
Kisah yang ditulis menurut sudut pandang pemuda Italia terpelajar sebagai narator (namanya tak pernah disebutkan hingga akhir) dalam kisah ini, diawali ketika ia sedang berlayar dari Venesia menuju Napoli. Di tengah perjalanan, kapalnya berpapasan dengan armada ...more
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karya awal pamuk nih
campuran dongeng mitos sejarah yg cerdas
sekali lagi mgkn karena nge fans itu kali y jd pengennya muji melulu
tipikal pamuk bikin cerita dongeng mitos sejarah itu jd kayak lukisan bernilai seni tinggi
maknanya dalem nih novel
intinya kita pengen jadi orang laen yg mgkn kita inginkan
tp ternyata g spt yg kita bayangkan kalo kita jd tuh orang
kayak sinetron sih temanya tapi kalo disinetronin nih buku, pasti ibu2 pada g suka
campuran dongeng mitos sejarah yg cerdas
sekali lagi mgkn karena nge fans itu kali y jd pengennya muji melulu
tipikal pamuk bikin cerita dongeng mitos sejarah itu jd kayak lukisan bernilai seni tinggi
maknanya dalem nih novel
intinya kita pengen jadi orang laen yg mgkn kita inginkan
tp ternyata g spt yg kita bayangkan kalo kita jd tuh orang
kayak sinetron sih temanya tapi kalo disinetronin nih buku, pasti ibu2 pada g suka
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Sem ler alguma coisa de Pamuk já estou apaixonado! (ok, em parte porque é filosófico, e porque adorava ir a Istambul...)
Fiquei muito bem impressionado com "A Vida Nova", e cada vez que pego no livro sinto-me preso! No entanto, não é um autor que aconselhe a todos, pois considero-o de leitura relativamente forte, não por ser denso mas por conseguir ser algo "cinzento" e muito divagador - isto em "A Vida Nova".
Não duvido que vou gostar d...more
Fiquei muito bem impressionado com "A Vida Nova", e cada vez que pego no livro sinto-me preso! No entanto, não é um autor que aconselhe a todos, pois considero-o de leitura relativamente forte, não por ser denso mas por conseguir ser algo "cinzento" e muito divagador - isto em "A Vida Nova".
Não duvido que vou gostar d...more
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Salah satu karya Nobelis Sastra 2006 asal Turki, Orhan Pamuk, yang semakin membuatku yakin bahwa beliau paling jago dalam hal karakterisasi tokoh.
Sungguh hebat dalam menggambarkan "pertukaran kepribadian" antara Hoja dengan pria kafir asal Venice itu.
Banyak sekali nilai-nilai yang terkandung dalam novel ini. Antara lain adalah kerendahan hati kita untuk mengakui keunggulan orang lain: bagaimana bila orang yang kita didik ternyata menjadi lebih piawai ketimbang ...more
Sungguh hebat dalam menggambarkan "pertukaran kepribadian" antara Hoja dengan pria kafir asal Venice itu.
Banyak sekali nilai-nilai yang terkandung dalam novel ini. Antara lain adalah kerendahan hati kita untuk mengakui keunggulan orang lain: bagaimana bila orang yang kita didik ternyata menjadi lebih piawai ketimbang ...more
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Way overrated for a writer of Pamuk status, it is oversimplification of east west if it has anything to do with that, despite being short it was difficult to finish because of lack of sympathy to the characters. I don’t even think it deserves the 1 star but I read an Arabic translation, for that I am giving it benefit of doubt that some awkwardness is translation related.
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Read in August, 2008
The White Castle chronicles a completely dysfunctional relationship between a master and slave who happen to look exactly alike. As you can imagine, it brings up all sorts of identity themes -- what is self, how plastic is the self, what is self-sacrifice. It's a short novel, but a dense one; if you don't stop and ponder occasionally, you'll miss a lot.
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