false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1229394054m/6002540.jpg 11694 26 In his native Turkey, author Orhan Pamuk's novel <I>The New Life</I> is a huge hit. Now English-language readers have an opportunity to sample this unusual book for themselves. <I>The New Life</I> begins with the sentence "I read a book one day and my whole life was changed." That book leads the narrator, a young man named Osman, on a wild journey in the company of Janan, a mysterious young woman in search of her lover, Mehmet. He had actually managed to enter--and escape--the world of the book. In the course of their travels, Osman and Janan are involved in a bloody bus wreck from which they emerge with new identities; they meet several "false" Mehmets; Janan mysteriously vanishes; and Osman eventually encounters a family friend who may or may not be the author of the life-changing book and possibly of <I>The New Life</I> itself. <P> In case you hadn't already guessed, <I>The New Life</I> is strictly postmodernist fare, where plot and character are minimal and time and space tend to bend and warp in unexpected ways. The author's vision is certainly original, his descriptions of violence and Turkish culture particularly strong. 374005 book 1994 The New Life total:438|5:97|4:132|3:128|2:53|1:28| 438 1531 681 58 5 4 false false Wed Jul 11 00:09:47 -0700 2007 Sat Oct 04 06:03:28 -0700 2008 2 Read slowly.. Let the tentacular, pellucid sentences take you to the world of mystical adventure, which is clumsy yet so entrancing. Reading the second time slowly made me realize all the symmetry, puns, even autobiographical bits and pieces of the the author himself. It evokes feeli...more...]]> 5 2 false false Thu Apr 02 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun Mar 29 01:49:54 -0700 2009 Thu Apr 02 00:54:50 -0700 2009 'I read a book one day and my whole life was changed. Even on the first page I was so affected by the book's intensity I felt my body sever itself and pull away from the chair where I sat reading the book that lay before me on the table.' Light surging from its pages illumines his face: 'Its incande...more...]]> 5 2 false false Tue Mar 31 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun Mar 22 09:33:03 -0700 2009 Sun Apr 05 07:48:40 -0700 2009 3 more...]]> 4 2 false false Thu Jun 15 00:00:00 -0700 2006 Tue Feb 12 01:15:07 -0800 2008 Tue Feb 12 01:22:18 -0800 2008
I got really into this one.

It was one of those pick-it-up-in-the-bookstore kinda things and it's funny since that's more or less what happens to the narrator.

One day he picks up a book (contents not whitholding to the reader, of course) and Kafka-like, he is n...more...]]> 3 1 false false Sun Jul 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Tue Jul 31 20:25:24 -0700 2007 Tue Jul 31 20:48:00 -0700 2007 more...]]> 4 0 false false Wed Nov 18 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Wed Nov 18 10:04:00 -0800 2009 Wed Nov 18 10:07:58 -0800 2009 more...]]> 2 1 false false Thu Apr 09 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed Apr 08 01:23:05 -0700 2009 Thu Apr 09 08:46:55 -0700 2009 more...]]> 2 1 false false Wed Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2003 Sat Sep 29 15:53:14 -0700 2007 Sun Nov 08 13:46:39 -0800 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Sun Nov 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Oct 13 19:00:28 -0700 2009 Sun Nov 01 15:58:07 -0800 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Thu Dec 04 09:21:05 -0800 2008 Thu Dec 04 09:25:11 -0800 2008 در زندگي نو آنچه مهم است نه رازهاي زندگي كه مردمانند- قهرماناني كه گرداگرد اين رازها بر مي گردند و هستي را تاويل مي كنند زندگي ...more...]]> 4 0 false false Sat Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed Aug 26 02:50:47 -0700 2009 Wed Sep 02 03:01:48 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 1 false false Sun Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2006 Fri Mar 07 05:25:47 -0800 2008 Fri Mar 07 06:48:43 -0800 2008 The New Life, which is about a young man making long bus journeys in Anatolia. I found the Turkish bus system to be a lot safer than Pamuk describes it, but other than that, I recognised a fair bit, and loved the...more...]]> 3 0 false false Fri Feb 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Mon Dec 17 23:04:40 -0800 2007 Sun Feb 10 00:46:31 -0800 2008 more...]]> 4 0 false false Wed Apr 22 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sat Aug 09 14:44:37 -0700 2008 Wed Apr 22 10:30:27 -0700 2009
The first part was rather slow and confusing but with something indefinable, a lyric quality, the sense of something unfolding, a promise of better things – that urged me to carry on and I’m glad I did because the second half, in which Osman, the protagonist, sea...more...]]> 5 0 false false Fri May 15 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Fri May 08 08:57:17 -0700 2009 Fri May 15 20:33:18 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Mon Aug 31 04:31:38 -0700 2009 Sat Sep 05 02:26:24 -0700 2009 more...]]> 1 0 false false Fri May 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed Jul 01 07:13:30 -0700 2009 Wed Jul 01 07:15:50 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Fri May 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon May 18 23:37:23 -0700 2009 Mon May 18 23:45:46 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Sun Nov 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Jul 08 03:06:10 -0700 2008 Sat Oct 31 23:13:23 -0700 2009 The narrator of this somewhat obscure and puzzling work, leaves his life behind and becomes suspended in the space between life and death while he searches for the...more...]]> 5 0 false false Mon Sep 22 05:32:44 -0700 2008 Sun Sep 21 13:53:02 -0700 2008 Mon Sep 22 05:32:44 -0700 2008 more...]]> http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=6002540