El Museo de la Inocencia

Jul 05, 2010 Sandy Tjan rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Pamuk fans, closet romantics

Shelves: 2010, ebook, contemporary-fiction, freaky-epic-love, pamuk

I must confess that for the last five years, I have had a love and hate relationship with Orhan Pamuk (I also had a similar relationship with Charles Dickens, but that’s another matter altogether).

Pamuk’s style is meticulous and ornate, intensely introspective, sometimes deliberately repetitive, shot through with that particular Turkish kind of melancholy called ‘huzun’. At his best, his prose achieves a poetic, hypnotic quality that makes My Name Is Red such a compelling, mesmerizing read. But...more

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Apr 12, 2012 Marieke rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2010, fiction, turkey, nobel-winner

I think this will be a short review because i don't want to give too much away. This is probably one of the more unique books i've ever read, done completely unpretentiously. most of the time i was reading it, i was thoroughly swept up in its melancholy atmosphere, but as the story began to resolve toward the very end, the tone lightened and i happily noted Orhan Pamuk's sense of humor and ability to make fun of himself. at least that is how i processed certain things at the end of the book.

as a...more I think this will be a short review because i don't want to give too much away. This is probably one of the more unique books i've ever read, done completely unpretentiously. most of the time i was reading it, i was thoroughly swept up in its melancholy atmosphere, but as the story began to resolve toward the very end, the tone lightened and i happily noted Orhan Pamuk's sense of humor and ability to make fun of himself. at least that is how i processed certain things at the end of the book.

as a novelized catalog of a very intimate and personal museum, the book cleverly documents one man's (Kemal) tragic attempt to spend his life happily with the one woman (Fusün) he truly loves. the reader knows from the outset that they are aboard a trainwreck, but it's never clear, despite hints all along the way, how the train will ultimately wreck and what will become of Kemal. The reader accompanies Kemal in his besotted state, followed by obsession, and then grief, observing with slight discomfort and sadness Kemal's years collecting various objects connected to Fusün in order to feel close to his beloved. Although we don't know until the end what becomes of Kemal or how his story got written, we do know what becomes of his collected objects. They are part of a museum and as we learn his story we are introduced to these objects, or perhaps, as we are introduced to these objects, we learn his story.

I don't know if the five stars will hold up, but i gave it five stars today because i got so entirely wrapped up in the story, and more so as it reached its resolution. i had expected the opposite to be true, but i was wrong. I also feel terrible that i have yet to read Snow, which i have been avoiding since i have been unable to finish My Name is Red and i had heard from several people that Snow is difficult. I've been afraid of it. But now i really want to read it. And everything else that i have yet to read (or finish reading) by Orhan Pamuk.

ETA 04/12/2012: Life imitates art and becomes real-life art. Moved up on my To-Do list: Visit Istanbul.(less)

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Feb 06, 2011 Renato Guerra rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites

Aún con el enorme cliché que se carga (chico rico se enamora de chica pobre) me decidí a leer la última novela de Orhan Pamuk pues hasta el momento es un autor que no me ha decepcionado. 648 páginas despues puedo decir con certeza que es una de las mejores novelas que he leído aunque seguramente se debe a que la he tomado en un momento preciso de mi vida (ya veremos si a la relectura sigo opinando igual).

El libro puede ser dividido en dos partes, la primera nos narra el desenfrenado amorío entre...more

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Dec 18, 2009 Irwan rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: finished, 2009, favorites

(Additional notes below)

One thing I just realized, whenever I am about to finish reading a book, usually some sketchy ideas or sentences appear in my mind, so that right after I finish it, I can just open Goodreads, rate the book and write those ideas. I am also usually satisfied after writing three or four paragraphs, feeling that I have said what I have to say. But, I can't do that with Pamuk's books.

The night I finished this book, I was sitting at my desk with my hands laid on the closed boo...more

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Feb 28, 2012 Erin rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I just finished this book and despite the writing style (which reminded me of Gabriel Garcia Marquez) I ended up hating the main character and the book.

Like a lover you can't trust, the author led me down a long, winding path and eventually took advantage of me - and believe me, after sticking with this book for more than 500 pages I was expecting a little bit more. The first 200 pages were frustrating but I carried on, in hopes that sometime we'd get somewhere good. However, I started to get su...more

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Apr 12, 2011 Ben rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A magnificent obsession turns fatal

A review by Ben Antao

The Museum of Innocence
By Orhan Pamuk
Translated by Maureen Freely
Knopf Canada, 536 pages, $34.95

In an interview in Mumbai recently, Orhan Pamuk, 57, the author of The Museum of Innocence, said rather petulantly, “When Proust wrote on love, everybody read it as universal love; when I write about love, they call it Turkish love.”

Having read both Proust and Pamuk’s novel, I felt a tinge of sympathy for the Turkish Nobel prize winner of...more

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Sep 07, 2012 linh do vu mai rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

i waited for almost one week(or so i guess lol) to write down what i felt after reading this piece of novel.

"The Museum of Innocence" is sometimes considered another " Love in the time of Cholera" as they both depict such persistence and infinity of love despite time and space. Both Kemal Bey and Florentin both withhold love for "the one" of their life, though in two different ways.

Kemal bey knew deep in his heart that he and Fusun were made for one another. Although she is married, he sensed,...more i waited for almost one week(or so i guess lol) to write down what i felt after reading this piece of novel.

"The Museum of Innocence" is sometimes considered another " Love in the time of Cholera" as they both depict such persistence and infinity of love despite time and space. Both Kemal Bey and Florentin both withhold love for "the one" of their life, though in two different ways.

Kemal bey knew deep in his heart that he and Fusun were made for one another. Although she is married, he sensed, just his intuition that she did not love her husband and later found out many years later, they are just friends living under the same roof. Such a determination ,consistency and above all, love he had for Fusun that he paid visit to Fusun house every single day for a consecutive 8 years. 8 years of a person's life. he could have had a loving family of his own, with his used-to-be finacee, Sibel, had children and lived such a peaceful life.
i sometimes wonder why did he not choose that road, it would be so easy and yes, straightforward it must have been if he could just follow the path laid down for him from the start. why followed the unexpected and tortured himself. he wanted to find happiness, everybody does! it just depends on the path they chose. Kemel took the rough path and finished it. at the very least, he could live with the one he truly loved even just through the objects representing his loved one's soul in them. He fell happy in the end, that that is what mattered most.

"Happiness is not a destination, it is a journey" how true this sentence can be. 8 years of accumulated happiness with a pinch of hardship, a little bit of sourness of life and that is just plain "imperfectly beautiful" .

My favorite chapter must be "Time" and "In another life".

"it must have been then i first came to realize that for most people life was not a joy to be embraced with a full heart but a miserable charade to be endured with a false smile, a narrow path life, punishments and repression."

"clocks and calendars do not exist to remind us of the TIME we have forgotten but to regulate our relations with other and indeed all of society.When looking at the black and white clock that appeared on the screen every evening,just before the news, it was not Time we remembered but other families, other people, and the clocks that regulated our business with them."

"Sometimes, these moments we call "present" can bring up enough happiness to last a century."

"Just let evrybody know, i lived a very happy life" - Kemal Bey
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Apr 20, 2010 Mimi rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I had a lot of trouble reading the first half of this book and didn't really enjoy reading it until around page 300. Since I normally love Pamuk (one of my favorite books is My Name is Red), I stayed with it. I know being a woman who really can't stand it when men are cluelessly unfaithful made the first half more unbearable for me.I kept putting it down, because I found it hard to read for very long. I also could tell pretty much exactly how it would end, which I'm sure he intended. By the end...more

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Sep 20, 2012 Tanuj Solanki rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 21-century, library, turkey, favorites

The review till now ->>

One has to begin with 'Love in the time of Cholera'. Marquez's novel on obsessive love has to be compared with Pamuk's novel. But perhaps such a comparison is to be done precisely to show the astounding difference between the two novels.

The protagonists of both novels - Marquez's Florentino Ariza and Pamuk's Kemal Basmaci - are obsessive about their love interests, with an obsession that finds it absolutely necessary to calibrate itself. So we have Florentino - keep...more

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Nov 30, 2011 علی rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: novels

A long and detailed account of the obsessive love that Kemal, a wealthy businessman, bears for Füsun, a lower class girl, relatively poor, 12 years younger than him, not regarding her interests or situation. His selfishness refuses to give up his fiancée (Sibel), to be with his love (Füsun), but becomes an obsessive collector of the objects of his short being with Füsun, a bizarre situation as Kemal objectifies Füsun, satisfying his emotional obsession. He can not / would not treat her as a subj...more A long and detailed account of the obsessive love that Kemal, a wealthy businessman, bears for Füsun, a lower class girl, relatively poor, 12 years younger than him, not regarding her interests or situation. His selfishness refuses to give up his fiancée (Sibel), to be with his love (Füsun), but becomes an obsessive collector of the objects of his short being with Füsun, a bizarre situation as Kemal objectifies Füsun, satisfying his emotional obsession. He can not / would not treat her as a subject, a human being rather than a thing.
So, from one side, “The Museum of Innocence” is a love story, long, as length as a century, brimful of repetitious elucidations and depictions, unnecessary details … monotony with repetitious phrases such as all of her beautiful being, “her sad eyes, her miraculous lips, her large pink tongue, her velvet cheeks, her shapely shoulders, the silky skin of her throat, chest, neck, and belly, her long legs, her delicate feet, the sight of which had always made me smile, her slender honey-hued arms” (God knows how many times in different chapters) … or long chapters like The Engagement Party… (there were times when I read it joylessly).
On the other side, “The Museum of Innocence” is the story of Turkey-Istanbul society’s long and tiring journey, from traditional time to modernity; from a religious medieval society to kind of shallow European modernity (an artificial model of Paris, France?), a dispute between two generations; parents trying to keep what exists, living in a nostalgic life, sighing for missing old music, old way of gathering, old architecture, old way of life and living, and children who imitate and follow the manifestations of modernity (new café’s, modern restaurants, free sexual relationship…) but deeply captured in their traditional culture and beliefs (e.g. virginity of girls)… It is an old city, so old that in 1975, when novel begins, Istanbul, remained of Ottoman Empire, while Kemal, Fusun and Athaturk’s Turkey are young, the family still own a 1956 Chevrolet. Everything goes slowly as Kemal says in one of last chapters; “Time had favored us both with growth of wisdom, and of depth, it pleased me to see…” and Istanbul-Turkey is changed, somehow to a modern European style! The museum objects sustains notes of elegy and nostalgia, post-imperial capital. "that familiar Istanbul smell of sea and moss, pigeon droppings, coal smoke, car exhaust and linden blossoms".
"موزه ی معصومیت" در ابتدا قصه ی یک عشق است، به درازای یک قرن، سرشار از توضیحات و توصیفات تکراری و جزئیات بی مورد... رابطه ی کمال (کامل!) و فسون (افسون، جادو!)، در بطن اما، قصه ی عبور جامعه ی ترکیه- استانبول در سفر دراز و خسته کن، از سنت به مدرنیته ی اروپایی، از این هم محدودتر، قصه ی دگرگونی های سنتی یک جامعه ی مذهبی قرون وسطایی به مدرنیته ای بی عمق، الگو گرفته از اروپای مدرن، در جدال دو نسل برای حفظ و احترام به آنچه هست، و فراموشی و رسیدن به آنچه در دنیای مدرن و امروز، پسندیده است. از یک سو پدران و مادرانی که در اوج ثروت و مکنت، هم چنان حافظ سنت ها و در حسرت گذشته اند، به موسیقی دوران عثمانی و آتاتورک گوش می کنند و در حسرت خانه ها و محله های اعیان نشین قدیمی اند... و در دیگر سو فرزندانی که مثل هر جامعه ی در حال توسعه ی دیگر، متظاهر و شیفته ی پوسته ی بیرونی تجددی که بیشتر با آزادی سکسی شناخته می شود. نسل جوانی در تب "معصومیت عشق"، باکره گی دخترانش را از دست می دهد؛ بهایی برای رسیدن به مدرنیته، و گاه با حفظ آن، در حفظ سنت می کوشد، اختلاطی از سنت و مدرنیته، ناممکنی که بسیاری در این دوران گذار، به آن می اندیشند.
موزه ی معصومیت (2008) همان تمی را تعقیب می کند که ماریو بارگاس یوسا در "دختر بد" (2005) روایت کرده است، عبور دردناک جامعه ی عقب افتاده ی "پرو" به مدرنیته ی اروپایی و عمدتن پاریس و فرانسه، با این تفاوت که هرچه "یوسا" موجز و قاطع و زیبا به روایت پروی توسعه نیافته با پوسته ای تقلیدی از زندگی در پاریس و لندن پرداخته، "پاموک" کشدار و تکراری، در نقلی بلند از آن گفته است، آنقدر که چند فصل آخر کتاب را به راستی در بی تحملی تمام کردم.
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Oct 19, 2011 Lillian rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I'm not sure what to think of this book. I loved Pamuk's memoir, Istanbul: Memories and the City. But this novel, which covers much of the same material from a fictional perspective, with a woman, instead of a city as the focus of attention, was a frustrating read. The cataloging of every meaningful interaction with Fusun, the focus of Kemal's obsession, and the collecting of thousands of objects she touched or that are associated with her, does capture something ... a period of time? Reading th...more I'm not sure what to think of this book. I loved Pamuk's memoir, Istanbul: Memories and the City. But this novel, which covers much of the same material from a fictional perspective, with a woman, instead of a city as the focus of attention, was a frustrating read. The cataloging of every meaningful interaction with Fusun, the focus of Kemal's obsession, and the collecting of thousands of objects she touched or that are associated with her, does capture something ... a period of time? Reading this novel was in many ways like sitting trapped at a table with a very self-involved person who talks endlessly about things that might be entertaining in small doses, but become mind-numbing the longer the person continues to talk. My biggest problem with Kemal was this: "Like most Turkish men of my world who entered into this predicament, I never paused to wonder what might be going on in the mind of the woman with whom I was madly in love, and what her dreams might be; I only fantasized about her." I read somewhere that it is Fusun whom Orhan Pamuk identifies with. So is he portraying through Kemal the West's idealized, but very limited understanding of Turkey? One very lovely idea Pamuk expounds upon through Kemal is that of the value of "sitting together" ... "Touching in the most innocent way upon my main reason for being there -- my desire to be in the same place as Fusun -- the word "sit" suited me perfectly. Unlike those intellectuals who deem it a solemn duty to deride the people and who believe that the millions of people in Turkey who talked of "sitting together" every evening were congregating to do nothing, I, to the contrary, cherished the desire expressed in the words "to sit together" as a social necessity amongst those bound by family ties, of friendship, or even between people with whom they feel a deep bond, though they might not understand its meaning." Maybe that is what I am taking away from this novel, the experience of having "sat" with Kemal, and in a way, with Orhan Pamuk.

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May 20, 2010 Nitya Mathew rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I ploughed my way through most of this book. In the middle, it really slowed down. But the last 100 pages sucked me in and made the whole book worth it.

I never felt any empathy for the central characters Kemal and Fusun. I thought he was too obsessive - a personality that would fix on anything or anyone to be obsessed by, irrespective of their personal qualities. I didnt get Fusun - she seemed to be very blurred. I could visualise her well, but not her personality and character. Towards teh end...more

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Apr 05, 2011 jeand99 rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Aren't we all surrounded by thousands of tiny little things of the ones we love(d)?

"What a bore is life and how predictable: to be born, live and die." This is what I told my grandma (from my mothersside) at the age of eight after reading next weeks TV-guide completely. She looked at me with a little mysterious smile and said "Yes, you are right". I was old at the age of eight. The strange thing is this feeling never really left me. In retrospect my opinion back than was only a part of 'homo sap...more Aren't we all surrounded by thousands of tiny little things of the ones we love(d)?

"What a bore is life and how predictable: to be born, live and die." This is what I told my grandma (from my mothersside) at the age of eight after reading next weeks TV-guide completely. She looked at me with a little mysterious smile and said "Yes, you are right". I was old at the age of eight. The strange thing is this feeling never really left me. In retrospect my opinion back than was only a part of 'homo sapiens' life' truth. In life it's not about milestones it's about all the days in between. It's not about being born, learn to ride a bicycle, fall in love, graduate at highschool, buy a house, become a (grand)parent and die. It's about the 26.000 days in between. Sometimes we think we will never really fall in love. Sometimes we are in doubt about the love we feel. Sometimes we hate our lover. Sometimes it feels as if we are not good enough for our lover and need above all affirmation. Sometimes it's a perfect day full of love and being loved. Sometimes we don't think at all about our lover - and feel guilty when we realize that. What I'm trying to say is, we (better: I) live our life one day after another. In retrospect we can put milestones in our personal life but it's hardly sensible in the days we are living one by one. Yesterday is one day. Today is one day. Tomorrow and all the other days are one day.

All bookreviews tell more about the reviewer than about the writer of a book. I'm completely aware of that. Last weekend I finished reading Orhan Pamuk' (1952-) book 'The museum of innocence' (in a dutch translation). From a milestone point of view this book is a bore. 30 year old male Pamuk falls in love with 18 year female Fusun while he is going to be engaged in a few weeks with 26 (?) year old female Sibel. The setting is Istanbul, Turkey in the seventies (of the 20th century). Pamuk and Sibel are both rich and are the perfect couple. Fusun is poor.

I was completely addicted to the book after reading the first 20 pages. I knew - not really but I guessed how it would end otherwise there would have been no reason for a "museum" - how the book was going to end but I loved all those thousands and thousands of tiny little lovely details of a love. A love between Kemal and Sibel. A love between Kemal and Fusun. All the hesitations, the anger, the insecurity, the perfect moments, the jealousy, the lack of affirmation, the tears, the smiles and the feeling of happiness when you just can touch her or finally see her smile while she looks at you. I loved to read about all the "normal" days when Kemal was surrounded by things of Fusun: touching the saltshacker that once stood at Fusun' house, smelling at the red dress Fusun wore on the day of Kemal and Fusun' engagement and drinking from a glass Fusun once drank out of.

This is it. This is life. For me it's a book of love in all it's tiny little elements. It's tells it all: the hesitations, the good and bad moments and all the feelings in between. It's not a book of milestones. It's a book of all the days in between. For me personally to found a museum for the love-of-my-life is too much. It would be too neurotic. I'll never found a museum for the ones I loved so much and the ones I love right now. I'll never found a museum for the love-of-my-life but aren't we all surrounded by hunderds of things, books, smells, songs, thoughts and dreams of the ones we love(d)?

P.s. More bookreviews of this book can be found here.

@jeand99(less)

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Aug 14, 2011 Melinda rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is a long and tedious book about a man's pathological life-long obsession with a beautiful young women. The story begins when Istanbul resident Kemal meets 18 year old shopgirl Fusan who is also a distant relative. She is attracted to his money and he is attracted to her youth and beauty. Twelve years older and engaged to be married, Kamal begins an intense, albiet short-lived, affair with the girl. However, his fixation with the teenager does not end there. (The Museum of Innocence is an a...more

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Feb 07, 2013 Yelda rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Bu kitabı 4 yıl önce okudum. Okuduğumda anladığımı düşünüyordum ama aslında tam olarak anlayamadığımı geçen hafta John Fowles'in 'Fransız Teğmen'in Kadını'nı okuduktan sonra fark ettim. FTK ki Orhan Pamuk okuduğu en güzel aşk romanı olduğunu belirtir ve gerçekten de Postmodern romanın bence en güzel (ve ilk) örneklerinden biridir, Viktorya çağı İngilteresinde aristokrat bir erkek, burjuva sınıfından bir kadın ile alt sınıftan diğer bir kadının arasındaki aşk üçgenini ekseninde yaşanan toplumsal...more Bu kitabı 4 yıl önce okudum. Okuduğumda anladığımı düşünüyordum ama aslında tam olarak anlayamadığımı geçen hafta John Fowles'in 'Fransız Teğmen'in Kadını'nı okuduktan sonra fark ettim. FTK ki Orhan Pamuk okuduğu en güzel aşk romanı olduğunu belirtir ve gerçekten de Postmodern romanın bence en güzel (ve ilk) örneklerinden biridir, Viktorya çağı İngilteresinde aristokrat bir erkek, burjuva sınıfından bir kadın ile alt sınıftan diğer bir kadının arasındaki aşk üçgenini ekseninde yaşanan toplumsal değişimleri özellikle kadın özgürlüğü konusundaki değişimleri konu alır. FTK'nı okumaya başlar başlamaz Masumiyet Müzesi'ni hatırladım. Füsun da Sarah gibi alt sosyo-ekonomik tabakaya mensup bir kızcağızdır. Kemal da Charles gibi her ne kadar Türkiye'de aristokrasi sınıfı olmasa da sosyoekonomik bakımdan aristokrasiyle kıyaslanabilecek bir sınıfa mensuptur. Aynı şekilde, Sibel de Ernestina gibi sosyal statü bakımından nişanlısına denk bir konumdadır. Her iki romanda da erkek kahramanımız, güzel ve zengin nişanlısı ile toplumun onaylayacağı ideal evlilik birliğini kurmak ile yasak ama çekici aykırı aşkını yaşamak arasında kalır. Ve her iki romanda da olaylar erkek kahramanın etrafında dönüyor gibi görünse de esas merkez fakir kızcağız ve onun yaşadığı dönüşüm paralelinde toplumun yaşadığı dönüşümdür. İşte okuduğum zaman aslında anlamamışım düye düşünmeme yol açan düğüm noktası burası. Yani karakter-toplum bağlantısı, dönüşümü ayrıntısı. İki kitap arasında şöyle bir fark var, ki iki toplum birbirinden epey farklı olduğu için bu fark kaçınılmaz, FTK'da karakter (ve toplum) okuyucuyu da tatmin edebilecek bir açıklıkla, netlikle dönüşüm geçirir. Masumiyet Müzesinde ise okuyucu bir bocalama, bir çırpınma ile karşı karşıyadır. Öyle ki yeri gelir " derdin ne arkadaş!" diye karakterlere kızacak aşamaya gelirsiniz hatta "ne anlatmaya çalışıyorsun" diye yazara kızarsınız. Oysa bu bocalamanın bu çırpınmanın sebebi açıktır: Sarah ne istediğinin nereye varacağını bilir çünkü Sanayi devrimini yaşayan Viktoryen İngiltere'de sosyal dönüşüm açık, net ve kaçınılmazdır. Sarah toplumun belirlediği normlara hapsolmak yerine bohem ve özgür bir hayatı seçebilir. Çünkü toplum ona bu fırsatı verecek kıvama gelmiştir. Zavallı Füsun'un ise böyle bir seçeneği yoktur çünkü yaşadığı toplum dönüşüm geçirememektedir. Toplumsal normlara uymamaya karar verecek olursa seçenekleri sınırlıdır. Mesela ne olabilir? "Artist" olabilir. Ancak feragat etmek zorunda kalacağı şeyler Sarah'ınkilerden çok daha fazladır. Mesela Charles bir ihtimal Sarah'ın seçimlerine saygı duyabilir ve onun seçtiği hayatı paylaşabilir ama Kemal her ne kadar Füsun'un artist olma kararını destekliyor gibi görünse de genlerine bile işlemiş olan ataerkil kaygılar filmde öpüşme sahnesi olasılığında bile Füsun'u kısıtlamasına sebep olcaktır. Bu örnek üzerinden hareketle Orhan Pamuk toplumsal devinimsizliğimize ve büyük oranda bundan kaynaklanan melankolimize ayna tutar aslında. İçeriği bir yana, gerçek bir Masumiyet Müzesi kurma projesi ile Orhan Pamuk roman ile gerçek hayat arasındaki bağı Fransız Teğmenin kadınında olduğundan birkaç adım öteye taşır. Sırf bu yönüyle bile Masumiyet Müzesi edebiyat tarihinin önemli kilometre taşlarından biridir. Evet, içeriği çoğu yerde beni boğdu ama dediğim gibi bunun suçlusu yazar ya da konu değil: Melankoli ve belirsizlik toplumsal karakterimizin önemli parçaları ise bizi anlatan bir romanda bulunmaları da kaçınılmaz...(less)

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Jan 23, 2013 Paolo Gianoglio rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Voto 2, ma questo voto è molto controverso. La prima parte del libro è affascinante, descrive un mondo complesso e sconosciuto, la Turchia degli anni '70, con gli occhi di un giovane rampollo di buona famiglia che ha ricevuto un'educazione occidentale, e che frequenta ambienti che guardano all'Europa e all'America senza perdere mai di vista le convenzioni tradizionali della cultura turca; la condizione della donna, il complesso rapporto con le fidanzate "che vivono all'occidentale", gli affari,...more

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Jan 05, 2013 max rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: bedside

Although I have not read its backcover benchmarks, such as Lolita and Madame Bovary, Orhan Pamuk’s novel of romantic obsession clearly aspires to join a certain 20th-century literary template. I’d guess this form reached a certain pinnacle in Thomas Mann’s Death in Venice, a novella contraption of rarified lust and envy which, like Pamuk’s richer and lusher successor, combines a poetic destination with themes of mortality, nostalgia, the limits of ambition and conquest, and, of course, madness,...more Although I have not read its backcover benchmarks, such as Lolita and Madame Bovary, Orhan Pamuk’s novel of romantic obsession clearly aspires to join a certain 20th-century literary template. I’d guess this form reached a certain pinnacle in Thomas Mann’s Death in Venice, a novella contraption of rarified lust and envy which, like Pamuk’s richer and lusher successor, combines a poetic destination with themes of mortality, nostalgia, the limits of ambition and conquest, and, of course, madness, whether real or putative.

While the many Turkish places and names can make The Museum of Innocence a little challenging initially, it is overall a very accessible read with well-baked prose that is neither too dense nor too fluffy. During the initial half of the book, I often found Kemal Bey, protagonist and narrator, scion of a renowned Turkish business, completely unsympathetic and I often came close to abandoning the book in contempt. While soon to be engaged, Kemal falls for a distant relation far below his expected life station and begins an affair. Despite Kemal’s attempts at exculpation and rationalization, Pamuk dramatizes not only the ruffling of high-society feathers, but also the real and lasting damage to his friendships, business, and family; he paints this waterfall of falling-outs artfully and without melodrama, rendering a vivid and necessarily precious portrait of 70’s Istanbul high society.

Of course, it’s common sense since the days of dowries and brideprices that marriage works best when between two people of a comparable socioeconomic background; why this is has little to do with love but a lot to do with life; life without love is cold, but love without life is also a little problematic, which is exactly the problem that novels like The Museum of Innocence attempt to explicate.

Thus the key experience of the reading book, perhaps, can be found within that element of contempt I felt so strongly for Kemal at first, which later turned to pity (female readers may find their contempt turning to out-and-out disgust, or even resignation; Kemal is not the only total jerk of his sex, though most are less rich and handsome). While these basic social emotions are exploding all around him, Kemal is never touched by them himself; the inertia of his obsession for the hot little shopgirl cousin is like a wrecking ball that demolishes the the typical upper-class “rights”: the “right” neighborhoods, the “right” restaurants, the “right” summer houses, the “right” beaches, the “right” weddings, and of course, the “right” offspring. And the character of his obsession never changes; Kemal is fixated on her hips, her breasts, her lips and everything they touch tantamount to the exclusion of everything else that has ever been seen, built, said, heard, or written.

It’s possible that Pamuk would like the reader to take the protagonist’s avowals of and frequent inquiries into love more seriously than I did, but I was left with doubts as to whether Kemal’s ordeal could indeed qualify as such; it was strong, it was long, and it was deep (so to speak), but it was also cruel. In my estimation, Orhan Pamuk’s comprehensive study on the matter is intended to cast such long shadows. It might very well be a love story; if so, the rest of us should be happy to settle for less, and enjoy it as a “quickie”; I for one, encourage you to spend an afternoon touring The Museum of Innocence.
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Nov 13, 2012 Cha Cha rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

An extremely tedious, depressing read.
I can honestly say that I read the first 150 pages, and then started skimming the rest (which I NEVER do, since I love reading) in search for dialogue.It is so melancholy and slow.

It reminded me of being in a room with an extremely self absorbed person, who blabbers on and on, touching the same points over and over again without really any concern if you're listening or not.

The writing style is also overly detailed, describing dry conversations with busin...more

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Oct 05, 2012 Barbara Miehls rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I'm coming at this from a different angle. I read a story in the Wall Street Journal about the physical museum Orhan Paamuk built around a novel he wrote or was it vice versa? I downloaded The Museum of Innocence and entered it. That's the only way I can describe experiencing this uniquely compelling tale of love, obsession and cultural paradox.

The story opens on the happiest day in the life of thirty something, upper class Kemel, who realizes he has fallen in love with 18 year old Fuson,, a dis...more I'm coming at this from a different angle. I read a story in the Wall Street Journal about the physical museum Orhan Paamuk built around a novel he wrote or was it vice versa? I downloaded The Museum of Innocence and entered it. That's the only way I can describe experiencing this uniquely compelling tale of love, obsession and cultural paradox.

The story opens on the happiest day in the life of thirty something, upper class Kemel, who realizes he has fallen in love with 18 year old Fuson,, a distant cousin who works as a shopgirl. Once knowing the happiness of this grand love he is fated to be addicted for life.

Then she suddenly withdraws from him. She does this because Kemel is already engaged to be married to Sibel, an older, more suitable partner who has beauty, charm, status and is perfect in every way. Kemel thinks that he will have the two women and lead theperfect life of a wealthy Turkish man about town.

He even invites the 18 year old Fuson to his high profile engagement party at the Hilton(God knows why). She is a stunner and get lots of attention at the event, driving him mad with jealousy. But he still thinks all is well with his world and the jealousy will only highten his passion. Then Fuson and her family diisappear.

He obsesses about the loss to the point of making a fetish of every material thing he can remember coming in contact with Fuson. He collects her cigarette butts. He sucks on pens or rulers her hands have touched. Everything that was remotely physically connected with Fuson is like a sacred relic to him. His fiance, Sibel, is incredibly patient with him, but he can no longer have relations with her.He is incapable. Eventually despite her best efforts the engagement is broken, leaving Kemel free to search for the object of his obsession, When he finds Fuson she's married--but that's not the end of the story or the obsession as Kemel gets within sight if not touch of her and wallows in an exquisite torture of frustration and desire as the years go by and he finds solace in the material things he can connect to his beloved. There's more story and more action and I won't give it away.

For me, this was a unique and satisfying literary experience. (less)

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Sep 19, 2012 Shahrzad added it · review of another edition

He starts with a sentence “It was the happiest moment in my life, yet I didn’t know it” and ends with “I had a happy life, let everyone knows.”
Kemal, son of one of a businessman in textile, just a few months before engaging Sibel who is a “suitable” women from his own class, fell in love with Fusun, one of his distant relatives who also happens to be in a lower class. For two months they have their love adventure together and this is when Kemal really has not realized yet how much he is in love...more He starts with a sentence “It was the happiest moment in my life, yet I didn’t know it” and ends with “I had a happy life, let everyone knows.”
Kemal, son of one of a businessman in textile, just a few months before engaging Sibel who is a “suitable” women from his own class, fell in love with Fusun, one of his distant relatives who also happens to be in a lower class. For two months they have their love adventure together and this is when Kemal really has not realized yet how much he is in love with Fusun. He thinks he can manage both having a fiancé and then marriage life and a fair together. He even invites Fusun and her family to hhis engagement party! But the day after the party, Fusun disappears and no matter what he does, he can’t find her. And at that point Kemal realizes how much he loves Fusun and can’t continue his relation with his fiancé. He confesses to her fiancé about the relation he had with Fusun and even though Sibel is eager to move on if he really puts away the past behind him, he can’t. He can’t stop thinking about Fusun and the time they had together and this has been putting him in such a melancholic position. Finally the engaged couple get separated. He tries to find her with the hope that they can continue their lifes together from where they’ve left at.
The rest of the story is about his obsessive love toward Fusun and how his life is turning around Fusun and g her family not to mention Fusun’s husband who is a novice film maker. as well. It was Fusun’s mother who convinced him that he can gain Fusun back sometime in the future. He even offers financial help to Fusun’s husband for his film production and keeps visiting the family for 8 years a few times a week and eating dinners with them avoiding his friends and even his family. While being part of their family, Kemal starts to pinch nick knacks from the house, from Fusun’s belongings or things that she has touched or used and sneak them out and replace them with new ones or just offering them money to buy a new one since they have lost it. These were not necessarily valuable belongings but anything such as Fusun’s cigarette stubs. By the end of story he has a huge collection of memories of years they’ve known each other. And he actually creates a museum out of these memories and belongings. And that’s when actually the author of the book, Orhan Pamuk comes to board and makes everything more interesting. I think the content of the book is a little different from what I thought and different from other books by Orhan Pamuk. Simply the book is picturing a desperate love and a melancholy romance while also criticizing Turkey’s social morals at that time 1970s-1980s.
It’s a good romantic story to read although it’s something that could rarely happen in the real life.
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Sep 01, 2012 Mahir is currently reading it · review of another edition

I read it 1.5 years ago before leaving for Europe. That time I didn't get any special impression toward this book. In one or two weeks, I already forgot most of the stories.

Then, in August 2012, I was in Istanbul, and I heard that Orhan Pamuk opened a place called 'Museum of Innocence'. I got really excited. People said that the place is basically the book made to life by Pamuk.

So, I went there with one of my friends. There, we were amazed. A thousand little details in the book was brought int...more

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Aug 03, 2012 Alan Newman rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I have read a lot of Pamuk: My name is Red, Snow, White Castle, Istanbul. He writes in Istanbul of a special melancholy that the city imparts to its inhabitants, and this certainly permeates his work. Moreover, there is a claustrophobic, obsessive feel to his books--his characters are trapped in their own obsessions. I felt I had escaped from the book when I finished Snow, and that sense of airlessness and entrapment is even more pronounced in the Museum of Innocence--a book I YEARNED to escape...more

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Jul 22, 2012 Finitha Jose rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I am a great admirer of Pamuk, but this one though bought with great expectations, disappoints. Firstly, book is too long (728 pages) and there are no such page turning incidents as expected from a large work of fiction.
Half of it is spent in describing Kemal's desire for Fusun and on getting repeated accounts, it turns out boring. Consequently, the image of Kemal generated is as a foolish rich kid who is trapped by a women's beauty and wastes his life (all the other characters think so too).
W...more

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Jul 16, 2012 Tocotin rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: contemporary-literature, historical-fiction, middle-east, my-own-books, used-books, waste-of-time

I think I'm just too forgiving when it comes to certain authors. I want to like them and to trust them because they write about topics or cultures I'm interested in, and then they let me down. So down. This is my third Pamuk novel, and I may be done with the guy. I liked "The White Castle". "My Name Is Red" was meh. I thought it immature and shallow, despite the fascinating subject. I kept waiting for some revelation, some deep insight, and it never came. It was the same with this book.

The first...more

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May 30, 2012 Abhijit Srivastava rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book may, well, become one of your reasons to visit Istanbul.
This is primarily a love story, and a very beautiful one at that. The narration is quite relaxed, but the high sentimental quotient engraved in the writing will engross you till the very end, and like many of Pamuk's stories, here also, Pamuk emerges as a character in the story.

The Museum of Innocence is a soulful tale of love found and lost and found again and... well, you know the rhetoric! The strong point of the story is the...more

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May 28, 2012 Priyadarshini Sur added it · review of another edition

Orhan Pamuk’s novel ‘The Museum Of Innocence ‘Or ‘Masumiyet Muzesi’arouses the reader’s desire to visit the city of Istanbul as well as the museum ,Pamuk created inspired by the novel. The novel is not only the story of star-crossed lovers but also an ode to Pamuk’s love for Istanbul.
The novel chronicles the story of an upper class playboy Kemal who falls desperately in love with his distant cousin Fusun,a shop girl.Marriage is out of question as the social gap is too wide. And Fusun has been ta...more Orhan Pamuk’s novel ‘The Museum Of Innocence ‘Or ‘Masumiyet Muzesi’arouses the reader’s desire to visit the city of Istanbul as well as the museum ,Pamuk created inspired by the novel. The novel is not only the story of star-crossed lovers but also an ode to Pamuk’s love for Istanbul.
The novel chronicles the story of an upper class playboy Kemal who falls desperately in love with his distant cousin Fusun,a shop girl.Marriage is out of question as the social gap is too wide. And Fusun has been tainted in that she has surrendered her virginity to Kemal knowing fully well he will never marry her.In the book Pamuk talks about the attitude of people of Istanbul towards women in 1970’s & 80’s,which he describes as an unpalatable truth in Ch- 15 . “One thousand nine hundred and seventy-five solar years after the birth of Christ, in the Balkans, the Middle East, and the western and southern shores of the Mediterranean, as in Istanbul, the city that was the capital of this region, virginity was still regarded as a treasure that young girls should protect until the day they married. Following the drive to Westernize and modernize, and (even more significantly) the haste to urbanize, it became common practice for girls to defer marriage until they were older, and the practical value of this treasure began to decline in certain parts of Istanbul. Those in favor of Westernization hoped that as Turkey modernized (and in their view, became more civilized) the moral code attending virginity would be forgotten, along with the concept itself. But in those days, even in Istanbul ’s most affluent Westernized circles, a young girl who surrendered her chastity before marriage could still expect to be judged in certain ways”
The way Kemal and also Fusun’s husband manipulates he desire to become a movie star is also a reflection of society’s attitude to women.Their reaction to fusun is to get close to her and soon as that happens ,they wish o control her. Fusun says “You two were so jealous, so afraid I might find fame and leave you that you had to keep me at home .”the more Kemal loves Fusun,the more he wants to suppress her and to possess her.The earring which Fusun wore the first time they mado love was the same which she wore the last time they made love and both the times it was not noticed by Kemal.
“You didn’t even notice the earring, “she said.
“What earring?”
Dangling from her right ear was the lost earring. Had she been wearing it while we were making love?
Could I have missed such a thing?”

Orhan Pamuk describes how Kemal collects his lover’s belongings and sets them up in his museum.It ‘s a book about memory, lost desperate love, obsession. The novel and the museum go together.The book is laid out in 83 chapters and so is the museum.In chapter 5 “Fuaye, he exhibits an illustrated menu,an advertisement,a match book and a napkin from Fuaye ,one of the European style restaurants.In chapter 68 ,Pamuk writes that Kemal was able to squirrel away 4213 of Fusun’s cigarette butts during his eight years of going to the Keskins for supper. Kemal has visited 5,723 museums in the world before he sets up his own museum.Those who have read the book enjoy free admission to the museum .A ticket is placed in every copy. According to Pamuk museums are not be strolled around in but to be experienced and are made up of collections expressive of the soul of that experience.
The book gives a slice of life Istanbul of 1980’s and its society.
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Apr 22, 2012 Arlie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: literature

I'm still not sure whether this book is about love or obsession. I'm not sure I even like the narrator and the girl he lvoes. But I love the way Pamuk recreated Istanbul in the 70's - making characters and points of view living for the reader. I love the way he writes so poetically. And I love the way Pamuk makes a cameo in his own book in the first half of the novel.

Told from Kemal's point of view, his feelings for his beautiful young cousin become a little draining and exhausting to read about...more

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Dec 23, 2011 Richard rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Rating: 2.75* of five

Five hundred pages of long-face about a pair of star-crossed lovers.

They're cousins. Only not really. And it's set in Istanbul in 1975, with excursions to the present.

I know more about Istanbul in 1835 than 1975, though the latter is within my own lifespan. (Okay, okay, WELL within my own lifespan.) I like Turkish history because it's so improbable and so full of moments when they snatched defeat from the jaws of victory! I like alternate history so I love those moments wher...more

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Nov 27, 2011 Ajk rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: People in love with mid-century Turkey and the concept thereof

Shelves: turania, fiction

A friend got me to watch Scent of A Woman once. He explained it, generally, as, "You'll ask yourself why you're watching it for most of the movie. And then the ending will come and you'll be happy you did."

I feel the same way about Museum of Innocence. The narrator is a rich playboy who is about to be engaged to a woman who is, by all counts, incredible. He then starts an affair with an 18-year-old who is, by all counts, incredible. The entire time, I got the feeling that if this was Museum of I...more

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Oct 15, 2011 Neil rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Okay, I'm going to tell it as it is. Nobel-winning writer aside, this book is insufferable. I frankly don't understand the hype, the glowing reviews, attention from the New Yorker - this book is bad. Really bad.

The story revolves around a privileged man in Istanbul who has a short affair with a shopgirl and proceeds to become completely obsessed with her. So obsessed is he that after the girl marries someone else, he ends up sitting at their dinner table for the next 8 years.

When Kemal is not ho...more Okay, I'm going to tell it as it is. Nobel-winning writer aside, this book is insufferable. I frankly don't understand the hype, the glowing reviews, attention from the New Yorker - this book is bad. Really bad.

The story revolves around a privileged man in Istanbul who has a short affair with a shopgirl and proceeds to become completely obsessed with her. So obsessed is he that after the girl marries someone else, he ends up sitting at their dinner table for the next 8 years.

When Kemal is not hopping around the latest upper-class Istanbul hotspots, he's becoming an expert kleptomaniac, pocketing everything around Füsun's house. He reports back about his activities with glee - "After having taken all those matchboxes, and Fusun's cigarette butts, and the saltshakers, the coffee cups, the hairpins, and the barrettes - things not difficult to pick up, because people rarely notice them missing - I began to set my sights on things like ashtrays, cups, and slippers…" Several pages later, we find out that "during my eight years of going to the Keskins' for supper, I was able to squirrel away 4,213 of Fusun's cigarette buts. Each one of these had touched her rosy lips and entered her mouth, some even touching her tongue and becoming moist [shock of all shocks!] as I would discover when I put my finger on the filter soon after she had stubbed the cigarette out; the stubs, reddened by her lovely lipstick, bore the unique impress of her lips at some moment whose memory was laden with anguish or bliss…"

There are plenty of signs that Kemal's obsession is not well received. Going back to cigarette stubbing, we find out that "sometimes she would stub it out with evident anger, sometimes with impatience. I had seen her stub out a cigarette in anger many times, and this caused me disquiet."

This might be an interesting storyline if it wasn't the same old hogwash repeating itself for 560 pages. There are entire chapters of this. Allow me to list out some chapter names for you: "The Melancholy of Autumn" is followed by "Cold and Lonely November Days". A few chapters later, there is a chapter titled "An Indignant and Broken Heart Is of No Use to Anyone."

Other reviewers have tried to find beauty in this book by its descriptions of Istanbul in the 1970's. Some have claimed that Pamuk's "museum" is a commemoration of a time and a place in Istanbul and that the book tries to showcase a lost culture. I disagree. Sure there are a few pages scattered here and there about Istanbul, and sure, the writing does shine in a few small segments. But the vast majority of the book is about Fusun's lips, tears, anger, family, dinners, cigarette butts, marriage, saltshakers, eyes, expressions and words. These discourses have only the most tangential relation to anything enlightening about 1970's Istanbul.

There is a disconcerting conceit about the author, when he introduces himself as a character - "This is how I came to seek out the esteemed Orhan Pamuk, who has narrated the story in my name and with my approval… I had also heard that he was a man lovingly devoted to his work and who took storytelling seriously." There is a lot more self-advertising in this book, but I won't delve into it. Suffice it to say that I really suffered through this book and would have abandoned it were it not so bad that I spent most of my time thinking about how I would justify such a critical review of such a well-hyped book.(less)

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