A wonderful book for a writer or a lover of literature. Pamuk makes some really enlightening points about narration and the fundamental role of the novel. I wish the book had somehow captured the feeling of the original lectures, though. Particularly the Q&A sessions at the end of each one. I was lucky enough to attend five out of the six lectures at Harvard, and it was interesting to see how Pamuk responded to the questions. At one point a student admitted that she skipped the descriptions in his books, and others, and you could tell he was livid.

I'm torn on this whole issue of the novel having a secret center, though. Maybe I'm wrong, but it seems to me that he's saying every novel has a kind of objective secret center. Readers read in search of this center. And the writer writes with the same aim in mind. I'd argue that a great novel has many of these "centers" - ie, the writer might think the book is about one thing, while readers find other centers. That's been my experience, anyway. I think I know what my books are about, and then readers find entirely different meanings and themes. But hey, what do I know.