Red Dress in Black & White

by Elliot Ackerman

From the widely acclaimed author of Waiting for Eden: a stirring, timely new novel that unfolds over the course of a single day in Istanbul: the story of an American woman attempting to leave behind her life in Turkey--to leave without her husband.

Catherine has been married for many years to Murat, an influential Turkish real estate developer, and they have a young son together, William. But when she decides to leave her marriage and return home to the United States with William and her photographer lover, Murat determines to take a stand. He enlists the help of an American diplomat to prevent his wife and child from leaving the country--but, by inviting this scrutiny into their private lives, Murat becomes only further enmeshed in a web of deception and corruption. As the hidden architecture of these relationships is gradually exposed, we learn the true nature of a cast of struggling artists, wealthy businessmen, expats, spies, a child pulled in different directions by his parents, and, ultimately, a society in crisis. Riveting and unforgettably perceptive, Red Dress in Black and White is a novel of personal and political intrigue that casts light into the shadowy corners of a nation on the brink.

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Crime, Literary Fiction, Audiobook, Book Club, Espionage

288 pages, Hardcover

First published May 26, 2020

About the author

ELLIOT ACKERMAN is the New York Times bestselling author of the novels Halcyon, 2034, Red Dress In Black and White, Waiting for Eden, Dark at the Crossing, and Green on Blue, as well as the memoir The Fifth Act: America’s End in Afghanistan, and Places and Names: On War, Revolution and Returning. His books have been nominated for the National Book Award, the Andrew Carnegie Medal in both fiction and nonfiction, and the Dayton Literary Peace Prize among others. He is a contributing writer at The Atlantic and Marine veteran who served five tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan, where he received the Silver Star, the Bronze Star for Valor, and the Purple Heart. He divides his time between New York City and Washington, D.C.

Reviews

[Roxane · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fascinating layers to this story. Definitely held my attention. It was prose in miniature, finely detailed. I think it was too slow though, so much detail, for not enough payoff at the end. Still, I can’t stop thinking about the novel. I’ve not read anything quite like it.

[Meike · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a novel about personal and political dependence and manipulation: Ackerman creates a complex web of relationships that are determined by love, friendship, and power - and sometimes, these three categories are surprsingly hard to distinguish. Catherine, a failed dancer, flees the United States and thus her family and lost dreams to become the wife of Murat, a building tycoon in Istanbul. Her latest affair is with Peter, an American photographer who has received a grant by one of Catherine's friends at the American embassy - the same friend who helps Murat defend his dwindling real estate empire. When Catherine decides the leave Murat and go back to the States with their son, the fragile equilibrium is threatened...

Those personal entanglements play out during the Gezi park protests, where Peter takes pictures that become metaphors for acknowledging the reality of people whom the authorities try to silence, for the meaning of chance and the power of facing oneself (the title-giving woman in the red dress features on some of these pictures). As the story progresses, the tactics of the American embassy become clearer and clearer, and it is instructive to keep in mind that Ackerman, a highly decorated soldier and former White House Felllow, really knows a thing or two about foreign intelligence.

The story contains numerous flashbacks and changes of perspective, thus revealing the viewpoints of various characters and allowing readers to judge their actions and put together a picture for themselves. It is really hard to sympathize with self-absorbed Catherine, which only adds to the story: She pressures the people in her life through her passivity, trying to pass on responsibility and then blaming others for the decisions she refused to make. Murat and Peter, on the other hand, want to act, but are held in check by other forces which prevent them from doing what they envision. And what is the motivation of these other forces? In a way, this is a deeply psychological text.

So this book is not as brilliant as Waiting for Eden, but certainly a highly interesting investigation into the connection between the personal and the political, into dependence and dignity and the way people use each other under pressure, either real or perceived.

[Elyse Walters · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow....another great novel from Elliot Ackerman.....courageous and complex!
“Red Dress in Black and White”, is an equally powerful, courageous and complex as”Waiting For Eden”.

Both books are conscience-ridden.....and I was so surprised at things inside this gem....incredibly relevant today....( I know - I know - we hear this often)>> but it ‘really is’!!!!

The story of the characters kept me hook - just with ‘their drama’.....’their choices’.... but all along there seems to be something bigger going on. Elliot Ackerman slowly opens the can of worms on bureaucracy, corruption, and how we all fit within it.

Catherine, born in America, is married to an influential Turkish real estate developer, named Murat. They have one son: William, (born in America).
When we first meet this little family of three, they are living in Istanbul,Turkey.
Right from the start we are drawn in - and taken to an intimate artsy reception for a photographer named Peter. (an American expatriate also living in Istanbul.
It’s after William’s bedtime, but Catherine brings him with her to the reception.
We quickly figure out that Catherine and Peter and lovers. It’s the first time Peter meets little William.

This is a contemporary Turkish story ....political ....but character driven....( with subtle intricate layers of repression & rage that are ‘quietly intense’- until louder)
I found it riveting....and have been ‘alternating’ thinking about this book - ha- at least for the last couple of days....along with another very different book I read ....( a memoir)....”The Mercy Papers”, by Robin Romm. I’ve have had serious discussions about both books with friends who are here visiting us.

Am I the only reader that - sometimes feels equally lost - simultaneously- with two books at once? Not just reading them... but really lost inside the grand universe with both books haunting us ‘between and after finishing it?
Haha....and a third book is in the context of them both?/!
I’m reading a 900 page book - The Lonesome Dove - for my first time.
The next few days....I’ll stay with one book! I have too many stories in my head!!! Lol

That said.... this book was a combination of triangle entanglement fun....suspenseful.... and politically- consciousness -thought-provoking, damn good!

[Carol · Rating 5 out of 5]

My second novel by this author, and it is another intriguing, cerebral character study. The novel unfolds over one day of civil unrest and protests in Istanbul, Turkey. It provides an interesting glimpse into the political struggles at that time within the Turkish government.

I was fascinated by the interconnected and strained relationships between the five adults in the story. The author’s style of writing is a notable example of showing instead of telling the story. Details are implied as the story unfolds to gradually reveal the hidden machinations between the five calculating adults.

The timeline is separated by flashbacks for character development and the narrative often changes viewpoints. Catherine is an American woman attempting to leave Turkey with her adopted son and without her Turkish husband, Murat. None of the characters is particularly likeable. Kristin, a Cultural Affairs diplomat, is a formidable figure and the most intriguing of the group. Her Svengali type personality has a mysterious sway over the group.

This novel was well-written and compulsively readable. I loved this story, and I am excited to read other books by this clever author. **RECOMMENDED**

[Barbara · Rating 3 out of 5]

I absolutely adored “Waiting for Eden” and picked up this novel by the same author, Elliot Ackerman. “Red Dress in Black and White” did not move me the same way, unfortunately. In fact, it was a chore for me. I exceeded my usual 50 pages to amuse me; most likely because Akerman does know how to write. Yet…the story…so very slow….

There is intrigue in the form of a puppet master, which the reader suspects, as there are five adults with overlapping relationships. The story takes place in Istanbul, alone a place of fascination, so different from the USA. Murat is a debt-ridden Turkish commercial real estate developer who along with his choking debt has an unfaithful wife. I found it very interesting that Ackerman gave an American woman the cheating character. In Turkey? I expected it would be the man with the wandering eye. Murat has his dalliances as well, but Ackerman makes Catherine the one with the history of taking lovers.

At any rate, Catherine wants to leave her husband and Turkey and take their young son William. Catherine has a lover, Peter, who is an American photographer, trying to make a living with his art. What is interesting, is that Peter has an exhibit in one of Murat’s buildings. Plus, Peter doesn’t want to leave Istanbul.

Kristin works in the office of Cultural Affairs. She’s a friend of Catherine’s and also provides Murat with nonpublic information that he needs for his real estate endeavors. Deniz is the gallery director of Peter’s art installation. All five characters are very unlikable.

The story is told in alternating chapters that provide the background of the five characters and an evening that leads to the crumbling of the marriage. I read this on my kindle, and I wonder if I had the book, where I could easily turn back to remembered pages I might have enjoyed this more.

There is a final twist at the end that I surmised earlier, but not to the extent of manipulation. I enjoyed this, but not to the extent of his “Waiting for Eden”.

[switterbug (Betsey) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ackerman’s title of his masterful new novel refers to one of a number of photographs shot by a main character, Peter, a New York photojournalist living in Istanbul. He’s attempting to segue into a new career--of photographer-artist--and trying to launch a sustaining livelihood in his host country. A woman in a red dress, the digital photo in black and white, emphasizes his concept of contrasts in visual form. She is standing amidst an historical protest in Istanbul, unprotected by any gear, in a lovely red dress. The thrust of Peter’s art concerns an old political theory from the Cold War, of contrasts producing tension. “A society in crisis, one that is gripped by tension, can be more easily manipulated and controlled than one that’s stable…” He intends to fold this theory into his work, his artistic innovations.

I brought up Peter first, as his theme of tension is writ large on the novel itself—not the Cold War theory, but the brittle tensions that this cast of characters endure and create on a daily basis. Often, it’s unconsciously triggered, but there’s collateral damage. And selfish aims, or mere survival, and there is plenty of that to go around, all the way till the final tell: a bit of a jolt and the key to Ackerman’s storyline. Getting there is a feline thrill from the deftly structured narrative, the exquisite architecture of his character-driven plot, and clarified down to its essence. The covetous traits are disclosed during the denouement. But Ackerman doesn’t give the reader everything on a platter. There’s room to judge and speculate.

Peter’s lover, Catherine, is married to Murat, a well-known real estate developer. They have a young son, William, who steals a few choice scenes, especially when he picks up Peter’s camera and aims at birds in flight. Yasar, the family name, is more like a destination than a person. His name is on countless buildings scattered throughout the city, and the citizens don’t know he’s a paupered prince—in debt up to his neck following civil unrest in 2013, when the Gezi Park protests dominated the news. Protesters fought against the urban development of Gezi Park, which Murat represents and resents. Now it is stalled and his finances are fraught.

Then there is another Turk, Deniz, a major museum curator at the Istanbul Modern (and Catherine serves on the board). He’s picky and aloof. Lastly, there’s Kristin, another American and a State Department employee in Cultural Affairs. She’s working to advance cross-cultural dialogue in Turkey, and trying to help Peter get a gig at the gallery. What helps him helps her. First they have to convince Deniz that Peter’s photographs are worthy. Ackerman’s talent in knitting all the characters together is nothing short of superb.

In the meantime, Catherine abruptly enlists Peter’s help in a precarious plan. After a decade living here, she wants to leave Murat and take William to America. The novel opens up on that crisis, but reveals just enough to keep the reader tense, like the cast. Thematically, there’s a meta- quality of conflict and tension that mirrors Peter’s theme, and the readers and characters walk a tightrope together throughout the book. The nonlinear events advance and unpack the plot, and demands close attention from the reader.

The characters are well-developed, flawed, periodically cruel. If you want likable characters, search elsewhere, but they do have their virtues. Their humanity is evident, as well as their failings, and the cracks in their nature are sometimes tough to take. Istanbul emerges as a character, too, perhaps the most vivid of them all. The author’s depiction of the city was almost corporeal. Within the city and beyond, the story spoke to me in hushed tones. The knife clinks on the wineglass, the guests circulate among the portraits, the voices echo throughout the maze of alleys. Ackerman’s details fuel the tale. Finally, redemption is a bitter pill; I’ll leave it to the reader to find.

[Bonnie Brody · Rating 5 out of 5]

Elliott Ackerman's wonderful book reminded me of Escher's art as well as a Russian Matryoshka doll. Escher's pieces often trick our perception and make the viewer think that something is going in a certain direction when that would be physically impossible. A slight of hand? No, I think that Escher is acknowledging that we expect to perceive something and when our perceptions are tricked, we are left scratching our heads or wondering how this was possible.

Matryoshka dolls are Russian stacking dolls. The largest one is on the outside and on the inside are smaller and smaller dolls until one reaches the tiniest one. This novel shows the big picture and the reader is satisfied for awhile until they realize that there are many more aspects than what is first seen; smaller, more complex and more unique versions of what was first perceived.

The novel takes place in Turkey between 2012 and 2016. The protagonists are almost all part of the Turkish Elite - businessmen, American Consular members, art trustees, and the like. The narrative gives a very interesting background of the turmoil in Turkey at this time and the impact it has on the economy and the Turkish people. There are riots in the street and Ackerman, with an unflinching eye, describes the unflappable dominance of the police state along with its cruelty to demonstrators.

The two primary protagonists are Catherine and Peter. Catherine is an American ex-pat married to Murat Yasar, a very rich, powerful, and successful architect and builder. Together, Catherine and Murat have adopted a son, William, who both love very much. Catherine is having a long-term affair with Peter, an art photographer, and would like to leave Murat, take William, and go back to the United States with Peter.

This is a book filled with surprises, a close look at whose hand feeds another's. The scope of corruption and unsanctioned dealings within the elite circle and government of Turkey is phenomenal. I suspect it is not that different in other countries. What truly amazed me is the intricacy of plotting that went into each character achieving their own goals.

While this book has its political side, it is primarily a novel of characters, each in need of someone else to do something in order to make the wheel turn the right way. While Catherine loves Peter, is that enough for him? Peter wants a show at the Turkish Modern Museum. Whose hands need to be greased for that to occur? Murat does not want Catherine to leave for two reasons. Family troubles are bad for business and he doesn't want to lose William. What can he leverage to get Catherine to stay.

I found this novel fascinating. Each of the characters is well-developed and the intricacies of their involvement with one another on various levels kept me turning the pages till I couldn't keep my eyes open. I also loved their self-absorption and their tenuous yet far-reaching egos. Ackerman's writing has always drawn me in. His earlier novel, 'Waiting for Eden' is one of the most powerful books I have ever read. If you're not familiar with this author, now is the time to start reading his work.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 rounded up

Tense if enjoyable novel about the importance of connections and how the alliances we form (personal and professional) can impact upon the outcomes and course of life. Ackerman's writing is excellent - deceptively straightforward, allowing the narrative and characters to take centre stage. Recommended!

[Jill · Rating 5 out of 5]

Peter, one of the four main characters in this riveting novel, is a photographer with a theme: to show how people keep one another in check by pairing photos that reveal this concept.

It happens to also be the intriguing theme of the book: the way relationships can be engineered to hold each other in place.

Other characters are also chess pieces on the board. There is Murat, an influential Turkish real estate developer, and his wife Catherine, who has long tired of the marriage and her time in Turkey. And then there is Kristin, an American diplomat with her own agenda. Others are pawns: Deniz, a gay man who is a curator of the museum of which Catherine is trustee, as well as innocent William, the young son of Murat and Catherine.

Each of these characters is essential to every other one. But none of them know quite how much until one decision—Catherine’s desire to upset the apple cart—upsets a carefully-honed equilibrium and promises to have far-reaching consequences.

As we, the readers, navigate a world in which dissatisfied individuals who quest after the part of themselves that is missing, the deception of oneself and one’s marriage and the fallout of misguided American adventurism become exposed. It’s a fascinating game of checkmate from a magnificent story-spinner who trusts his reader to understand what’s right beneath the surface—and what’s at stake.

[Kasa Cotugno · Rating 5 out of 5]

Superb. Spooling out over the course of a day in Istanbul in November, 2013, beginning with what seems to be yet another marital potboiler. Catherine, married to an influential Turkish developer, has broken with previous behavior and taken her young son to an exhibition of photographs by her lover, Peter. All the players are introduced early on, and the story is told from each point of view equally, the backstory evolves economically. The recent history and motivations and choices of four adults are presented, revealing an intriguing portrait of an Istanbul in transition both fascinating and familiar. There is, however, one scene that has stuck with me that encapsulated the effects of rapid development on divergent populations, a scene involving young, wealthy student protesters and a vendor: "The old man brewed and sold his tea in the same manner it had always been done, from the time of Constantine to the present day, a reminder that some things didn't change, or couldn't be improved upon."

[Mary Lins · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Red Dress in Black & White”, by Elliot Ackerman, is the story of five characters entwined in a push-pull relationship that only one fully understands.

Set in Istanbul in 2013, the novel is structured around a November day when American Catherine, and her seven year old son, William, attempt to flee her Turkish husband Murat, with the help of her lover, an American photographer named Peter, and their friend Deniz. Another character, Kristin, who is part of the US consulate, has introduced these people to each other.

The novel is about the nature of dualities/pairs, and the tensions between them:

Light and dark (black and white)
Male and female
Strength and weakness
Freedom and control
What is apparent and what is hidden

Istanbul as a setting is the perfect duality metaphor as it is part Asia and part Europe. The back-story includes the Gezi Park demonstrations/riots, which I looked up to try to figure out the byzantine reasons attributed to the clash.

I am not a reader who normally needs to like the characters in a novel, or to feel sympathy with any of them. None of these five characters are good or sympathetic; Catherine with her self-acknowledged “moral hollowness”, Murat’s paralyzing fear, Peter’s lack of agency, Deniz’ secrets, Kristin’s cold selfishness. But if Ackerman intends to build suspense and mystery in order to have me to care about will happen to them, I have to care at least a little: I didn’t. But I still enjoyed the journey because the story is so well written and the ending is so tight.

[Kathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Istanbul is the backdrop for a novel exploring love and marriage in the abstract, visually aided with black and white art photos. One can feel the mists off the Bosphorous Bridge as hidden details are nudged closer into focus revealing truths.
There is the married couple Catherine and Morat and son William, central to the story. There are several other key figures in the slow revelation of truth over a period of years. This provides a reading experience shrouded in mystery and atmosphere. Thus...I shan't spoil the book for others with detail.
The red dress in title refers to a photo taken of protesters in Gezi Park.
This was my first book from this author.

Library Loan

[James B · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful modern love triangle set in Istanbul. What seems like a simple love story slowly reveals itself to also be heavily entwined with the politics of Turkey. A very smart novel by an author who understands both world affairs and human foibles.

[Beth · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 so intense. Really good, well done.

[Mel Raschke · Rating 5 out of 5]

Extraordinary book.

[Sylvia. Blau · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book was very well written. The scenes in Istanbul were very familiar as I had been there a few times. The story was interesting, good characters and a good ending

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5. This is a novel I would have liked better in book form than on the kindle because there were parts I would have liked to revisit. The setting- modern day Istanbul- was good, as was the atmosphere of corruption, but the abundance of detail in the latter half got in the way of the plot. So, despite a really good start, I found it “too much” despite some good twists at the end.

[Matthew · Rating 5 out of 5]

Spectacular.

[Karin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Liked, but didn't love. Great sense of place--Istanbul jumps off the page and seems to be the most dynamic character here. The characters sometimes felt too much like ciphers, and I struggled to buy into their interpersonal relationships. The writing is very descriptive and this can lead the plot to lull at times. I'm still glad I read it as I felt it gave me a deeper understanding of Istanbul.

[Geoffrey Dutton]

Because I am an American married to a Turk and have written about her country in memoirs and a novel, I tend to gravitate to novels by Americans that are set in that big, messy, volatile country that’s hard for outsiders to get their heads around. Even though it has been a liberal democracy almost a century, modernity still clashes with tradition, poverty mushrooms in the dark shadows of wealth, and as in many countries of late—sadly including mine—its politics have grown distinctly illiberal. As one of Elliot Ackerman’s characters cynically remarks, “There is no Turkey, only Turkish elites.”

Though my good wife has patiently shepherded me through her country from Istanbul to Cappadocia to Antalya and Ankara, I have not set foot there for at least five years. Instead, I do so vicariously, on Skype, online Maps, media websites, and in the pages of novels.

My last fictive passage to Turkey came via the pages of August Thomas’s Liar’s Candle, a spy thriller set in contemporary Ankara, Istanbul, and the Eastern city of Mardin, with transatlantic teleportation to Langley, Virginia. Thomas is a young American author who was schooled in Turkey, learned to speak its language, loved it for its food and hospitality, and hated it for the autocracy it has become. Her debut novel serves up forceful, vivid prose liberally spiced with Turkish words and phrases, food, and politics. The politics are especially merciless; from CIA inner sanctums to diplomatic outposts to Turkey’s Presidential Palace, powerful figures act as despicably as one might expect in any political thriller, with President Palamut standing in for Dictator-for-Life Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

Penny Kessler, Liar’s Candle‘s protagonist, is a young intern at the US Embassy in Ankara. At an Independence Day reception there, a bomb decimates its courtyard, landing her in the hospital. An iconic photograph of her dragging an American flag just awarded to her through the smoke and rubble has gone viral, and even as she lies in hospital she’s beset by impudent operatives who believe she holds the key to the bombing’s perpetrator, The clandestine agencies of both governments want to know what she knows, and after she escapes from captivity in Palamut’s palace, both sides decide she is better off dead.

Red Dress in Black and White Red Dress in Black & White is Elliot Ackerman’s fourth novel; Liar’s Candle is Thomas’s first. Ackerman, an acclaimed author and National Book Award nominee is a very different stylist from Thomas; he in the vein of John le Carré while her work updates Helen MacInnes and Robert Ludlum from a feminist perspective. Nevertheless, the two novels have curious parallels. They feature two quite similar protagonists, both American women on the national security career ladder. Oddly, Ackerman’s is named Kristin; Thomas’s Christina. Both are hard-boiled operatives who grease sources and deftly manipulate events, Christina from CIA headquarters and Kristin from the US Consulate in Istanbul where she serves as its “ Cultural Attaché ”.

Another striking resonance involves photography. Red Dress gets its title from an iconic image from the 2013 uprising in Istanbul’s Gezi Park of a woman nicely attired in a red dress receiving a blast of pepper spray as she calmly walks through a police riot as if she’d blundered into it on her way to work. Like the image of Penny in Liar’s Candle, its photographer is anonymous, but in Red Dress a photographer is a central figure in the plot. His name is Peter, and he’s an American trying to make it as an artist in Istanbul, making little headway until Kristin intervenes on his behalf for reasons that only become clear in the final chapter.

In place of Thomas’s young innocent Penny, Red Dress gives us sophisticated Catherine Yaşar, the sexy, spoiled American wife of Murat Yaşar. He’s an influential but currently strapped big-time real estate tycoon who, in Trumpian fashion, inherited his empire from his father. She and the impotent Murat have a seven-year-old named William, adopted as an infant under mysterious circumstances in which Kristin connected the couple to the boy’s father Deniz, another central character. Deniz has rather incredibly emerged from the slums of Istanbul to rise quickly through high-culture ranks to become chief curator at the toney Istanbul Modern Museum, of which Murat is a major benefactor and by consequence Catherine a director.

Half of the book takes place on a Tuesday in 2013, the other half—every other chapter, in fact—delivers backstory, wending its way from 2006 until almost then. Murat, Catherine, Kristin, Peter, and Deniz all know each other or are introduced somewhere along the way. They also tend to ingratiate or indebt one another for motivations Ackerman tends to elucidate by serially entering one character after another’s thought processes at a somewhat dizzying pace. For example, early in Part III (p. 89) we peer inside the two women’s heads in adjacent sentences:

“This was a woman, Kristin thought, whose equilibrium was held in delicate balance. What Kristin didn’t know was that as Catherine thought of Peter, she felt grounded, rooted in a way she hadn’t experienced in the many years since she’d come to this city.”

Some readers might find this roulette of POV difficult to follow, if not swallow. And as easily digested as Ackerman’s spare prose mostly is, they might find the first half of the book, devoted to setting the stage, a bit of a slog,

Having been nonchalantly introduced by Kristin, without much forethought, struggling photographer Peter and emotionally malnourished Catherine soon fall into bed, initiating an affair that Catherine propels by trysting with Peter in his apartment at four in the afternoon several days a week. Their intimate encounters spark her desire to leave Murat and take William with her, and she walks out on him with the boy in the middle of the night, sans luggage and passports. Her hazy plan is to return to the States with Peter and William to start a new, unarticulated life. Her impulsive act inconveniences both Peter and William, vexes Kristin, and incenses Murat, who promptly freezes her credit cards.

The book’s plot is as tightly wound as Murat’s broken white gold Patek Philippe watch. It wanders back and forth across the Bosporus between cosmopolitan and humble settings that are vividly portrayed in sharper focus than Peter’s black and white images tend to have. And while its characters and their motivations feel real, one can’t help but sometimes notice the strings Ackerman pulls to animate them, typically from Kristin’s devious hands.

It is difficult for the reader to find affinity with the lot of them for very long, and most fail to develop in any significant way. Catherine, whose abduction of William sets off the day’s chain of events, seems not to have learned anything from her clumsily executed act with Peter as her unwitting, almost reluctant, accomplice. For his part, Peter is a hapless cipher who repeatedly sails into dire straits. Although likable enough, Deniz (who is William’s biological father) exercises little agency, and the reader obtains little insight into his bivalent sexuality upon which the plot significantly turns. Neither he nor the cold and calculating Kristin, who engineered his sinecure at the museum, seems to have taken any lessons from the churn of events; we feel even less for her than for errant, self-absorbed Catherine.

It is Murat who seems most sympathetic, surprising because his mercenary focus on business deals at the expense of his family has alienated Catherine. He barely spends time with William, and on walks to school quizzes the seven-year-old to estimate how much money buildings they pass by are worth. But we feel his pain as a lover without viable seed whose wife walks out on him, and at least understand his pain when the protracted tumult in Gezi Park sucks the oxygen out of his financing schemes to render his net worth negative, bemoaning that government officials are no longer “reliably corrupt.” And we end up almost admiring him in his levelheaded campaign to keep his nuclear family from fissioning, even at the expense of tattering his dignity.

Trapped by events both historical and of their own devising, instead of growing, the characters consistently play to type. It is a tribute to Ackerman’s craft that his voluptuous descriptions and keen psychological insights trap the reader into wishing to know what happens to people who one would feel scant affection for in real life. The true star of this novel is the metropole itself, Istanbul, which springs to life in black and white photorealism.

[Lynn · Rating 3 out of 5]

A couple in Istanbul aren’t getting along. The American wife wanted to leave with her son and her lover. To stop her, the husband makes a deal with the American Embassy to prevent her from leaving. But the American Embassy wan s intelligence and information in return.

[Allison Meakem · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. Told in snippets that cut between different years in the 2000s and 2010s (if it were a movie, we'd say it was full of flashbacks), this book sometimes confused me. But, knowing Elliot Ackerman, I knew it would all add up by the end. To make sense of it all, I was vigorously flipping through pages until I came upon the epilogue. And I'm so glad I did.

"Red Dress in Black and White" is both intimate and distant. It centers around six people in Istanbul, a city of nearly 16 million. These individuals exist in the liminal expatriate space between Turkish and American societies and, consequently, are also privy to both governments' and cultures' entrapments and norms. While the connections between the six at first seem merely professional, the book's allusions to past moments slowly reveal that their web is one bound and, then, entangled by much more - family, legality, mutually-dependent interests, and diplomacy. It becomes apparent that if one fails, all fail, and so each of the six must make certain sacrifices to prevent total collapse.

Such a concept would be far less significant if it were not for the political backdrop. Set predominantly in 2013, and centering around the Gezi Park protests, "Red Dress in Black and White" places the six individuals' already precarious network within the tumult of Erdogan's autocratic beginnings. To those of us who have spent our academic careers studying Turkey - and particularly its shift towards autocracy - this is a deeply fascinating concept. While the immediate characters may be fiction, their setting is not. Gezi Park was a critical, defining moment of state violence in the months before Erdogan shifted the country's presidential elections to popular vote and further solidified his power while eliminating dissent. This is a story of people who unwittingly find themselves trapped therein, and must navigate their interests in a rapidly changing country. But politics is personal, and the personal, too, always proves political.

https://www.google.com/search?q=red+d...

[RoseMary Achey · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a novel you must focus on-not a simply story you can read snippets of before retiring. It is heavily layered and the characters weave a complex web.

NONE of the characters resonated for me. Catherine was particularly irritating. They seemed so flat and devoid of normal human emotion and personality. The compelling portion of the novel was the role the US embassy and its representative Kristin played as the puppet master.

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

This work is difficult to classify. There are elements of love story, political thriller and corruption. The book is set in modern day Istanbul. The title of the novel is ironic because nothing is the book is as it seems. The relationships between the characters are spun with a tight but invisible thread. I enjoyed this book but found it almost too diffuse. We see the characters act in different ways but do not feel them. I found the husband, Murat, the most interesting character because he was a bridge between the old and the new society in Istanbul. None of the characters develop internally. This is most certainly a plot driven novel. I enjoyed this book ut did not love it.

[Stephanie Crowe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Red Dress in Black & White by Elliot Ackerman
I am a fan of Elliot Ackerman and find his writing powerful and thought provoking! This new novel is no exception.The landscape is Turkey, an exotic, chaotic place which Ackerman describes beautifully. I found the characters intriguing and once I was introduced was drawn into their circle. It was an intense experience to eavesdrop on their secrets and disappointments. Ackerman’s insight into the political backdrop adds depth that enriches the characters and the story. I couldn’t put the book down and thought about it long after I finished.

[Sabrina · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have a lot of mixed feelings about this book. I understand that it proves that you have to make sacrifices to keep a family together, but the book mostly discussed a love affair that never came to a conclusion. There was so much detail in this book and drama just for it to end the same way it began, with Catherine stuck where she is, while she continues to sleep with Peter.
The book was slow and it felt like every time the chapter came up about what happened in the past, it felt like a commercial break taking the reader away from what happened in the present. I understand the chapters about what happened in the past are supposed to add to the storyline, but I did not find it very fulfilling. Some parts were interesting, but most parts were very boring.
Overall, I think that this book has a good message, but was not executed the right way. It seemed more like a book about romance and drama that never paid off.

[Wendy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Elliot Ackerman's latest novel Red Dress in Black & White is an intense novel. There are many moving parts to the storyline and the characters intersect where you least expect it. Set in Istanbul over the span of several years, the novel follows American Catherine, her architect husband Istanbul native Murat, Peter an American photographer, Kristin an American stationed in Istanbul with the Cultural Affairs office and William, Catherine and Murat's adopted son. It isn't a spoiler to indicate that seven-year old William is batted around by everyone mentioned like a worn out tennis ball. The novel moves back and forward from present time events to past events in their lives. Heavy on family drama, outside their group and within the group manipulation and terrible communication by everyone. Intriguing, thought-provoking, Red Dress in Black & White is not a quick read but it is definitely worth the effort. The Gezi Park protests/demonstrations of 2013 are always in the background of the story.

I also recommend Waiting for Eden by Ackerman.

[Panchami · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are some books that make you fall in love with the city they are written about, i lived vicariously in Istanbul all through my time with this book, felt like been drawn into the city with magical prose and lyrical love. The intersection of politics, a crumbling society, lies, deceit and foreign affairs is beautifully presented to the reader. Drew me in and left me breathless. This is just in one word- perfect
Gezi Park 2012

[Lauren Edlund · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 1/2 stars. I enjoyed getting a glimpse of Istanbul through this political mystery.

[Michael Dowling · Rating 4 out of 5]

First fiction by this author, a war photographer and correspondent and it becomes in his descriptions and layout of the plot. Timeline is tricky, but worth paying the attention it requires. Turkey, Turkey what a story of these times of confusing political schemes. Reminds me of Suzy Hansen’s nonfiction about the country and region.