Snow in Around the World

Feb 24, 2014 Jibran rated it it was amazing

Shelves: nobel

Some disjointed thoughts below. I will straighten them out later to write a coherent review of this very exciting novel.

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Nearly all low-rated reviews complain about cardboard characters and their singular fixations, thinking it a deep flaw in the novel. But this is so by design. They are character types invented to map the logic of the conflict between Westoxified Kemalist secularism and regressive Islamist fundamentalist in contemporary Turkey by subjecting them to brutal satire. Sunay Zaim, Some disjointed thoughts below. I will straighten them out later to write a coherent review of this very exciting novel.

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Nearly all low-rated reviews complain about cardboard characters and their singular fixations, thinking it a deep flaw in the novel. But this is so by design. They are character types invented to map the logic of the conflict between Westoxified Kemalist secularism and regressive Islamist fundamentalist in contemporary Turkey by subjecting them to brutal satire. Sunay Zaim, the theatre actor, symbolises the former; Blue, the alleged terrorist on the run, depicts the latter. They are caricatures of comical dimensions, and everything they do attests to that. While in-between we have Ka, the poet-journalist, who has come back to Kars and is caught up in a thrilling chain of action that would end in a disaster. Then there is the lead female character, the beautiful & divorced Ipek, who stands as a symbol for Turkey in how she is used and discarded by competing parties for their own end.

It is not easy to stomach Pamuk's stunningly repetitive improvisatory monologues, his going on and on has an effect of spinning in concentric circles that shrinks it to a dot while at the same time the narrative spins so fast everything will tumble out of it and crash against your irises. This novel is bit of a mindfuck, but a mindfuck I loved!

I also think one's lack of insider's familiarity with Turkish culture and history is not an impediment. The bit of history Pamuk has used, in the context of Kars and some events that give a background to the antagonism between Islamists, Kemalists and Kurds is sufficient for the sake of the story. The emphasis is on the sum total of the comical - the illogical, the absurd, and even the hilarious. For example 1) girls in droves committing suicide due to a ban on hijab! Sunay Zaim the devoted Kemalist blowing up the threatre and massacring the audience just so he could lay the blame on the Islamists and prove they are brutal killers! The pious fundamentalist with puritanical ideas who is willing to die for his cause having an illicit love affair with a woman! And the closing scene on stage in the theatre ended in Kadife shooting Sunay was brilliant in how it merged fiction and reality.

I think Pamuk has done a remarkable job with what he'd set out to do. The fact that everything in its complexity happens in just three days clearly indicates that it's not supposed to be a realistic novel. It is an allegory with a Kafkaesque twist.

Margaret Atwood was right on the money when she called it "essential reading of our times." Its novelty felt a little dangerous. But it was a 5-star novel sans a doubt. ...more

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May 01, 2012 windy rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: around-the-world

I really tried to take this seriously, but as the infantile main character kept blundering through tragic situations rhapsodising about the beauty of snow, he started to resemble a Turkish counterpart to Forrest Gump more than a brilliant poet. The feeling grew with his deep insights like "Every life is like a snowflake..." One of the supposedly brilliant poems (which we don't get to see) is called "The Chocolate Box". Hmm...

The hapless main character would have been tolerable if the book had of ...more

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