The Architect’s Apprentice - Elif Shafak Audio performance by Piter Marek 4 stars
The story begins in 1540 when 12-year-old Jahan arrives in Istanbul with his beloved white elephant. He passes himself off as the elephant’s keeper, but he isn’t really. When his abusive stepfather sold the elephant he ran away, stowed away, and became the elephant’s keeper by default. This is only the beginning of the many times that Jahan bluffs his way through one crisis after another in his long life as the elephant’s keeper and as an apprentice to Mimar Sinan.
I thoroughly enjoyed the historical background of this book. I knew something about Italian Architecture of this time period, but I was ignorant of Sinan and his construction of the Suleymaniye and Selimiye mosques. This book sent me to google images and additional reading. That’s always a sign of good historical fiction. I enjoyed Jahan and his affectionate relationship with the elephant. The underlying political and religious conflicts added continuing tension to the story.
I enjoyed this book more as printed text than when I listened to it. Piter Marek was pleasant to listen to, but his bland delivery totally missed the humor of Jahan’s misadventures with the gypsies. I loved Balaban and his gypsies as much as I loved Chota, the white elephant.
The book is very episodic, like the Arabian Nights tales. Some of the episodes were comic and others were tragic. There did not seem to be an organized story arc. This made the book seem longer than it was. It was difficult to follow the mystery of the sabotage and treachery taking place on the building sites. It was easy to see the conflict between religious and political fanaticism and a drive for creative, artistic freedom. However, I never saw that Jahan, as the main character, ever resolved his conflicts in any personal way. I kept feeling that Jahan’s life story had an overriding message in it that neither Jahan nor I understood. The end of the book added an element of magical realism that seemed a bit arbitrary, as magic hadn’t been part of the earlier story. I was left with the sense that the author used it to make some kind of meaningful connection that I just didn’t understand.
The Architect’s Apprentice - Elif Shafak
Audio performance by Piter Marek
4 stars
The story begins in 1540 when 12-year-old Jahan arrives in Istanbul with his beloved white elephant. He passes himself off as the elephant’s keeper, but he isn’t really. When his abusive stepfather sold the elephant he ran away, stowed away, and became the elephant’s keeper by default. This is only the beginning of the many times that Jahan bluffs his way through one crisis after another in his long life as the elephant’s keeper and as an apprentice to Mimar Sinan.
I thoroughly enjoyed the historical background of this book. I knew something about Italian Architecture of this time period, but I was ignorant of Sinan and his construction of the Suleymaniye and Selimiye mosques. This book sent me to google images and additional reading. That’s always a sign of good historical fiction. I enjoyed Jahan and his affectionate relationship with the elephant. The underlying political and religious conflicts added continuing tension to the story.
I enjoyed this book more as printed text than when I listened to it. Piter Marek was pleasant to listen to, but his bland delivery totally missed the humor of Jahan’s misadventures with the gypsies. I loved Balaban and his gypsies as much as I loved Chota, the white elephant.
The book is very episodic, like the Arabian Nights tales. Some of the episodes were comic and others were tragic. There did not seem to be an organized story arc. This made the book seem longer than it was. It was difficult to follow the mystery of the sabotage and treachery taking place on the building sites. It was easy to see the conflict between religious and political fanaticism and a drive for creative, artistic freedom. However, I never saw that Jahan, as the main character, ever resolved his conflicts in any personal way. I kept feeling that Jahan’s life story had an overriding message in it that neither Jahan nor I understood. The end of the book added an element of magical realism that seemed a bit arbitrary, as magic hadn’t been part of the earlier story. I was left with the sense that the author used it to make some kind of meaningful connection that I just didn’t understand.