"Pamuk: prophet or poseur?
Orhan Pamuk’s Other Colors: A Book Review Essay
On the jacket of Orhan Pamuk’s latest book, Other Colors: Essays and a Story, stands the black silhouette of a lone man – hands in his pockets, shoulders shrugged, face away from us – walking on top of a rail of the electric tram line that runs down the left lane of a damp, dark empty cobblestone street illuminated only by the fog smeared light of distant street lamps. In the background, two dark gray minarets of a giant mosque pierce the lighter grey sky. The jacket tells us that Ara Güler took this evocative photograph, that Chip Kidd designed the jacket and that Maureen Freely translated the text from Turkish - but nothing more.......
BELLE LETTRES- Pamuk: prophet or poseur? by CLAIRE BERLINSKI
December 22, 2007
OTHER COLORS - Essays and a Story- By Orhan Pamuk- Translated by Maureen Freely
Knopf Canada, 433 pages, $34.95
The novels of Orhan Pamuk, Turkey's most celebrated and controversial man of letters, have been translated into some 20 languages. His novels Snow and My Name is Red are widely considered world-class achievements. The themes of Pamuk's oeuvre include the conflict between the East and the West, the tension between Islam and modernity, and the intense melancholia of his native Istanbul. Admirers find his style complex, multilayered and allegorical; detractors find him faddish and incomprehensible.
Comments
I am glad that Claire Berlinski had the insight and the courage to call what many Turks knew all along. The "eternal victim of all and everything" trip seems to work wonders on some, but when one looks closely to the stands Mr. Pamuk takes, it's obvious that he sides with the oppressors and the powerful at the end.
I won't even repeat the mutual adoration he has with Bush, his support for the occupation of Iraq or his consistent attempts to show all things Turkish in a gloomy if not flatout negative light. To gauge his true character, you don't have to suffer a Q&A session specially designed for his image by CNN/Turkey where all tricks worthy of PR machine of a bigwig politician comes up like a chinese wall to supress all critism.
What i find shameful is this: When he was fighting the infamous Article 301, there were some other 50 writers dealing with the same '301' that he completely ignored. One of those not worthy of his attention was the late Hrant Dink. In Turkey, his neglect for the others in the same boat as him (minus the support from all kind of turcophobes that he enjoys) was enough for the last remaining appreciation for him to evaporate. Now we know, he's not tricking anyone but tripping by himself.
His adolescent depression is so passe, he's lucky it floats the boat of anti turkish segments of western culture.
Posted by: erdal uzun | December 26, 2007 07:59 AM
I love his writing and admire the man immensely.
This cover is superb.
Ara's photography is surely a national treasure too.
Posted by: Di | December 26, 2007 01:53 PM
I find Claire Berlinski’s attack, thinly veiled as book review, offensive. Pamuk is a national treasure to be cherished.
Posted by: Mitat Yerli | December 26, 2007 07:51 PM
Mitat, i feel like this is very first time, we seem to be agreeing to a large extent:p
Erdal, although I respect what you state, i don't believe everybody should be militant. If you remember he was even a mediator during the hunger strikes. well, he never claimed himself to be an activist...
Posted by: erkan | December 27, 2007 02:39 AM
Maybe the next president of Turkey will be Orhan Pamuk . . . I would certainly support it! And it would receive a lot of good press!
Posted by: metin | December 27, 2007 07:39 PM