Cuốn này theme thì hay đấy nhưng không phải là điều mình quan tâm. Hai theme chính là sự giao thoa văn hoá châu Á và châu Âu, cái còn lại là thân phận và vị trí người phụ nữ trong xã hội. Rốt cuộc thì lại là một cuốn sách mà trong đó phụ nữ là nạn nhân của tình yêu. Đọc mệt.

Ai đang thất tình đọc cuốn này chắc sẽ thích. Cả chục trang nói về cảm xúc đớn đau khi mất người yêu và sự ơ hờ với xã hội khi thất tình. Và cả sự làm khổ người yêu mình khi thất tình nữa chứ. Bực dọc!!!

Văn dài lê thê, như kiểu đọc Humbert Humbert lí sự, nhưng không mĩ miều văn hoa như Humbert, và đương nhiên không hay bằng, nên là một lần nữa, đọc mệt. Khô không khốc...

Mình định drop từ trang 100 nhưng cố kiết đọc đến trang 200 để xem anh nhân vật chính thất tình thế nào. Đến đó nữa thì cũng nản hẳn, kết hợp đọc plot trên wiki và skim đến đoạn cuối ; - ; nói chung là một cuốn sách kì quặc và không giao tiếp được với mình, y như bạn mà recommend sách này cho mình vậy.

I came close to giving up on this book. Midway through, Kemal's laborious despair became unbelievable to me and I resorted to skimming through large sections of his obsessions over Fusün. Similarly, the extensive descriptions of minutiae in upper-class Turkish life were skipped.

Without those sections, the book became manageable and important. Fusün's story is one of captivity. She is kept from her dreams by tradition and jealous men who take ownership of women. Kemal is both the love of her life and her captor.

Whatever ounce of freedom she enjoys is at the discretion of either her parents, her husband, or Kemal. In the end, the only thing she secures on her own is her own premature death.

She dies in Kemal's car, ironically the same car he used to pursue her, driving over for dinner for eight years, teaching Fusun how to drive, and finally setting off for Europe. In the end, Kemal has so little respect for Fusun's wish that they not have sex until marriage that he takes advantage of her on the way to Paris, barely outside Istanbul.

As protagonist and narrator, it is difficult to sympathize with Kemal. He is obsessive, selfish, and repeatedly hurtful to women who care for him, first to Sibel, and then repeatedly to Fusun. As a man in Turkish society, his desires come first and foremost, and a woman's wants are agreeable only when they fit into his own. Fusun's dreams to become an actress are forced to lie in wait because of Kemal's jealousy. Most chapters of Fusun's life get dictated by Kemal and his interminable desire for her.

In the end, the book is an interesting, albeit rambling, look at Turkish upper-class culture during the 70s and 80s, and a powerful cautionary tale about gender power, desire, love, and obsession.

I hated every minute of reading this book, but then could not stop thinking about it for weeks. The main character is a mysogonistic narcissist, and I despised him throughout his entire telling of his story. I hate him all over again just thinking about this book. Pamuk’s prose is stunning, the character development is extremely effective, and the themes throughout are enduring.

I had the pleasure of visiting the museum that resulted from this book (what a concept!) in Istanbul, and I especially enjoyed the diagram of anatomy with corresponding feelings, and that the butterfly earrings are for sale. The attention to detail is impressive.

A harrowing, intense, and at times difficult-to-read story of a man obsessed. The Museum of Innocence reminded me a lot of Wuthering Heights, with its star-crossed, unstable lovers who destroy everything around them and aren't even happy when they're together.

An absolute slog to get through. A weird perverse love affair that made me feel icky throughout