"Pentru că, așa cum aveam să cuget cu mult mai târziu, în timp ce stau aici, în pat, odată sfârșită, viața - călătoria aceea cu trăsura pe care n-o faci decât o singură dată - nu mai poate fi luată de la capăt, însă dacă ai o carte în mână, oricât de complicată și de încâlcită ar fi ea, poți să te întorci dacă vrei, când o isprăvești, la primele pagini, pentru a încerca să deslușești ceea ce ți s-a părut de nepătruns și pentru a pricepe însăși viața..."

I found it difficult to get into this book, not least because many of the characters were unappealing and because the narrative perspective kept shifting between different voices. I was also a bit disappointed that the female characters were rather thinly drawn, and mostly served as props to explore the motivations and intentions of the male characters. Even the lone female narrative voice, the ninety-year old grandmother and matriarch of the family, largely tells her story through recollections of her husband's increasing narcissim and rejection of God and tradition, as she reacts by retreating into her room and obsessing over her dwindling jewelry collection. Still, in parts the writing was strong, and I appreciated the author's attempted exploration of the overarching conflict between nationalism, communism, westernization, and tradition in Turkey.

Orhan Pamuk's second novel is set in a seaside town in the months before the 1980 military coup in Turkey. Written in 1983 and translated in English only a few years ago, "Silent House" is ostensibly about an old woman visited by her grandchildren during one summer, but there is an undercurrent of political and cultural tension. Pamuk's technique of having the novel's chapters narrated from the point of view of alternating characters is highly effective. Recommended.

The book got off to a slow start. I was impatient through the middle but the superb writing made it a breeze. But I don't know why I ever doubted Orhan. Every sentence has a consequence -- either in the story or in the reader's mind. The parallel lives over time, the question of what is history, the question of whether stories should have meanings, the difference between East and West, the point or pointlessness of hope for change from within and the complex nature of Turkish identity are all told through just a handful of vividly-painted characters. Wow. Persevere and you will be richly rewarded.

I didn't manage to get into it enough to continue reading.

A bit hard to read, very wordy and verbose. But I loved the depiction of the struggle with old and new in Turkey. Village vs City, religious vs secular, etc... Turkey is a fascinating country and Orhan Pamuk is a great writer; but you need patience!!

Aile hikayelerini okumayı seviyorum, bu kitap da bir istisna olmadı. Yalnız okurken şunu düşündüm, lisedeyken ilk Orhan Pamuk kitabı olarak Benim Adım Kırmızı’yı okumakla yanılmışım sanırım. Sonrasında okuduğum tüm kitapları çok daha rahat okunabilen kitaplar oldu. Bu vesileyle belki Benim Adım Kırmızı’ı da bir daha okuyabilirim.

This book was okay. I’ve read several of Pamuk’s other (later) books, and it was harder than I expected to go back to his early works. The plot moves throughout different narrators & perspectives, leaving a lot for the reader to figure out. The prose is very stream of consciousness. While the plot and exploration of Turkey’s political history was interesting, there wasn’t much of a point to it all. I didn’t find much hope in the characters. The grandmother had some beautiful reflections at the end, but they felt very disconnected from the rest of the book. I’ll stick to Pamuk’s later works.