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smokeyshouse's review against another edition
dark
informative
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
I would call this book "interesting" rather than good or engrossing. Each character was unappealing in some way, yet taken all together, it was an interesting story with insight into life in Turkey just before the 1980 coup.
lereader's review against another edition
dark
sad
tense
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? No
4.0
margeryk101's review against another edition
3.0
My brother asked me if I still use my Kindle much and I had to say at the moment I have been borrowing books from the library and this is such a library find. I have quite a mixed opinion of Pamuk. I often find his books a struggle to get through, only to then contemplate them for months and years after and really appreciate them.
Margaret, a fellow goodreader, read this in Turkish and commented on the different register of each narrator. I read this in translation and I am sad to say that this differentiation didn't survive the translation which was a pity.
The story takes place during a weekend in the summer. Three grandchildren visit their reclusive grandmother, their last surviving relative, who is attended to by Recep, a dwarf, in her crumbling old house. As the story develops it gets progressively darker.
Questions of good and evil; wrongdoings; religious versus secular morality; and most obviously Muslim East versus secular West play out throughout the book.
Margaret, a fellow goodreader, read this in Turkish and commented on the different register of each narrator. I read this in translation and I am sad to say that this differentiation didn't survive the translation which was a pity.
The story takes place during a weekend in the summer. Three grandchildren visit their reclusive grandmother, their last surviving relative, who is attended to by Recep, a dwarf, in her crumbling old house. As the story develops it gets progressively darker.
Questions of good and evil; wrongdoings; religious versus secular morality; and most obviously Muslim East versus secular West play out throughout the book.
soitis's review against another edition
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
innashtakser's review against another edition
5.0
The book was almost painful to read. A clash between the westernized intelligentsia and the nationalist poor, accompanied by sexual tensions, ends up in violence and death. Everybody wishes well, but everybody hurts everybody else. And upstairs stays a vicious traditionalist ninety-years old grandmother who rejects everything and everybody.
margardenlady's review against another edition
challenging
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
A little dark and eventually violent, this is a story that sheds light on life in Turkey during the 1980s. Fatma is by then a dowager clinging to memories and old ways. She seems too have always been unhappy. We also hear from the perspective of three of her grandchildren, her servant who is her deceased husband’s bastard and his brother’s son, a disaffected young man, also her quasi grandchild. None of the( young adult) children realize there connections and their tortured relationship plays out within the larger context of a rebellious uprising. It was fascinating to learn of the world as known by these people, but it was difficult to like any but Reced, the bastard servant.
maigahannatu's review against another edition
3.0
Each chapter is told by a different character in the story. Involved in the story are Fatma, the grandmother; her three grandchildren, Faruk, Nilgun, and Metin; her husband's illegitimate son, Recep, who is her caregiver; and Hasan, her husband's illegitimate grandson. Very present in the story are Fatma's dead husband and son.
This is a very different book with an entire page being one sentence because the sentence is a thought in a person's head. Threaded throughout the book are the complexities of human relationships, especially in families, politics in the setting of 1980's Turkey, alcoholism, unstable mental conditions, religion, and young people struggling to find their place in their world.
The story has a strange ending. Why is the house silent is what you are left to wonder.
This is a very different book with an entire page being one sentence because the sentence is a thought in a person's head. Threaded throughout the book are the complexities of human relationships, especially in families, politics in the setting of 1980's Turkey, alcoholism, unstable mental conditions, religion, and young people struggling to find their place in their world.
The story has a strange ending. Why is the house silent is what you are left to wonder.
rastephe's review against another edition
3.0
This book has me scratching my head - I can't quite decide how I feel about it overall. I was intrigued by the first few chapters, but then decided as I read further that I really disliked most of the characters and found their thoughts to be maddeningly repetitive and unrealistically idiotic. I slogged through the middle of the book, forcing myself on because I really wanted to finish it and find something redeeming about it. I was surprised to be drawn back into the story in the end, although it was depressing. Ultimately, I found the last chapter to be strangely, sadly beautiful in a lonely way. I think this book could have been edited down to half its length and been more powerful.