Snow

by Orhan Pamuk | Literature & Fiction |
ISBN: 0375706860 Global Overview for this book
Registered by wingwaterfallingwing of Rockledge, Florida USA on 10/23/2008
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3 journalers for this copy...
Journal Entry 1 by wingwaterfallingwing from Rockledge, Florida USA on Thursday, October 23, 2008
trade-size paperback.

from the back cover:
An exiled poet named Ka returns to Turkey and travels to the forlorn city of Kars. His ostensible purpose is to report on a wave of suicides among religious girls forbidden to wear their head scarves. But Ka is also drawn by his memories of the radiant Ipek, now recently divorced. Amid blanketing snowfall and universal suspicion, Ka finds himself pursued by figures ranging from Ipek's ex-husband to a charismatic terrorist. A lost gift returns with ecstatic suddenness. A theatrical evening climaxes in a massacre. And finding God may be the prelude to losing everything else. Touching, slyly comic, and humming with cerebral suspense, Snow is of immense relevance to our present moment.

Journal Entry 2 by wingwaterfallingwing at Raleigh, North Carolina USA on Thursday, October 23, 2008

Released 15 yrs ago (10/24/2008 UTC) at Raleigh, North Carolina USA

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Released to Trekwoman's Every One's a (Prize) Winner 2.0 bookbox.

Author was named winner of Nobel Prize for Literature in 2006.

Journal Entry 3 by Busyangel from Tampa, Florida USA on Monday, October 27, 2008
Received this book today in Trekwoman's Every One's a (Prize) Winner 2.0 bookbox.
This book will continue it's travels.

Journal Entry 4 by Busyangel at Tampa, Florida USA on Monday, October 27, 2008

Released 15 yrs ago (10/29/2008 UTC) at Tampa, Florida USA

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Placed this book in Trekwoman's Every One's a (Prize) Winner 2.0 bookbox.

Journal Entry 5 by jlautner from Henderson, Nevada USA on Thursday, December 11, 2008
Chose from the prize winners book box.

Journal Entry 6 by jlautner at San Luis Obispo, California USA on Sunday, December 26, 2010
This novel is narrated by the author, as himself, telling the story of his friend, the poet Ka. Ka's life changes irreversibly when he decides, on something of a whim, to visit the small city of Kars, on the border of Turkey. An Istanbul native, he has just returned from Germany, where he spent several years in exile. His supposed reason for visiting Kars is as a journalist, reporting on a recent rash of suicides among young women in Kars, and to report on recent elections there.

His real reason, he admits to himself, is to see if he can hook up with Ipek, a beautiful woman he knew from his youth, who has recently divorced.

Ka has not been visited by the poetic muse for several years at the time of his arrival in the snow-covered Kars after a long and sometimes frightening journey by bus from Istanbul. Soon after his arrival there, though, poems start to arrive almost like magic. He feels like a medium, quickly jotting down the words as soon as he can in the notebook he carries with him.

Ka soon is getting around the city well, on foot as well as in various motor-driven vehicles offered by friends and persons of influence. He interviews various city officials and the families of the girls who committed suicide. One of the girls was a "head-scarf girl" - a muslim who covered her head, also known as a "covered girl". He does connect with Ipek and almost immediately proclaims his love for her, which he regrets. Ipek in turn is more reserved.

Just finding her and having her accept him in her life in any way at first brings Ka happiness. But he believes that all happiness must somehow be paid for in sorrow. He wants his happiness with Ipek yet is afraid of it. This state of being permeates his stay in Kars.

The city is experiencing such snow that the roads have been closed and are unlikely to be opened for several days. Thus Sunak, a traveling actor, decides to stage a kind of overthrow of the government, right from the stage of the National Theatre, while the whole of Kars watches in person and on live television. The remainder of the book hinges in great part on this change of the guard and what it means to the city and the country and to Ka.

Throughout the book, Ka meets a wide variety of persons, from some head-scarf girls to a presumed terrorist to the family of Ipek. We come to learn a lot about Turkey and the revolutions that became commonplace, like a "snow day", to the people. Ka feels that the place has changed, that Kars used to contain many cultural groups but they all got along; now the fundamentalist muslims war with the enlightened atheists and other groups. The citizenry in general seems suspicious of "Europeans".

There is a great deal of humor throughout the book, representations of certain types of persons and places, but it is the insight into another world that most attracted me. In the end I was sympathetic to Ka but didn't particularly like him. Ipek, perhaps, was the most interesting of the bunch. It's a heady journey.

Journal Entry 7 by jlautner at Joe Mommas in Avila Beach, California USA on Monday, January 31, 2011

Released 13 yrs ago (2/2/2011 UTC) at Joe Mommas in Avila Beach, California USA

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Bringing to a bookcrossing meeting, where I hope this meets another reader. If not, it goes on the shelf.

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