Snow
1 journaler for this copy...
Purchased from the Goodwill Outlet in San Luis Obispo yesterday.
I would have sworn I already wrote about this book. At length. Now I see nothing here so I will try to do it again, at least part of what I thought I already wrote.
Turkish poet Ka returns from a 12-year exile in Germany to visit a small city on the Turkish border, Kars. He ostensibly visits the city in the middle of heavy snow because of a rash of suicides among young girls there. His real reason, he later confesses, is that he wants to meet up with the beautiful Ipek, whom he had known in his youth and who, he heard, was recently divorced.
And so he does. He meets with Ipek, almost immediately professes his love for her (which she does not appreciate, as he hardly knows her), and goes about his journalistic duty, interviewing parents and friends of the suicidal girls. One of the girls was a "head-scarf girl", also called a "covered girl", and many theories are floating about whether her religion is what led to her suicide.
In fact, the differences among the different ethnic groups in this town are the cause of great tension, and the fundamentalist muslims are hardest hit - but also the most resistant to change or to accepting others. Ka reflects on these differences and on the fact that years before the citizens, diverse though they all were, had no difficulty living with each other.
We learn a great deal about Turkey (for example, that uprisings and government overthrows are so common as to be almost everyday events, like "snow days") and the turmoil within its cities. We learn, too, of the wayward Ka, wanting to do the right thing and sometimes succeeding, but essentially too selfish and too much living in fantasy to win my affection.
In the end I had difficulty liking anyone particularly well. I like reading books by writers from other countries because they give me insight that I could never get otherwise. This is a beautifully written book yet it did not fully engage me and I was not sorry to leave behind all that mystical, beautiful snow.
Turkish poet Ka returns from a 12-year exile in Germany to visit a small city on the Turkish border, Kars. He ostensibly visits the city in the middle of heavy snow because of a rash of suicides among young girls there. His real reason, he later confesses, is that he wants to meet up with the beautiful Ipek, whom he had known in his youth and who, he heard, was recently divorced.
And so he does. He meets with Ipek, almost immediately professes his love for her (which she does not appreciate, as he hardly knows her), and goes about his journalistic duty, interviewing parents and friends of the suicidal girls. One of the girls was a "head-scarf girl", also called a "covered girl", and many theories are floating about whether her religion is what led to her suicide.
In fact, the differences among the different ethnic groups in this town are the cause of great tension, and the fundamentalist muslims are hardest hit - but also the most resistant to change or to accepting others. Ka reflects on these differences and on the fact that years before the citizens, diverse though they all were, had no difficulty living with each other.
We learn a great deal about Turkey (for example, that uprisings and government overthrows are so common as to be almost everyday events, like "snow days") and the turmoil within its cities. We learn, too, of the wayward Ka, wanting to do the right thing and sometimes succeeding, but essentially too selfish and too much living in fantasy to win my affection.
In the end I had difficulty liking anyone particularly well. I like reading books by writers from other countries because they give me insight that I could never get otherwise. This is a beautifully written book yet it did not fully engage me and I was not sorry to leave behind all that mystical, beautiful snow.
Sent to a fellow paperbackswap member.