Snow

by Orhan Pamuk | Literature & Fiction | This book has not been rated.
ISBN: 0571218318 Global Overview for this book
Registered by msjoanna of Columbia, Missouri USA on 3/26/2007
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1 journaler for this copy...
Journal Entry 1 by msjoanna from Columbia, Missouri USA on Monday, March 26, 2007
Bought this on amazon because it was recommended by a colleague.

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From Publishers Weekly
A Turkish poet who spent 12 years as a political exile in Germany witnesses firsthand the clash between radical Islam and Western ideals in this enigmatically beautiful novel. Ka's reasons for visiting the small Turkish town of Kars are twofold: curiosity about the rash of suicides by young girls in the town and a hope to reconnect with "the beautiful Ipek," whom he knew as a youth. But Kars is a tangle of poverty-stricken families, Kurdish separatists, political Islamists (including Ipek's spirited sister Kadife) and Ka finds himself making compromises with all in a desperate play for his own happiness. Ka encounters government officials, idealistic students, leftist theater groups and the charismatic and perhaps terroristic Blue while trying to convince Ipek to return to Germany with him; each conversation pits warring ideologies against each other and against Ka's own weary melancholy. Pamuk himself becomes an important character, as he describes his attempts to piece together "what really happened" in the few days his friend Ka spent in Kars, during which snow cuts off the town from the rest of the world and a bloody coup from an unexpected source hurtles toward a startling climax. Pamuk's sometimes exhaustive conversations and descriptions create a stark picture of a too-little-known part of the world, where politics, religion and even happiness can seem alternately all-consuming and irrelevant. A detached tone and some dogmatic abstractions make for tough reading, but Ka's rediscovery of God and poetry in a desolate place makes the novel's sadness profound and moving.

Journal Entry 2 by msjoanna at Columbia, Missouri USA on Tuesday, September 13, 2016
Finally ended up listening to this as an audiobook.

I would never have made it through this book in print. It's too plodding; too layered; too long. The structure of the book distances the reader from the action. But John Lee nailed it in the audio version. The book translates surprisingly well to audio format because the story is relayed by a narrator. A sometimes whiny, sometimes arrogant, sometimes insecure narrator. Telling the story of a poet who is much like himself, with whom the narrator has developed some fascination and desire to uncover the "real story" of the poet.

Pamuk is able to evoke a sense of place here that carries through the novel. Kars is a remote town made more remote by a snowstorm that cuts them off from the world and stops the trains from running.

Overall, I really enjoyed the book and some of the memorable characters here will stick with me. This is only my second Pamuk (the first was The White Castle), but it won't be my last. I'll just need to save his books for times when I can concentrate on the text or look for other audio versions.

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