Review: Snow, Orhan Pamuk
1 out of 5 stars - Blech
I bought this book for air travel over the holidays, and I took nothing else with me to read. Having nothing else, I tried and tried to force myself to read it. I feel like I reviewed it already, but can't find the entry... because I feel like I already typed these words...
The theme of the book is male writerly angst in a politically violent small town in Turkey during post-revolutionary times. The book deals almost exclusively with the lust the poet-main character feels for a woman he knew 14 years ago and has decided to marry (sight unseen) now that he's heard she divorced. The woman is repeatedly referred to as beautiful, and her beauty is the only characteristic developed (maybe we are supposed to assume other characteristics from hints that make no dint in my western ignorance). The woman's sister, who the poet also considers as a potential lover/wife for a brief few moments (because apparently he's unable to think of women in terms of other than whether he'd like to fuck/marry them), is a political activist who has spearheaded a group of young muslim virgins who opt to kill themselved rather than be socially pressured into NOT wearing headscarves.
The book goes on at nauseum with the poet's inspirations of poetry, his choices of involvement with the revolutionary forces at play in Kars, and with the ravings of the actor/maniac who overthrows the military officials in charge of the city during a major snowstorm and starts killing people to make some political point that is only hinted at, never stated, which I, the ignorant western reader, was unable to deduce.
I had hoped to learn something of Turkish history, of Turkish political events, of Islamic fundamentalism... of anything interesting. Instead, I got the ramblings of an unidentified narrator who posthumously investigates the execution of the main character poet, who also happens to fall completely in love with the beautiful woman because she's so beautiful that no man can resist her. And the question of the muslim virgin suicides is never resolved, as if unimportant compared to the angst of the poet/lust-victim.
I hated every page of this book and tried to finish it but was unable to. I quit with only a few pages to go... Just wanted to get this review documented so I can sell it to Half Price Books.
I bought this book for air travel over the holidays, and I took nothing else with me to read. Having nothing else, I tried and tried to force myself to read it. I feel like I reviewed it already, but can't find the entry... because I feel like I already typed these words...
The theme of the book is male writerly angst in a politically violent small town in Turkey during post-revolutionary times. The book deals almost exclusively with the lust the poet-main character feels for a woman he knew 14 years ago and has decided to marry (sight unseen) now that he's heard she divorced. The woman is repeatedly referred to as beautiful, and her beauty is the only characteristic developed (maybe we are supposed to assume other characteristics from hints that make no dint in my western ignorance). The woman's sister, who the poet also considers as a potential lover/wife for a brief few moments (because apparently he's unable to think of women in terms of other than whether he'd like to fuck/marry them), is a political activist who has spearheaded a group of young muslim virgins who opt to kill themselved rather than be socially pressured into NOT wearing headscarves.
The book goes on at nauseum with the poet's inspirations of poetry, his choices of involvement with the revolutionary forces at play in Kars, and with the ravings of the actor/maniac who overthrows the military officials in charge of the city during a major snowstorm and starts killing people to make some political point that is only hinted at, never stated, which I, the ignorant western reader, was unable to deduce.
I had hoped to learn something of Turkish history, of Turkish political events, of Islamic fundamentalism... of anything interesting. Instead, I got the ramblings of an unidentified narrator who posthumously investigates the execution of the main character poet, who also happens to fall completely in love with the beautiful woman because she's so beautiful that no man can resist her. And the question of the muslim virgin suicides is never resolved, as if unimportant compared to the angst of the poet/lust-victim.
I hated every page of this book and tried to finish it but was unable to. I quit with only a few pages to go... Just wanted to get this review documented so I can sell it to Half Price Books.