My Name Is Red by Orhan Pamuk Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of My Name Is Red
Book Review: Brilliant, Innovative, But Not An Easy Read
Summary: 5 Stars
This book will leave the reader slightly restless. It took me a week to read the book. The pace is slow, about half normal reading speed. There are many characters, and many tangents that take the reader away from the main story. After 50 pages I had to stop and make a list of all the characters and their relationships to one another. I would equate the difficulty with reading The Iliad, by Homer, perhaps the Penguin Classics version. Red might be a bit more complicated than that classic, but Red is a bit more interesting.
Orham Pamuk is enjoying a high degree of current popularity, and the present book can be found in all the book stores. I was introduced to his writings by his recent article in a December of the New Yorker where he describes his relationship with his father and their common interest in writing. His father was an amateur writer. That is a wonderful article and I would highly recommend that article in the December 25 issue. It is his Nobel lecture and available on the web.
So, it was with much anticipation that I sat down and read Snow cover to cover after that article. More recently, I finished the present book, My Name is Red.
The book is innovative and unusual. It uses over 15 different narrators to tell a story about love and murder in Turkey in the late 1590s. Some of the narrators are animals, objects, and even colors. There is much Turkish history worked into the plot along with many comments on Islam.
As a mystery story it is a bit weak and too complicated. Similarly as a love story the characters seem wooden. The prose is good but complicated. It is hard to read and will take the average reader a while to absorb everything.
So, this is clearly and innovative book; in many ways it is brilliant; similarly, it is a bit complicated and not everyone will want to invest the time to slowly wade through the 500 pages.
Book Review: Brilliant, different, readable
Summary: 5 Stars
I was a little apprehensive about picking up this book. Seemed like the main concept is the ages old murder mystery with some 'east vs west' thrown in. But man was I wrong! This is the most beautifully written book I have ever read. The way the characters narrate the story from their perspective, its really beautiful,everything just comes to life. You discover a totally new way of telling a story. The way the tension builds up is impressive, makes you read it from cover to cover in one sitting. Some chapters towards the end could have been shorter,but what the hell,the rest of the book is awesome. You discover how a trivial thing as a portrait of a person can be viewed so differently by different cultures. This book also makes you curious about medieval art in the middle east and also references middle eastern epics. Overall , I enjoyed this book a lot, after reading it, I am love in with Pamuk's writing and curious about everything Turkey.Book Review: Brilliant, unusual, and also average
Summary: 4 Stars
"My Name is Red" is a rare treat, with a fictional account of a brief time in the Muslim world of the 16th century under the Ottoman Empire. Someone with only modest awareness of that historical period and the lurking conflicts between east and west can still enjoy the novel. More knowledge would help, but even in this dense writing, the author doesn't reach too much into the obscure or excessive detail that could overwhelm the reader.
Mr. Pamuk has three primary simultaneous threads, all anchored to the assignment to create a collection of miniature paintings for the Sultan. One is a love story, one is a murder mystery, and one is philosophical contemplation about art and style. The third is easily the core of the novel and far more compelling than the rest.
The love story, which barely qualifies as one, is shallow and more like lust on one side and necessity on the other. The two participants don't bond or even have very many interactions, and I found a particular sex scene right before the end oddly placed and inappropriate.
The murder mystery opens the novel and Pamuk uses an effective alternating first-person style to provide different perspectives, even those of two dead characters and "Satan". The murderer takes its turn a few times, without identification. The perspectives are interesting and wonderfully written. Unfortunately, the murder and the mystery are relatively lame, without generating that urge to hurry to the end for the resolution.
The side discussions on what is art, what is style, where does style come from, and many philosophical riffs on those topics provided the interest for this reader. I knew almost nothing about Islamic art, so Pamuk's background on the role of Allah and other details was quite informative and well integrated, without sounding like a tutorial. Similarly, the description of groundbreaking new art of the western "infidels" and the conflict over whether to embrace the perspective style were quite intriguing.
I didn't know quite what to make of the thread about torture that ran through the novel. Was Pamuk simply describing the role of torture in the empire at that time, so casually applied, without a value judgment, or was he in fact making a concrete statement? That may well be obvious to someone with more familiarity with Pamuk and/or that historical era.
Book Review: Clever and engaging but too long
Summary: 4 Stars
My Name is Red is a masterful novel in its coverage, writing, style and structure. There are colours and flavours communicated by it which remain with the reader long after the last page has been read. As a meditation on the nature of the miniaturist's craft and on the traditionally different and irreconcilable approaches of Islam and the West to Art, this novel makes an immense contribution to our understanding. It is, however, not without weakness. At times, the author appears to be flashing his cleverness. The novel is too long and this ultimately undermines its credibility as a mystery novel. The outing of the murderer is most anti-climactic. Overall, however, My Name is Red is a very fine novel.Book Review: Closet Orientalist and Palace Mysteries
Summary: 5 Stars
Pamuk has created an elaborate masterpiece. The book is a murder mystery on the surface. Like some of his books though it has many layers interwoven expertly. The setting, old Istanbul and Topkapi Palace grounds, among court artisans, allow him to dissect seemingly one of his favorite topics, philosophy and essence of East. What makes East, Orient? He constantly falls back to the rich history of Ottomans to explore and contrast East vs. West. What separates the two cultures way beyond religion? Art, especially visual art, maybe the best and most direct expression of a world view and indicator of where people place themselves with respect to God and all other creations and the story revolves around this theme. There are no introductions, no prologues, epilogues, first page takes you right in, and you are being murdered. His use of first person narrative is very effective and very unnerving. This book took Pamuk many years to finish apparently, three of which was spent on translation alone, and it shows. The effort he has put in making his work available to World readers has been well worth it, something that other contemporary Turkish writers should emulate I believe. Though some have complained about the flat prose, this cannot be all attributed to the translation. He uses a non-elaborate style to simulate realism, which I believe, works well. Some of the scenes are quite violent and sexual references are sometimes shockingly raw, but this is 16th century and anyone who has read Rumi should not be too surprised. He paints very rich scenes, and as in a Vermeer painting, one is inevitably looking for that hidden clue, a faint reflection on the mirror for the identity of the villain in the story.
Some years ago I had a chance to see the very manuscripts that inspired the artisans in this book and occupy such a prominent place, on display in NY Metropolitan Museum. Given the time period, these were very bold and very impressive expressions pointing to an era in Islamic culture when the dark curtain of conservatism had not yet descended. If Sunni Arabs represent the warriors of Islam, surely Shiite Persians represent the artists. Their wonderful paintings, poetry and miniatures have dominated the Islamic art and literature scene and have set the standard for much more to come.
Pamuk has done extensive research and period accuracy is impressive. Though the writing is smooth and not convoluted, still it is not an easy read, but given the topic, which is a lot more than just a murder mystery, it is a small price to pay for a great book.