Snow by Orhan Pamuk Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Snow
Book Review: Book is Closed but Open
Summary: 2 Stars
I'm John Kimbel and I was very bored with this book. This book is the antonym to action and excitement. It is almost too real in which nothing happens. I got very tired very fast because the book didn't really take off until the second to last page when you realize that that you are almost done. THE WHOLE LOVE STORY BETWEEN KA AND ICEPICK WAS A BIT BLAND. In order to get through the book I had to make up names for each person and have them do different events, such as motorcycle racing.
On the other hand if one is a well-read person he/she may find this story very touching. I personally didn't like it because I don't find it fun to read deep into text and like the happening part. In other ways this book gives a good account of a man and is narrated by the author, Orhan Pamuk. His account of this man is related to how he views Turkey because his is Turkish. Being Turkish Orhan knew how the society and culture functions when threatened with change and new ideas. The act of being Turkish really let's Orhan hone in to the real Turkish ways. It was also hard to follow because the text was translated straight from the Turkish language in which it was written. I would most likely leave this book on my shelf until I got really, really tired of my old books about war and science. This is not a book that is worth to stay up and read all night and learn how the writer authors his books. If you like to read deep into text and find out its inner and societal meaning then read this book.
The book would be a two star in my rating system but in an intelligent one it might be a five. I am sure some people could extract meaning from this book but I prepare for more of the action packed zombie style.
Book Review: Bound to be a classic
Summary: 5 Stars
Most of the glowing reviews sum it up quite well; this is a brilliant and complex novel examining individual and cultural identity. Pamuk's piles (literally, with Snow) the symbolism on in so many different ways......The book flirts with magical realism and yet is an in-depth character study that questions who we are in today's society. Are we secular? Are we religious? The genius of this book is that is goes beyond the issues of being Turkish as it applies to all of us living in modern society. To those who think this is a confusing and rambling book all I can urge you to do is to hang in there with this effort, and to try and feel comfortable with feeling uncomfortable. That is one of the points Pamuk is trying to make. That is, when we look into who we are, we sometimes aren't so confident of our identity. In my humble opinion, this is one of the best books I've read in years, but I can see how it will not appeal to all readers.Book Review: Buried in Snow but beautiful nevertheless
Summary: 4 Stars
Snow is the story of a forty-two year old Turkish exile living in Germany, who returns to a small town of Kars, situated in the north-eastern Turkey. Kars is suffering from a strange suicide epidemic among women. It is on the verge of a coup, a coup by the Kemalists to save it from falling in the clutches of either the political Islamists or the modernists. An education official who had banned the use of headscarves is brutally murdered by an Islamic terrorist.
Being post-modern, it has its confusing points - a near-absurdist plot, a dreamlike sequence of events, and caricatures which are not individuals enough. The speech of the Islamic terrorist, in which he tells the education official the reason of assassinating him, is the only non-modernist text in the novel. All these things make it a little difficult read. But it has flow and structure. Under all this post-modern paraphernalia, there are real issues discussed, like the rise of political Islam, the Westernization of Turkey, and the struggle between the Kemalists, the Communists and the Islamists. It is the discussion of these real issues which hooks the reader to the book.
Istanbul, the non-fiction book of Pamuk makes one wonder that if Pamuk can write in simple non-post-modernist prose then why does he go so post-modernist in his fiction? Perhaps the reason is the nature of the sensitive issues he discusses in his books. In this world of political correctness where criticizing Islam is a taboo; a world dominated by the Islamic apologists like Edward Said and Karen Armstrong, it takes a lot of courage and defiance to write about the issues Pamuk writes. His predecessors from the Islamic world like Naguib Mahfouz and Farag Fouda, who tried to criticize Islam, paid a heavy price. Maybe this is why Pamuk shrouds these issues in his post-modernist plots.
If you are sufficiently interested in all these issues - Islam, Islamization vs. Westernization, the East-West conflict of Turkey - then you will happily wade through Snow.
Book Review: Complex and Thought Provoking
Summary: 5 Stars
Ka, a visitor to his rural and poor hometown of Kars in Turkey, is sought after by many for his presumed access to the German ("European"/"Western") press. He is also protected by this and while he will be questioned, he will not be tortured.
His position, as a possible conduit to an outside world, reveals the contradictions within the characters. Political Islam is their proxy for inferiority and other complex emotions about "The West". (One young man dreams of eating well on the lap of a blonde western woman). The headscarf is a symbol of solidarity... and a powerful symbol it is in Kars. The town is gripped by the tension and drama surrounding a prominent woman's potential removal of her scarf (will she or won't she?) and to a lesser degree by the question of who killed the administrator of the local university tasked by "Istambul" with enforcing the ban on headscarves.
Ka says he is investigating the suicides of the "headscarf girls", who are the real victims of this political culture, for a story in a German periodical. While Islamists ponitificate on the pitiable piety of the suicide girls, Ka finds other motives. These motives show a paternal willingness to marry off, abuse or otherwise sacrifice their daughters that reflects the same attitude that pressures them to wear the scarves. The sad situation of the girls, caught between their desire for an education, their need to belong and their families' desire to control them is never expressed by the girls (except by their suicides)... only by those who presume to speak for them.
In "Red" the characters introduce themselves through their first person chapters. Here, in a similar technique characters disclose themselves through first person dialog in which they reveal their personal conflicts, ambivalences and often a sense of defeatism.
The book is written in a different first person, but there is only a hint of this in the beginning. I'm glad Pamuk resisted the temptation to give us intricate folk tales nested inside the stories as he did in "Red".
This is a beautifully crafted portrait. While it defines a specific culture in rural Turkey, there is a wider metaphor for social groups left behind.I hope this book finds its way to academic reading lists. It deserves a wide and thoughtful audience.
It's like "Red", is a warm up for "Snow". I hope "Snow" is another warm up for more and equally powerful literature by Pamuk.
Book Review: Could be instructive
Summary: 2 Stars
I tried & tried to finish this book, but it was too dense & stifling. It does open an interesting window on Islamist issues &, in that respect, is a valuable learning tool for those who wish to delve into these issues. It doesn't work as a novel, though. The characters are flat & create little empathy with the reader. The conversations were stilted & weighed heavily with deep, philosophical ramblings. In the end, I felt mired in leaden prose.