Snow by Orhan Pamuk Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Snow
Book Review: I love this book
Summary: 5 Stars
Although it was kind of hard to get into at first, it was well worth it. Orhan Pamuk really takes on modern day issues in this book, and it helps you understand that part of the world a little better.Book Review: Identity Crisis
Summary: 4 Stars
It was interesting to read this after De Bernieres' BIRDS WITHOUT WINGS, as an examination of religion and politics in now-modern Turkey, the rise of militant Islamism, the ambiguous place of Turkey betwen Europe and the East, and much more. It is also a social comedy, a thriller situated somewhere between Greene and Kafka, a meditation on poetry and the theatre, and a love story. Pamuk plays tricks with narrative, plays tricks with time, and veers between realism and fantasy in a way that makes you doubt which is which. Reading as I was in translation, I was not sure how much of the strangeness was deliberate, and though fascinating. it made for difficult reading. So not quite the full five stars, but undoubtedly a major work.Book Review: Inspired by Snow
Summary: 4 Stars
If you like political novels wrapped in a love story, then Snow by Orhan Pamuk is written for you. If you have an interest in what is happening in other countries of the world, especially Turkey, which straddles two continents, Europe and Asia, then you are ready to take a trip with the main character Ka, to the eastern city of Kars on the border between Russia and Armenia.
Snow is a story that revolves around the tension between the secular government and Islamic radicals. The head of the Islamist radicals, Blue, is hiding in Kars. Ka, short for Kerim Alakusoglu, is a 42-year-old exiled poet, who poses as a journalist. He has lived in Germany for 12 years during his exile. He has never been married and is still in love with his college classmate, Ipek, now divorced from her husband. On the surface, Ka seems to be only interested in the elections and the suicides of college girls, who refuse to uncover their hair in schools due to their Islamic faith, but deep inside, he wants to marry Ipek. His poem-less life changes since his arrival in Kars. He names his first poem in Kars "Snow," hence the title of the book. Snow, a poignant symbol throughout the novel, not only inspires him, but also reminds him of God. Although he has a spiritual hunger for God, he is not interested in the god of Islam, because following the rules of Islam seems unachievable to him; besides he indulges in drinking, which is against Islam.
When Ka arrives in Kars to investigate the suicides and report on the elections, all the roads leading to Kars are closed due to a blizzard. He finds a hotel to stay in and finds out that Ipek's father owns the hotel and lives there with his two daughters. He finds out from Muhtar, Ipek's ex-husband that there is a big event planned in a couple of days which will be broadcast to the whole city. It is a play named "My Fatherland and My Scarf", supposed to bring some attention to the head scarf worn by women who follow Islam.
Unfortunately the play turns into a military coup arranged by an actor who turns into a military agent. Many people get killed and arrested. A curfew is issued in the whole town. Ka is asked to identify the Islamist radicals and is protected because he has ties to the newspapers in Istanbul and in Germany. He has met the head of the radical movement, Blue (named after the color of his eyes) through a high school student. Blue wants Ka to publish a statement from the Islamist point of view; however, Ka persuades him to sign the statement with two other minority representatives.
During his stay, he proposes to Ipek, who is unsure of leaving all behind and move to Germany with Ka. Their love develops into passion with uncertainty lingering over their relationship. Will Ka be able to persuade Ipek to run away with him on the first train out of Kars? Will Ipek sacrifice her family to follow her passion into a land unknown? The verdict is waiting to be unraveled in the suspense and passion filled pages of Snow.
Although this novel may be hard to understand for people who don't have the background in the religion of Islam and the government of Turkey, those who are interested in the life of a poet and his love story will love the intricacies knitted in the novel by the talented story teller, Orhan Pamuk.
Book Review: Intriguing, Frustrating, Almost Quite Good
Summary: 4 Stars
On a recent trip through the Balkans and down through Greece, I met French, British and German travelers all holding copies of SNOW in their laps. We agreed that we all wanted to like the book more than we did, but the mere fact that I came across this title so often and so haphazardly is an indication of the book's popularity, if not its importance.
I won't belabor the plot here or offer my review. The book should be read by anyone interested in the rise of fundamentalist Islam in the region. My travels through Macedonia revealed a similar, and very serious, rise of fundamentalist Islamic movements, so it **felt** quite real. (Therein lies my main criticism: too often it was hard for me not to feel that Pamuk was pushing this idea across, rather than building a literary work.)
However, I want to mention two points of concern for me regarding SNOW. The first is that we are in danger of treating Pamuk as THE Turkish voice, much as the Cold War years gave birth to several (but not more than that!) "voices" and "souls" of their respective nations. Pamuk is but one voice, who in fact no longer lives in Turkey. His is but one voice of many; an important one, to be sure, but certainly not THE voice or soul of Turkey. We shouldn't lift him on a national pedestal, as we did so many Eastern European intellectuals during the Cold War. I mean, is it truly possible to speak for an entire nation? Would we want to read a writer who actually could? Would we want to visit a country that could be represented by a single writer? Turkey's far too complex a society for one writer to encompass.
Which leads me to a related point: Maragaret Atwood's blurb on the cover of the paperback edition. Does anyone else find Atwood's statement that Pamuk is "narrating his country into being" offensive? I mean, the last time I looked, much of Turkey was a few hundred years, if not a millenia or two, older than Atwood and Pamuk combined. True, as a nation Turkey is young. But my god -- "narrating his country into being"???? What does that mean? I hope Vintage has the good sense to erase that bit of Western intellectual snobbery and myopia from future editions.
Book Review: Is snow a political novel?
Summary: 5 Stars
The novel takes place in Kars, a remote town of Turkey. The main character, Ka, a political refugee living in Germany, arrives to Kars in the middle of a snow storm to investigate a series of suicides of young women. However, the real reason to go to Kars was to find a woman he once loved, the beautiful Ipek. The reunion with an old love, the search of a lost one are all present in other Pamuks works but in none with such an intensity as in Snow. Snow is essentially a love story. One of misunderstandings, ambiguity, mirrored situations and mostly passion and inspiration. Once in contact with his roots and touched by the captivating Ipek's beauty, Ka is possessed by an unprecedented inspiration and writes his very best poems. However, Ka's personality, driven by unhappiness, impossibility to love, anxiety and melancholy is merciless depicted by Pamuk. Pamuk viscerally leads the reader to the complex personality of Ka by placing himself as his alter ego. The chapters dealing with the encounters of Ka and Ipek in the hotel room are of a memorable intensity.
Going back to the political situations that made this book famous, my view is markedly influenced by living myself in a developing country. Pamuk describes the political situation that Ka is immersed into in a surrealistic way. Since kar is the turkish word for snow, I first thought that Kars did not exist and it was a kind of Garcia Marquez's Macondo. There I found a paralell between this novel and latin american magic realism. In both cases, political situations are surrealistic, grotesque and exhuberant. Pamuk takes this to extremes. This is not a quiet Mc Ewan's Saturday in a London suburb altered by a demonstration. In Snow, like in our countries, these surrealistic political situations influence dramatically the way all people live and die. The whole lives of the characters, starting by Ka's condition as a refugee in Germany are determined by political situations. The political ramifications of the parties playing in Kars is somewhat difficult to follow for someone not familiar with the Turkish politics. However, Pamuk makes no attempt to show good and bad guys or to take you to one side. Ka himself plays a double agent, mostly to be able to seduce Ipek.
Lastly, as in other Pamuk's works, snow is omnipresent. The snow is there at every page of the book creating a magic atmosphere. Snow in Kars is dense, thick, white as compared with the light, muddy Frankfurt snow. This simbolizes Ka's living conditions in both cities. In Germany, he lived lightly, comfortably and safe. However he was not able to write and he was infatuated with a porn star resembling Ipek. Life in Kars was heavily conditioned by forces he could not manage like the snow and political intolerance. However, there he could love a real woman and write intensively. But he payed a price for this and his poems that he wrote in Kars were never found.
In conclusion: Snow is a masterpiece; one of those books that you will never forget.