A Strangeness in My Mind
Books | Fiction / General
4.2
Orhan Pamuk
Since his boyhood in a poor village in Central Anatolia, Mevlut Karatas has fantasized about what his life would become. Not getting as far in school as he'd hoped, at the age of twelve, he comes to Istanbul-"the center of the world"-and is immediately enthralled both by the city being demolished and the new one that is fast being built. He follows his father's trade, selling boza on the street, and hopes to become rich like other villagers who have settled on the desolate hills outside the booming metropolis. But chance seems to conspire against him. He spends three years writing love letters to a girl he saw just once at a wedding, only to elope by mistake with her sister. And though he grows to cherish his wife and the family they have, his relations all make their fortunes while his own years are spent in a series of jobs leading nowhere; he is sometimes attracted to the politics of his friends and intermittently to the lodge of a religious guide. But every evening, without fail, he still wanders the streets of Istanbul, selling boza and wondering at the "strangeness" in his mind, the sensation that makes him feel different from everyone else, until fortune conspires once more to let him understand at last what it is he has always yearned for. Told from the perspectives of many beguiling characters, A Strangeness in My Mind is a modern epic of coming of age in a great city, and a mesmerizing narrative sure to take its place among Pamuk's finest achievements.
Historical Fiction
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Author
Orhan Pamuk
Pages
624
Publisher
Penguin UK
Published Date
2015-10-06
ISBN
9385890034 9789385890031
Community ReviewsSee all
"Lovely book about life in Istanbul"
N O
Nidhi Oberoi
"This is a great work of literature. Although the subject matter is mundane - the life of the yogurt/boza seller Mevlut in Istanbul - Pamuk uses this ordinary backdrop to compose a moving meditation on loneliness in the modern world. The novel is also a timely read in light of the recent attempted coup in Turkey, exploring the complex interactions between religion, industrialization, family, love, sex, marriage, morality, education, the army, nationalism, communism, ethnicity, poverty, alcohol, and the urban/rural divide. "A Strangeness in My Mind" is a sweeping narrative that spans crucial decades in Turkey's development and gives readers a way to empathize with the ordinary people of Turkey in a way that no other medium can.<br/><br/>From a somewhat more dispassionate economic perspective, what struck me most about the book was the consequences that a lack of formal property rights and the corruption of the government bureaucracy had on the development of essentially a tribal Mafia system and pervasive fraud. Mevlut interacts with both and Pamuk does a humorous but thoughtful treatment of these aspects of life in Turkey.<br/><br/>I can't quite bring myself to give this book 5 stars although it probably deserves it. Following an impoverished yogurt seller around for hours is fascinating, but it's not really my idea of a 5-star book. That said, it was a fantastic leisurely listen on my cross-country road trip and it spawned an excellent discussion about family relationships in our book club meeting last night.<br/><br/>Review cross-posted from <a href="http://books.max-nova.com/strangeness-in-my-mind/">http://books.max-nova.com/strangeness-in-my-mind/</a>"
Max Nova
"I found this book painfully boring, which was a surprise, given the cultural and historical events taking place. The author bogged everything down in meaningless details and descriptions. I will give some leeway that something may have been lost in translation if the author originally wrote this in Turkish. The main character was not particularly likable or even possessing much of a personality besides being passive and miserable and whiny. There was no real plot. The only character that I sort of liked dies a miserable pointless death on account of her gender. This one just wasn't for me and I had to force myself to finish it. Honestly, when men write books about the pointless meanderings of working-class men, it gets praised as great "literature." If a woman had tried to write a similarly long book about a woman caring for children and doing housework and working as a maid, would it even get published?"
R T
Rebekah Travis