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Product Description
From Library Journal
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
From Booklist
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
I am nothing but a corpse now, a body at the bottom of a well. Read the first page
Concordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt
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Most helpful customer reviews
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Closet Orientalist and Palace Mysteries,
By Alaturka (Northport, NY USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: My Name Is Red (Paperback)
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.
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars
Finally finished...,
By A Customer
This review is from: My Name Is Red (Paperback)
It took me over a year to read this book! I started it last spring and finally finished it the other day. When I first started it, I loved it - the idea behind it, the style, the structure and shifts in narrative perspective were all fascinating and wonderful. As the book went on, however, it started to drag, which caused me to set it aside for weeks or months at a time. Then I would slog through a portion, set it aside again, and continue the cycle. There are moments and aspects of incredible beauty in this book. The meditations on art and its function in society take on added dimension if you also think of them as meditations on the role of literature and the artist. I didn't even mind that the characters were flat - they were supposed to be, I think, much in the way that Islamic illustrating is described in the book. What I didn't like, however, is that the book starts to get repetitive. It goes off on side tangents, which are interesting at first, but start to wear on the reader after awhile. In one section of the book, one fable is related after another - after another, after another, after another... Pamuk could have easily cut at least 50 pages from this book, without affecting its integrity at all. Overall, I'm glad I read it - but I don't know that I would do it again. You only have so much time in this life!
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Delighted Or Bored? Depends...,
By
This review is from: My Name Is Red (Paperback)
MY NAME IS RED will delight some readers (who, like me, may be unable to put it down and look forward to a second reading) and bore others ("What's all this art/philosophy doing in a murder mystery?"). So the real question might be: Who would enjoy RED?I haven't read THE NAME OF THE ROSE in years... decades... but RED reminds me of ROSE. The reader is invited into another time, another world. Entering the richness of that time and world must delight you as much as the characters or the plot. The multiple points of view approach must also be a device you enjoy. RED plays with points of view ingeniously. In addition to people having their say, what the artist-characters depict have a say too. Even the color red speaks up. Imaginative. Marvelous. If you like that sort of thing. I'm now on an Orhan Pamuk tear... SNOW is next... Kirtland Peterson
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