From Publishers Weekly
Karasu's Kafka-esque political parable, first published in his native Turkey in 1984, evokes the fear and paralysis of will that grip ordinary citizens in a modern police state. His dystopia is a tyranny where squads of "nightworkers" randomly shoot or beat to death victims. The plot concerns a nameless, open-minded writer whose ex-schoolmate (known simply as "N"), now the head of a repressive state agency, orders him to attend a symposium abroad. The writer learns in advance that he is to be shot--though not killed--at the conference for propaganda purposes. Sevinc, the agent assigned to set him up, becomes his homosexual lover; another agent, Sevim, N's former wife, develops a conscience and turns up dead on the writer's doorstep. In postmodern footnotes, Karasu periodically interrupts the narrative to further the plot while commenting on its artifice. Winner of the Mobil Corporation's Pegasus Prize honoring works from countries whose literature is rarely translated into English, this is a fiercely inventive novel, but the dreamlike atmosphere and setting tends to weaken its impact.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
In this deeply disturbing novel about politics, government, and the art of writing, an unnamed narrator relates the story of his world in a notebook. He describes a nightmarish place where "nightworkers" emerge at dusk to begin their work, which consists of brutally maiming and murdering people who are on the streets after dark. During the day, workers "fix" the streets, which results in making them unnavigable; a trip of half an hour ends up being a full day's journey. People begin to take along a change of underclothes on their daily excursions. Meanwhile, as the purification of society continues, readers see the novel in process: it is being created at the same time the society is creating itself. With spare prose, Turkish novelist Karasu artfully evokes a Dantesque landscape where terror is the order of the day. The many footnotes allow us a glimpse into the mind of the writer and, thus, the creative process. A winner of the Pegasus Prize for literature; recommended for most collections.
- Peggie Partello, Keene State Coll., N.H.Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
