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fearandtrembling's review
4.0
Began with utter incomprehension, but stuck with it because the style and the imagery were idiosyncratic, unlike anything I've read before in awhile, nothing like the well-behaved realist fiction (or even the well-behaved "writing from the margins" genre fiction we're seeing these days) coming out of the journals and publishing houses in the Anglophone world. Total immersion in grief; surreal, bleak, weird and thus senseless at times (especially, I think, because some of the references Turkish literature and politics aren't obvious in English translation and might well seem impenetrable to people who aren't of that society, which is fine, there is really no need to understand everything you read in fiction/poetry). By the end of the book it felt like the most accurate portrayal of grief, like being dropped into a whirlwind and realising you'd rather live in that chaos then outside, where your feelings should be managed like a rosebush, regularly trimmed and pruned and made presentable.
There is deep thought underlying the structure of this book, especially since the effect of it is to convey the bizarre, the surreal, and the artless. The final chapter is a nod to Joyce, I believe, it reads like Molly Bloom's soliloquy except condensed into a tiny, hard gem; the entire book is less than 90 pages.
Full review at Necessary Fiction.
There is deep thought underlying the structure of this book, especially since the effect of it is to convey the bizarre, the surreal, and the artless. The final chapter is a nod to Joyce, I believe, it reads like Molly Bloom's soliloquy except condensed into a tiny, hard gem; the entire book is less than 90 pages.
Full review at Necessary Fiction.
cincinim's review
4.0
Hikayesini bilip de okudukca yeniden hikayesini yasadigim. "Hah" ile Birgul Oguz, yasanan aciyi, cok buyuk bir aciyi oyle dillendiriyor ki, susuyorum. Evet, uslup dedigimiz sey hala yasamakta, parlayan eserler yaratmakta. Adi: HAH.
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