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jayisreading's review against another edition
challenging
informative
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-paced
4.25
Pamuk takes the reader back to sixteenth-century Istanbul to focus on miniaturists, particularly on the murder of one named Elegant Effendi. While, in essence, the novel is concerned with uncovering who the murderer is, there are a lot of other threads—most, if not all, related to the murder at hand—in this novel that made it far more complex than I expected. There are numerous characters narrating this expansive and complex story, and the reader must piece together these characters’ limited perspectives to figure out who the murderer might be. In addition to this whodunit story, Pamuk writes a sweeping love story between two characters, Black and Shekure. He also draws significant attention to art of this region and time period and its reception. The anxiety around art and religion (and, relatedly, East and West) was particularly interesting to read, especially with how it related to the murder.
I will say that considering the sheer number of moving parts in this novel, it’s very likely that a lot of readers—including myself—will miss a fair amount of details, especially if they’re unfamiliar with the culture and history of this region and time period. I think what made this novel particularly challenging was the literary and philosophical components that were woven in that I was not at all familiar with. Upon further research, though, I discovered how central they were to Pamuk’s crafting of this novel. In addition to multiple moving parts, Pamuk took a very unique approach to structuring his novel, ranging from the many characters narrating the story, stylistic choices in how the story is told, to breaking the fourth wall on a number of occasions to incorporate the reader into the novel. This is all to say that each chapter gives a lot for the reader to puzzle over.
Even if I didn’t fully grasp everything that was happening, I can at least appreciate the incredible time and thought that clearly went into this novel. I was also really taken to Göknar’s beautiful translation, and I can only imagine how much more enchanting it is in the original Turkish. I think this book will work for some readers, even if they don’t have a full grasp of everything, but I can also see how many others will find the prose and structure unwieldy.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death and Murder
Moderate: Violence, Antisemitism, and Ableism
Minor: Suicide and Slavery
sidharthvardhan's review against another edition
5.0
"Books, which we mistake for consolation, only add depth to our sorrow."
"For the sake of a delightful and convincing story, there isn't a lie Orhan wouldn't deign to tell."
This is a lot like 'The Name of the Rose' a very, very, very well researched historical crime fiction where some people, who aren't exactly detective, are searching for a criminal. There are other similarities too, both books have a very big library the access to which is restricted. Both make commentary on position of women in society of time and, in both books, people are troubled by control of religious clerks on lives of people. The mystery itself isn't at all interesting, but it is the clash of values forming the background which makes the two books interesting.
'My Name is Red' fairs much better in differences. The love story is more interesting, women character(s) (there was only one in TNOR) get better space and developments, and the art talk is so far more amazing when compared to discussions like what Jesus meant when he did whatever he did in John 11:24.
Now painting is forbidden in Quran, because of dislike in Islam for anything even remotely associated with idol worship. Some sections even advocate blurring faces of dolls used as toys for little girls.
"after a while, we begin to worship a picture we have hung on a wall, regardless of the original intentions"
And thus painters were looked down upon for centuries in Islamic countries. By the time of our story though the things had changed. Painters painted but under several restrictions. Any innovation that hadn't happened decades ago was looked down upon. And making portraits of real people was a sin. Painters and miniaturists were expected to draw from memories rather than by looking at things:
"To paint is to remember"
And thus none of painted (say) horses was anything like real horses but its very essence, the image that comes on to one's mind when one thinks of a horse. And that is what those artists want, the essence, not the thing itself.
“I don't want to be a tree; I want to be its meaning.”
This essence is very much like what Plato called 'forms' in his 'Theory of farms'.
Spoiler
"Forms are the essences of various objects: they are that without which a thing would not be the kind of thing it is. For example, there are countless tables in the world but the Form of tableness is at the core; it is the essence of all of them. Plato's Socrates held that the world of Forms is transcendent to our own world (the world of substances) and also is the essential basis of reality. Super-ordinate to matter, Forms are the most pure of all things. Furthermore, he believed that true knowledge/intelligence is the ability to grasp the world of Forms with one's mind." -WikipediaBut of course, not all artists agree with tradition:
"genuine artists have an instinctive desire to draw what's forbidden"
and hence the clash.
All those quotes, stories such as ones where artists are putting needles in their eyes to turn blind and parables about art are something I really adore. But for space issues, I would have quoted all of them.
"Allah created this worldly realm the way an intelligent seven-year-old boy would want to see it"
"while everyone depicted Mejnun in a wretched state in the desert, crazed with love for his Leyla, the great master Bihzad was better able to convey Mejnun's loneliness by portraying him walking among groups of women cooking, attempting to ignite logs by blowing on them or walking between tents."
And although you must love reading about art, find the idea of artists going blind for sake of their art romantic to love the book; there is more to the story than merely art talk. There is that whole element of fantasy with creatures like devil, corpse, tree, ghost, dog, red (the color) etc serving as narrators of the story. Then there are some narrators who are people but have red-herring of names - Black, Butterfly, Strock. Olive etc.
“Dogs do speak, but only to those who know how to listen.”
There are also all the characters who have got their names from real life people - there is in book a young boy named Orhan, whose mother is Shekure, related to English 'sugar' refers to Shirin, meaning 'sweet' (and it is a very, very sweet sounding word I think) - the name of Pamuk's mother, and Shevket is Orhan's brother both in book and real life.
And, last, Orhan's prose. I must quote my favorite passage (this passage might as well have been in Ovid's Metamorphosis):
"It happens all the time to you fortunate literate people: A maiden who can't read begs you to read a love letter she has received. The letter is so surprising, exciting and disturbing that its owner, though embarrassed at your becoming privy to her most intimate affairs, ashamed and distraught, asks you all the same to read it once more. You read it again. In the end, you've read the letter so many times that both of you have memorized it. Before long, she'll take the letter in her hands and ask, "Did he make that statement there?" and "Did he say that here?" As you point to the appropriate places, she'll pore over those passages, still unable to make sense of the words there. As she stares at the curvy letters of the words, sometimes I am so moved I forget that I myself can't read or write and feel the urge to embrace those illiterate maidens whose tears fall to the page."
More quotes:
"A letter doesn't communicate by words alone. A letter, just like a book, can be read by smelling it, touching it and fondling it. Thereby, intelligent folk will say, "Go on then, read what the letter tells you!" whereas the dull-witted will say, "Go on then, read what is written!"
"And if I happen to tell a lie or two from time to time, it's so you don't come to any false conclusions about me."
"the Sultan was seized by a kind of panic, suspecting that this volume he was reading recounted not a story or a legend, but what was most unbefitting a book: reality itself. "
"imperfection gives rise to what we call style"
"After the victorous Fahir Shah captured Selahattin Khan and tortured him to death, his first task in asserting his sovereignty, according to custom, was to visit the library and the harem of the vanquished khan."
"no matter how talented a miniaturist might be, it is time that makes a picture perfect."
"Every idiot assumes there is a pressing circumstance about his love that necessitates particular haste, and thereby lays bare the intensity of his love, unwittingly putting a weapon into the hands of his beloved. If his lover is smart, she'll postpone the answer. The moral: Haste delays the fruits of love"
"It's because I don't understand what my heart is saying that I'm dispirited."
"Ibn Arabiâ's notion that love is the ability to make the invisible visible and the desire always to feel the invisible in one's midst"
"In reaction to being overly logical we'll feed fantasies for weeks and years on end, and one day we'll see something, a face, an outfit, a happy person, and suddenly realize that our dreams will never come true"
“Tell me then, does love make one a fool or do only fools fall in love?”
“Painting is the silence of thought and the music of sight.”
"beauty is the eye discovering in our world what the mind already knows."
phillybobs168's review against another edition
challenging
informative
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
I don't think I was really clever enough for this book.
nnyam33's review against another edition
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
I get it
zoereadsnrambles's review against another edition
4.0
this book was a wild ride. i mean as the novel begins, a miniaturist has been murdered and thrown down into an abandoned well. we know this because the victim tells us. this sets up the novel in such an interesting way because it makes the reader think that this novel is going to be a murder mystery, but it isn't. my first thought about this book was "wow this is going to be such an interesting murder mystery story", and the other second thought was that this book was going to be about the love story between black and shekure. i am aware that having these two simultaneous thoughts about this is ironic given that this book is all about liminal states ... the liminal states between two art styles, liminal states between love and security, liminal states between life and death, liminal states between guilt and pride, liminal states between objective and subjective truth, liminal states between fiction and reality. i think that these liminal states are what make this book so special. even at the end, the author blurs the line between fiction and nonfiction which was super interesting to me.
i wasn't expecting to like this book as much as i did. although it's not an easy book to read, the writing flows seamlessly and i loved the structure of the book, with chapters from various POVs, some appearing only once, some multiple times, some VERY non-conformist and original.
i wasn't expecting to like this book as much as i did. although it's not an easy book to read, the writing flows seamlessly and i loved the structure of the book, with chapters from various POVs, some appearing only once, some multiple times, some VERY non-conformist and original.
vortimer's review against another edition
3.0
Impulse buy in an audiobook sale - I was completely unaware of the novel and author's significance. Some books work better in an audiobook format, and some on paper, and this is one of the latter. I don't think I got the best of this book and it's unusual structure and setting. I might have to revisit at some point reading rather than listening.
jess_mango's review against another edition
4.0
My Name is Red is an intellectual historical murder mystery where the story is told in alternating chapters by different characters, including the murder victim. The book started off slow, but it definitely picked part way through. I learned a lot of interesting trivia about Islamic art from this novel.
monkya's review against another edition
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
lindsaytt's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
I enjoyed this book quite much despite not being able to follow/understand the history fully. I found the digressions into art history and philosophy to be crucial, appealing parts of the narrative. The writing style, using multiple povs to weave together distinct voices and frequently breaking the fourth wall, is truly unique and facilitates the storytelling greatly.