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Bill Kerwin's Reviews > Snow
Snow
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The expatriate poet Ka returns to his native Turkey ostensibly to investigate a growing number of suicides among "head scarf girls" for an article in a German newspaper, but actually to reconnect with the beautiful divorcee Ipek whom he knew in college. While there, he is caught up in religious and political intrigue.
I thought the book was too long, and the characters didn't interest me much, but I really liked the way Nobel prize winner Pamuk creates the atmosphere of the small city of Kars (and its many kinds of people) during a great snowstorm. I also liked the way he portrays the Islamists of Turkish culture--and the secular revolutionaries and artists as well--as fiercely Romantic individualists who are angry at the West--above all other things--because we refuse to recognize and respect the individuality of their religious passion.
by
The expatriate poet Ka returns to his native Turkey ostensibly to investigate a growing number of suicides among "head scarf girls" for an article in a German newspaper, but actually to reconnect with the beautiful divorcee Ipek whom he knew in college. While there, he is caught up in religious and political intrigue.
I thought the book was too long, and the characters didn't interest me much, but I really liked the way Nobel prize winner Pamuk creates the atmosphere of the small city of Kars (and its many kinds of people) during a great snowstorm. I also liked the way he portrays the Islamists of Turkish culture--and the secular revolutionaries and artists as well--as fiercely Romantic individualists who are angry at the West--above all other things--because we refuse to recognize and respect the individuality of their religious passion.
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Snow.
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Reading Progress
Started Reading
May 1, 2008
–
Finished Reading
May 9, 2008
– Shelved
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Judy
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rated it 4 stars
Feb 27, 2016 08:09AM
Snow is the only Pamuk I have read and I liked it. It was foreign and familiar at the same time, as though Pamuk were blending both western and Turkish literature.
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Judy wrote: "Snow is the only Pamuk I have read and I liked it. It was foreign and familiar at the same time, as though Pamuk were blending both western and Turkish literature."I agree. "Foreign and familiar" gets it right. And the haunting atmosphere of the city in wintertime sticks with me to this day.
I tried to read this book before I went to Turkey in 2002 ( I think) and couldn't get interested in it.
Thank you for the review, Bill. I'm glad you found some things to like in the book.
