From the Bookshelf of Reading 1001…

Life Is a Caravanserai

Emine Sevgi Özdamar,

Luise von Flotow (Translator)

Start date: June 1, 2022

Finish date: June 30, 2022

Discussion: BOTM Discussions

Find A Copy At

Libraries

Group Discussions About This Book

Showing 2 of -14 topics

BOTM Discussions

* Go Tell it on a Mountain- Sept BOTM
By Diane · 3 posts · 8 views

last updated Sep 19, 2025 07:32AM

* So Long a Letter - Sept BOTM
By Diane · 4 posts · 12 views

last updated Sep 13, 2025 02:40PM

showing 8 of 8 topics view all »

What Members Thought

Jun 05, 2022 George P. rated it really liked it

Shelves: 1001-books-read, author-not-us-canada-or-uk

I enjoyed this novel which I think is partly memoir. Ozdamar has a unique writing style, largely what I would call impressionistic. The story is told chronologically and in a mostly stream-of-consciousness style without chapter or paragraph breaks. There is a nice amount of humor.

2 likes · Like · see review

Jun 14, 2022 Rosemary rated it really liked it

Shelves: 1001-books

The experiences and thoughts of a girl growing up in Turkey in the 1950s and 60s. She's in a poor family, with her father mostly out of work, and the family of parents, four children and grandmother move from city to city getting by on whatever her father can earn or borrow. But what we hear about mostly is the life of the street, the traditional tales of the grandmother, the numerous neighbours who visit, the dead, and the girl's feverish illnesses and dreams.

It's sometimes confusing, sometime ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Jan 23, 2021 Pip rated it really liked it

Shelves: 1001-books-challenge

This is a fascinating semi-autographical series of vignettes about a girl growing up in Turkey at about the same time as me. The author was born in 1946, two years after me. It is puzzling, funny, frustrating and sublime - the kind of book one remembers with affection but is quite difficult to actually read. Emine Sevgi Ozdamar wrote this book in German, having emigrated to Germany at the age of 18. It begins and ends on a train, the first at her birth and the latter as she departs Turkey for Ge This is a fascinating semi-autographical series of vignettes about a girl growing up in Turkey at about the same time as me. The author was born in 1946, two years after me. It is puzzling, funny, frustrating and sublime - the kind of book one remembers with affection but is quite difficult to actually read. Emine Sevgi Ozdamar wrote this book in German, having emigrated to Germany at the age of 18. It begins and ends on a train, the first at her birth and the latter as she departs Turkey for Germany. It consists of the observations of a curious and perceptive child as she lives in Istanbul, Bursa and Ankara, constantly moving because her feckless father has trouble making or borrowing enough money to provide for his growing family. One of her devices is the use of repetition. Each evening she recites prayers for all the people she has met. This list grows as she meets more people, so she is praying for the six hundred and thirtieth soldier who died sitting in the rain, having listed all the other soldiers who had come before. Or the "husband of Aunt Sidika, who fet a little better than a son-in-law who has to live with his parents-in-law". She lives with her mother and sometimes her father, with her paternal grandmother with whom she has a close relationship, her older brother and a younger brother and sister. Her grandmother provides traditional advice which the protagonist heeds, despite her grandmother being illiterate, something she understands because her grandmother often holds the newspaper upside down and is obsessed with the health of everyone she knows. The background is of a turbulent time in Turkish history, whether one is a Democrat or a Republican is of huge importance and the military coup takes place without the protagonist being really aware of what is happening. One extremely interesting aspect of the story is the frankness about sexual matters, which completely surprised me. There is much talk about women having"little boxes" which they cover with their hands, while boys can take their goods for walks. When her brother starts having wet dreams her mother is very matter-of-fact about the fact that "the devil has visited during the night" and washes his sheets. The protagonist knows that couples have to wash from head to foot before the sun rises if they have had sex during the night and so she watches for water dripping from heads as people leave for work. All this sounds like fun, but children sitting around looking at an old man as he fondles himself, or her father walking around with his penis exposed leaves the reader feeling slightly queasy. And there are many passages which seem impenetrable, flights of fancy and snippets of magic realism which left me too keen to set the book aside. But it is a book which I feel proud to have read. ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Jun 29, 2022 Kristel rated it really liked it

Shelves: 1001-books, turkey, 1001-challenge, coming-of-age

Reason Read: botm June 2022 Reading 1001, Asian Author (Turkey). This is a coming of age story told by Emine Sevgi Özdamar and I think this story probably reflects her own experiences and I also think that it is told in a poetic and crude ways which I suspect might be true to the culture and reflects a woman's world in this middle east setting. The time is the politically turbulent period following WWII. The family has many difficulties and moves frequently; Istanbul to Bursa, then to Ankara and ...more

1 like · Like · see review