Snow in Around the World

Jan 07, 2013 Marieke rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 2013, islam, fiction, books-i-never-read-but-shoulda, turkey, nobel-winner, worlds-lit

This is my fourth Pamuk novel and the more of his work i read, the more i want to read his work. The first one i read, i read in college: The White Castle. All i can remember is that i really liked it and it made me want to read Pamuk (i need to re-read it now). Then a few years out of college, i got My Name is Red and tried to read it. This was well before goodreads and i didn't have anyone to save me from frustration, so i stopped reading it thinking i'd take it up later at some point. I read This is my fourth Pamuk novel and the more of his work i read, the more i want to read his work. The first one i read, i read in college: The White Castle. All i can remember is that i really liked it and it made me want to read Pamuk (i need to re-read it now). Then a few years out of college, i got My Name is Red and tried to read it. This was well before goodreads and i didn't have anyone to save me from frustration, so i stopped reading it thinking i'd take it up later at some point. I read it fairly recently with my Middle East/North Africa group here on goodreads and it turned out to be a tremendously rewarding experience. i shook my finger and scolded my younger self for having given up so easily. Especially because My Name is Red was not the only book casualty from that earlier experience. It made me wary of trying to read Snow, even though i knew it dealt with topics that interest me and in which i'm fairly well-read, not necessarily in the Turkish context, but i should not have been afraid. About a year ago i got The Museum of Innocence from the library. I'll be honest: it was hardbound with a plastic library protective sleeve, it was chunky, it had appealing cover art...i had to have it. I was a little cautious starting it, but it sucked me in. I loved it. Towards the end Pamuk ties the book to Snow and it was like an epiphany for me. I WILL BE SCARED NO MORE.

And now i have read it, thanks to the Worlds Lit group moderator putting it on the schedule for the beginning of our exploration of Turkish literature. I still have to get caught up on the discussion in that group. Normally i participate in discussions at the same time i'm reading, but this book unfolds and unfolds and unfolds...i just wanted to experience it for myself without interference from others' reactions. Part of my reason for doing so is not so much a fear of spoilers, but Pamuk is an evocative writer and i wanted to just get lost in the mood he created for me. I think this is one of the things i most like about Pamuk now that i have embraced his work: He has a style. it may not be a unique style, but it is distinct. Yet each book is an individual with its very own atmosphere; you know you are absolutely reading a Pamuk novel but it doesn't feel like any other Pamuk novel (or any other novel for that matter) you have read. I wanted to get lost in that, and i did. I normally get annoyed and frustrated if i don't finish a book quickly enough. i read this for a much longer period than i had intended, but i don't regret it. His writing is somewhat meaty, but not at all difficult to chew if you let yourself just sink your teeth in.

About the book itself--there are layers to this story and i'm not sure i have properly absorbed all of them. Also, there were some aspects that were odd to me and i'm still trying to get my finger on those, so i'm going to hold out on commenting on those for now. I still have to join the discussion and also, i think i just might be re-reading this someday. ...more

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Jul 30, 2010 Nazmi Yaakub rated it liked it

Shelves: sastera, novel, hadiah-nobel, turki

Snow novel pemenang Hadiah Nobel (Kesusasteraan) 2006, Orhan Pamuk, diterjemahkan Maureen Freely, mengangkat kekeliruan manusia untuk mengakui kewujudan Tuhan dan mencari cinta sebenar di tengah-tengah pertembungan antara pemikiran Islam yang radikal dengan kebebasan idea Barat.

Berlatarbelakangkan kota kecil di kawasan pergunungan, Kars yang tersisih di timur Anatolia, Turki, novel ini menampilkan Kerim Alakusoglu atau lebih dikenali sebagai Ka, penyair yang menjadi pelarian politik di Jerman Snow novel pemenang Hadiah Nobel (Kesusasteraan) 2006, Orhan Pamuk, diterjemahkan Maureen Freely, mengangkat kekeliruan manusia untuk mengakui kewujudan Tuhan dan mencari cinta sebenar di tengah-tengah pertembungan antara pemikiran Islam yang radikal dengan kebebasan idea Barat.

Berlatarbelakangkan kota kecil di kawasan pergunungan, Kars yang tersisih di timur Anatolia, Turki, novel ini menampilkan Kerim Alakusoglu atau lebih dikenali sebagai Ka, penyair yang menjadi pelarian politik di Jerman selama 12 tahun, kembali ke bumi kelahirannya itu untuk mengutip memori.

Dengan alasan membuat laporan untuk akhbar di Istanbul mengenai tragedi bunuh diri di kalangan wanita bertudung yang menjadi wabak tidak terkawal dan pilihan raya tempatan, Ka cuba menyembunyikan hasrat sebenar kepulangannya untuk bertemu kembali dengan bekas rakan sekelasnya, Ipek.

Salji tebal yang turun di kawasan pergunungan Kars bukan saja menimbulkan suasana nostalgia dan melankolik pada novel ini, bahkan menjadi sempadan kepada peristiwa penting dalam cerita ini, iaitu rampasan kuasa Kumpulan Teater Sunay Zaim yang mendokong fahaman sekular Atarturk.

Ini kerana rampasan kuasa itu berlaku dalam tempoh Kars terputus hubungan daripada dunia luar akibat salji menutup jalan masuk ke kota berkenaan, sekali gus memberi suasana misteri kepada pelbagai isu seperti konflik Islam-sekular, pemakaian tudung, kemiskinan, bunuh diri dan campur tangan tentera.

Rampasan kuasa ditandai dengan persembahan teater daripada naskhah klasik, My Fatherland or My Head Scarf, sekali gus menyalakan kekecohan di kalangan pelajar sekolah agama kerana ia memaparkan adegan pelakon wanita yang menanggalkan tudung, lalu membakarnya.

Ia disusuli adegan meninggalkan kesan kepada pembaca apabila askar menyerbu ke pentas melepaskan tembakan peluru hidup ke arah penonton yang menyangka ia sebahagian pementasan teater sehingga berlaku pertumpahan darah, diikuti penangkapan beramai-ramai pelajar sekolah agama.

Novel ini banyak mempertemukan Ka dengan pelbagai watak dengan ramuan keperibadian tersendiri seperti Blue sebagai pelampau berkarisma; Necip (pelajar yang idealistik dan bercita-cita menjadi penulis fiksyen sains dunia); Kadife (pemimpin wanita bertudung) dan Sunay (penggerak teater yang merampas kuasa).

Menariknya novel ini menggunakan dua sudut pandangan, iaitu Ka yang menggerakkan plot utama Snow, manakala perspektif kedua dibayangi pengarang dengan menggunakan watak rakan baik Ka, Orhan yang menceritakan kisah Ka dalam bentuk laporan.

Orhan seolah-olah membaca nota catatan Ka sepanjang berada di Kars itu, selain mempunyai misi untuk mendapatkan buku nota hijau yang mengandungi 19 puisi Ka ditulis ketika berada di kota berkenaan, tetapi hilang selepas kematiannya.

Karya penerima Hadiah Nobel pada tahun lalu ini bagaikan mengesah kekeliruan yang melingkari dalam kehidupan masyarakat Turki yang merangkumi ketakutan tanpa asas pada Islam, kedegilan memelihara ideologi sekular ala Ataturk dan keghairahan untuk diterima oleh Eropah. ...more

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Jun 01, 2009 Jenny (Reading Envy) rated it liked it

Shelves: location-turkey, own, read2013, around-the-world

Ka, a poet exiled from Turkey, returns to his home country to write about a series of young girls who have been committing suicide in the city of Kars. At least, that is the reason given at the beginning. It gets more complicated once you find out that a woman he has loved also lives there, and is recently divorced.

I was interested in the story of Snow, and of the imagery (how snow masks violence, how snow can be isolating, the uniqueness of snowflakes - these are repeated themes). I was particu Ka, a poet exiled from Turkey, returns to his home country to write about a series of young girls who have been committing suicide in the city of Kars. At least, that is the reason given at the beginning. It gets more complicated once you find out that a woman he has loved also lives there, and is recently divorced.

I was interested in the story of Snow, and of the imagery (how snow masks violence, how snow can be isolating, the uniqueness of snowflakes - these are repeated themes). I was particularly interested in the poems, but the reader never gets to read them. While the narrative gives a good excuse in the end, I was unable to let go of my disappointment over being denied such a central element of the story. There are frequent comments about how poets separate themselves from what is going on, to preserve their hearts and to let the poems come to them through events, such as here:

"Ka had explained to me that when a good poet is confronted with difficult facts that he knows to be true but also inimical to poetry, he has no choice but to flee to the margins; it was, he said, this very retreat that allowed him to hear the hidden music that is the source of all art."

But since we don't see inside of the poems, it suffices to separate the reader from Ka's true emotions and feelings about almost everything.

The other issue that interfered with my enjoyment of the story is the narrator. It is a friend of Ka's who is telling about Ka's journey, recreated through journals, newspaper articles, and interviews. This isn't immediately apparent, but isn't a spoiler to say so, I don't think. Because of this tactic though, it removes the reader even farther from the central emotion of the story. I had also guessed at one event that I suspect was supposed to be a great reveal, although the narrator frequently stumbles over himself to tell the juicy bits of a story, forcing him to go back and try to put it into context. Amusing, yes. Frustrating, also yes.

Another element I struggled with was the reaction to violence. The director of the Institute of Education is killed in front of Ka and Ipek, and while they leave the cafe rapidly, there isn't a sense of danger. Neither is there a sense of fear when people are killed by revolutionaries in public. That didn't seem true to life, and I think I'll blame the unreliable narrator. I get that Ka was putting his emotion into his poetry (which we never see), but what about everyone else living in Kars? Why go to a theater where there was violence at the last performance in that space, only to experience violence again? I will allow that I may not be reading between the lines enough, or that the narrator is glossing over the details most people would give. It made it very hard to connect to.

Other little bits on writing and poetry and happiness:

"Only people who are very intelligent and very unhappy can write good poems. So you heroically undertook to endure the pains of faithlessness, just to be able to write good poems. But you didn't realize then that when you lost that voice inside you, you'd end up all alone in an empty universe."

"But doesn't life make us unhappy?"
"We do that to ourselves."

"Only the purest poets allow love into their hearts in time of revolution." ...more

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Jan 15, 2013 Friederike Knabe rated it liked it

I read this novel back in 2005. Here are my thoughts of it then that still have meaning for me now.

Novels like Pamuk’s "Snow" can be understood at different levels. Consider it as pure entertainment; for the political intrigue and thrill; or as a virtual door into a foreign place, the lives of far away people, their time or preoccupations.

Pamuk has attempted to present us with all three options in one. The reader is exposed to a panoramic view of Turkey’s political and religious conflicts and et I read this novel back in 2005. Here are my thoughts of it then that still have meaning for me now.

Novels like Pamuk’s "Snow" can be understood at different levels. Consider it as pure entertainment; for the political intrigue and thrill; or as a virtual door into a foreign place, the lives of far away people, their time or preoccupations.

Pamuk has attempted to present us with all three options in one. The reader is exposed to a panoramic view of Turkey’s political and religious conflicts and ethnic tensions. His multitude of characters represents every conceivable strand of Turkish society: Atatürk secularism and pro-European modernism on the one hand and various religious factions of Muslim faith on the other. By compressing the events into one locale, a remote, poor and backward town, Kars, in Eastern Turkey, he creates a charged playing field. A major snowstorm has cut off the access roads to the town, bringing the conflicting positions to boiling point...

Within this complex political turmoil, wanders Ka, the protagonist of the story. A recently unproductive poet, he returned from Germany to attend his mother’s funeral. Presenting himself as a journalist, he claims to be interested in the headline story: the headscarf girls’ suicides. On a personal level, he wants to find a “Turkish girl” to marry and take back to Germany.

The story is told by Orhan, a close friend of Ka, four years after the events in Kars. In many ways he describes Ka as a somewhat confused, middle-aged man, whose exposure to the realities of Kars result in his questioning his life so far. He is taking in all political and religious positions, getting increasingly entangled as events unfold.

Pamuk himself described “Snow” as a political novel. Is it convincing in that ambition? For the reader who is not that familiar with Turkey or its language, it is difficult to judge its value in this category. My own interpretation is that Pamuk created a satire on Turkey and its historical and present-day problems. The exaggeration in the description of Kars, political intrigues, religious fanaticism, military brutality, and Ka’s own personality would lead to that assessment. My overall impression is that of a strange mix of over-detailed realistic? reporting on events and circumstances in Kars during a snow storm and very generalized, almost philosophical commentary on love, poetry, happiness in which the character Ka is embedded.
...more

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