Bright Young Things discussion

BYT 2014 Reading Challenge: World War 1 Centenary


2014 will mark 100 years since the start of the First World War. Here at BYT we plan to mark the war and its consequences by reading 12 books that should give anyone who reads them a better understanding of the First World War.

The First World War was a turning point in world history. It claimed the lives of over 16 million people across the globe and had a huge impact on those who experienced it. The war and its consequences shaped much of the twentieth century, and the impact of it can still be felt today.

The BYT 2014 Reading Challenge will be our way of helping to remember those who lived, fought and served during the years 1914-18.

There's a thread for each of the 12 books.

Welcome to the thread for...



Portrait of a Turkish Family by Irfan Orga
(Category: Home Front Central Powers)

You can read the books in any order. Whilst you're reading them, or after you've finished, come and share your thoughts and feelings, ask questions, and generally get involved. The more we all participate, the richer and more fulfilling the discussions will be for us all. Here's to a stimulating, informative, and enjoyable BYT 2014 Reading Challenge.

I've just started reading...


Portrait of a Turkish Family by Irfan Orga

...and although only a few pages in, I have a very good feeling about it. This feels like a very well written book.

I've finished this book now. It's a very pleasing book and full of interesting insights, though perhaps not so directly revealing about WW1. Here's my review...

Originally published in 1950, Portrait of a Turkish Family is a memoir by Irfan Orga (October 31, 1908 – November 29,1970) that describes the story of his life from early childhood, in Istanbul in the early 1900s, up until World War 2.

A delightful opening starts with a description of a happy and prosperous childhood as part of a wealthy Ottoman family. Things start to change following the death of Irfan Orga's grandfather and the family's fortunes take a turn for the worse. Shortly afterwards war is declared and things get progressively worse before they start to gradually improve.

Portrait of a Turkish Family is beautifully written, and a quick and easy read. The book is full of interesting details and it gave me new insights into the daily life of families during the end of the Ottoman empire, and beyond into the new Turkey.

The Afterword, by Irfan Orga's son Ates Orga, contains information on the next two decades of Irfan Orga life.

A very interesting and moving memoir - perhaps not as directly relevant to WW1 as most of our choices but, still a portrait of a family irrevocably changed by the conflict.

3/5

Great news Val - I am very interested to know what you, and other BYTers, make of this book.

I have started it and so far it is very good.
I am reading about the privileged lifestyle the family were living before the war. The Event of granny going to the haram is illuminating about the social conventions and the family's position and it also made me smile.

^ One of my favourite parts. She was some matriarch eh? I was amazed that the women would report back to prospective husbands on the bodies of the younger single women, and that girls were married off at such a young age.

I have now read about the changes in their lives in wartime. I don't think the author gives his mother enough credit for coping the best she could and steeling herself to make difficult decisions. I think she is very brave and remarkably resourceful, given her background and expected role in life. Granny also copes with the situation better than might have been expected, but nowhere near as well as Mother.

I gave this book four stars, but it ought to be three and a half. The last third of the book, his military schooling and career after the war, is not as enjoyable as the story of his childhood.

^ I completely agree. Val. Overall though, well worth reading. And, given that he was not a native English speaker, very elegantly written. I think his wife helped him with this.

Nigeyb wrote: "^ I completely agree. Val. Overall though, well worth reading. And, given that he was not a native English speaker, very elegantly written. I think his wife helped him with this."
She probably did help him to express himself in elegant English, although he could apparently read and write it much better than he spoke it.

I've just started reading this, and am enjoying it so far - must agree that the visit to the Turkish baths with Grandma is fantastic, though I do wonder if a five-year-old could really have taken it all in and remembered it quite so vividly!

I wanted to find out more about hamams, and have found an interesting site about them including pictures of the architecture and some paintings of people at the baths:

http://www.turkishhammams.com/

^ Splendid.

Thanks for your initial thoughts Judy. I'm off to look at your link now.

Thanks, Nigeyb. I was interested to see that the edition I'm reading has a quote from Harold Nicolson on the cover saying "I hope that many people will read this book". I recently picked up a novel by him called Sweet Waters: An Istanbul Thriller which was first published in 1921 and is set in Old Istanbul during the last years of the Ottoman Empire. I think this will be interesting for me to read after Portrait of a Turkish Family.



I did read the brief introduction to Nicolson's book, and was interested to see that he was a diplomat in Istanbul during 1912-14, and that Turkey was involved in the Balkan Wars for a lot of that time. I didn't realise from the start of Ortega's book that Turkey had already been involved in wars over the last couple of years - but I suppose that was why the father and uncle knew so immediately what another war would bring.

^ Very interesting. Thanks. I'll investigate the Nicolson book.

I've now read up to the end of the war, and am finding it a very powerful read. It's heart-rending to see how everything falls away from them until the children are literally starving. I'd never realised that people in Turkey lived and died like this during the First World War - this must be one of the greatest accounts of suffering on the home front.

I now find it more believable that the memories of those happy times at the start are so vivid, because the author must have clung to those memories and played them over and over in his mind when everything around him was so bleak.

There's one phrase that has stuck in my mind, at the end of the happy part of the childhood:

"I did not know of the long years of poverty ahead or that one day this I, this happy boy, would eat the grass because he was hungry."

I feel he is sympathetic to his mother and grandmother as he looks back, but also showing how their decisions seemed to him as a child.

Now on to the military school.

I've now finished this and found it a very moving, compelling book - I was impressed by the power of the writing and also by how the author criticised himself as well as the others in his family. I agree that the childhood section was more powerful than the account of his later life, but it was still interesting to learn what happened later, and the afterword by Irfan's son was also very poignant - so sad to learn that he faced poverty and hunger all over again in 1950s London.

After months and months of waiting this book has finally arrived at my library and I've started (I ordered it through the interloan service back in May and when I chased it up was informed there were only 5 in the country, despite it being quite popular!)

I've read only 3 chapters, about Irfan's young life before the outbreak of the war. So far it's a nice absorbing and atmospheric read, so hopefully it will be worth the long wait.

^ Great news - I look forward to finding out what you make of it

I'm 1/3 done now. I agree with Judy's comments above - I'm not sure how memorable some of these events would have been to a 5/6 year old and wonder if they were constructed from facts later learnt, rather than childhood memories.

The Grandmother is quite a character, fascinating really. I'm at the point where the war has started, Father and uncle have gone away, Grandma re-married and new sister has just been born. There have been upheavals with a house move, family members being separated and food becoming scarce, though the effects of war still seem quite remote.

Finished! A really good and interesting book overall. I preferred reading about the earlier parts of his life, but agree with Judy that the later chapters and afterword had their own poignancy.

Also, I assumed this book had been translated and didn't know it was written by Irfan in English until his son mentioned this in the prologue. He had a pretty amazing command of the english language, especially as his spoken english at the time was quite poor.