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2 of 3 members found this review helpful.If you would enjoy intrigues between 16C Turkish miniaturists, then...
“this is a book for you.
An amazon user wrote this on 2009-09-01.
Pamuk accomplishes a stunningly complex historical novel, the best that the genre can offer. With this story, you enter a world fundamentally different from the present day, in which the concerns and world view of the characters are slowly revealed. While there are some constants, such as the search for true love, miniaturists in 16C Turkey are part of a tradition almost totally alien from art today. That Pamuk can weave their very consciousness into a complex mystery novel is truly astonishing. There are many levels that fascinate.
First, of course, there is a murder mystery. As the narrative from various points of view unfolds, clues and many false paths are left for the reader to piece together. It is a dazzlingly elegant labyrinth that kept my mystified to the very last chapters.
Second, there is a man and woman bound by family and seeking fulfillment in love. In thrall to Islamic and Turkish tradition, they perform a long mating dance. If is beautiful, taut with emotion, and as suspenseful as the murder itself.
Third, the time period is at the close of the Ottoman Turks' golden age, when the dynamics behind the expansion of the empire are giving way to a far more conservative society, one that will seek to preserve rather than create, becoming famously decadent over the next 400 years of decline. This turning point is wonderfully and subtly evoked, obliquely and by inference. You also get a feel for the other empires and princes nearby.
Fourth, the reader is introduced to the Islamic tradition of figurative art. As idolatry was forbidden by the Koran, the portrayal of images (rather than exclusively geometric designs) was a risky business. This too is wonderfully evoked and explained. While extremely esoteric, it was not art for the masses, but rather at the behest of the Sultan himself, who would keep the works in a forbidden vault for himself and a few others or sent them as diplomatic gifts. Needless to say, it is opposed by fanatic zealots, who believe that images are a sin against Allah and their absence is the reason that Islamic armies had been beating Western infidels over the last 1000 years.
Fifth, with the invention of perspective in painting during the Renaissance, world art is entering a revolutionary phase: reality is coming to be observed and reproduced in a far more accurate way, which opened the doors to the development of verifiable scientific observation. Rather than allegorical renderings reflecting a neo-platonic ideal in the mind (or as many believed in God's mind), the goal was becoming the accurate portrayal of living subjects. Of course, this shift is controversial and is seen by the ancient masters as a betrayal of their teachings, which they violently protected. Venice, the empire's great rival, is held out as the exemplar of this approach.
Sixth, you get a view into an elite of the period, the miniaturists. How they were trained, what they thought, and how they managed their careers are at the heart of the plot. It is great fun and offers an intimate window into Ottoman society. Their reasoning and concerns - bizarre to the Western reader, resulting in self-mutilation (blinding) and other unfathomable behaviors - are vividly alive and wholly believable. Only a novel can do this about another time.
I was utterly spellbound by this story from page 1. Admittedly, it is rather recondite, but the rewards of a close read are truly worth the effort. This is the best novel by Pamuk I have so far read.
Recommended with the greatest enthusiasm. ” -
0 of 2 members found this review helpful.
good but long! boring on occasions
“The story events are of 1591 during the reign of Ottoman Sultan Murat III in Istanbul,Turkey..
An amazon user wrote this on 2009-08-06.
The first chapter was of interesting subject in which the soul of a murdered artist is narrating the main mystery of the book; " I am nothing but a corpse now,a body at the bottom of a well. Though I drew my last breath long ago and my heart has stopped beating, no one,apart from that vile murderer, knows what happened to me."
The Sultan ordered Istanbul's masters of art to draw a book in which to show the power and prosperity of Islam to his neighbors; the" Franks", who were in the surge of the art Renaissance revolution; However,this is to be done secretly to avoid the anger that might be aroused among the islamic conservatives who consider art nothing more than "Heresy and Evil".
As a result of doubt, conflict of beliefs and greed; the aforementioned artist will be murdered by this mysterious " I will be called a murderer" who is one of the artists themselves.
At the end and by the secret of art and the distinctive style of drawing; the murderer will be caught but the bitter reality also is revealed:
-There is a huge gap between the eastern and the western cultures
- Religion controls everything and
-Love will keep almost every character going in the tough times but does love really exist?
I thought the story was good, Its stream of consciousness writing technique and multiple narrators by different people similar to Faulkner in "as I lay dying" , was magical on occasions;However, there were many short stories in each chapter similar to Arabian Nights but this felt,in my opinion, so repetitive and boring especially when you advanse further in the book.
Also the Sex and love part was pretty much dull and primitive with no life what so ever; as another reviewer describes of "high school quality", especially in the last chapter when oral Sex sounded the only thing that cured severly injured Black !” -
0 of 1 members found this review helpful.
Enjoyed it
“I really enjoyed this book with 3 caveats;
An amazon user wrote this on 2009-08-02.
1) too long
2) Repetitive
3) Confusing in parts” -
1 of 2 members found this review helpful.
My Name is Red
“The narrative in this book shifts from person to person to objects and back again. It is not easy at first to follow all the shifts. The focus on Art is very interesting, as well there are some glimpses of life in the time of the Ottomans. The murderer is very easy to spot, but that makes sense in a story about the importance of perception and vision.”
An amazon user wrote this on 2009-05-04. -
1 of 1 members found this review helpful.
the transition between the medieval and renaissance ways of thinking
“Somewhere in the 16th and 17th centuries, western society made the transition between the medieval mindset where it's all about how God or the king or the chieftain sees the world to the renaissance where man begins to perceive of himself as an individual. And ground zero for this were the renaissance artists and how art changed, the jump-cut from Giotto to Michelangelo. This book does an excellent job of expressing the tension in Turkey that was an eastern society bordering the west and how the success of renaissance art would have impacted the art and society of the Ottoman empire. Even in the telling of their story, it's done as a Greek choir of voices, but everyone is expressing it as an individual, from their perspective on the ground and defending their justifications for their actions. It is no coincidence that every chapter title contains the word, "I".
An amazon user wrote this on 2009-04-12.
It's a good story, a murder mystery, with settings and place and dynamics between the characters that were really fresh and interesting.”
