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The New Life
A parable about love, literature and fanaticism. A young university student becomes obsessed with a magical book that delves into the dangerous natures of love and self. Abandoning his studies and his family, he goes with the beautiful Janan on a search for the meaning of the book's darker secrets.
296 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1994
About the author
Orhan Pamuk
112 books10.1k followersFerit Orhan Pamuk is a Turkish novelist, screenwriter, academic, and recipient of the 2006 Nobel Prize in Literature. One of Turkey's most prominent novelists, he has sold over 13 million books in 63 languages, making him the country's best-selling writer.
Pamuk's novels include Silent House, The White Castle, The Black Book, The New Life, My Name Is Red and Snow. He is the Robert Yik-Fong Tam Professor in the Humanities at Columbia University, where he teaches writing and comparative literature. He was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 2018.
Of partial Circassian descent and born in Istanbul, Pamuk is the first Turkish Nobel laureate. He is also the recipient of numerous other literary awards. My Name Is Red won the 2002 Prix du Meilleur Livre Étranger, 2002 Premio Grinzane Cavour and 2003 International Dublin Literary Award.
The European Writers' Parliament came about as a result of a joint proposal by Pamuk and José Saramago. Pamuk's willingness to write books about contentious historical and political events put him at risk of censure in his homeland. In 2005, a lawyer sued him over a statement acknowledging the Armenian genocide in the Ottoman Empire. Pamuk said his intention had been to highlight issues of freedom of speech in Turkey. The court initially declined to hear the case, but in 2011 Pamuk was ordered to pay 6,000 liras in compensation for having insulted the plaintiffs' honor.
Pamuk's novels include Silent House, The White Castle, The Black Book, The New Life, My Name Is Red and Snow. He is the Robert Yik-Fong Tam Professor in the Humanities at Columbia University, where he teaches writing and comparative literature. He was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 2018.
Of partial Circassian descent and born in Istanbul, Pamuk is the first Turkish Nobel laureate. He is also the recipient of numerous other literary awards. My Name Is Red won the 2002 Prix du Meilleur Livre Étranger, 2002 Premio Grinzane Cavour and 2003 International Dublin Literary Award.
The European Writers' Parliament came about as a result of a joint proposal by Pamuk and José Saramago. Pamuk's willingness to write books about contentious historical and political events put him at risk of censure in his homeland. In 2005, a lawyer sued him over a statement acknowledging the Armenian genocide in the Ottoman Empire. Pamuk said his intention had been to highlight issues of freedom of speech in Turkey. The court initially declined to hear the case, but in 2011 Pamuk was ordered to pay 6,000 liras in compensation for having insulted the plaintiffs' honor.
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January 8, 2022
Yeni Hayat = The New Life, Orhan Pamuk
The protagonist, Osman, first notices the book in the university canteen when a female student, Janan, sets a copy down for a moment on his table. He later buys his own copy at a bookstall and is so thrilled by this novel that he sets off in search of the new life it promises.
Janan introduces Osman to her lover Mehmet who had also read the book and been to the world it describes. Osman, who at this point is enchanted by Janan, witnesses Mehmet gunned down at a bus stop, but the injured man mysteriously disappears and can't be traced at any hospital.
The two embark on surreal bus journeys in search of Mehmet. One of the buses has a road accident which results in fatalities, however, they emerge alive, expropriating wallets and identities of two dead passengers. They continue the journey and encounter Dr. Fine, Mehmet's father.
Spoilers alert
It turns out that he had sent spies to keep watch on his rebellious son and to murder other readers of the book. Janan herself vanishes and Osman goes on more surreal and violent bus journeys. It later appears that a deceased friend of Osman's father, Uncle Rifki, may actually be the author of the book.
تاریخ نخستین خوانش: روز شانزدهم ماه نوامبر سال2002میلادی
عنوان: زندگی نو؛ نویسنده: اورهان پاموک؛ مترجم: ارسلان فصیحی؛ مشخصات نشر: تهران، ققنوس، سال1381؛ در344ص، شابک9643112551؛ چاپ سوم سال1386، موضوع: داستانهای نویسندگان ترکیه - سده20م
روزی کتابی خواندم و کل زندگیم عوض شد؛ کتاب نه فقط بر روحم، بلکه بر همه چیزهایی که مرا برساخته بودند، تاثیر میگذاشت (ص هفت) از متن کتاب
داستان، تاثرات مرد جوانی است، که پس از خوانش کتاب «زندگی نو»، در پی افسونی خیالی، برای آنکه آدمی نو شود (آدمی از آن دو دنیا)، در پی یافتن دختری به نام «جانان»، که بانی آشنایی اش با کتابی شده، که مسیر زندگیش را دیگر کرده؛ گذشته ی خویش را ترک میکند، و راهی سفر میشود؛ «پاموک»، در رمان «زندگی نو»، با ژانر پست مدرن، با استفاده از ترکیب زاویه دید اول شخص، و سوم شخص، به مواردی همچون زندگی نو، در برابر زندگی کهنه، و قدیمی؛ واقعیتها و عینیتها، رودرروی تخیل، و ذهنیتها؛ پختگی و تجربه، در برابر بی تجربگی، و خامی جوانی؛ سنت در مقابل مدرنیته، فرهنگ غرب، در برابر فرهنگ شرق؛ میپردازند؛ ایشان از مسائلی همچون عشق، مرگ، هستی، تصادف، و مشکلات انسان شرقی، در عصر بحران زده، و نیز از خوشبختیهای نامحسوس سخن میگویند
نقل از ص بیست و دوم از متن: در پی خواندن کتاب، خود را در حال گردش در سرزمینی یافتم که از نور ساخته شده
نقل از ص شصت و نهم از متن: میدانم که شما هم در پی زمان بی وزنی هستید، نه آنجا، نه اینجا، اما کسی دیگر شدن و در باغچه آرام بین دو دنیا ...؛
نقل از ص نود و پنجم متن: این را هم فهمیده ام که برای آنکه آدمی نو بشود باید گذشته را به کلی ترک کند
نقل ص یکصد و هفده متن: چون یک کتاب خوانده بودم، کل دنیایم را گم کرده بودم، برای پیدا کردن دنیای نو، توی راه ها سرگردان شده بودم
از ص یکصد و چهل و پنج متن: اگر دیدن بچه ی یکی از محله های فقیرنشین استانبول، که همانقدر سریع ششلول میکشد که «بیل کید» و همانقدر درستکار است که «تام میکس»، هیجان زده تان میکند، پس منتظر ماجراهای بعدی هم باشید
از ص یکصد و پنجاه و یک متن: وقتی تمدنهای بزرگ سقوط میکنند و حافظه ها از بین میروند، نخستین کسانی که فاسد میشوند بچه ها هستند. آنها چیزهای قدیمی را سریعتر و راحتتر فراموش میکنند و چیزهای نو را آسانتر میپذیرند
تاریخ بهنگام رسانی 20/12/1399هجری خورشیدی؛ 17/10/1400هجری خورشیدی؛ ا. شربیانی
The protagonist, Osman, first notices the book in the university canteen when a female student, Janan, sets a copy down for a moment on his table. He later buys his own copy at a bookstall and is so thrilled by this novel that he sets off in search of the new life it promises.
Janan introduces Osman to her lover Mehmet who had also read the book and been to the world it describes. Osman, who at this point is enchanted by Janan, witnesses Mehmet gunned down at a bus stop, but the injured man mysteriously disappears and can't be traced at any hospital.
The two embark on surreal bus journeys in search of Mehmet. One of the buses has a road accident which results in fatalities, however, they emerge alive, expropriating wallets and identities of two dead passengers. They continue the journey and encounter Dr. Fine, Mehmet's father.
Spoilers alert
It turns out that he had sent spies to keep watch on his rebellious son and to murder other readers of the book. Janan herself vanishes and Osman goes on more surreal and violent bus journeys. It later appears that a deceased friend of Osman's father, Uncle Rifki, may actually be the author of the book.
تاریخ نخستین خوانش: روز شانزدهم ماه نوامبر سال2002میلادی
عنوان: زندگی نو؛ نویسنده: اورهان پاموک؛ مترجم: ارسلان فصیحی؛ مشخصات نشر: تهران، ققنوس، سال1381؛ در344ص، شابک9643112551؛ چاپ سوم سال1386، موضوع: داستانهای نویسندگان ترکیه - سده20م
روزی کتابی خواندم و کل زندگیم عوض شد؛ کتاب نه فقط بر روحم، بلکه بر همه چیزهایی که مرا برساخته بودند، تاثیر میگذاشت (ص هفت) از متن کتاب
داستان، تاثرات مرد جوانی است، که پس از خوانش کتاب «زندگی نو»، در پی افسونی خیالی، برای آنکه آدمی نو شود (آدمی از آن دو دنیا)، در پی یافتن دختری به نام «جانان»، که بانی آشنایی اش با کتابی شده، که مسیر زندگیش را دیگر کرده؛ گذشته ی خویش را ترک میکند، و راهی سفر میشود؛ «پاموک»، در رمان «زندگی نو»، با ژانر پست مدرن، با استفاده از ترکیب زاویه دید اول شخص، و سوم شخص، به مواردی همچون زندگی نو، در برابر زندگی کهنه، و قدیمی؛ واقعیتها و عینیتها، رودرروی تخیل، و ذهنیتها؛ پختگی و تجربه، در برابر بی تجربگی، و خامی جوانی؛ سنت در مقابل مدرنیته، فرهنگ غرب، در برابر فرهنگ شرق؛ میپردازند؛ ایشان از مسائلی همچون عشق، مرگ، هستی، تصادف، و مشکلات انسان شرقی، در عصر بحران زده، و نیز از خوشبختیهای نامحسوس سخن میگویند
نقل از ص بیست و دوم از متن: در پی خواندن کتاب، خود را در حال گردش در سرزمینی یافتم که از نور ساخته شده
نقل از ص شصت و نهم از متن: میدانم که شما هم در پی زمان بی وزنی هستید، نه آنجا، نه اینجا، اما کسی دیگر شدن و در باغچه آرام بین دو دنیا ...؛
نقل از ص نود و پنجم متن: این را هم فهمیده ام که برای آنکه آدمی نو بشود باید گذشته را به کلی ترک کند
نقل ص یکصد و هفده متن: چون یک کتاب خوانده بودم، کل دنیایم را گم کرده بودم، برای پیدا کردن دنیای نو، توی راه ها سرگردان شده بودم
از ص یکصد و چهل و پنج متن: اگر دیدن بچه ی یکی از محله های فقیرنشین استانبول، که همانقدر سریع ششلول میکشد که «بیل کید» و همانقدر درستکار است که «تام میکس»، هیجان زده تان میکند، پس منتظر ماجراهای بعدی هم باشید
از ص یکصد و پنجاه و یک متن: وقتی تمدنهای بزرگ سقوط میکنند و حافظه ها از بین میروند، نخستین کسانی که فاسد میشوند بچه ها هستند. آنها چیزهای قدیمی را سریعتر و راحتتر فراموش میکنند و چیزهای نو را آسانتر میپذیرند
تاریخ بهنگام رسانی 20/12/1399هجری خورشیدی؛ 17/10/1400هجری خورشیدی؛ ا. شربیانی
March 12, 2013
Blood on the Tracks
Every one of us is a potential criminal, a potential killer, a potential murderer.
The question is: what circumstances would justify the crime, what situation would warrant us murdering someone?
If someone attacked one of our children, would we attack the assailant? If we went to war, would we kill for our country?
If the past was at war with the future, would we kill for the sake of the past, or would we kill for the sake of the future?
Well, the past is always at war with the future, so what are we going to do?
Will we kill, or will we sit back and wait for the war to end?
How can a war between the past and the future ever end?
How can we not kill?
Is Nature at war with Modernity? Is Realism at war with Modernism? Are Realism and Modernism at war with Post-Modernism?
Would you kill for Post-Modernism?
Regardless, come inside.
Up Against the Wall
I struggled with this novel for almost a half of its length. Perhaps a less patient or persistent reader would have thrown the book against the wall.
However, if I had done so, I would have missed out on one of the greatest reading experiences I have ever had.
Everything I read about the novel in advance, not much apart from the blurb, suggested that it was a post-modernist work. However, this did not reconcile with the words in front of me.
Initially, it came across as a jumble of very realist descriptions and lists and highly abstract concepts, occasionally in alternating paragraphs.
The narrative seemed to hop up and down on one foot, before passing arbitrarily to the other, for a while, and then back again.
A Life of Crime
I read on, puzzled, then finally I started to realise that I might now have all of the pieces, at which point a picture started to assemble in front of me.
I had done a lot of the work, but the author had placed the pieces there for me, like clues.
Turkish author Orhan Pamuk worked like a criminal, leaving enough clues for me to find, so that I could eventually identify the culprit myself.
"The New Life" might be metaphysical, it might be meta-fiction, but it also has many of the qualities of crime fiction.
Around chapter 13, it all came together, after which it was a roller-coaster ride. The last 100 pages just blew me away.
Skimming through my notes in order to compose this review, I realised just how subtle and widespread were the clues.
If you can be bothered to read the book once, I’m sure it will repay a second reading.
For a long time I questioned whether this was a minor work by a Nobel Prize Winner, alternatively did he really deserve the Prize?
Having finished, I feel this novel is a major achievement, regardless of where it stands in his ouvre.
"I Read a Book One Day"
The first paragraph announces the novel’s intentions:
"I read a book one day and my whole life was changed…It was such a powerful influence that the light surging from the pages illumined my face; its incandescence dazzled my intellect but also endowed it with a brilliant lucidity.
"This was the kind of light within which I could recast myself; I could lose my way in this light; I already sensed in the light the shadows of an existence I had yet to know and embrace…
"It was with dread that I became aware of the complete transformation of the world around me, and I was overtaken by a feeling of loneliness I had never before experienced – as if I had been stranded in a country where I knew neither the lay of the land nor the language and the customs."
Within 24 hours, the narrator, a 22 year old engineering student (whom I won’t name), has fallen in love and is seeking out the truth of the book, the “meaning of life” and therefore a "new life":
"Love was every bit as devastating as the light that surged from the book into my face, proving to me how substantially my life had already gone off the track."
Enlightened Guidance
At first, I suspected that the book must have been a political tract like “The Communist Manifesto” or a religious Holy Book or a counter-cultural tome like those that proliferated in the 60’s and occasionally more recently ("Eat, Pray, Rebel").
However, Pamuk doesn’t reveal much about the contents of the book, even its name comes late in the novel, if it can be believed.
Instead, we learn about it by its effect on its readers. They become converts, though because of its nature, they are secretive. They disengage from mainstream life.
From the outside, they appear to be radicalized and subversive. Conservative political and religious groups feel threatened and start to attack back, one ultra-right group even killing a number of readers. They track down those who are "off track".
In just a few pages, we are plunged into a metaphysical battleground, although absent detail of the rival belief systems, it’s hard to determine who is Good and who is Evil.
Perhaps this is the way it’s meant to be. Perhaps this is the way it always is.
How are we to know who to side with? Perhaps we shouldn’t side with any side? Perhaps both sides are equally culpable?
And so we read on...
On the Road, In a Bus
The narrator and his friend, Janan (Arabic for "heart" or "soul" or "soul mate"), embark on a spiritual journey or odyssey through the Turkish countryside.
Their quest takes them on the road, off the beaten track, away from urbanized Istanbul.
They spend months travelling by public bus, trying to find the other realm hinted at in the book.
Roads join different people and parts of the country.
The bus is a symbol and vehicle of modernity and modernism that drives us toward our destination, our destiny, the future.
We start our journey from home, but as soon as we depart, our home is in the past. We are cut off from our former lives, we are cast loose. The bus cannot take us back home into the past, it can only take us inexorably toward a collision with the future. Just as we seek out spiritual integrity, things start to disintegrate. We fall apart.
Nature Versus Television
So the quest makes us witness to the battle between conservative, unpretentious, rural Turkey’s Islamic tradition and the apparent way of the future, the rapid and pervasive influence of Westernised commercial culture.
Rural Turkey is symbolized by Nature in the form of almond, chestnut, walnut and mulberry trees.
In contrast, the West pervades Turkey through television, radio, movies, advertising; even railway travel is viewed as an unwelcome, external, alien influence that detracts from tradition.
"If today in this town… the virtue of living an ascetic life is considered shameful...it’s because of the stuff brought in from America by that mailman, the buses, and the television sets in the coffeehouses."
The Other Side
The narrator meets Mehmet, a former lover of Janan, who has also read the book, but turned his back on its message about a brand new world:
"World shmorld...it doesn’t exist. Think of it as tomfoolery perpetrated on children by an old sap. The old man thought he’d write a book to entertain adults the same way he did children...
"...if you believe it, your life is lost...
"Believe me, at the end there is nothing but death. They kill without mercy…There is nothing to pursue to the end…just a book. Someone sat down and wrote it. A dream. There is nothing else for you to do, aside from reading and rereading it."
Illumination
Can it be true that, in our search for enlightenment, we might only find darkness and despair? Isn’t the path to wisdom and contentment illuminated?
Can we find our own way out of our predicament? If we get lost, how will we be found? Who will find us?
Does this dilemma only apply to adolescents and young adults? 22 year olds like the target audience of Japanese author, Haruki Murakami?
Perhaps not:
"We are not here to represent youth...but to represent new life."
Can an entire nation like Turkey find itself in this predicament?
Especially at a time in Turkey’s history when it wishes to become a member of the European Union?
Ironically, while everyone is skeptical about advertising, posters proclaim:
"Happiness is being a Turk."
Who are we to believe?
A Labyrinth of Reflections
By this point, the novel appears to have abandoned any pretense to unadulterated realism.
It has more in common with the Magic Realism of South America, not to mention the dream-like aspects of Franz Kafka’s "The Castle" and Mikhael Bulgakov’s "The Master and Margarita".
Bit by bit, we are forced to contemplate, suspect, negotiate and reconcile truth, reality, spirituality, imagination, coincidence, memory, beauty, love, happiness, death and terror.
Love provides some solace:
"Love is the urgency to hold fast to another and to be together in the same place. It’s the desire to keep the world out by embracing another. It is the yearning to find a safe harbour for the human soul.
"The only piece of heaven I was sure of was the bed where I was lying next to Janan."
Still, as we reflect, we are surrounded and confused and trapped by a labyrinth of our own reflections.
We can’t even safely look at our own image in a mirror. We are afraid of what we might see or learn there. We can’t even trust love.
Check Mate
The novel highlights the clash of cultures between Islam and Western-style Capitalism.
While Pamuk writes about it in a strident manner, he does so through the mouths of his characters.
It’s hard to tell whether Pamuk personally is anti-West or at least regrets the impact the West has had on Turkey’s heritage and culture.
"The West has swallowed us up, trampled on us in passing. They have invaded us down to our soup, our candy, our underpants; they have finished us off..."
"We have no desire to live in Istanbul, nor in Paris or New York. Let them have their discos and dollars, their skyscrapers, and supersonic transports. Let them have their radio and their colour TV."
Yet, Pamuk doesn’t just defend, he counter-attacks.
He highlights how much impact Islamic culture has had on the West.
For example, Pamuk reminds us that the chess term "checkmate" comes from the Arabic "shah mat"
("the king died").
The word "caramel" (which relates to a subplot of the novel) also derives from the Arabic words "kara" or "cara", which means "dark".
Nobelesse Oblige
Should Western readers feel personally challenged or threatened by these claims and attacks?
I don’t think so. We are subject to the same forces of Capitalism in the West.
In every neighbourhood in every city or rural area in the Western world, Consumer Capitalism ("the Dealers’ Conspiracy") has bought up or destroyed local products and brands, all in the name of efficiency and global recognition, but at the expense of local character.
It’s just that Capitalism treats the Third World worse than its own backyard.
Pamuk resonates, because he criticizes what many of us in the West have grown to accommodate.
He is brave, when we are complacent.
Perhaps this is why he was awarded the Nobel Prize?
Mehmet-a-Fiction
I originally questioned how appropriate it was to describe "The New Life" as Post-Modern.
However, the further it progresses, the more it becomes self-referential.
The narrator addresses not just "the Angel", but the Reader, us.
He even calls into question whether the narrator might be an unreliable narrator (in a scene that reminded me of the Magic Theatre scene in Herman Hesse's "Steppenwolf"):
"So, Reader, place your faith neither in a character like me, who is not all that sensitive, nor in my anguish and the violence of the story I have to tell; but believe that the world is a cruel place."
Most importantly, Pamuk questions whether the novel is a tradition of the West that cannot be replicated in Turkey or what the West calls "the Middle East":
"Besides, this newfangled plaything called the novel, which is the greatest invention of Western culture, is none of our culture’s business...
"I have still not quite figured out how to inhabit this foreign toy."
By Machinist or By Hand?
Pamuk uses the character Doctor Fine to question Literature:
"Considering that the pawns and tools of the Great Conspiracy assail us, either knowingly or unknowingly, through books and literature…we ought to take precautions against printed matter…The culprit is not only that particular book, the book that snared my son, but all the books that have been printed by printing presses; they are all enemies of the annals of our time, our former existence.
"He was not against literature that was scripted by hand, which was an integral part of the hand holding the pen…the books Doctor Fine opposed were those that had lost their glow, clarity, and truth but pretended to be glowing, clear, and true. These were the books that promised us the serenity and enchantment of paradise within the limitations set by the world..."
The irony is that, whatever the view of Literature, all of the views conveyed in Pamuk’s novel itself operate within Western literary traditions, well at least, within the tradition of Post-Modernism.
Finally, within the framework of Post-Modernism, there is the dual interest in the fracture of life, perception and time:
"Life is so fractured…TV abounded in gunshots, passionate lovemaking, shouts and screams, planes falling out of the sky, exploding gas tankers, all sending the message. No matter what, things must be smashed and broken."
At the same time, the author and the reader are both concerned to reverse the fracture, by way of integration of the material in front of them:
"I discerned encoded whisperings between texts from which I could detect their secrets; and putting these secrets in order, I constructed connections between them..."
The Bus Timetable
Any transport system must define three things: our destination, the intervening stops and the timetable.
Any journey or quest must comply with the same rules, even a spiritual one:
"My restless soul which did not know respite was struggling to get somewhere or other, like some bus driver who had forgotten his destination."
Without a destination, how else can we define our journey?
However, Pamuk also emphasises the difference in approach of West and Middle East:
"Our timetables and timepieces are our vehicles to reach God, not the means of rushing to keep up with the world as they are in the West...
"Timepieces are the only products of theirs that have been acceptable to our souls. That is why clocks are the only things other than guns that cannot be classified as foreign or domestic.
"For us there are two venues that lead to God. Armaments are the vehicles of Jihad; timepieces are the vehicles for prayer...
"Everyone knows that the greatest enemy of the timetable for prayers is the timetable for trains."
Speak, Memory
There is much that I cannot discuss, because of a concern about spoilers, not so much factual spoilers, but thematic spoilers, given the manner in which Pamuk skillfully lays out his metaphysical tale.
However, like Proust (and Nabokov) before him, Pamuk is concerned with the concepts of time and memory:
"I was about to discover the single element common to all existence, love, life, and time..."
There is only one life, this one.
There is only one "new life", that is, any life that there might be after death.
There is only the present, the past does not exist, except in our memory.
There is no paradise on Earth other than what we create ourselves.
We must make do with this one life.
Transcendence
Love and life are attempts to transcend time. They seek eternity, of love, of pleasure, of happiness, of fulfillment.
However, the paradox is that, when time stops, the journey ceases and the destination confronts us:
"We had embarked on this journey to escape time.
"This was the reason we were in constant motion, looking for the moment when time stood still. Which was the unique moment of fulfillment. When we got close to it, we could sense the time of departure...
"The beginning and the end of the journey was wherever we happened to be. He was right: the road and all the dark rooms were rife with killers carrying guns. Death seeped into life through the book, through books."
Fractious Time
Time is not infinite. It is finite. Or our share of it is finite. We are mortal and our life is finite. Life must end, either by design or by accident:
"What is time? An accident! What is life? Time! What is accident? A life, a new life!"
So, ultimately, accidents, fractures in time and intention, are fundamental to the narrative drive of "The New Life":
"So that was life; there was accident, there was luck, there was love, there was loneliness; there was joy; there was sorrow; there was light, death, also happiness that was dimly there."
Ultimately, Pamuk, through an Earth-bound Angel of Desire, urges patience, counsels that we take our time:
"Your hour of happiness will also strike...Do not become impatient, do not be cross with your life, cease and desist envying others! If you learn to love your life, you will know the course of action you are to take for your happiness."
Accidentalism
Contrary to Western belief, life is not solely defined and governed by intention, deliberation and purposiveness, it must accommodate the accidental, both fate and fortune, both the unplanned and the unexpected.
In a way, Pamuk is reassuring the Middle East (as we call Turkey and its surrounds) that the best way to protect yourself against the Occidental is to embrace the Accidental.
Extremely Spoilerish Postscript
It is continuing to frustrate me that I was unable to discuss some major themes of the novel, for fear of offending the Spoiler-Sensitive.
While they are fresh in my mind, I will write down some brief notes.
Please do not read these notes if you have not read the book.
It is important to me that any reader experience the metaphysical journey that the book takes a reader on.
Every one of us is a potential criminal, a potential killer, a potential murderer.
The question is: what circumstances would justify the crime, what situation would warrant us murdering someone?
If someone attacked one of our children, would we attack the assailant? If we went to war, would we kill for our country?
If the past was at war with the future, would we kill for the sake of the past, or would we kill for the sake of the future?
Well, the past is always at war with the future, so what are we going to do?
Will we kill, or will we sit back and wait for the war to end?
How can a war between the past and the future ever end?
How can we not kill?
Is Nature at war with Modernity? Is Realism at war with Modernism? Are Realism and Modernism at war with Post-Modernism?
Would you kill for Post-Modernism?
Regardless, come inside.
Up Against the Wall
I struggled with this novel for almost a half of its length. Perhaps a less patient or persistent reader would have thrown the book against the wall.
However, if I had done so, I would have missed out on one of the greatest reading experiences I have ever had.
Everything I read about the novel in advance, not much apart from the blurb, suggested that it was a post-modernist work. However, this did not reconcile with the words in front of me.
Initially, it came across as a jumble of very realist descriptions and lists and highly abstract concepts, occasionally in alternating paragraphs.
The narrative seemed to hop up and down on one foot, before passing arbitrarily to the other, for a while, and then back again.
A Life of Crime
I read on, puzzled, then finally I started to realise that I might now have all of the pieces, at which point a picture started to assemble in front of me.
I had done a lot of the work, but the author had placed the pieces there for me, like clues.
Turkish author Orhan Pamuk worked like a criminal, leaving enough clues for me to find, so that I could eventually identify the culprit myself.
"The New Life" might be metaphysical, it might be meta-fiction, but it also has many of the qualities of crime fiction.
Around chapter 13, it all came together, after which it was a roller-coaster ride. The last 100 pages just blew me away.
Skimming through my notes in order to compose this review, I realised just how subtle and widespread were the clues.
If you can be bothered to read the book once, I’m sure it will repay a second reading.
For a long time I questioned whether this was a minor work by a Nobel Prize Winner, alternatively did he really deserve the Prize?
Having finished, I feel this novel is a major achievement, regardless of where it stands in his ouvre.
"I Read a Book One Day"
The first paragraph announces the novel’s intentions:
"I read a book one day and my whole life was changed…It was such a powerful influence that the light surging from the pages illumined my face; its incandescence dazzled my intellect but also endowed it with a brilliant lucidity.
"This was the kind of light within which I could recast myself; I could lose my way in this light; I already sensed in the light the shadows of an existence I had yet to know and embrace…
"It was with dread that I became aware of the complete transformation of the world around me, and I was overtaken by a feeling of loneliness I had never before experienced – as if I had been stranded in a country where I knew neither the lay of the land nor the language and the customs."
Within 24 hours, the narrator, a 22 year old engineering student (whom I won’t name), has fallen in love and is seeking out the truth of the book, the “meaning of life” and therefore a "new life":
"Love was every bit as devastating as the light that surged from the book into my face, proving to me how substantially my life had already gone off the track."
Enlightened Guidance
At first, I suspected that the book must have been a political tract like “The Communist Manifesto” or a religious Holy Book or a counter-cultural tome like those that proliferated in the 60’s and occasionally more recently ("Eat, Pray, Rebel").
However, Pamuk doesn’t reveal much about the contents of the book, even its name comes late in the novel, if it can be believed.
Instead, we learn about it by its effect on its readers. They become converts, though because of its nature, they are secretive. They disengage from mainstream life.
From the outside, they appear to be radicalized and subversive. Conservative political and religious groups feel threatened and start to attack back, one ultra-right group even killing a number of readers. They track down those who are "off track".
In just a few pages, we are plunged into a metaphysical battleground, although absent detail of the rival belief systems, it’s hard to determine who is Good and who is Evil.
Perhaps this is the way it’s meant to be. Perhaps this is the way it always is.
How are we to know who to side with? Perhaps we shouldn’t side with any side? Perhaps both sides are equally culpable?
And so we read on...
On the Road, In a Bus
The narrator and his friend, Janan (Arabic for "heart" or "soul" or "soul mate"), embark on a spiritual journey or odyssey through the Turkish countryside.
Their quest takes them on the road, off the beaten track, away from urbanized Istanbul.
They spend months travelling by public bus, trying to find the other realm hinted at in the book.
Roads join different people and parts of the country.
The bus is a symbol and vehicle of modernity and modernism that drives us toward our destination, our destiny, the future.
We start our journey from home, but as soon as we depart, our home is in the past. We are cut off from our former lives, we are cast loose. The bus cannot take us back home into the past, it can only take us inexorably toward a collision with the future. Just as we seek out spiritual integrity, things start to disintegrate. We fall apart.
Nature Versus Television
So the quest makes us witness to the battle between conservative, unpretentious, rural Turkey’s Islamic tradition and the apparent way of the future, the rapid and pervasive influence of Westernised commercial culture.
Rural Turkey is symbolized by Nature in the form of almond, chestnut, walnut and mulberry trees.
In contrast, the West pervades Turkey through television, radio, movies, advertising; even railway travel is viewed as an unwelcome, external, alien influence that detracts from tradition.
"If today in this town… the virtue of living an ascetic life is considered shameful...it’s because of the stuff brought in from America by that mailman, the buses, and the television sets in the coffeehouses."
The Other Side
The narrator meets Mehmet, a former lover of Janan, who has also read the book, but turned his back on its message about a brand new world:
"World shmorld...it doesn’t exist. Think of it as tomfoolery perpetrated on children by an old sap. The old man thought he’d write a book to entertain adults the same way he did children...
"...if you believe it, your life is lost...
"Believe me, at the end there is nothing but death. They kill without mercy…There is nothing to pursue to the end…just a book. Someone sat down and wrote it. A dream. There is nothing else for you to do, aside from reading and rereading it."
Illumination
Can it be true that, in our search for enlightenment, we might only find darkness and despair? Isn’t the path to wisdom and contentment illuminated?
Can we find our own way out of our predicament? If we get lost, how will we be found? Who will find us?
Does this dilemma only apply to adolescents and young adults? 22 year olds like the target audience of Japanese author, Haruki Murakami?
Perhaps not:
"We are not here to represent youth...but to represent new life."
Can an entire nation like Turkey find itself in this predicament?
Especially at a time in Turkey’s history when it wishes to become a member of the European Union?
Ironically, while everyone is skeptical about advertising, posters proclaim:
"Happiness is being a Turk."
Who are we to believe?
A Labyrinth of Reflections
By this point, the novel appears to have abandoned any pretense to unadulterated realism.
It has more in common with the Magic Realism of South America, not to mention the dream-like aspects of Franz Kafka’s "The Castle" and Mikhael Bulgakov’s "The Master and Margarita".
Bit by bit, we are forced to contemplate, suspect, negotiate and reconcile truth, reality, spirituality, imagination, coincidence, memory, beauty, love, happiness, death and terror.
Love provides some solace:
"Love is the urgency to hold fast to another and to be together in the same place. It’s the desire to keep the world out by embracing another. It is the yearning to find a safe harbour for the human soul.
"The only piece of heaven I was sure of was the bed where I was lying next to Janan."
Still, as we reflect, we are surrounded and confused and trapped by a labyrinth of our own reflections.
We can’t even safely look at our own image in a mirror. We are afraid of what we might see or learn there. We can’t even trust love.
Check Mate
The novel highlights the clash of cultures between Islam and Western-style Capitalism.
While Pamuk writes about it in a strident manner, he does so through the mouths of his characters.
It’s hard to tell whether Pamuk personally is anti-West or at least regrets the impact the West has had on Turkey’s heritage and culture.
"The West has swallowed us up, trampled on us in passing. They have invaded us down to our soup, our candy, our underpants; they have finished us off..."
"We have no desire to live in Istanbul, nor in Paris or New York. Let them have their discos and dollars, their skyscrapers, and supersonic transports. Let them have their radio and their colour TV."
Yet, Pamuk doesn’t just defend, he counter-attacks.
He highlights how much impact Islamic culture has had on the West.
For example, Pamuk reminds us that the chess term "checkmate" comes from the Arabic "shah mat"
("the king died").
The word "caramel" (which relates to a subplot of the novel) also derives from the Arabic words "kara" or "cara", which means "dark".
Nobelesse Oblige
Should Western readers feel personally challenged or threatened by these claims and attacks?
I don’t think so. We are subject to the same forces of Capitalism in the West.
In every neighbourhood in every city or rural area in the Western world, Consumer Capitalism ("the Dealers’ Conspiracy") has bought up or destroyed local products and brands, all in the name of efficiency and global recognition, but at the expense of local character.
It’s just that Capitalism treats the Third World worse than its own backyard.
Pamuk resonates, because he criticizes what many of us in the West have grown to accommodate.
He is brave, when we are complacent.
Perhaps this is why he was awarded the Nobel Prize?
Mehmet-a-Fiction
I originally questioned how appropriate it was to describe "The New Life" as Post-Modern.
However, the further it progresses, the more it becomes self-referential.
The narrator addresses not just "the Angel", but the Reader, us.
He even calls into question whether the narrator might be an unreliable narrator (in a scene that reminded me of the Magic Theatre scene in Herman Hesse's "Steppenwolf"):
"So, Reader, place your faith neither in a character like me, who is not all that sensitive, nor in my anguish and the violence of the story I have to tell; but believe that the world is a cruel place."
Most importantly, Pamuk questions whether the novel is a tradition of the West that cannot be replicated in Turkey or what the West calls "the Middle East":
"Besides, this newfangled plaything called the novel, which is the greatest invention of Western culture, is none of our culture’s business...
"I have still not quite figured out how to inhabit this foreign toy."
By Machinist or By Hand?
Pamuk uses the character Doctor Fine to question Literature:
"Considering that the pawns and tools of the Great Conspiracy assail us, either knowingly or unknowingly, through books and literature…we ought to take precautions against printed matter…The culprit is not only that particular book, the book that snared my son, but all the books that have been printed by printing presses; they are all enemies of the annals of our time, our former existence.
"He was not against literature that was scripted by hand, which was an integral part of the hand holding the pen…the books Doctor Fine opposed were those that had lost their glow, clarity, and truth but pretended to be glowing, clear, and true. These were the books that promised us the serenity and enchantment of paradise within the limitations set by the world..."
The irony is that, whatever the view of Literature, all of the views conveyed in Pamuk’s novel itself operate within Western literary traditions, well at least, within the tradition of Post-Modernism.
Finally, within the framework of Post-Modernism, there is the dual interest in the fracture of life, perception and time:
"Life is so fractured…TV abounded in gunshots, passionate lovemaking, shouts and screams, planes falling out of the sky, exploding gas tankers, all sending the message. No matter what, things must be smashed and broken."
At the same time, the author and the reader are both concerned to reverse the fracture, by way of integration of the material in front of them:
"I discerned encoded whisperings between texts from which I could detect their secrets; and putting these secrets in order, I constructed connections between them..."
The Bus Timetable
Any transport system must define three things: our destination, the intervening stops and the timetable.
Any journey or quest must comply with the same rules, even a spiritual one:
"My restless soul which did not know respite was struggling to get somewhere or other, like some bus driver who had forgotten his destination."
Without a destination, how else can we define our journey?
However, Pamuk also emphasises the difference in approach of West and Middle East:
"Our timetables and timepieces are our vehicles to reach God, not the means of rushing to keep up with the world as they are in the West...
"Timepieces are the only products of theirs that have been acceptable to our souls. That is why clocks are the only things other than guns that cannot be classified as foreign or domestic.
"For us there are two venues that lead to God. Armaments are the vehicles of Jihad; timepieces are the vehicles for prayer...
"Everyone knows that the greatest enemy of the timetable for prayers is the timetable for trains."
Speak, Memory
There is much that I cannot discuss, because of a concern about spoilers, not so much factual spoilers, but thematic spoilers, given the manner in which Pamuk skillfully lays out his metaphysical tale.
However, like Proust (and Nabokov) before him, Pamuk is concerned with the concepts of time and memory:
"I was about to discover the single element common to all existence, love, life, and time..."
There is only one life, this one.
There is only one "new life", that is, any life that there might be after death.
There is only the present, the past does not exist, except in our memory.
There is no paradise on Earth other than what we create ourselves.
We must make do with this one life.
Transcendence
Love and life are attempts to transcend time. They seek eternity, of love, of pleasure, of happiness, of fulfillment.
However, the paradox is that, when time stops, the journey ceases and the destination confronts us:
"We had embarked on this journey to escape time.
"This was the reason we were in constant motion, looking for the moment when time stood still. Which was the unique moment of fulfillment. When we got close to it, we could sense the time of departure...
"The beginning and the end of the journey was wherever we happened to be. He was right: the road and all the dark rooms were rife with killers carrying guns. Death seeped into life through the book, through books."
Fractious Time
Time is not infinite. It is finite. Or our share of it is finite. We are mortal and our life is finite. Life must end, either by design or by accident:
"What is time? An accident! What is life? Time! What is accident? A life, a new life!"
So, ultimately, accidents, fractures in time and intention, are fundamental to the narrative drive of "The New Life":
"So that was life; there was accident, there was luck, there was love, there was loneliness; there was joy; there was sorrow; there was light, death, also happiness that was dimly there."
Ultimately, Pamuk, through an Earth-bound Angel of Desire, urges patience, counsels that we take our time:
"Your hour of happiness will also strike...Do not become impatient, do not be cross with your life, cease and desist envying others! If you learn to love your life, you will know the course of action you are to take for your happiness."
Accidentalism
Contrary to Western belief, life is not solely defined and governed by intention, deliberation and purposiveness, it must accommodate the accidental, both fate and fortune, both the unplanned and the unexpected.
In a way, Pamuk is reassuring the Middle East (as we call Turkey and its surrounds) that the best way to protect yourself against the Occidental is to embrace the Accidental.
Extremely Spoilerish Postscript
It is continuing to frustrate me that I was unable to discuss some major themes of the novel, for fear of offending the Spoiler-Sensitive.
While they are fresh in my mind, I will write down some brief notes.
Please do not read these notes if you have not read the book.
It is important to me that any reader experience the metaphysical journey that the book takes a reader on.
April 9, 2009
i don't really know what to say about this one. i think i will be thinking about it for a while. i will say this: i found it both compulsively readable and boring as hell, both at the same time, all the time, beginning to end. despite all the great writers pamuk is compared to on the cover blurbs and inside (kafka, marquez, borges, proust, etc.), the writer he most reminds me of here is thomas pynchon. both come off as almost retardedly intelligent & way too clever, both are more interested in playing games and laying out a view of the world as a paranoid (in pamuk's case metaphysical) delusion/illusion than they are in writing about actual human beings and the things that happen to them, the things they feel and desire. they are also both very good writers of sentences. the thing is, i just keep thinking, what if i just ripped this page out? what if i just read every other sentence? what if this chapter was written in invisible ink? what if the book ended here? what if it never began? i think in general i found the book useless. i just didn't know what to make of it. emotionally. i can understand how some can get caught up in the voice, the style. it's just the feeling i don't care for, or the lack of it. it's just one note all the way through. people live, love, fight, learn, run, hide, die, laugh... all in the exact same register... all without MY feelings changing one bit. like watching a film in fast motion... only it takes a really long time... that being said, i know a guy in a foreign country who seems to have been absolutely overwhelmed by its power, so who knows... maybe the angel only comes to those who aren't expecting it...
May 1, 2019
En sevdiklerimden!
İçinde "her şeyi" barındıran bir Orhan Pamuk şaheseri. Nedir bu "her şey" peki?
Bir yandan sırf başlı başına "bir arayış romanı" olmasıyla mükemmelliği yakalamışken, öte yandan Türkiye'nin Batı'yla bütünleşmeye çalışma aşamasını muazzam şekilde yansıtabilmiştir. Hem de Pamuk bunu yaparken teknik birşey okuyorum hissini hiç vermeden, kusursuz bir kurguya oturtmuş hepsini. Okuyucunun, romanın yazarından ve kurgusundan bir nebze şüpheye düşeceği yerleri de koklamış, oralarda bir yazar olarak okuruna "ben size falanca bölümde şu ayrıntıları verirken filanca bölümdeki şuraya işaret ettiğimi anlamadığınız için bir şey diyor muyum?" tavrıyla, çelmeyi kibarca takmıştır tam anlamıyla kaba olmadan.
Tüm bunları yaparken de seçtiği dilin metine bu kadar uyum sağlaması işin en ustalık gerektiren yanı bence.
Ve bu kadar zor bir kurguya bizi inandırması: Anlatıcının bulmak uğruna bir otobüs yolculuğundan diğerine kendini attığı o "yeni hayat" a inandım ben mesela. Ölmüş bedenler, üstüne gazete örtülü cesetler, uykunun ölüme benzeyen o uyuşukluğu, mahmurluğu, otobüs yolculuğunda izlenen televizyonun hipnotize etkisi... Hepsi çok gerçekti.
Yıllar sonra tekrar okumuş olmanın mutluluğuyla ve bundan yıllar sonra da tekrar bir şeylerin arayışında olduğumda okuyacağımdan emin olarak kapadım kitabın son sayfasını.
Tavsiye ederim.
10/10
İçinde "her şeyi" barındıran bir Orhan Pamuk şaheseri. Nedir bu "her şey" peki?
Bir yandan sırf başlı başına "bir arayış romanı" olmasıyla mükemmelliği yakalamışken, öte yandan Türkiye'nin Batı'yla bütünleşmeye çalışma aşamasını muazzam şekilde yansıtabilmiştir. Hem de Pamuk bunu yaparken teknik birşey okuyorum hissini hiç vermeden, kusursuz bir kurguya oturtmuş hepsini. Okuyucunun, romanın yazarından ve kurgusundan bir nebze şüpheye düşeceği yerleri de koklamış, oralarda bir yazar olarak okuruna "ben size falanca bölümde şu ayrıntıları verirken filanca bölümdeki şuraya işaret ettiğimi anlamadığınız için bir şey diyor muyum?" tavrıyla, çelmeyi kibarca takmıştır tam anlamıyla kaba olmadan.
Tüm bunları yaparken de seçtiği dilin metine bu kadar uyum sağlaması işin en ustalık gerektiren yanı bence.
Ve bu kadar zor bir kurguya bizi inandırması: Anlatıcının bulmak uğruna bir otobüs yolculuğundan diğerine kendini attığı o "yeni hayat" a inandım ben mesela. Ölmüş bedenler, üstüne gazete örtülü cesetler, uykunun ölüme benzeyen o uyuşukluğu, mahmurluğu, otobüs yolculuğunda izlenen televizyonun hipnotize etkisi... Hepsi çok gerçekti.
Yıllar sonra tekrar okumuş olmanın mutluluğuyla ve bundan yıllar sonra da tekrar bir şeylerin arayışında olduğumda okuyacağımdan emin olarak kapadım kitabın son sayfasını.
Tavsiye ederim.
10/10
September 18, 2024
الرواية رمزية بتعبر عن حيرة الشباب بين العادات و التقاليد و بين عصرهم الحديث عصر العولمة.
و كيف نقضي جميعًا حياتنا بحثًا عن الحياة جديدة بحثًا عن حياة مختلفة عن الجميع لا نريد ان تكون حياتنا تقليدية نريدها مميزة و نريدها مثالية.
يقابل الشاب عثمان بطل الرواية، الشباب من عمره مثل جنان و محمد و غيرهم ممن يريدون ان يصلوا الي الحياة الجديدة و يتركون دراستهم من أمثال كليات الطب و الهندسة من أجل ان يجدوا هذه الحياة الجديدة و ينطلقوا هائمين في الطرقات بحثًا عنها في حياة غجرية و لكن لا أحد يصل إلي الحياة الجديدة التي وعد بها الكتاب.
يتزوج عثمان من فتاة جميلة و ينجب طفلة جميلة و لكنه يصر علي السكر لانه يريد جنان حبيبته فهو لا يرضي بما في يده و يريد ان يستكمل بحثه عن جنان و عن الحياة الجديدة.
يقابل عثمان في رحلته الكثير من الناقمين علي عصر العولمة و أعداء العولمة اللدودين و منهم دكتور فاين الذي يتحول في النهاية إلي إرهابي في حربه ضد العولمة في حربه للمحافظة علي العادات و التقاليد و ما هو قديم و بالتالي يتم تدمير حياته بالكامل
يقتل عثمان ناهيت الذي تحبه جنان لكي يحصل عليها و لكنها في النهاية لا يحصل عليها و ترحل جنان و عندما تأتي له أخبار عنها بعد سنوات يجد انها تزوجت و سافرت إلي المانيا
يميل عثمان في رحلت�� إلي الإستقرار مع جنان في منزل دكتور فاين لأنه يميل كطبيعة جميع الشباب إلي العادات و التقاليد و الإستقرار كما يميل إلي الحياة الجديدة و سعار الإستهلاك الذي اجتاح البلاد و رغد العيش
يموت عثمان في نهاية الرواية بعد أن يكون اقتنع أخيرًا انه يريد ما في يده انه يريد ان يقابل زوجته و ابنته و يعيش معهم يموت في حادث طريق بعد أن رأي أخيرًا الملاك
ظننت و أنا أقرا ان الراوي يخاطب جنان (ملاكه) و لكن مع الوقت أكد لنا أورهان باموق أنه يخاطب الملاك نفسه كما بين لنا بعد منتصف الرواية إسم بطلها
إنه لمن الرائع دائمًا القراءة لعشاق الكتب و هذا ما يظهر لنا بوضوح في هذه الرواية التي موضوعها كلها الكتاب الذي غير حياة بطلها الكتاب الذي لا يرمز لكتاب بعينه و لكن يرمز لجميع الكتب التي تؤثر في حياتنا تأثيرًا جذريًا
هذه الرواية نفسها تأثيرها قوي جدًا فقد كنت أشعر طوال الوقت أني أريد أن أترك المن��ل و أستقل أطول وسيلة مواصلات ممكنة و أنهي الرواية و أنا مسافر إلي مكان لا أعلم أين هو
و فتحت هذه الرواية عيني علي شئ آخر و هو أن هناك أماكن مناسبة لقراءة روايات بعينها هذه الرواية قرأت أكبر عدد من صفحاتها أثناء سفري للقاهرة او لأماكن محيطة ببلدي نظرًا لعملي الذي أتنقل كثيرًا بسببه
و مرة أخري أقرا رواية تجعلني أشعر أن أحداثها تسير بالتوازي مع أحداث حياتي و هذا يضاعف متعتي بالعمل دائمًا
سفر البطل كثيرًا
تعرف البطل علي الجميلة جنان التي يحبها و لكن هي تحب غيره (حسنًا لم يحدث هذا معي في الحقيقة بالظبط و لكنه كان قريبًا جدًا)
بحث البطل عن حياة جديدة و بحثي عن حياة جديدة بعد انقطاعي سنة عن التواصل بالعالم و العمل
و الكثير من المتوازيات الأخري التي نسيتها الآن
بالحديث عن المتوازيات ماذا عن التضادات في هذه الرواية؟
هذه الرواية تعبر عن حب العادات و التقاليد و عدم نسياننا أصلنا و في نفس الوقت تشجع علي البحث عن كل ما هو جديد و تطوير حياتنا
أحداث الرواية تستمر علي ما أعتقد 16 ل 17 سنة يعرض علينا فيها الكاتب كل المتغيرات التي حدثت في الدولة بعد 14 سنة من رحلاته مع جنان فكل شئ تغير الحافلات الآن حديثة و مريحة الطرق مسفلته الإعلانات الأجنبية منتشرة في كل مكان
المحال التقليدية و السلع القومية ليس لها وجود
لم أتوقع هذا الأسلوب القوي من أورهان باموق أنا اعلم انه فاز بنوبل و كل شئ و لكن حقًا لم أتوقع أن تكون هذه الرواية بهذه الروعة هي معقدة جدًا و تحتاج لتركيز مميت في قراءتها و لكن في نفس الوقت إذا اعطيتها حقها في التركيز ستستطيع الاستمتاع بها كلها و فهم كل الرسائل الموجه بين سطورها و خلف رموزها
أنا متأكد ان هناك رموز أخري لم أصل لها و لكن سأترك إكتشافها لنفسي المستقبلية بعد إعادتي لقراءتها يومًا ما..
و كيف نقضي جميعًا حياتنا بحثًا عن الحياة جديدة بحثًا عن حياة مختلفة عن الجميع لا نريد ان تكون حياتنا تقليدية نريدها مميزة و نريدها مثالية.
يقابل الشاب عثمان بطل الرواية، الشباب من عمره مثل جنان و محمد و غيرهم ممن يريدون ان يصلوا الي الحياة الجديدة و يتركون دراستهم من أمثال كليات الطب و الهندسة من أجل ان يجدوا هذه الحياة الجديدة و ينطلقوا هائمين في الطرقات بحثًا عنها في حياة غجرية و لكن لا أحد يصل إلي الحياة الجديدة التي وعد بها الكتاب.
يتزوج عثمان من فتاة جميلة و ينجب طفلة جميلة و لكنه يصر علي السكر لانه يريد جنان حبيبته فهو لا يرضي بما في يده و يريد ان يستكمل بحثه عن جنان و عن الحياة الجديدة.
يقابل عثمان في رحلته الكثير من الناقمين علي عصر العولمة و أعداء العولمة اللدودين و منهم دكتور فاين الذي يتحول في النهاية إلي إرهابي في حربه ضد العولمة في حربه للمحافظة علي العادات و التقاليد و ما هو قديم و بالتالي يتم تدمير حياته بالكامل
يقتل عثمان ناهيت الذي تحبه جنان لكي يحصل عليها و لكنها في النهاية لا يحصل عليها و ترحل جنان و عندما تأتي له أخبار عنها بعد سنوات يجد انها تزوجت و سافرت إلي المانيا
يميل عثمان في رحلت�� إلي الإستقرار مع جنان في منزل دكتور فاين لأنه يميل كطبيعة جميع الشباب إلي العادات و التقاليد و الإستقرار كما يميل إلي الحياة الجديدة و سعار الإستهلاك الذي اجتاح البلاد و رغد العيش
يموت عثمان في نهاية الرواية بعد أن يكون اقتنع أخيرًا انه يريد ما في يده انه يريد ان يقابل زوجته و ابنته و يعيش معهم يموت في حادث طريق بعد أن رأي أخيرًا الملاك
ظننت و أنا أقرا ان الراوي يخاطب جنان (ملاكه) و لكن مع الوقت أكد لنا أورهان باموق أنه يخاطب الملاك نفسه كما بين لنا بعد منتصف الرواية إسم بطلها
إنه لمن الرائع دائمًا القراءة لعشاق الكتب و هذا ما يظهر لنا بوضوح في هذه الرواية التي موضوعها كلها الكتاب الذي غير حياة بطلها الكتاب الذي لا يرمز لكتاب بعينه و لكن يرمز لجميع الكتب التي تؤثر في حياتنا تأثيرًا جذريًا
هذه الرواية نفسها تأثيرها قوي جدًا فقد كنت أشعر طوال الوقت أني أريد أن أترك المن��ل و أستقل أطول وسيلة مواصلات ممكنة و أنهي الرواية و أنا مسافر إلي مكان لا أعلم أين هو
و فتحت هذه الرواية عيني علي شئ آخر و هو أن هناك أماكن مناسبة لقراءة روايات بعينها هذه الرواية قرأت أكبر عدد من صفحاتها أثناء سفري للقاهرة او لأماكن محيطة ببلدي نظرًا لعملي الذي أتنقل كثيرًا بسببه
و مرة أخري أقرا رواية تجعلني أشعر أن أحداثها تسير بالتوازي مع أحداث حياتي و هذا يضاعف متعتي بالعمل دائمًا
سفر البطل كثيرًا
تعرف البطل علي الجميلة جنان التي يحبها و لكن هي تحب غيره (حسنًا لم يحدث هذا معي في الحقيقة بالظبط و لكنه كان قريبًا جدًا)
بحث البطل عن حياة جديدة و بحثي عن حياة جديدة بعد انقطاعي سنة عن التواصل بالعالم و العمل
و الكثير من المتوازيات الأخري التي نسيتها الآن
بالحديث عن المتوازيات ماذا عن التضادات في هذه الرواية؟
هذه الرواية تعبر عن حب العادات و التقاليد و عدم نسياننا أصلنا و في نفس الوقت تشجع علي البحث عن كل ما هو جديد و تطوير حياتنا
أحداث الرواية تستمر علي ما أعتقد 16 ل 17 سنة يعرض علينا فيها الكاتب كل المتغيرات التي حدثت في الدولة بعد 14 سنة من رحلاته مع جنان فكل شئ تغير الحافلات الآن حديثة و مريحة الطرق مسفلته الإعلانات الأجنبية منتشرة في كل مكان
المحال التقليدية و السلع القومية ليس لها وجود
لم أتوقع هذا الأسلوب القوي من أورهان باموق أنا اعلم انه فاز بنوبل و كل شئ و لكن حقًا لم أتوقع أن تكون هذه الرواية بهذه الروعة هي معقدة جدًا و تحتاج لتركيز مميت في قراءتها و لكن في نفس الوقت إذا اعطيتها حقها في التركيز ستستطيع الاستمتاع بها كلها و فهم كل الرسائل الموجه بين سطورها و خلف رموزها
أنا متأكد ان هناك رموز أخري لم أصل لها و لكن سأترك إكتشافها لنفسي المستقبلية بعد إعادتي لقراءتها يومًا ما..
November 11, 2015
الحياة الجديدة لأورهان باموق
من الأعمال القليلة اللى كان نفسى أُعبر عنها بالمصطلحات الشبابية الحديثة المنتشرة هذه الأيام , ولكنى وجدت جبن فى ذلك , أن أُلوث هذا العمل العظيم بألفاظ لا تليق بعظمته.
أى شئ كان يفكر فيه الكاتب عند كتابته هذا العمل ؟, وأى ظروف عاشها لكى يُخرج لنا هذا الإبداع منقطع النظير ,
عمل مرهق جدا , استغرق منى فى قراءته ثلاثة أيام (وهذا قد يكون الوقت الأطول لى فى قراءة عمل أدبى ,
هو ينتمى إلى تلك الأعمال التى تحتاج منك تركيز كل خلية فى دماغك لكى يصل إليك كامل . لكى تدرك معناه العظيم وقيمته الأعظم .
من أعظم الفصول الاستهلالية التى قرأتها فى حياتى وما أعظمها من جملة بداية حين قال الكاتب (قرأت كتاباً فى يوم ما فتغيرت حياتى كلها ) ليترجم حلم دفين وهو أن تعيش حياة الكتب وأن تكون الكتب حياتك .
ليبدأ من بعدها الكاتب فى نسج وبناء كيان أدبى من ارقى ما يكون , كيان روائى محكم بطريقة (مستفزة) استطاع خلالها ان يبيّن لك قدرته الفذة فى التحكم فى أدواته الروائية المختلفة .
قصة حب غريبة ومن غرابتها تكمن سر الانبهار بها , انبهار بتفاصيل وأحداث , تفاصيل أحيانا تكون بسيطة جدا وأحيانا أخرى تكون من التعقيد بمكان , ولكن كل ذلك لا يخفى متعتها الخفية
ويبقى السؤال : هل تستطيع مواجهة سحر القراءة , حتى لو كان هذه السحر سيغير حياتك كلها , أياً كان التغيير التى ستحدثه , وهل هو للأفضل أم للأسوأ .
الإجابة خلال صفحات هذا الكتاب .
فى المجمل عمل مميز جدا , محكم بطريقة قوية للغاية , مرهق للغاية . وكعادة كُتاب نوبل قد لا تجد متعة فى قراءة أعمالهم لكنك لن تنكر التأثير السحرى لأعمالهم .
الترجمة جيدة تدل على عظمة العمل فى لغته الأم , الأحداث والتفاصيل والشخصيات لا يوجد وصف لهم أقل من السحر
من الأعمال القليلة اللى كان نفسى أُعبر عنها بالمصطلحات الشبابية الحديثة المنتشرة هذه الأيام , ولكنى وجدت جبن فى ذلك , أن أُلوث هذا العمل العظيم بألفاظ لا تليق بعظمته.
أى شئ كان يفكر فيه الكاتب عند كتابته هذا العمل ؟, وأى ظروف عاشها لكى يُخرج لنا هذا الإبداع منقطع النظير ,
عمل مرهق جدا , استغرق منى فى قراءته ثلاثة أيام (وهذا قد يكون الوقت الأطول لى فى قراءة عمل أدبى ,
هو ينتمى إلى تلك الأعمال التى تحتاج منك تركيز كل خلية فى دماغك لكى يصل إليك كامل . لكى تدرك معناه العظيم وقيمته الأعظم .
من أعظم الفصول الاستهلالية التى قرأتها فى حياتى وما أعظمها من جملة بداية حين قال الكاتب (قرأت كتاباً فى يوم ما فتغيرت حياتى كلها ) ليترجم حلم دفين وهو أن تعيش حياة الكتب وأن تكون الكتب حياتك .
ليبدأ من بعدها الكاتب فى نسج وبناء كيان أدبى من ارقى ما يكون , كيان روائى محكم بطريقة (مستفزة) استطاع خلالها ان يبيّن لك قدرته الفذة فى التحكم فى أدواته الروائية المختلفة .
قصة حب غريبة ومن غرابتها تكمن سر الانبهار بها , انبهار بتفاصيل وأحداث , تفاصيل أحيانا تكون بسيطة جدا وأحيانا أخرى تكون من التعقيد بمكان , ولكن كل ذلك لا يخفى متعتها الخفية
ويبقى السؤال : هل تستطيع مواجهة سحر القراءة , حتى لو كان هذه السحر سيغير حياتك كلها , أياً كان التغيير التى ستحدثه , وهل هو للأفضل أم للأسوأ .
الإجابة خلال صفحات هذا الكتاب .
فى المجمل عمل مميز جدا , محكم بطريقة قوية للغاية , مرهق للغاية . وكعادة كُتاب نوبل قد لا تجد متعة فى قراءة أعمالهم لكنك لن تنكر التأثير السحرى لأعمالهم .
الترجمة جيدة تدل على عظمة العمل فى لغته الأم , الأحداث والتفاصيل والشخصيات لا يوجد وصف لهم أقل من السحر
June 9, 2020
"Talih diye okumuştum bir yerde, kör değil cahildir."
En sevdiğim kitaplardan birini tekrar okumak için neden bu kadar beklemişim bilmiyorum. Belki o ilk okuduğum zamanki etkiyi alamayacağım diye korktum. Tam tersi, daha çok sevdim. Daha farklı şeyler hissettim. Hatta çok heyecanlandım okurken nedense...
Bir kitapla bir anda hayatın değişmesi ve bilinmez bir dünyayı aramak.
Bulamayacağını düşünmek ama aramaya devam etmek, bilinmez bir şeye inanmak...
Muhteşemdi ☹️ Pamuk böyle bir eseri genç bir yaşta yazmış, muazzam bir altyapı, küçük mesajlar, göndermeler...
Galiba Kara Kitap'ı da tekrar okuyacağım duramıyorum...
"Neden kelimelerle düşünür de insan, görüntüler yüzünden acı çeker."
"Okumak denemezdi yaptığıma, bir çeşit hatırlamak, bir çeşit acı çekmek..."
"Kitaplar bende bir konuşma dürtüsü uyandırıyorlarsa, daha çok kafamın içinde kendi aralarında yapıyorlardı bu işi."
💚💚💚
A. Raca, 2020
En sevdiğim kitaplardan birini tekrar okumak için neden bu kadar beklemişim bilmiyorum. Belki o ilk okuduğum zamanki etkiyi alamayacağım diye korktum. Tam tersi, daha çok sevdim. Daha farklı şeyler hissettim. Hatta çok heyecanlandım okurken nedense...
Bir kitapla bir anda hayatın değişmesi ve bilinmez bir dünyayı aramak.
Bulamayacağını düşünmek ama aramaya devam etmek, bilinmez bir şeye inanmak...
Muhteşemdi ☹️ Pamuk böyle bir eseri genç bir yaşta yazmış, muazzam bir altyapı, küçük mesajlar, göndermeler...
Galiba Kara Kitap'ı da tekrar okuyacağım duramıyorum...
"Neden kelimelerle düşünür de insan, görüntüler yüzünden acı çeker."
"Okumak denemezdi yaptığıma, bir çeşit hatırlamak, bir çeşit acı çekmek..."
"Kitaplar bende bir konuşma dürtüsü uyandırıyorlarsa, daha çok kafamın içinde kendi aralarında yapıyorlardı bu işi."
💚💚💚
A. Raca, 2020
May 29, 2022
“Un día leí un libro que me cambió la vida”, comienza, haciendo referencia a un libro homónimo. Osman, adolescente, enamorado, inicia una búsqueda que lo lleva por las rutas de Turquía, en pos de ese “país” que describe el libro, con la sensación de que fue “escrito para él”. A medida que recorre, aprende, y la ilusión, con resabios de búsqueda de la infancia, va perdiendo brillo, y sumergiéndolo imperceptiblemente en una decadencia personal. ¿Dónde perdió el rumbo?, se pregunta en su adultez. Es posible que, en el inicio, en la ilusoria búsqueda de los absolutos perdidos de la infancia, personal y de su patria. En una última búsqueda, comienza a vislumbrar lo que ha perdido de vivir por esa búsqueda (¿contra el tiempo?), y de esa manera alcanza el ángel que buscaba, aunque a un alto precio.
La novela es larga, y por momentos difícil de remontar, con una sensación de malestar; pero es un relato profundamente humano, con algunas joyas, en general, como menciona el autor, difícil de poner en palabras (don reservado a los poetas).
La novela es larga, y por momentos difícil de remontar, con una sensación de malestar; pero es un relato profundamente humano, con algunas joyas, en general, como menciona el autor, difícil de poner en palabras (don reservado a los poetas).
July 27, 2020
Ο Ορχάν Παμούκ είναι ένας από τους συγγραφείς που αγαπώ και ακολουθώ. Το συγκεκριμένο βιβλίο πρέπει να είναι από τα πρώτα που κυκλοφόρησαν εδώ και έχω την αίσθηση και από τα λιγότερο γνωστά του. Δεν είχε τύχει να το διαβάσω μέχρι τώρα όμως όπως αυτό που αγαπώ στον Παμούκ είναι ότι ακόμα και στο λιγότερο εντυπωσιακό του βιβλίο πάντα υπάρχουν στοιχεία που θα κρατήσω. Είναι φορές που νιώθω ότι κανείς δεν μπορεί να γράψει τόσο μαγικά όσο εκείνος.
Πολύ ιδιαίτερο βιβλίο που η αλήθεια είναι δε θα κερδίσει το σύνολο των αναγνωστών. Η ανάγνωση θέλει προσοχή και αφοσίωση και χρειάζεται αρκετό χρόνο για να μπεις και να νιώσεις την ιστορία. Και σε αυτό το βιβλίο θα συναντήσεις κανείς όλα εκείνα τα επιτρέψτε μου τον χαρακτηρισμό «Παμουκικά» χαρακτηριστικά που κάνουν τα βιβλία του ξεχωριστά όπως οι αναφορές στις πολιτισμικές διαφορές μεταξύ Ανατολής και Δύσης, η λυρικότητα στη γραφή, η αγάπη, η πολιτική. Ίσως όχι το πιο αντιπροσωπευτικό βιβλίο του Παμούκ για να μυηθεί κανείς στην πένα αλλά ιδιαίτερο. Το 4ο αστέρι το κέρδισε στο δεύτερο μισό της ανάγνωσης που αν και πιο σκοτεινό με κράτησε με κομμένη την ανάσα μέχρι τέλους.
Και βέβαια τον ρώτησα τι ήταν το βιβλίο.
«το καλό βιβλίο είναι κάτι που μας θυμίζει τον κόσμο όλο», μου είπε. «Ίσως κάθε βιβλίο είναι έτσι, έτσι πρέπει να είναι». Σώπασε για λίγο. «το βιβλίο είναι μέρος κάποιου πράγματος που δεν συμπεριλαμβάνεται στο βιβλίο, αλλά με όσα λέει το βιβλίο αισθάνεσαι τη διάρκεια και την ύπαρξη του», είπε, καταλάβαινα ωστόσο πως δεν ήταν ευχαριστημένος με όσα έλεγε ‘Ισως είναι κάτι που βγαίνει από τη σιωπή ή το θόρυβο του κόσμου, αλλά δεν είναι ούτε η σιωπή ούτε ο θόρυβος.…..Αργότερα θα προσπαθούσε να μου εξηγήσει για τελευταία φορά: «Το καλό βιβλίο είναι ένα γραπτό, που αναφέρεται σε πράγματα ανύπαρκτα, σε μια μορφή απουσίας σε μια μορφή θανάτου… Τον κόσμο όμως που υπάρχει πέρα από τις λέξεις, μάταια θα ψάχνεις να τον βρεις έξω από το γραπτό και το βιβλίο». Γι αυτό, όπως μου είπε, βεβαιώθηκε, το κατάλαβε, το έμαθε, γράφοντας ξανά και ξανά το βιβλίο.
Πολύ ιδιαίτερο βιβλίο που η αλήθεια είναι δε θα κερδίσει το σύνολο των αναγνωστών. Η ανάγνωση θέλει προσοχή και αφοσίωση και χρειάζεται αρκετό χρόνο για να μπεις και να νιώσεις την ιστορία. Και σε αυτό το βιβλίο θα συναντήσεις κανείς όλα εκείνα τα επιτρέψτε μου τον χαρακτηρισμό «Παμουκικά» χαρακτηριστικά που κάνουν τα βιβλία του ξεχωριστά όπως οι αναφορές στις πολιτισμικές διαφορές μεταξύ Ανατολής και Δύσης, η λυρικότητα στη γραφή, η αγάπη, η πολιτική. Ίσως όχι το πιο αντιπροσωπευτικό βιβλίο του Παμούκ για να μυηθεί κανείς στην πένα αλλά ιδιαίτερο. Το 4ο αστέρι το κέρδισε στο δεύτερο μισό της ανάγνωσης που αν και πιο σκοτεινό με κράτησε με κομμένη την ανάσα μέχρι τέλους.
Και βέβαια τον ρώτησα τι ήταν το βιβλίο.
«το καλό βιβλίο είναι κάτι που μας θυμίζει τον κόσμο όλο», μου είπε. «Ίσως κάθε βιβλίο είναι έτσι, έτσι πρέπει να είναι». Σώπασε για λίγο. «το βιβλίο είναι μέρος κάποιου πράγματος που δεν συμπεριλαμβάνεται στο βιβλίο, αλλά με όσα λέει το βιβλίο αισθάνεσαι τη διάρκεια και την ύπαρξη του», είπε, καταλάβαινα ωστόσο πως δεν ήταν ευχαριστημένος με όσα έλεγε ‘Ισως είναι κάτι που βγαίνει από τη σιωπή ή το θόρυβο του κόσμου, αλλά δεν είναι ούτε η σιωπή ούτε ο θόρυβος.…..Αργότερα θα προσπαθούσε να μου εξηγήσει για τελευταία φορά: «Το καλό βιβλίο είναι ένα γραπτό, που αναφέρεται σε πράγματα ανύπαρκτα, σε μια μορφή απουσίας σε μια μορφή θανάτου… Τον κόσμο όμως που υπάρχει πέρα από τις λέξεις, μάταια θα ψάχνεις να τον βρεις έξω από το γραπτό και το βιβλίο». Γι αυτό, όπως μου είπε, βεβαιώθηκε, το κατάλαβε, το έμαθε, γράφοντας ξανά και ξανά το βιβλίο.
November 22, 2020
“Geri dönmek isteyenin ötesine geçmemesi gereken bölgesine ayak bastım hayatın.” - Dante
Kitabın çıktığı 1994 yılında en azından ilkgençliklerini tamamlamış olanlar, sokaklardaki dev panolarda bu kitabın reklam afişlerinin yer aldığını, Orhan Pamuk’un ise medyatik yazar olmakla ve kitabını reklamla sattırmakla eleştiri yağmuruna tutulduğunu hatırlayacaklardır.
Hayat böyle bir şey işte: Tarihin eleğinden neyin ya da kimin süzüleceğini insan yaşarken bilemiyor. O yıllarda üniversite okurken bu eleştirilerin etkisinde kalarak Pamuk’a burun kıvırmakla nasıl bir hata ettiğimi aradan 25 yıl geçtikten sonra anlayabiliyorum. Dante’nin dediği gibi, Yeni Hayat’ı okuyarak artık geri dönemeyeceğim bir ruh halini geride bıraktım, ve yeni bir hayata, yeni bir bakış açısına ayak bastım: Hayattaki anlam arayışımız beyhude bir sakız kağıdı falından hallicedir!
Şundan eminim; Pamuk çok becerikli bir kuratör. Hatta kelimenin adı üstünde, Masumiyet Müzesini fiziksel olarak yaratarak postmodern sanata yeni bir oyun alanı bile açtı. Yeni Hayat’ı oluşturan her bir kelime öbeğinin üzerinde cımbızla çalıştığına, cümlelerdeki anlam oluşumlarını kalite kontrolden geçirdiğine, ve sonucunu da 1994 yılında Bağdat Caddesi’nin sokak panolarında sergilemesine şaşmamamız gerekir bu açıdan.
Ama ne var ki şaşıyoruz. Nobel almış olmasına da şaşıranlar var hala. Aslında usta bir modern sanat kolajının arkasındaki sanatçının kendisidir merak ettiğimiz. Bu eseri oluştururken ne düşünmüştür? Onu, yolu Nobel’e çıkan diğer yazarlarla ortak kılan alan bence şu: Romanlarıyla bizi ötesine geçtiğimizde geri dönülemeyecek bir çizgiyi atlatarak Yeni bir Hayat’a ayak bastırtıyor olması:
“Nedir hayat? Bir zaman! Nedir zaman? Bir kaza. Nedir kaza? Bir hayat, yeni bir hayat...”
Kitabın çıktığı 1994 yılında en azından ilkgençliklerini tamamlamış olanlar, sokaklardaki dev panolarda bu kitabın reklam afişlerinin yer aldığını, Orhan Pamuk’un ise medyatik yazar olmakla ve kitabını reklamla sattırmakla eleştiri yağmuruna tutulduğunu hatırlayacaklardır.
Hayat böyle bir şey işte: Tarihin eleğinden neyin ya da kimin süzüleceğini insan yaşarken bilemiyor. O yıllarda üniversite okurken bu eleştirilerin etkisinde kalarak Pamuk’a burun kıvırmakla nasıl bir hata ettiğimi aradan 25 yıl geçtikten sonra anlayabiliyorum. Dante’nin dediği gibi, Yeni Hayat’ı okuyarak artık geri dönemeyeceğim bir ruh halini geride bıraktım, ve yeni bir hayata, yeni bir bakış açısına ayak bastım: Hayattaki anlam arayışımız beyhude bir sakız kağıdı falından hallicedir!
Şundan eminim; Pamuk çok becerikli bir kuratör. Hatta kelimenin adı üstünde, Masumiyet Müzesini fiziksel olarak yaratarak postmodern sanata yeni bir oyun alanı bile açtı. Yeni Hayat’ı oluşturan her bir kelime öbeğinin üzerinde cımbızla çalıştığına, cümlelerdeki anlam oluşumlarını kalite kontrolden geçirdiğine, ve sonucunu da 1994 yılında Bağdat Caddesi’nin sokak panolarında sergilemesine şaşmamamız gerekir bu açıdan.
Ama ne var ki şaşıyoruz. Nobel almış olmasına da şaşıranlar var hala. Aslında usta bir modern sanat kolajının arkasındaki sanatçının kendisidir merak ettiğimiz. Bu eseri oluştururken ne düşünmüştür? Onu, yolu Nobel’e çıkan diğer yazarlarla ortak kılan alan bence şu: Romanlarıyla bizi ötesine geçtiğimizde geri dönülemeyecek bir çizgiyi atlatarak Yeni bir Hayat’a ayak bastırtıyor olması:
“Nedir hayat? Bir zaman! Nedir zaman? Bir kaza. Nedir kaza? Bir hayat, yeni bir hayat...”
October 4, 2008
03/08/2008
Read slowly.. Let the tentacular, pellucid sentences take you to the world of mystical adventure, which is clumsy yet so entrancing. Reading the second time slowly made me realize all the symmetry, puns, even autobiographical bits and pieces of the the author himself. It evokes feelings you get when you are travelling by bus to distant places, excitement and toxic exhilaration of reading good books, and awe and scepticism of the mystery of life and love.
I would certainly read this book again.
P.S. I gave four stars before. What was I thinking?
06/07/2008 Notes on the second reading:
I am in the mood of reading a book that blows me away. Let's see what this book take me for the second time reading....
I haven't got such an intense feeling from my readings lately.
-----------------------------
"I read a book one day and my whole life was changed."
That sentence begins the novel. Sure enough it intrigued me to read on. The back cover said this is part road novel, part metaphysical thriller. "Osman, a young university student, becomes obsessed with a magical book that delves into the dangerous nature of love and self. He turns his back on home and family, abandons his studies and goes on a search for the meaning of the book's darker secrets."
I was a university student, young enough, turned my back on home to search for adventure. I remember one writer said that when we read we actually search of ourselves or its elements in it. You do the math!
It is quite difficult for me to say something about the story, I guess I have to read it again. I am not sure I got the "dark secret" of the book. Either I don't understand (remember) it completely or Pamuk didn't really say it. I just remembered how I enjoyed the flow of this difficult novel. Much different in mode when you are reading Da Vinci Code or something like that.
I watched an interview with Pamuk in Bokbadet in a Norwegian national TV. He is an interesting figure. Playful and rather "wickedly" suggestive. It was partly the reason I want to read him.
Read slowly.. Let the tentacular, pellucid sentences take you to the world of mystical adventure, which is clumsy yet so entrancing. Reading the second time slowly made me realize all the symmetry, puns, even autobiographical bits and pieces of the the author himself. It evokes feelings you get when you are travelling by bus to distant places, excitement and toxic exhilaration of reading good books, and awe and scepticism of the mystery of life and love.
I would certainly read this book again.
P.S. I gave four stars before. What was I thinking?
06/07/2008 Notes on the second reading:
I am in the mood of reading a book that blows me away. Let's see what this book take me for the second time reading....
I haven't got such an intense feeling from my readings lately.
-----------------------------
"I read a book one day and my whole life was changed."
That sentence begins the novel. Sure enough it intrigued me to read on. The back cover said this is part road novel, part metaphysical thriller. "Osman, a young university student, becomes obsessed with a magical book that delves into the dangerous nature of love and self. He turns his back on home and family, abandons his studies and goes on a search for the meaning of the book's darker secrets."
I was a university student, young enough, turned my back on home to search for adventure. I remember one writer said that when we read we actually search of ourselves or its elements in it. You do the math!
It is quite difficult for me to say something about the story, I guess I have to read it again. I am not sure I got the "dark secret" of the book. Either I don't understand (remember) it completely or Pamuk didn't really say it. I just remembered how I enjoyed the flow of this difficult novel. Much different in mode when you are reading Da Vinci Code or something like that.
I watched an interview with Pamuk in Bokbadet in a Norwegian national TV. He is an interesting figure. Playful and rather "wickedly" suggestive. It was partly the reason I want to read him.
November 13, 2020
‘Bir gün bir kitap okudum ve hayatım değişti.’
Orhan Pamuk’un herkesin ağzına sakız olan bu cümlesi ile başlıyor kitap. Ama biz çok yanlış romantikleştirmişiz cümleyi. Çünkü karekterin hayatı gerçekten değişiyor. Alt üste, üst alta geçiyor.
Bir gün Yeni Hayat kitabını okuyan karekter, her nedense aa bu kitap gerçek, diye düşünüyor, aşık oluyor ve kendini kitapta anlatılan ülkeyi bulmaya adıyor. Ne anası, ne karısı-çocuğu umrunda değil, sadece Canan ve Melek.
Aylarını otobüste geçiriyor, kazalar cinayetler ve onun gibi bu kitabı gerçek sananlar ve arayışa düşünler ile karşılaşıyor.
Bir din yani, saçma sapan hikayelere inanan onlarca kişi..
Kendince aşkı anlatmış yine çünkü Orhan bey aşk yazamıyor. Ama takıntılı karekterler konusunda bir dünya markası, karekter bana biraz Masumiyet Müzesi’nin Kemal’ini hatırlattı. Kitap zaten Celal Salik’ten de bahsetiyor bir kaç yerde. Kitap sanırım şimdiye kadar okuyup en sevdiğim Pamuk kitabı oldu.
Orhan Pamuk’un herkesin ağzına sakız olan bu cümlesi ile başlıyor kitap. Ama biz çok yanlış romantikleştirmişiz cümleyi. Çünkü karekterin hayatı gerçekten değişiyor. Alt üste, üst alta geçiyor.
Bir gün Yeni Hayat kitabını okuyan karekter, her nedense aa bu kitap gerçek, diye düşünüyor, aşık oluyor ve kendini kitapta anlatılan ülkeyi bulmaya adıyor. Ne anası, ne karısı-çocuğu umrunda değil, sadece Canan ve Melek.
Aylarını otobüste geçiriyor, kazalar cinayetler ve onun gibi bu kitabı gerçek sananlar ve arayışa düşünler ile karşılaşıyor.
Bir din yani, saçma sapan hikayelere inanan onlarca kişi..
Kendince aşkı anlatmış yine çünkü Orhan bey aşk yazamıyor. Ama takıntılı karekterler konusunda bir dünya markası, karekter bana biraz Masumiyet Müzesi’nin Kemal’ini hatırlattı. Kitap zaten Celal Salik’ten de bahsetiyor bir kaç yerde. Kitap sanırım şimdiye kadar okuyup en sevdiğim Pamuk kitabı oldu.
Read
August 25, 2018bir kitabı bitirdiğimde "şurası şöyle, burası böyle" demeyi sevmiyorum. ya yazar ya da başka birisi "çok biliyorsan sen yaz o zaman" derse diye çekiniyorum, evet saçma gibi ama değil gibi. övmeyi de sevmiyorum, sonuçta benim fikirlerimin ne önemi var ki. o zaman tavsiye edeyim. kitap muazzam. kim ne derse desin, neresinden çekiştirirse çekiştirsin orhan pamuk büyük bir yazar. ve biz de onunla aynı zamanlarda ve aynı ana dilde yaşadığımız için bir miktar şanlıyız (bence yağniiii).
August 20, 2016
" قرأت كتاباً في يوم ما فتغيرت حياتي كلها "
بتلك الجملة الجذابة، بدأ " أورهان باموق " روايته الغريبة ليست في فكرتها فقط ولكن أيضًا في طريقة المعالجة وطريقة التحكم في التفاصيل مهما كانت تافهة أو صغيرة لا أهمية لها، ولكن لا يوجد شيء بلا أهمية في عالم هذا الكاتب التركي المجنون!
تدور الرواية بإيجاز حول شاب يدعى " عثمان " ويقع أمامه بالصدفة - ليست صدفة تمامًا - كتاب يغير حياته إلى الأبد حيث يشعر من خلاله بضوء قوي يجبره على عدم القبول بحياته القديمة ويدفعه إلى البحث عن طريق آخر لحياة جديدة ومن هنا تبدأ قصته مع زميلته " جنان " وحبيبها " محمد " .
جاء السواد الأعظم من مشوار " عثمان " في الحافلات حيث يتنقل مع رفيقته من مكان إلى آخر بحثًا عن الحياة الجديدة، ليس هذا فقط، ولكن من خلال رحلتهما التي استمرت فترة طويلة يكشف لنا الكاتب عن آثار الثقافة الغربية الجديدة على المجتمع التركي خاصة من الناحية السلبية وهي الأمور التي زادت من حماس البطل من أجل البحث عن مجتمع حقيقي لا زيف فيه .
ولا يكتفي فقط البطل بالبحث عن تلك الحياة الجديدة ولكنه يرغب من داخله في البحث عن صاحب الكتاب، ليكتشف بعد ذلك أنه كان أقرب إليه مما يتخيل.
البداية كانت مشوقة للغاية وقل التشويق قليلًا بعد ذلك ولكن النهاية كانت كالبداية مشوقة أيضًا.
الرواية لا تصلح لهواة قراءة الأعمال الخفيفة، فهي تحتاج إلى تركيز شديد وصبر طويل حتى لا يمل منها في المنتصف.
التقييم النهائي: ما بين 3.5 و 4 نجوم.
بتلك الجملة الجذابة، بدأ " أورهان باموق " روايته الغريبة ليست في فكرتها فقط ولكن أيضًا في طريقة المعالجة وطريقة التحكم في التفاصيل مهما كانت تافهة أو صغيرة لا أهمية لها، ولكن لا يوجد شيء بلا أهمية في عالم هذا الكاتب التركي المجنون!
تدور الرواية بإيجاز حول شاب يدعى " عثمان " ويقع أمامه بالصدفة - ليست صدفة تمامًا - كتاب يغير حياته إلى الأبد حيث يشعر من خلاله بضوء قوي يجبره على عدم القبول بحياته القديمة ويدفعه إلى البحث عن طريق آخر لحياة جديدة ومن هنا تبدأ قصته مع زميلته " جنان " وحبيبها " محمد " .
جاء السواد الأعظم من مشوار " عثمان " في الحافلات حيث يتنقل مع رفيقته من مكان إلى آخر بحثًا عن الحياة الجديدة، ليس هذا فقط، ولكن من خلال رحلتهما التي استمرت فترة طويلة يكشف لنا الكاتب عن آثار الثقافة الغربية الجديدة على المجتمع التركي خاصة من الناحية السلبية وهي الأمور التي زادت من حماس البطل من أجل البحث عن مجتمع حقيقي لا زيف فيه .
ولا يكتفي فقط البطل بالبحث عن تلك الحياة الجديدة ولكنه يرغب من داخله في البحث عن صاحب الكتاب، ليكتشف بعد ذلك أنه كان أقرب إليه مما يتخيل.
البداية كانت مشوقة للغاية وقل التشويق قليلًا بعد ذلك ولكن النهاية كانت كالبداية مشوقة أيضًا.
الرواية لا تصلح لهواة قراءة الأعمال الخفيفة، فهي تحتاج إلى تركيز شديد وصبر طويل حتى لا يمل منها في المنتصف.
التقييم النهائي: ما بين 3.5 و 4 نجوم.
February 28, 2017
saf, sahih edebiyat. yirmili yaşlar manifestosu. ya da bir nevi masal.
orhan pamuk'la tanışmama vesiledir yeni hayat. özellikle gençlik heyecanının, keşfetme arzusunun ve aşk��n anlatıldığı ilk bölümlerdeki betimlemeler öyle güzel ve sahici ki arada kapatıp içinizi çekmenizi, uzaklara dalmanızı ya da garipseyen bakışlar altında gülümsemenizi sağlıyor.
kitabın sonunda herkes hayatın sırrına ermek isterdi zannederim. ama hayat pek bir şey değil, bir zaman kazasından ibaret.
orhan pamuk'la tanışmama vesiledir yeni hayat. özellikle gençlik heyecanının, keşfetme arzusunun ve aşk��n anlatıldığı ilk bölümlerdeki betimlemeler öyle güzel ve sahici ki arada kapatıp içinizi çekmenizi, uzaklara dalmanızı ya da garipseyen bakışlar altında gülümsemenizi sağlıyor.
kitabın sonunda herkes hayatın sırrına ermek isterdi zannederim. ama hayat pek bir şey değil, bir zaman kazasından ibaret.
June 10, 2020
"Hayat buydu işte, ne oradaydı, ne de başka bir yerde, ne cennette ne cehennemde: tam işte burada, bu anın içindeydi muhteşem hayat."
İyi ki varsın Orhan Pamuk❤️
İyi ki varsın Orhan Pamuk❤️
February 2, 2012
I am done with 60% of the book and couldn't hold myself from writing something, anything, about the book, with my half-open sleepy eyes.
When I began this book, I wanted to love Pamuk. Through his interviews and talks, the reviews of his books, and my experience with Snow, I have made some strong opinions about him, which I wanted to change in the course of reading this novel. The opinions remain unscathed, so far, but I almost liked him.
Some observations so far:
1. Osman and Janan are too similar to Ka and Ipek: the male hero (overtly) sentimental, sensitive, vulnerable. The female hero mysterious and angelic.
2. Young people masturbate and watch Porno. Pamuk's insistence related to the religious/moral weather in Turkey?
3. His novel(s) is(/are) superbly planned, writing lacks precision.
Too many words (bad), too many themes (good), too many layers (awesome).
4. Pamuk is IMPORTANT. Political reasons. He has contributed tremendously to the postmodern literature (been an avant-garde?) but his voice - where it comes form and what it says - is too crucial in our times.
The New Life was a rage in Turkey. What does that mean? Some people picked up this book and their whole life was changed.
5. I am a bad reader. This book, that I will finish in about 3 weeks, will need at least three more weeks of re-reading (and brooding) to be able to even appreciate or denounce the work. All I am able to achieve in my first reading is reaching closer to the end.
6. I will never be able to love Pamuk the writer. Have immense respect, awe, for Pamuk the conjurer, the engineer of ideas, the political philosopher, the explorer of sub-cultures, the voice on the "West".
When I began this book, I wanted to love Pamuk. Through his interviews and talks, the reviews of his books, and my experience with Snow, I have made some strong opinions about him, which I wanted to change in the course of reading this novel. The opinions remain unscathed, so far, but I almost liked him.
Some observations so far:
1. Osman and Janan are too similar to Ka and Ipek: the male hero (overtly) sentimental, sensitive, vulnerable. The female hero mysterious and angelic.
2. Young people masturbate and watch Porno. Pamuk's insistence related to the religious/moral weather in Turkey?
3. His novel(s) is(/are) superbly planned, writing lacks precision.
Too many words (bad), too many themes (good), too many layers (awesome).
4. Pamuk is IMPORTANT. Political reasons. He has contributed tremendously to the postmodern literature (been an avant-garde?) but his voice - where it comes form and what it says - is too crucial in our times.
The New Life was a rage in Turkey. What does that mean? Some people picked up this book and their whole life was changed.
5. I am a bad reader. This book, that I will finish in about 3 weeks, will need at least three more weeks of re-reading (and brooding) to be able to even appreciate or denounce the work. All I am able to achieve in my first reading is reaching closer to the end.
6. I will never be able to love Pamuk the writer. Have immense respect, awe, for Pamuk the conjurer, the engineer of ideas, the political philosopher, the explorer of sub-cultures, the voice on the "West".
September 13, 2020
Thank God I am done. I love you still, Orhan, but right now I do not want to read anything else from you. For a good while. That was bordering on torture at times. Yet somehow you would be redeemed right when I was about to throw it away. Only you.
Read
March 9, 2019Não li na íntegra. Desisti algures ao tropeçar nos mortos e feridos dos múltiplos acidentes relatados. Pamuk parecia obcecado com o tema. Ainda bem que já havia lido "A Mulher de Cabelo Ruivo", que adorei e recomendo.
March 31, 2021
2,5'tan 3. 🙄
June 8, 2023
چندفصل آخرکتاب برایم جالب ترازمطالعه فصلهای قبلی بود. تصورمیکنم احتمالا " مطالعه کتاب به زبان اصلی ، دربردارنده حفظ انشای تغزلی وتوصیفی آن و درک وجذب ولذت بیشتری باشد. درحقیقت برای من مطالعه فصول اول دلچسب نبود.ولی چندفصل آخر ارزش چهارستاره راداشت.بازی بازمان ، نگاه پست مدرن ، بی اعتباری ونسبیت ارزشها و بیهوده جدی گرفتن ..
باخودمیگفتم قاطی شدن با جماعت برایم خوب است ، یک کاسه سوپ میخورم ، سرم رابالذت های ملموس دنیا گرم میکنم وبه جای زل زدن به گذشته ، چراغ نوربالای عقل گرای ذهنم را به طرف آینده میگیرم وخودم راجمع وجورمیکنم
باخودمیگفتم قاطی شدن با جماعت برایم خوب است ، یک کاسه سوپ میخورم ، سرم رابالذت های ملموس دنیا گرم میکنم وبه جای زل زدن به گذشته ، چراغ نوربالای عقل گرای ذهنم را به طرف آینده میگیرم وخودم راجمع وجورمیکنم
October 11, 2019
Bazı kitaplar vardır, okuyunca hayatın değişmez belki ama okurken muhteşem bir ızdırap çekersin ve mazoşistçe bir hisle zevk alırsın okurken. Orhan Pamuk'un 'Yeni Hayat'ı da tam olarak böyle bir kitap. Beyninin sınırlarını zorlayarak yeryüzünün en güzel işkencesini çektirerek okutuyor cümleler kendini. Bazen ne demek istediğini anlayamıyor, zorlanıyorum ve bu bile kitabı başlı başına sevmem için bir neden oluveriyor. Orhan Pamuk kesinlikle edebiyat büyücüsü. Her defasında kitaplarını elime aldığımda bu sefer neyle karşılaşacağım heyecanını veren yegane yazar.
January 6, 2020
Bu kitabı Kara Kitap'tan sonra okuma tavsiyesini ilk cümle olarak şuraya iliştirdim farz edin, çünkü biliyorsunuz ki bir kitap okursunuz ve hayatınıza "etki eder". Yeni Hayat, Pamuk'un diğer kitaplarıyla kıyaslanamayacak türden bir iç döküş gibi görünüp manevi dünya üzerine bir deneme okuyormuş hissine sürüklüyor.
Soyut kavramlar üzerine yazmanın zorluğu, melek imgesi kullanmanın teferruatı ve yazarın tüm bunları oturttuğu -mizah yönü dahi olan- postmodern olarak nitelendirilebilecek zemin, bu yapının mimarı olsa olsa Orhan Pamuk'tur dedirtiyor. Bir yerden sonra gözünüze batmamaya başlayan yazım hataları, romanın özellikle sonuna doğru gitmiş bulunduğu (yoruma açık) dini yönelim, yazarın bazı marka veya kişiler için bulduğu yer yer rahatsız edici takma isimler (Erken Varan, Şah Şaşırdı...) gibi noktaları elbette ki bir kenara bırakacak olursak, sayfa 192'de de açıklandığı üzere beslendiği kaynaklar açısından da nefis bir metinlerarası eser.
Özellikle RILKE RAINER-MARIA'nın Duino Ağıtları'ndan esinleniş şekli bile Pamuk'un iyi bir yazar olmadan önce çok sağlam bir okur olduğunu yine, yeniden hatırlatıyor. Üstüne bir de Türk Edebiyatı'nı da dünyadaki örnekleri gibi ele geçirmiş bulunan, baş karakterleri "drama kralları ve kraliçeleri" olan, yazarlarını "Çehov taklitçileri" olarak isimlendirebileceğimiz acıdan beslenen ve dünyadaki en büyük acının kendisininki olduğunu düşünen insanları konu alan edebiyat türüne yönelik eleştirisini kitaba yerleştiriş biçimi ayrıca bir hayranlık sebebi olmuştur.
Yazarın kitapla ilgili en yerinde önerisini de aşina olunması adına burada bırakacağım:
"Okursan eğlenirsin, inanırsan hayatın kayar."
"O ülkeye giderken kendine dönersin, kitabi okuyorum sanırken yeniden yazarsın, yardım ediyorum derken yaralarsın...İnsanların çoğu aslında ne yeni bir hayat isterler, ne de yeni bir dünya."
Soyut kavramlar üzerine yazmanın zorluğu, melek imgesi kullanmanın teferruatı ve yazarın tüm bunları oturttuğu -mizah yönü dahi olan- postmodern olarak nitelendirilebilecek zemin, bu yapının mimarı olsa olsa Orhan Pamuk'tur dedirtiyor. Bir yerden sonra gözünüze batmamaya başlayan yazım hataları, romanın özellikle sonuna doğru gitmiş bulunduğu (yoruma açık) dini yönelim, yazarın bazı marka veya kişiler için bulduğu yer yer rahatsız edici takma isimler (Erken Varan, Şah Şaşırdı...) gibi noktaları elbette ki bir kenara bırakacak olursak, sayfa 192'de de açıklandığı üzere beslendiği kaynaklar açısından da nefis bir metinlerarası eser.
Özellikle RILKE RAINER-MARIA'nın Duino Ağıtları'ndan esinleniş şekli bile Pamuk'un iyi bir yazar olmadan önce çok sağlam bir okur olduğunu yine, yeniden hatırlatıyor. Üstüne bir de Türk Edebiyatı'nı da dünyadaki örnekleri gibi ele geçirmiş bulunan, baş karakterleri "drama kralları ve kraliçeleri" olan, yazarlarını "Çehov taklitçileri" olarak isimlendirebileceğimiz acıdan beslenen ve dünyadaki en büyük acının kendisininki olduğunu düşünen insanları konu alan edebiyat türüne yönelik eleştirisini kitaba yerleştiriş biçimi ayrıca bir hayranlık sebebi olmuştur.
Yazarın kitapla ilgili en yerinde önerisini de aşina olunması adına burada bırakacağım:
"Okursan eğlenirsin, inanırsan hayatın kayar."
"O ülkeye giderken kendine dönersin, kitabi okuyorum sanırken yeniden yazarsın, yardım ediyorum derken yaralarsın...İnsanların çoğu aslında ne yeni bir hayat isterler, ne de yeni bir dünya."
May 3, 2020
Çok eskiden okuduğum bir Orhan Pamuk romanı beni tekrardan çağırdı. Uzun zaman önce bir sahaftan aldığım kitabı okurken, hem kitabı ne kadar özlediğimi hatırladım, hem de içerisinde beni bekleyen bir sürpriz çıktı.
Her zaman eski sahafiye kitapları toplamayı severim, sıfır kitap almaktan ziyade. İçlerinde hep bir yaşanmışlık oluyor. Bazen kenarında yazılan bir tarih, bazen notlar, bazen altı çizili cümleler, bazen kurutulmuş çiçekler.
Kitabı açtığımda içerisine hemen tarih atılmış; 15 EKİM 1994 -SSA- diye. Kim okudu daha önce bu kitabı diye düşünürken kitap içerisinde zaten kayboldum. Zaten kitabında ilk cümlesi ‘’Bir gün bir kitap okudum ve bütün hayatım değişti.’’ Kitabın ortalarına doğru da iki tane muhteşem fotoğraf çıktı. Kimdi acaba onlar? Kitaba tarih atanın ailesi mi yoksa kitap el değiştirirken başkası mı koydu? Kafamda sorularla kitabı bir solukta bitirdim.
Orhan Pamuk kitaplarını bizim dilimizde yazdığı için çok şanslıyız.
Her zaman eski sahafiye kitapları toplamayı severim, sıfır kitap almaktan ziyade. İçlerinde hep bir yaşanmışlık oluyor. Bazen kenarında yazılan bir tarih, bazen notlar, bazen altı çizili cümleler, bazen kurutulmuş çiçekler.
Kitabı açtığımda içerisine hemen tarih atılmış; 15 EKİM 1994 -SSA- diye. Kim okudu daha önce bu kitabı diye düşünürken kitap içerisinde zaten kayboldum. Zaten kitabında ilk cümlesi ‘’Bir gün bir kitap okudum ve bütün hayatım değişti.’’ Kitabın ortalarına doğru da iki tane muhteşem fotoğraf çıktı. Kimdi acaba onlar? Kitaba tarih atanın ailesi mi yoksa kitap el değiştirirken başkası mı koydu? Kafamda sorularla kitabı bir solukta bitirdim.
Orhan Pamuk kitaplarını bizim dilimizde yazdığı için çok şanslıyız.
November 25, 2015
acayip bir şey ya. kamyon çarpmış gibi oluyor insan. en saf haliyle edebiyat bu olsa gerek. kara kitap'ı okurken de böyle olmuştu, okumuyor da yaşıyorsunuz sanki. insanın damarlarına giriyor kitap.
December 20, 2017
Yeni Hayat gerçekten özel bir vaka.
March 6, 2010
After reading the opening sentence of the New Life, "I read a book one day and my whole life was changed," I wondered whether reading The New Life itself was going to change my life.
This is the story of Osman, an engineering student, who becomes obsessed with a book and falls in love with a girl, Janan, who shares the same obsession. This novel is mainly the story of their journey through Turkey, going aimlessly from city to city, searching for this new life promised by the book.
At some point, as a reader, we doubt about their sanity, and we wonder what the real meaning of this mystical journey is? Is Pamuk the modern literary version of a whirling dervish looking for God or the meaning of life or one's self like Sufis? Or does this new life is all about an identity crisis, like one of the favorite themes of Pamuk?
Could it be that Osman's wandering represents Turkey and its tormented historical journey to reach a point where the never ending conflict and contradiction between the East and the West would finally reach an end?
Again, like all his other novels, the new life is not an easy read, but it is full of poetic philosophy and ambiguous dilemmas, and this was what I liked the most. Because I was tempted to put the book down every few pages, and like tasting a good wine, I had to ponder about the underlayer meaning of what I had just read.
In my case, as much as Pamuk has changed my life with each of his novels, I have to confess that I have also transformed his words because of my own particular point of view. The beauty of Pamuk's work is that whatever conclusion any reader might reach, nothing in his work is ordinary. Each of us is going to read the book through our own eyes, and changing it because of who we are, as if each reader has to rewrite this whole journey ... and this is Orhan Pamuk's strength.
This is the story of Osman, an engineering student, who becomes obsessed with a book and falls in love with a girl, Janan, who shares the same obsession. This novel is mainly the story of their journey through Turkey, going aimlessly from city to city, searching for this new life promised by the book.
At some point, as a reader, we doubt about their sanity, and we wonder what the real meaning of this mystical journey is? Is Pamuk the modern literary version of a whirling dervish looking for God or the meaning of life or one's self like Sufis? Or does this new life is all about an identity crisis, like one of the favorite themes of Pamuk?
Could it be that Osman's wandering represents Turkey and its tormented historical journey to reach a point where the never ending conflict and contradiction between the East and the West would finally reach an end?
Again, like all his other novels, the new life is not an easy read, but it is full of poetic philosophy and ambiguous dilemmas, and this was what I liked the most. Because I was tempted to put the book down every few pages, and like tasting a good wine, I had to ponder about the underlayer meaning of what I had just read.
In my case, as much as Pamuk has changed my life with each of his novels, I have to confess that I have also transformed his words because of my own particular point of view. The beauty of Pamuk's work is that whatever conclusion any reader might reach, nothing in his work is ordinary. Each of us is going to read the book through our own eyes, and changing it because of who we are, as if each reader has to rewrite this whole journey ... and this is Orhan Pamuk's strength.
February 24, 2012
'I read a book one day and my whole life was changed. Even on the first page I was so affected by the book's intensity I felt my body sever itself and pull away from the chair where I sat reading the book that lay before me on the table.' Light surging from its pages illumines his face: 'Its incandescence dazzled my intellect but also endowed it with brilliant lucidity.' The book seems to be about him, so that 'my point of view was transformed by the book, and the book was transformed by my point of view.'
Pamuk is a writer that helps me understand why I like reading; for the discovery of ideas, cultures, language, worlds, and most importantly, self. When reading his novels, the space and things around me just disappear. His plot lines are at times tenuous, something seen peripherally, weaving in and out of focus. I don't read Pamuk for the pleasure of a well-crafted story-line (though I do find the story-lines well-crafted). I read him for his style. He continually pulls me into his writing. I can't leave his books alone once started and when finished, cannot easily forget them.
'A good book is something that reminds us of the whole world - Perhaps that’s how every book is, or what each and every book ought to be.'
In The New Life, Osman (maybe that's his name), reads a book (also called The New Life) that completely changes his life and propels him on a quest to find the meaning of the book, and life. Along the way he falls in love, aimlessly travels on buses, visits bus crashes to walk among the dead and dying, hunts down spies code-named after watch brands, and he speaks to the Angel for guidance and absolution.
'Some went into solitude with the book, but at the threshold of a serious breakdown they were able to open up to the world and shake off their affliction. There were also those who had crises and tantrums upon reading the book, accusing their friends and lovers of being oblivious to the world in the book, of not knowing or desiring the book, and thereby criticising them mercilessly for not being anything like the persons in the book’s universe.'
.
.
.
DAMN! I wrote the above with 50 pages left to go. Well, I just had lunch unknowingly eating a chicken pie as I pored through the final pages. When I closed the book I found myself fighting back tears, not tears for the characters in the book, tears for myself. It's more than puzzling to me. Magical words these were. And although I immersed myself in the first 250 pages enjoying every single word I was not fully aware what the story was about. I had a hint. I imagined. I guessed. And then the last 50 pages. And then the last 2 pages. Nothing is black and white. I still can't tell you the secret to the mystery of The New Life. I only know that this book hit a nerve with me and I can only now appreciate Osman's (if that's his name) opening line... 'I read a book one day and my whole life was changed' and understand what it feels like to have 'my body sever itself and pull away from the chair where I sat reading the book that lay before me on the table'. I'm still shaking...
.
.
.
The book is a labyrinth. There are hidden traps. The words deceive. The words tease. Pamuk plays games with text from other books by Jules Verne, Dante, Rilke, Ib'n Arabi... Comparing Pamuk to Borges? I can understand. This is not a book that I think many would appreciate or enjoy. It is filled with thoughts on Westernization, Islamic fundamentalism, Turkish nationalism... Ultimately, 'what is important [of a book:] is your own perception, what you read into it...'
Pamuk is a writer that helps me understand why I like reading; for the discovery of ideas, cultures, language, worlds, and most importantly, self. When reading his novels, the space and things around me just disappear. His plot lines are at times tenuous, something seen peripherally, weaving in and out of focus. I don't read Pamuk for the pleasure of a well-crafted story-line (though I do find the story-lines well-crafted). I read him for his style. He continually pulls me into his writing. I can't leave his books alone once started and when finished, cannot easily forget them.
'A good book is something that reminds us of the whole world - Perhaps that’s how every book is, or what each and every book ought to be.'
In The New Life, Osman (maybe that's his name), reads a book (also called The New Life) that completely changes his life and propels him on a quest to find the meaning of the book, and life. Along the way he falls in love, aimlessly travels on buses, visits bus crashes to walk among the dead and dying, hunts down spies code-named after watch brands, and he speaks to the Angel for guidance and absolution.
'Some went into solitude with the book, but at the threshold of a serious breakdown they were able to open up to the world and shake off their affliction. There were also those who had crises and tantrums upon reading the book, accusing their friends and lovers of being oblivious to the world in the book, of not knowing or desiring the book, and thereby criticising them mercilessly for not being anything like the persons in the book’s universe.'
.
.
.
DAMN! I wrote the above with 50 pages left to go. Well, I just had lunch unknowingly eating a chicken pie as I pored through the final pages. When I closed the book I found myself fighting back tears, not tears for the characters in the book, tears for myself. It's more than puzzling to me. Magical words these were. And although I immersed myself in the first 250 pages enjoying every single word I was not fully aware what the story was about. I had a hint. I imagined. I guessed. And then the last 50 pages. And then the last 2 pages. Nothing is black and white. I still can't tell you the secret to the mystery of The New Life. I only know that this book hit a nerve with me and I can only now appreciate Osman's (if that's his name) opening line... 'I read a book one day and my whole life was changed' and understand what it feels like to have 'my body sever itself and pull away from the chair where I sat reading the book that lay before me on the table'. I'm still shaking...
.
.
.
The book is a labyrinth. There are hidden traps. The words deceive. The words tease. Pamuk plays games with text from other books by Jules Verne, Dante, Rilke, Ib'n Arabi... Comparing Pamuk to Borges? I can understand. This is not a book that I think many would appreciate or enjoy. It is filled with thoughts on Westernization, Islamic fundamentalism, Turkish nationalism... Ultimately, 'what is important [of a book:] is your own perception, what you read into it...'
February 11, 2018
Ho letto con piacere il "Castello bianco", "Il mio nome è rosso", "La casa del silenzio" e mi sono innamorato di "Neve", ma "La nuova vita" è stato un tormento leggerlo, tanto che ho abbandonato la lettura poco dopo la metà, anche se generalmente leggo fino alla fine anche brutti libri. Il libro è noioso, scorre male, mi carica di sensazioni negative. Un vero tormento.Peccato però!
July 30, 2017
Milenyum öncesi o garip zamanda, 1999 yılında tıpkı Orhan gibi otobüs yolculukları yaparken okuduğum, tadı damağımda kalan, anadilimde okuma keyfini bana verdiği için şükrettiren, kanımca Orhan Pamuk'un yazdığı en iyi kitap. Ben kalp Yeni Hayat.
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