I visited Turkey, but not in Istanbul. It's one of those iconic places that keeps coming in travel plans, but then gets overlooked Perhaps because his name fits so easily into my thoughts that I convince myself that I've already been there. Having just read Orhan Pamuk Black Book, that illusion will be orders of magnitude stronger. Orhan Pamuk won the 2006 Nobel Prize for literature and this seems to have rejected new translations of his work, new versions which hopefully can widen his readership in the Anglo-Saxon.
The Black Book is a gigantic task. And, in the how I suspect most readers would understand the term, there is no plot. Suffice it to say that Galip wakes up one morning and his wife disappeared. He assumes she went in search of her first husband, Celal, a well known columnist for newspapers. Galip sets off in search Celal and, he assumes, his wife, but strangely the journalist has also disappeared. As a means to assist in locating the two missing persons, Galip plunges into life Celal, his writing and, gradually, his very identity. Indeed, he became the person he seeks. He reread his work, past and discovers unknown things on hers, his wife and the past of her ex-husband. Until then, however, we can not be sure if we are dealing with memories of Celal, interpretations Galip them, Galip rework them, or, indeed, Galip own words presented as if they were those of Celal.
But the plot in the black book is almost irrelevant. This is not a book you read to see what happens. It is a book that is full flavored, experience and history, and parties drive over large portions of the three.
Byzantium, Constantinople, Istanbul - Let's face it, there no other city is on land that has been named three times and where, every time that name has passed into the language as an expression of political, strategic, religious and economic pre-eminence. It is a city that connects continents, ideologies and religions. Nowhere else on earth has a greater demand the essence of humanity than Istanbul. And yet modern Istanbul is a Turkish city, and perhaps its most fascinating is its potential to reflect the contemporary debates on religion against secularism, tradition and modernity, imperial past against current world.
The Black Book has thirty-six chapters, each with its own title and preface quotation. The form, at least in part, is content, in that each chapter can be read as if was an article written by Celal or impersonating Galip Celal. There is no linear narrative. We experience what inspired the writer and there is no order of time or place. But we feel we are in this city. We feel alive in its history, what whatsoever. And we feel we know the contemporary debates about identity and its people. The city is the center of everything in the book, with its multiple histories and loyalties mixed in the crucible of its contemporary form.
Throughout, Galip finds it gradually became his career, Celal. He trade identities and roles, but never permanently, never to be sure. In this way, the characters become the city, whose sense of place and the multiplicity of identities through the whole, reflecting the apparent confusion of his work - and humanity - the complexity. But People are ultimately always welcomed by some aspect of the city - and humanity - nature multi-faceted.
The Black Book is a work that demands to be read, but not because it is anyway difficult to read, even impenetrable. I've never been to Istanbul, but as the book I think it will be an experience that once tried, will require to be re-visited.
About the Author:
Philip Spires
Author of Mission, an African novel set in Kenya
http://www.philipspires.co.uk
Michael, a missionary priest, has just killed Munyasya. It was an accident, but Mulonzya, a politician, exploits the tragedy for his own ends. Boniface, a church worker, has just lost his child. He did not make it to the hospital in time, possibly because Michael went to the Mission to retrieve a letter from Janet, a teacher, and the priest’s neighbour. It is Munyasya who has the last laugh, however.
Article Source: ArticlesBase.com - Philip Spires Reviews the Black Book by Orhan Pamuk
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