The Museum of Innocence by Orhan Pamuk
8.5/10
I'm so glad I persevered through the 728 pages of this book. It was hard going at times, spending a long time saying very little, but really saying a lot by the end.
Once, I was involved in a relationship which was a mistake. I stayed in it for much longer than was healthy for me, and it is one of the few regrets of my life that I wasted some years hoping it would get better. The Museum of Innocence is about something similar but more, more, more. Oh - I don't want to give anything away and spoil it for anyone, but I DO want to say that I thing she was a waste of time, and I can't see what he saw in her. Yet, towards the end of the book it transpires that some of his friends and relatives thought she was okay, and even the book's author did. But I could see no evidence in the whole book that she was a nice person, or that she had any real depth of feeling. I think she was a chancer, and he wasted his life on her.
This is a book that made me think about obsession, self-centredness and people not being able to control a single-minded passion. Or can people take that control, but they don't, preferring to wallow?
I learned some things about the Turkish way of life and Turkish culture. The book portrays Turkey in the 1970s and 1980s as being on the interface of Western and Eastern manners and trends.
Would I recommend it? Yes - to those who have the perseverance to keep going. Would I read more of his? Yes - but I'd like a shorter one, I think.
In complete contrast, I'm listening to Martin Chuzzlewit (Dickens) in the car. Another lengthy tome .....
8.5/10
I'm so glad I persevered through the 728 pages of this book. It was hard going at times, spending a long time saying very little, but really saying a lot by the end.
Once, I was involved in a relationship which was a mistake. I stayed in it for much longer than was healthy for me, and it is one of the few regrets of my life that I wasted some years hoping it would get better. The Museum of Innocence is about something similar but more, more, more. Oh - I don't want to give anything away and spoil it for anyone, but I DO want to say that I thing she was a waste of time, and I can't see what he saw in her. Yet, towards the end of the book it transpires that some of his friends and relatives thought she was okay, and even the book's author did. But I could see no evidence in the whole book that she was a nice person, or that she had any real depth of feeling. I think she was a chancer, and he wasted his life on her.
This is a book that made me think about obsession, self-centredness and people not being able to control a single-minded passion. Or can people take that control, but they don't, preferring to wallow?
I learned some things about the Turkish way of life and Turkish culture. The book portrays Turkey in the 1970s and 1980s as being on the interface of Western and Eastern manners and trends.
Would I recommend it? Yes - to those who have the perseverance to keep going. Would I read more of his? Yes - but I'd like a shorter one, I think.
In complete contrast, I'm listening to Martin Chuzzlewit (Dickens) in the car. Another lengthy tome .....
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