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Snow

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Manufacturer: Vintage
List Price: $14.95
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Dread, yearning, identity, intrigue, the lethal chemistry between secular doubt and Islamic fanaticism–these are the elements that Orhan Pamuk anneals in this masterful, disquieting novel. An exiled poet named Ka returns to Turkey and travels to the forlorn city of Kars. His ostensible purpose is to report on a wave of suicides among religious girls forbidden to wear their head-scarves. But Ka is also drawn by his memories of the radiant Ipek, now recently divorced.
Amid blanketing snowfall and universal suspicion, Ka finds himself pursued by figures ranging from Ipek’s ex-husband to a charismatic terrorist. A lost gift returns with ecstatic suddenness. A theatrical evening climaxes in a massacre. And finding god may be the prelude to losing everything else. Touching, slyly comic, and humming with cerebral suspense, Snow is of immense relevance to our present moment.


DESCRIPTION:

Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 894.3533
EAN: 9780375706868
ISBN: 0375706860
Label: Vintage
Manufacturer: Vintage
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 480
Publication Date: 2005-07-19
Publisher: Vintage
Release Date: 2005-07-19
Studio: Vintage


SIMILAR ITEMS:

• Istanbul: Memories and the City
• My Name Is Red
• The Black Book
• The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
• The White Tiger: A Novel (Man Booker Prize)


CUSTOMER REVIEWS:

Customer Rating:
Summary: The story may stay with you after being read
Comment: "Snow" is probably what is called "an acquired taste," for us Westerners. The language and plot tend to be more "flowery" (a poor description very open to being criticized!) than most things we read in the "new world," or perhaps a bit tedious. You may not know if you like "Snow" until you get one-third through it. Unfortunately, you may not know if you DON'T like it until you are one-third through either. Therefore, you might as well read the whole story!

Orhan Pamuk goes straight at current tough topics: radical Islamism, various cultural differences and envies, democracies vs. partial democracies, West vs. East, headscarves or bare heads for women in Turkey, sex, God or no-God, religious suicide. The characters can be maddeningly indecisive, and the timeline can be hard to follow exactly. Nevertheless, we get the idea as the chapters move along. As you read though the pages, the reader will find often themselves guessing wrong on what happens next!

The story line may seem wearisome to westerners, as the various personages seem to go over and over their thoughts and fears, change feelings about the same topics at various times, especially the main character, Ka. Clearly, this was done on purpose, as Ka himself had become wearied, tentative, and sometimes vacillating. We see that he is a good, thoughtful man, yet human and changeable like the rest of us. He is a result of his experiences (or lack thereof). The story also is quite charming, and it would remain in your mind long after reading. Please go all the way through.


Customer Rating:
Summary: A very well constructed, but somewhat cold novel
Comment: This is a strange story of love, the meeting of East and West, a comment
on Turkish history and politics, and much else besides. Pamuk constructs
his story very carefully, with great attention to how the pieces of the
story, and the stories within the story relate to each other. Yet the novel
is much more - for instance the conversation between the director of the
local school and his assassin is very compelling - Pamuk is much too clever
to dismiss fundamentalist thinking outright.

This is certainly a book worth reading, but it will require some effort.
I think the translation is OK, but I have a feeling that it is not superb.

Customer Rating:
Summary: Revealing
Comment: The main character, a poet, returns to his hometown in Turkey to write a story about girls committing suicide over the right or denial to wear a headscarf. He becomes involved in the political and religious turmoil simply by being there. The story portrays the life of the poet, his love affair, and his passion to write poetry amidst the fundamentalist struggle for power.
It is a good read.

Customer Rating:
Summary: Thick, dense, rich
Comment: I read this book as part of a book club and must admit, had it not been for the hazing I would have received for not finishing it, I would have put it down after 30 pages. Pamuk's writing style is an acquired taste. And by page 50, I had acquired it. I feel greatly enlightened for having finished it. I found Pamuk's writing style to be poetic, lyrical, and challenging. Pamuk's story lines gave me a terrific sense of the complicated relationship between Turkey and Europe, specifically, and Turkey and the West, in general. Pamuk has created a rich tapestry -- part love story, part political story, part religious. "Snow" (the noun) provides numerous metaphors throughout the book; perhaps, for some readers, too many. But Pamuk's character development and description of place are terrifically powerful. If one measurement of a book is its ability to transport the reader to a different place and time, Snow succeeds beautifully.

Customer Rating:
Summary: More artsy than enjoyable
Comment: There were parts of this book that I found to be extremely beautiful, and I was really happy with how the Ka-Ipek love affair ended. But overall, I was disappointed in what I thought was going to be a sure thing.

I found that the storytelling just wasn't tight enough. Pamuk seemed to be stuffing the story to its gills with questions, and only answering half of them. The suicide girls story was completely dropped. Muhtar, Ipek's ex-husband, was dropped as a character after being featured for two chapters in the beginning. The Sunay Zaim and Blue characters were too wooden to me. I understand their supposed to be antagonists and slightly over-the-top, but they weren't satisfyingly believable. I attribute this to the fact that Ka, as a hero, was totally unlikable, a big mistake in my opinion.

I don't see these as translation problems as much as just storytelling issues. Even though there was a lot of stuff going on, the action in the story plodded. Incredibly slow! And the snow...I admit I was impressed in the beginning how many different ways he was able to describe the snow, but after a while, it was downright tedious.

This is a book that is more artsy than enjoyable. And there's a place for that I'll grant you - next to James Joyce...and not on my bookshelf.

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