reads

I was first introduced to Orhan Pamuk via "museum of innocence', a book I'd picked up innocently enough about 5 years ago. It looked fat and promising and once I began reading it, I realized it was deeply engaging in a rather enlightening way.

Enlightenment not in the form of some ground breaking philosophical movement, but as a window into another culture; more like a cultural cross section of another country, where you're not only provided a birds eye view but also thrust deep into its underlying politico socio economic imagery which runs as a background to a story that's taking place on center stage. 

It's a lot about how lives are intertwined and sometimes mired and affected both discordantly and positively. 

The canvas is small but the story keeps changing colours; running,merging, intersecting with many a rationalities and values. A stream of parallel attitudes, theories, paradox and reasonings working alongside that one story which doesn't promise to entertain, but rather deconstructs without baring any conclusions. 

The nuances are subtle and prose utterly gorgeous. He works beautifully with contradictions and its rather easy to be engulfed in his story telling. 

I'd followed up on some more of his works with 'the silent house' and 'my name is red' and picked up 'snow' while I was visiting home. It was sitting pretty on my dads bookshelf and I had to borrow it.

Is it depressing? well, it's not the kind of work of fiction that depresses you or exhilarates you. It doesn't have the kind of entertainment value that fantasy books have.. this is a different sort of read. You read it from a literature point of view and every time you surface up to breathe, you know you've etched out a few more indents added new surfaces to understanding