Reviews of Snow by Pamuk

Pamuk has hitherto been an acquired taste in the West; but this sprawling, emotionally charged story, with its flashes of black comedy, could well secure him the readership he deserves. (...) To a Western reader, the logic of events will be as foreign as the cock-fights which seem to be the main after-dark entertainment in Kars. But in the excellent, sardonic Pamuk, they have a first-rate guide to the social tensions of provincial Turkey. - David Robson, Daily Telegraph

Snow in March

I finished Snow by Orhan Pamuk. The love story between Ka and Ipeck is fraught with self doubt and passion. It took me so long to read that I almost had a need to go back and re-read to understand all the relationships in the book. As beautiful as it was in places, better editing and perhaps a better job at translation could have perfected it. In translating, to perfect the beauty of the work, the essence of the word into English is better than word for word translating. Could it be that multiple meanings of the Turkish could have been better in a different translation? Some of the political story in the middle of the book was unnecessary, but the political realtionship between Blue and Turgut Bey's family was intregal to the story. Snow is what is keeping the city with its revolution cut off from the rest of the country, but it is the beauty of the snow that is also causing Ka to write his poetry again. The snow is actually hiding the poverty of the town. The small town of Kars, Turkey, is caught in its spiral of unemployment, poverty and general decay. Many of the buildings are in disrepair, empty and dark in the city being covered up with the snow. In the dark lonely city the reader is  shown the striking contrast between the old dark teahouses with few visitors and the homes with satellite dishes streaming television images to groups of family members as examples of life for the residents of Kars. Ka, once a political exile living in Germany, has returned to cover the story of the suicide girls. He is a poet who once had revolutionary ideas, is more interested in pursing his own idea of happiness now. His religion is unlike the radical Islam that the young Turks in Kars are interested in. This book could be compared to Pasternak's Doctor Zhivago, the story of the poet looking for love in the Russian Revolution. "Where Pamuk really excels in this novel is in the deftness with which he allows these forces to tug at one another. Like Dostoevsky, the literary forebear whose spirit haunts this book most palpably, Pamuk appears to value politics, among other things, as a great opportunity to let his characters rant in all sorts of productive ways." - Christian Caryl, The New York Review of Books New York Review of Books"

Dreamers of the Day-Dayton's Big Read

To celebrate Dayton's Big Read at the Tipp City Library we will hold our discussion of the book on Monday, March 22nd at 7 p.m. Copies of the books can be picked up at the front desk. The setting of this book is the Cairo Peace Conference in 1921. In the book we are introduced to Agnes, a former Ohio school teacher, on her first major trip of her life. The war and influenza have left her alone in the world, without a job, and enough money to embark to the Middle East to recreate the trip her sister had once taken and had written home about. Mistaken for her sister by T.E. Lawrence, she is swept up into the drama surrounding the Peace Conference. Nonfiction books to read along side this novel are T.E. Lawrence's Seven Pillars of Wisdom, Georgina Howell's 2007 book, Gertrude Bell: Queen of the Desert and Shaper of Nations, and Malcolm Brown's 2005 book Lawrence of Arabia: The Life, The Legend. These books can also be picked up at the front desk or reserved. Also recommended is the PBS special Lawrence of Arabia: the Battle for the Arab World. As much as I loved Mary Doria Russell's novel, Dreamers of the Day, I was inspired to read more of the history background to the storyline. Even the title of the book is taken from T.E. Lawrence's Seven Pillars of Wisdom, "Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that all was vanity; but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dream with open eyes, and make it possible."

Local Author visits Tipp City Library

Debra Gaskill attended our meeting of the Library Scribes at the Tipp City Library last Saturday. She came to promote her first novel, Barn Burner, and to share her experience with writing and getting published. She wrote her novel as part of her M.A. degree at Auntioch University McGregor. The meeting was productive, with many of the writers from Tipp City happy to interact with Debra. Ms. Gaskell is the Managing Editor of the Washington Court House Record Herald. Her novel is set in southwestern Ohio in the small fictional town of Jubilant Falls, home of a Christian college, and the setting of a kidnapping of a six year old little girl. Editor Addison McIntyr is beset with her own set of problems as she tries to take on the reporting of a story that hits her emotionally. The mother of the child is her close friend with child custody issues pending in her divorce proceedings. The mystery is a page-turner and well written. I am looking forward to her second novel.