A Strangeness in My Mind: A novel

The novels of Pamuk, winner of the 2006 Nobel Prize, are known for complex, dark interwoven stories with layers of cultural and political themes that drive away the vast American reading public. In “Strangeness,” his first novel written after receiving the prize, Pamuk tells us a simple story of the life of a poor street vendor in Istanbul. The cultural and political themes and the massive changes in Turkey are still the enveloping action swirling around Mevlut, the vendor, but Mevlut’s life is filled with the characters of his family as he struggles with joy, tragedy, guilt, desire for respect and finally the need to be surrounded by family in his later years. Mevlut accepts and enjoys his struggling daily life as he meekly avoids the sturm of politics and confrontation of corruption, quietly nodding agreeably or closing his eyes, in his mind seeing himself as one thing but presenting himself differently.The story follows Mevlut from age 13 to 53. His father and he are part of the massive post-war migration from the eastern rural villages, both communist-atheist Kurds and Muslim Turks, mixing with the nationalists and secularists of Istanbul when the city grew from three million to thirteen million. Mevlut falls in love when he sees a beautiful twelve-year-old girl at his cousin’s wedding, writes love letters to her over several years but never meets her. Later, planning to elope with her without having met her, Mevlut is tricked by another cousin into eloping with the girl’s plain older sister. He develops a strong love for his mistaken bride over the years as they raise a family, but the subtle story of the changing values of the Middle-East and the impact of those changes on Mevlut’s life and family raise the simple story to the Middle-East version of Updike and Roth.Pamuk plays with the theme of determinism: the impact of Kismet, fate, and the changing environment caused by the overwhelming impact of western values and culture, particularly on Mevlut’s wife, Rayiha, and later their two daughters. The old themes of Dostoyevsky, the clash of East and West values, permeate Pamuk’s novels, but “Strangeness” is different. It focuses more on the single character and his wife trying to survive a changing world.A meek man, Mevlut, like most people in the world, is concerned about the survival and love of his family. He is not a political man, although politics swirl around him daily, or a devout Muslim, but he culturally follows the traditions of Islam and turns to religion during his periods of stress and tragedy. His meekness, his inability to confront the government bureaucracy and his wife’s cry to control her life, all clashing with the old Middle-East traditions, results in tragedy that Mevlut simply accepts as his fate, never acknowledging any responsibility. Mevlut thus becomes the common man in the Middle-East, ignoring or accepting the corruption, the human rights violations in the name of crime prevention and stability, the lack of freedom of speech in the name of nationalism, the subtle repression of women, even by a once secular state.This wonderful story of one simple man’s struggle with life seems to be a major change for Pamuk. It’s filled with metaphor and symbolism of feral dogs and conflicting cultures and politics covering his world with posters of their opinions and some will find the length, the numerous characters and rambling narrative tedious. I found myself skimming some parts but still mesmerized by the compelling story. Maybe as he ages, Pamuk will focus more on the emotions of the individual as he does in “Strangeness” and less on the conflicts of ideology as in “Snow.”

There are two technical oddities in this book. First, it begins with a brief description of an event that chronologically occurred in the middle of the story, then goes to the beginning of the story and remains in temporal order throughout the rest of the book. Second, most of the novel describes the life of Mevlut, the protagonist, and is written in third person when doing so; however, there are numerous and scattered passages of first-person narrative wherein various characters describe events to the reader and those characters are clearly conscious of the fact that they’re writing. Yet, it is never explained why they wrote at all or to whom they thought they were writing. And, there is no first-person narrative from the perspective of Mevlut. These two oddities appear at first to be little more than artistic flourishes. But, as the story is told, various reasons for these oddities present themselves.Mevlut was born in a village and moved to Istanbul to live with his father at the age of twelve. Mevlut’s father was a street vendor of yogurt during the day and boza—a sour or sweet slightly alcoholic drink—at night. Mevlut learned the street vendor’s trade and spent the rest of his life walking the city streets with a wooden yoke across his back with two trays of boza strung from each end. At the wedding of a cousin, Mevlut’s eyes briefly met the eyes of a girl with whom he fell into a romantic obsession. He sent the girl love letters for several years, addressing them to Rayiha because he thought that was her name. Mevlut’s cousin Suleyman helped him run away with Rayiha by driving him to her father’s house in a stormy night. She was waiting in the yard and ran into Suleyman’s van where Mevlut was waiting for her. As they drove away, lightening flashed and Mevlut could see that Rayiha was not the girl whose eyes he saw at the wedding but her older sister. He married Rayiha nonetheless, and came to love her more than anything he ever loved.Mevlut’s life appears on the surface to be aimless, submissive to circumstance, and slightly cowardly and daft. His career never advanced beyond selling street food and boza except for humble service jobs handed to him by friends and family. He continued to sell boza long after Istanbul lost its taste for the drink and turned to the stronger “raki” liquor, and long after even those who continued to drink boza would expect to purchase it from a street vendor rather than from a grocery store. But, it is clear from Mevlut’s observations of people and life and from his persistently courteous and respectful behavior that he was not daft, nor was he a coward. Rather, Mevlut was captivated by the mysteries of life. He wasn’t devoutly religious, but he provided free boza to a holy man in exchange for the chance to hear the man speak on esoteric matters such as intent in words and intent in the heart. While perusing an Islamic magazine, Mevlut saw a picture of a cemetery that haunted his mind when he walked the dark streets selling boza. Although he knew that he intended to write love letters to Rayiha’s younger sister, as the years passed he seemed to become less sure of this. He questioned whether his true intent in writing the letters was reflected in his thoughts at the time he wrote them or in the words of the letters themselves. In the end, Mevlut came to realize the true reason he walked the city streets at night to sell boza, even when he no longer needed the money.The book has flaws, but they’re minor. For example, the author’s description of the contractual machinations concerning the destruction of Mevlut and other’s houses to make way for modern apartment buildings was discussed at length, but most readers will have difficulty understanding exactly what was ultimately gained and lost, and why. Furthermore, toward the end of the book the author gets slightly redundant and a bit sloppy in his description of how drastically Istanbul changed through the decades of Mevlut’s residency, and the fact that Mevlut continuously took note of this change. Despite some minor imperfections, the novel overall is beautifully written, filled with sympathetic characters, and evocative of philosophical questions.

As a person who has spent much of his professional life working in informal settlements around the world, although not in the gecekondo of Istanbul, I found this book beautifully crafted, putting together the stages of such settlements, from land invasion to middle income mass housing area, where the residents transformed from yoghurt and 'bozo' sellers to prosperous contractors and developers, while at the same time, the magic of the simpler life and the old historic core of the city is destroyed. By seeing it through the honest simple eyes of Mavluk, who stands as an uncritical observer, the transformation of the area, its people and the politics of the country is told such that it becomes clearer and more understandable. The divisions that currently rack Turkey are also understandable, even if the story does not take us to the present coup. I am sure, had it been written two years later one would have received a better understanding of the strength of the feelings on both sides. Reading the book at this time when historic actions were taking place in Turkey has helped me understand the thinking behind the mass support that the President has, and at the same time, the deep fear of others who fear the islamisation of the country. This book is on other levels a tale of great love, one of obsession, one of a passion that grows from mistaken identity and how fate resolves the quandary faced by the hero. It is a long tale but simply told and hence very easy to read, in fact a beautiful book, and one when I first decided to buy, I didnt expect to be so good!

This is a long and slow read. The rhythm is oriental. It gives a very good description of the times and customs of Turkey. Tradition seems to prevail and is well enough rooted to survive turbulent times. This a a book for those who want to understand the evolution of Istanbul in the late xxth and the beginning of the XXI c

Um magnífico passeio por Istambul, dos anos 1950 aos anos 2000, observando de perto as mudanças culturais e sociais através dos olhos de Mevlut.

Really a nice read. You become mevlut. You feel what he feels. The book lingers in your mind a long time even after the book is finished.

Forse il romanzo più bello e riuscito di questo scrittore.Le vicissitudini di un uomo semplice nelle mani del destino, mentre la città cresce e si trasforma attorno a lui e alla sua famiglia.Da non perdere

Je n'en suis qu'au début, mais déjà l'intrigue démarre très fort! Et je ne suis pas une critique impartiale, j'adore tous les romans de Pamuk. Je les lis et relis! Je ne sais pas, le style, l'ambiance recréee, ça donne vraiment envie de découvrir Istambul (alors qu'avant je ne pensais pas particulièrement à cette ville). Le roman est gros, tant mieux, il durera plus lomgtemps (pas cher en occasion, que demander de plus?!). Et ô bonheur, un autre roman suit, "the red haired woman" ! Cool!!!)