by Orhan Pamuk
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Product Description
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.
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Average Customer Review:
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
 Pamuk: Turkish historian, lumpen, or exchange-student in a writing program ?, 2008-09-21
In the early 2000s, amid much publicity, writer Orhan Pamuk had left his beloved Bosphorus flat for Kars, a poor Eastern Turkish town. He was reported to have spent several weeks in a hotel there. This experience must have provided him with profound insights into the Turkish reality--which found expression in his book Snow or the Turkish "Kar" (a pun on Kars, the town where the events take place).
Snow is taken as a deliberate historical narrative providing insights into the 20th century Turkey. (The Economist declared Orhan Pamuk the "chronicler" of modern Turkey). In fact, the novel collects Pamuk's reveries. Few Turks are further from Turkish reality than Orhan Pamuk, a lumpen with a view of Istanbul's magnificient Bosphorus strait. There is a privileged elite stationed in that narrow stretch of land who fantasize about high-life in the 19th century Ottoman realm with its "pluralism" of pleasures and joys and with their backs against the crowded Istanbul streets and mainland Turkey. Needless to say Pamuk became the darling of an intelligentsia in the West who would like to see a Turkey much less the way it was imagined in 1919's Sevres treaty: Ethnic-religious tribes scattered across Anatolia governed by a puppet caliph in Istanbul. Kemal Ataturk had spoiled this dream in 1923, by creating a "little republic" in Orhan Pamuk's words. His legacy still stands in the way of the lumpen's dream. Here we have Orhan Pamuk, an agnostic and a free spirited writer--who'd most likely be persecuted as an "apostate" if "Atatürk's Little Republic" weren't in place.
Pamuk, the free spirited dreamer, is another gift of "Atatürk's Little Republic" to the Western world. He has produced, yet another novel, worthy of a C+ as a term paper for a writing program. I heard he received a Nobel for it, too. Enjoy Pamuk's Snow with a critical distance and a cup of Turkish coffee. I'd say, pick up a real Updike or a Doctorow, not a knock-off from a so-so Turkish exchange student.
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
 Snow lacks imagination and is utterly BORING, 2008-08-10
I'm half way through the book reading it English (I'm Czech myself though). And I must say that Pamuk is utterly BORING BORING BORING, self-righteous, snobbish, and totally lacking any imagination. We're just reading his accurate, detailed notes that he scribbled down somewhere on his knee after rushing to the cafe (similarly to his character Ka) so that he didn't forget how the atmosphere outside felt and how the streets looked like.
His recurring imags of snow is described in such a banal way... He's very incosistent in his writing...and his story is utterly unbelievable. In the beginning Ka hates German language and states that he never learned it. 200 pages later he makes up a story about being in the German reporter's house where they were so kind and spoke Enlish to him anytime he couldn't understand German. Ka is having a conversation with Ipek in a cafe...she tells him - look there's a director of the education institute sitting over there. No mention of anyone else sitting with him at the table. After a while Ka sees a man suddenly rising from his chair and pointing a gun at the director, mumbling something and shooting him. The next chapter that follows is called The First and Last Conversation between the Murderer and his Victim and 11 pages (!) of a dialogue follow! (The whole time the guy is pointing a gun at him and of course no one in the cafe notices this).
Pamuk simply cannot write and his characters are completely flat. This is my first novel by him and I'm still hoping it gets better towards the end, I hate to put down books unfinished, but I must say it is hard not to with this one. I was curious since Pamuk won the Nobel Prize but I keep wondering why??? Just because a writer writes political fiction doesn't mean he's a good writer! His politics and proclamations..rather a several confused manifestos which this book is turning into simply are not good enough for a literature masterpiece (which is what Nobel prize winners are meant to be writing in the first place right?)
Snow just leaves you untouched and cold.
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
 I love this book, 2008-07-19
Although it was kind of hard to get into at first, it was well worth it. Orhan Pamuk really takes on modern day issues in this book, and it helps you understand that part of the world a little better.
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Terrible waste of time, 2008-07-07
I was looking forward to reading a book by Orhan Pamuk after I saw his interview on Charlie Rose. Now I am convinced that his acclaim and yes, even his Nobel prize, have more to do with his subject matter than with the quality of his writing. But surely there must be other avenues to gain an insight on the political and cultural tensions in Turkey! This book was simply too painful to read. The writing was extremely awkward (this is an actual quote, "Let us take advantage of this lull to whisper a few biographical details....We'll have a lot to say about melancholy later on." You don't say!) and repetitive (how many times can you mention the snow? Yes, we get it!). Only one character was even half-way developed (Ka, the main character), and he is so shallow, pretentious, and frankly, boring, that you can't wait to finish the book just to get the torture over with (yes, I finished it, hoping it would redeem itself in the end; it didn't). The character of Ipek (Ka's love interest) was a laughable love-object stereotype (yes, she's beautiful, we get it; there's no need to repeat that fifty times). Other characters are simply mouthpieces for the religious/political views they are supposed to represent. Please save your time and read something else!
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
 Snow falling on Turkey, 2008-06-25
If the contents of the book didn't happen in the real world, this book could be read as a work of Science Fiction or even extreme fiction. Unfortunately, the ideas and practices of what is written happen in the real world. Even though, this part of the world is so remote from my reality, that it seems almost like a science fiction: such issue as whether or not to wear a head scarf, face cover in public or school. Cables are strung and hooked up ad hock through out the neighbor hood just to c...more If the contents of the book didn't happen in the real world, this book could be read as a work of Science Fiction or even extreme fiction. Unfortunately, the ideas and practices of what is written happen in the real world. Even though, this part of the world is so remote from my reality, that it seems almost like a science fiction: such issue as whether or not to wear a head scarf, face cover in public or school. Cables are strung and hooked up ad hock through out the neighbor hood just to catch the live broad cast of a television show. It is almost a work of dystopia but this is the real world that Orhan Pamuk is writing about.
When reading about exotic locales, I'm often reminded of the works of Paul Bowls. He was an American who went to live in Tangiers and wrote novels about those foreign places. There is certainly an element of expatriation and distance as the narrator Ka goes back to his place of birth to explore his past relationships. While, Bowls explores cultural difference and the dangers of mixing white culture with the natives, Orphan's work takes on political and moral issues. He mixes the issue of suicide, religion, and morals with a political act. This political act seems like a fashion choice in some parts of the world, but a major rebellious act in this region. It's an all too real a premise: whether or not to be allowed to wear a head scarf and whether or not to kill oneself if one is not allowed to do so.
If it was imaged as a work of fiction or even science fiction, it would have been brilliant. Although it happens in the real world, it is even more frightening. This is a case where life is stranger then fiction and reporting straight from it with honesty and being able to see the concept of the novel in its simplicity is an amazing work of recognition.
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