8.2 /10 1 Votes
Original title Kafamda Bir Tuhaflık Language Turkish Publication date 2014 Originally published December 2014 Country Turkey | 4.1/5 Goodreads Translator Ekin Oklap Publisher Yapi Kredi Yayinlari Published in English 2015 Published in english 2015 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Nominations Man Booker International Prize Similar Orhan Pamuk books, Other books | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Orhan pamuk a strangeness in my mind
A Strangeness in My Mind (Turkish: Kafamda Bir Tuhaflık) is a 2014 novel by Orhan Pamuk. It is the author's ninth novel. Knopf Doubleday published the English translation by Ekin Oklap in the U.S., while Faber & Faber published the English version in the UK.
Contents
- Orhan pamuk a strangeness in my mind
- Josh reviews a strangeness in my mind by orhan pamuk
- Characters
- Style
- Reception
- References
The story takes place in Istanbul, documenting the changes that the city underwent from 1969 to 2012. The main character is Mevlut, who originates from central Anatolia and arrives as a 12-year old boy; the course of the novel tracks his adolescence and adulthood. Mevlut gets married in 1982, and finds a lack of success in making money.
Elena Seymenliyska of The Daily Telegraph described the book as "a family saga that is as much an elegy to Istanbul as to its generations of adopted residents." Publishers Weekly stated that "what really stands out is Pamuk's treatment of Istanbul's evolution into a noisy, corrupt, and modernized city." Kirkus Reviews states that the author "celebrates the city’s vibrant traditional culture—and mourns its passing".
The novel is almost 600 pages long. Dwight Garner of The New York Times wrote that the book has "the stretch of an epic but not the impact of one."
Josh reviews a strangeness in my mind by orhan pamuk
Characters
Style
According to Garner the author was able to write "alert, humane, nonwonky prose" as a result of researching varied topics.
Seymenliyska stated that the novel uses the same voice regardless of which of the characters are speaking. Sometimes characters speak directly to the reader. Dwight Garner wrote that the narrators "contradict one another as if they were talking heads in an early Spike Lee movie."
According to Garner, the 2015 English version has humor that "flows freely" and was "lucidly translated".
Reception
Seymenliyska rated the story four of five stars.
Garner stated that the author had done a good job with research, but while Garner "was not deeply, viscerally bored" with the novel he "mostly turned its pages with polite interest rather than real desire."
Kirkus Reviews stated "Rich, complex, and pulsing with urban life: one of this gifted writer’s best." Kirkus named it as one of the "Best Fiction Books of 2015".