The White Castle

I predict that Pamuk will one day receive the Nobel Prize for literature. This is one of the best books I have read in recent years. The impact of this novel reminds me of my first contact with Kafka back in school. This story is, as others say, a book about east-west contradictions, about the west's ascendancy in terms of science. But it is also a book about obsession and identity; a book about what makes us who we are. I recommend this book without reservation!

I have wanted to read something by this author for some time. He came recommended as a truly unique voice, with the additional interest of being a Turk steeped in the mores and traditions of his country and yet able to view them with some satirical distance. SO I was very happy to discover this volume and was not disappointed. It is a first-rate historical novel set in the Ottoman Empire during the beginning of the Enlightenment in Europe. Without giving away any secrets, the plot follows a young Venetian university graduate who is enslaved and given to a Turkish savant, who wishes to learn from him as much as he can. From the most horrible humiliations and labor, the young Venetian rises to the top of Ottoman society, all the time battling to maintain an identity independent from his owner. The historical details are fascinating and often very funny. The reader witnesses the limits of proto-science in a more of less Medieval Islamic culture, which is viewed as half magic but also as full of potential power. Then there is the Ottoman court, in which the slave and his owner become key players through guile and some scientific accomplishments, in particular during the plague. The intrigues are full of tension and mystery, a world glimpsed but not wholly explained in a perfect balance of novelistic art. Finally, there is the inter-play between slave and owner, a conflict that is brutal and terrifying and yet a rare treat for the reader. The psychology of this conflict, I found, is extremely profound and realistic, showing the effect that each had on the other as the years passed. It is also full of surprises.Highest recommendation.

When Istanbul made its Olympic bid for 2000 Olympics the slogan the organizers chose for their bid may also apply to Pamuk's works: "meet us at the meeting point of continents." But this is not fully accurate for Europe and Asia have interacted and learned from each other for centuries. But until now both sides understood the other only through the prism of faith and popular culture.Pamuk turns our understanding of East-West relations inside out. His novels are filled with tales that richly suggest how inseparable these two cultures have become through their centuries old interaction. Such is the relationship between Hoja in this book and his Venetian slave. What makes two people from two cultures so much alike is also what sets them apart from the cultural stereotypes of their respective cultures. Hoja is a practical scientist and the venetian slave turns out to be meditative and poetic. And at the end of the book Hoja sails for Europe while leaving the Venetian in Istanbul. However, despite this straightforward narrative, Pamuk is not a straightforward writer. His style is greatly influenced by the post-modernist school of writers. But to read one of his novels is more like watching a Tarantino movie: complex narrative, exotic locales and colorful characters only add to the mystery, while smooth directing and an elegant prose make his stories irresistible.( I am sure Mr. Pamuk is also aware of this) As we begin the 21st our need to understand each other is great. The tragedy in New York only confirmed my fears that both Americans and Islamic nations for long neglected mutual curiosity for each other. Art is our mutual treasure which sets us higher for it makes us great. It is also our link to each other as human beings. The art of Orhan Pamuk provides a richly symbolic terrain for this rendezvous. If you want to understand Islam, if you want to know about yourselves, read Pamuk's books and you will find much insight.

This was a real pleasure to read. For a modest novel, it dealt with a multitude of topics and themes and does it so effortlessly that one is sometimes quite unaware of it. It is on the surface a history novel, a memoire, East and West, Christianity vs Islam, Orientalism vs positivism, and at the end a search of self, identity. The style and translation is very breezy, written with good economy, one almost wishes for a few more chapters. The very end is so masterfully done, one is left with a mild shock, disbelief and looking in a hall of mirrors almost. This is a quite different approach from some of his later work, which tends to be much more detailed, specific and heavy reading, like "Black Book". "White Castle" is what literature should be, fun, thought and most importantly emotion provoking.

So, the story is untold for centuries until the time comes when an old bookstore owner reveals the hidden meaning of "the idea of East" from the dusty shelves of the past. Story begins on the sea when a young scholar from Venice was captured by the Turks. He was brought to Istanbul, the city facing the unrational lives of sultans and more sophisticated truths of "the East". "Can we exchange our lives?", he implicitly asked to a Turkish philosopher. Another story begins within another and another within another. The two men change their future and their past as Borges once suggested. The White Castle is a futuristic novel that amazes the reader as the reader becomes the scholar from Venice and the Turkish philosopher. It is an interactive journey in the sense that the reader feels like he or she can change the order of the stories and take part in them. The mystic atmosphere created by the intelligent writing style of Pamuk dazzles the reader with the question: "Am I reading a book or am I dreamin about reading a book?". I. Menguc TANRISEVEN