New Orhan Pamuk book fresh out of the oven

The Wednesday before Thanksgiving I read this piece in the New York Times Review of Books on Orhan Pamuk’s latest book - The Museum of Innocence. It already has a web site dedicated exclusively to reader reviews - http://themuseumofinnocence.com I’ve read most of his books and have felt differently about each one, with Red and Snow at the top of my list and Istanbul closer to the bottom. That being said, it’s always nice to read books by non-Western writers, folks whose sensitivities are more closely aligned with my own or who, at the very least, come from backgrounds that I can relate to.

Pamuk, even though Turkish, is one of them. And it makes sense, I think, because if you scratch the surface differences, Turks are not unlike East Europeans. Yes, Turkey is a predominantly Muslim country, geographically divided between the European and the Asian continents, with a language of Arab roots and a history as a sprawling empire (who often encroached, or tried to, on Romanian territories). But all the shared history and geography, the incessant trade and similar habits (baksheesh is a Turkish word for a Balkan habit that was adopted by everyone from the French to the Americans), the fondness of soccer and a certain intensity that is hard to explain or justify in the absence of historical context – all of these things conspire to make Orhan Pamuk’s next book a most exciting promise.

Of course, in full disclosure, I’m also personally invested in everything Turkey because I used to do work for the Turkish Embassy back when I lived in Washington D.C and still scan the papers for news of Turkey every day – old habits die hard.