SNOW by ORHAN PAMUK

SNOW by ORHAN PAMUK

image from here.

Melancholic, political, thoughtful and poetic.

The book is about the life of Ka, a poet, his visits to Kars and what happens there. The book is narrated in third person, with the narrator talking directly in a couple of chapters.

You can feel a peace and a melancholy through out the book- what is about to happen is revealed to you- yet you read on, because you don’t want to feel sad without knowing why.

I love the way the author uses Snow to classify poems(albeit the protagonist being a poet, there are no poems in the book) and also the way ‘the coming’ of each poem is described. It shows us that petty things can influence and even be the tipping point for a poem to force itself on the world through the poet.

There is a lot of politics involved in the book, especially between the state and the Islamists. Kars is blocked from the outside world thanks to the snow. A renowned actor along with his friends decides to stage a revolution, quite literally.

The majority of the book, talks about Ka’s days in Kars, his love for Ipek and jealousy of  Blue(supposedly an extremist). The book’s pace is very slow- slow enough to make you feel trapped as well.

What I love about Orhan Pamuk, is the way he blends history, politics, love, art etc. His books always seem to be complete. They seem so real!

Read this if you don’t mind a slow paced book, with a bit of religion and lots of politics in it. I have become a fan of Pamuk.

rating:- 10/10

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