Silent House by Orhan Pamuk

This book is an old one that has been newly translated into English.  Orhan Pamuk  has now won the Nobel Prize in Literature, and so all his work can be translated into English.  When I was first in Turkey in 2006, I read his travelogue about Istanbul and not very presciently predicted he would win the Nobel Prize—he is very clearly that good.  He has always reminded me of Marcel Proust in the level of attention to detail that he gives to everything that surrounds each of his characters.

This book takes place against the backdrop of a military coup that took place in Turkey in 1980 (the book was published originally in 1983).  This history feels strongly present in the novel's governing metaphors of tradition, transition and inter-generational tension. A family reunion is taking place in a fishing village near Istanbul, where Fatma, the 90-year-old widow of a local doctor, is receiving a ritual summer visit from her three grandchildren.  The book is alternatively narrated by her, her children, and her servants.

One of Fatma's grandsons, Faruk, is following his father and grandfather in working on a manuscript which will seek to explain Turkey and the universe. The late doctor's project was an encyclopedia of everything, reminiscent of Mr Casaubon's in Middlemarch (ie. not likely to be completed—all work and no organization), although the Turkish physician was seeking to disprove the existence of God.  Faruk seems far more functional than that. Other cultural tensions within the country are represented-- granddaughter Niljun, a leftist activist who buys the communist daily paper and mesmerizes the men around her with her beauty, would choose to live in the Soviet sector, while grandson Metin would take the mandate of the Georgian peanut farmer.  Metin wants to leave Turkey for America and sees no reason why his grandmother shouldn’t sell her dilapidated but highly valued home and bankroll his dreams.  The other narrators in the story are a dwarf who cares for Fatma and his son, Hasan, who is a fundamentalist Muslim who is the center of the tragic chapter that the story builds to.  The book is sorrowful in tone from front to back, but it is a well told tale that reflects an interesting culture and country.