Istanbul

Title: Istanbul – Memories and the City

Author: Orhan Pamuk

Publisher: Faber & Faber 2006 (First published: 2005)

ISBN: 978-0-571-21833-2

Pages: 333

Turkey’s greatest living novelist and Nobel Laureate in Literature 2006, Orhan Pamuk reminisces about his life from childhood to the moment when he decided to become a writer. Pamuk always lived in Istanbul and the permanence blends effortlessly to the life of the city as well, from its beginnings around the fourth century CE. The destiny of the people and the city is portrayed so commingled that it imparts a sense of melancholy, called huzun in Turkish, in its residents. The narrative of the writer’s childhood and adolescence is set in a stage of urban decadence which permeates Istanbul’s streets. The city went through very difficult times immediately after the end of World War I when the Ottoman empire was overthrown by the republic which embarked on a westernization drive not seen anywhere else in the world. People’s attire, artistic tastes and even the script in which Turkish was written was latinized by Ataturk who put Turkey firmly on the road to modernity. He transferred the capital from Istanbul to Ankara and the old city struggled hard to recover from the double blow of the fall of its aristocracy and loss of power. In a desperate bid to vie for a place in modern Europe’s contours, we read about the struggle the metropolis witnessed among its inhabitants between the old and the new. We also learn about the Bosphorus Strait which girdles the city and provides a backdrop for the thoughts and musings of Istanbullus in their wakeful moments.

Pamuk was born, brought up and is still living in Istanbul. He describes the joys and hidden nuances of living in an extended family as a child which he shared with the others in a 5-storey apartment all for themselves. Coming across dilapidated palaces and burnt down relics of the Ottoman Empire at every corner and wondering at the ephemeralness of a great empire was a day to day experience for the author on the cobbled stone pathways of the historic city. But quite unlike what the proverb says, familiarity does not beget contempt in the author’s mind. He demonstrates a dignified aloofness with lot of respect for the city’s past, and vividly narrates in poetic detail the childhood memories he possess. We get a first hand glimpse of the impressionability of young minds while reading that Pamuk still possess traces of his aversion to objects which terrified him as a child.

Pamuk captures the spirit of huzun, which permeates the city as well as its people. However, the term is not used in a disparaging sense, but rather as a thing to be proud of. This aspect of the city was first identified by Romantic painters in mid-1800s. This emotion permeates social life, arts and even Turkish cinema which was at that time the world’s second largest film industry after India’s. Turkish writers, most notably Yahya Kemal and Tanpinar who are also the author’s idols carried forward the spirit of melancholy in their literary offerings. This obsession with melancholy permeates other great writers as well, as the author quotes Ahmet Rasim on the facia as “the beauty of a landscape resides in its melancholy”.

The book is adorned with a lot of photographs mostly taken by Ara Guler, which add a visual depth, or another dimension to the narrative. It portrays in a wistful canvas what the text attempts to do in description. The publishers should seriously consider including a pronunciation guide to Turkish names – of people and places. Ever since Ataturk changed the script, Turkey has developed a well thought out logic in representing the sounds with a tick above or a curve below, a letter. Without it, the readers feel like encountering the waiter in a French restaurant with the menu card. A glossary is also a good idea for a book of this sort. The author’s style is remarkable for its candidness which is of prime consideration in autobiographical sketches. Pamuk stops at his adolescence, with ample scope for another volume detailing his later life which was fruitful and reputable the world over.

The book is highly recommended.

Rating: 3 Star