A Strangeness in My Mind - Orhan Pamuk

Date of Reading: 03/05/2018

Author: Orhan Pamuk

Translated by: Ekin Oklap

Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf

Place: New York

Year: 2015

Rating: 4/5

About the book:

A Strangeness in My Mind is a novel Orhan Pamuk has worked on for six years. It is the story of boza seller Mevlut, the woman to whom he wrote three years' worth of love letters, and their life in Istanbul.

In the four decades between 1969 and 2012, Mevlut works a number of different jobs on the streets of Istanbul, from selling yoghurt and cooked rice, to guarding a car park. He observes many different kinds of people thronging the streets, he watches most of the city get demolished and re-built, and he sees migrants from Anatolia making a fortune; at the same time, he witnesses all of the transformative moments, political clashes, and military coups that shape the country. He always wonders what it is that separates him from everyone else - the source of that strangeness in his mind. But he never stops selling boza during winter evenings and trying to understand who his beloved really is.

What matters more in love: what we wish for, or what our fate has in store? Do our choices dictate whether we will be happy or not, or are these things determined by forces beyond our control?

A Strangeness in My Mind tries to answer these questions while portraying the tensions between urban life and family life, and the fury and helplessness of women inside their homes. 

My Review:

       I am still undecided as to whether I liked this or not, probably because it took a long time to complete. The book is bulky for sure (around 600 pages), but I was never a slow reader. Well, some books are to be chewed and digested and safe to say this one belongs to that Baconian category.

        Like a  gifted painter, Pamuk takes extreme pains to portray the growth and change of not only the characters but also the background or setting in this case. Spanning from 1968 to 2012, it covers a large chunk of Turkish history focusing on Istanbul. Hard to say which was given prominence, Istanbul or Mevlut.

        I was more into the story of Mevlut than to Istanbul and so the whole book appeared to follow the pattern of an ECG reading -- there will be a spike, then a recess and again a spike in interest. There are only a handful of characters, but each of them shows evolvement and represent a specific aspect of the city. Mevlut, as the boza seller, embodies the old days of the city when alcohol was not freely available. It brings a nostalgia which I am sure everyone can associate with in spite of their country of origin. No choco bar can replace the feelings of those old ice cream sellers who used to come to our neighbourhood with their ding dong bells.
       So four stars for I won't be forgetting this story anytime soon. The narration is unique with other characters intervening to give their version of the story. Obviously, the core of the novel revolves around the strangeness that haunts Mevlut. Whom has he loved - Samiha to whom he wrote for three years or Rayiha who got all the letters and whom he married? I am happy that the novel ends with Mevlut's answer instead of leaving it to the mercy of readers.

Summary:
       Mevlut comes to Istanbul at the age of twelve from his poor village to continue his studies and also to help his father in selling boza and yoghurt. Unlike his father, his brother and sons (Mevlut's cousins - Korkut and Suleyman) have managed to secure a well to do home and a grocery shop. Brothers are not really on good terms but Mevlut was always welcomed by the family.
       He passes secondary school but soon loses interest in studies. He flunked classes and spent most of his time as a street vendor with his friend, Ferhat. Meanwhile, Korkut gets married to Vediha, the beautiful daughter of Abdurrahman Efendi. It is here Mevlut first meets Samiha, the youngest sister of the bride and falls head over heels in love. But he mistakes her name to be Rayiha who was the not so pretty second sister. The crooked Suleyman does nothing to correct his cousin as he wants to marry Samiha himself. He encourages Mevlut in his pursuit of love.
        Mevlut joins his compulsory military service and in these three years, he writes letters to Rayiha praising her beautiful eyes. They were promptly delivered to the second sister by Suleyman. Mevlut's father dies in between.

https://www.lonelyplanet.com/turkey/istanbul

       As he didn't have enough money to pay the bride price, he elopes with Rayiha with the help of Suleyman. On the way, he realises that this is not the girl he has seen at the wedding. But Rayiha has come with him leaving everything behind. So without informing her anything about the mix-up, they get married. The marriage proves to be a happy one with two daughters, Fatma and Fevziye.
       Suleyman tries to marry Samiha but she runs away with Ferhat whom she had met on Mevlut's wedding. Though they loved each other, back-breaking work life and lack of children gradually creates a void. Ferhat has managed to complete his studies and he procures a job as an Electrical Inspector. Suleyman, meanwhile, has stopped the thoughts of revenge and started seeing a singer, Mahinur Meryem (Melahat). When she gets pregnant, he marries her.
        Mevlut hops from job to job. He has tried his hand in selling ice cream and rice, became the manager of a restaurant and even started a boza shop with Ferhat. But they never manage to make money that is more than enough. All through this, he kept selling boza in the evening.
        When Rayiha gets pregnant for the third time, she tries to abort it herself and consequently bleeds to death. Mevlut was heartbroken. Suleyman has tried to put a wedge between them before by informing Rayiha about the true nature of the letters, but in spite of her doubts, their family was always stable and happy.
       For some time, Mevlut works as an assistant to Ferhat in the Electrical Company. But then Ferhat gets murdered while trying to uncover an electrical robbery in a club and Mevlut is dismissed from the job. He joins as the manager of the club for migrants started by Korkut and Suleyman.

       Fatma was good at her studies and she eventually goes to university. She marries a boy whom she met there. Fevziye, on the other hand, had none of her sister's academic abilities and she elopes with a driver. Finally, with both daughters married, Mevlut is left alone. Suleyman encourages him to marry Samiha who also shares the same plight. Mevlut finally reveals the truth about his love letters to Samiha and they get married.
        The home that he stayed with his father is sold for the construction of apartments and finally, all three cousins start living in the same building. But novel ends with Mevlut and Samiha's decision to move to another flat which was owned by Ferhat. That evening while selling boza he finally solves the puzzled that haunted him always and proclaims, "I have loved Rayiha more than anything in this world".

Something to ponder . . .

"In a city, you can be alone in a crowd, and in fact what makes the city a city is that it lets you hide the strangeness in your mind inside its teeming multitudes" - 117

Orhan Pamuk

"... everytime he shouted 'Boo-zaa', he could feel the paintings in his mind emerging from his mouth like speech bubbles in a comic book before dissolving into the weary streets like clouds. Every word was an object, and every object was a picture" - 381

"... walking around the city at night made him feel as if he were wandering around inside his own head" - 597