A Strangeness in My Mind: A novel (Vintage International) Paperback – Illustrated, September 20, 2016

There are two technical oddities in this book. First, it begins with a brief description of an event that chronologically occurred in the middle of the story, then goes to the beginning of the story and remains in temporal order throughout the rest of the book. Second, most of the novel describes the life of Mevlut, the protagonist, and is written in third person when doing so; however, there are numerous and scattered passages of first-person narrative wherein various characters describe events to the reader and those characters are clearly conscious of the fact that they’re writing. Yet, it is never explained why they wrote at all or to whom they thought they were writing. And, there is no first-person narrative from the perspective of Mevlut. These two oddities appear at first to be little more than artistic flourishes. But, as the story is told, various reasons for these oddities present themselves.Mevlut was born in a village and moved to Istanbul to live with his father at the age of twelve. Mevlut’s father was a street vendor of yogurt during the day and boza—a sour or sweet slightly alcoholic drink—at night. Mevlut learned the street vendor’s trade and spent the rest of his life walking the city streets with a wooden yoke across his back with two trays of boza strung from each end. At the wedding of a cousin, Mevlut’s eyes briefly met the eyes of a girl with whom he fell into a romantic obsession. He sent the girl love letters for several years, addressing them to Rayiha because he thought that was her name. Mevlut’s cousin Suleyman helped him run away with Rayiha by driving him to her father’s house in a stormy night. She was waiting in the yard and ran into Suleyman’s van where Mevlut was waiting for her. As they drove away, lightening flashed and Mevlut could see that Rayiha was not the girl whose eyes he saw at the wedding but her older sister. He married Rayiha nonetheless, and came to love her more than anything he ever loved.Mevlut’s life appears on the surface to be aimless, submissive to circumstance, and slightly cowardly and daft. His career never advanced beyond selling street food and boza except for humble service jobs handed to him by friends and family. He continued to sell boza long after Istanbul lost its taste for the drink and turned to the stronger “raki” liquor, and long after even those who continued to drink boza would expect to purchase it from a street vendor rather than from a grocery store. But, it is clear from Mevlut’s observations of people and life and from his persistently courteous and respectful behavior that he was not daft, nor was he a coward. Rather, Mevlut was captivated by the mysteries of life. He wasn’t devoutly religious, but he provided free boza to a holy man in exchange for the chance to hear the man speak on esoteric matters such as intent in words and intent in the heart. While perusing an Islamic magazine, Mevlut saw a picture of a cemetery that haunted his mind when he walked the dark streets selling boza. Although he knew that he intended to write love letters to Rayiha’s younger sister, as the years passed he seemed to become less sure of this. He questioned whether his true intent in writing the letters was reflected in his thoughts at the time he wrote them or in the words of the letters themselves. In the end, Mevlut came to realize the true reason he walked the city streets at night to sell boza, even when he no longer needed the money.The book has flaws, but they’re minor. For example, the author’s description of the contractual machinations concerning the destruction of Mevlut and other’s houses to make way for modern apartment buildings was discussed at length, but most readers will have difficulty understanding exactly what was ultimately gained and lost, and why. Furthermore, toward the end of the book the author gets slightly redundant and a bit sloppy in his description of how drastically Istanbul changed through the decades of Mevlut’s residency, and the fact that Mevlut continuously took note of this change. Despite some minor imperfections, the novel overall is beautifully written, filled with sympathetic characters, and evocative of philosophical questions.

The novels of Pamuk, winner of the 2006 Nobel Prize, are known for complex, dark interwoven stories with layers of cultural and political themes that drive away the vast American reading public. In “Strangeness,” his first novel written after receiving the prize, Pamuk tells us a simple story of the life of a poor street vendor in Istanbul. The cultural and political themes and the massive changes in Turkey are still the enveloping action swirling around Mevlut, the vendor, but Mevlut’s life is filled with the characters of his family as he struggles with joy, tragedy, guilt, desire for respect and finally the need to be surrounded by family in his later years. Mevlut accepts and enjoys his struggling daily life as he meekly avoids the sturm of politics and confrontation of corruption, quietly nodding agreeably or closing his eyes, in his mind seeing himself as one thing but presenting himself differently.The story follows Mevlut from age 13 to 53. His father and he are part of the massive post-war migration from the eastern rural villages, both communist-atheist Kurds and Muslim Turks, mixing with the nationalists and secularists of Istanbul when the city grew from three million to thirteen million. Mevlut falls in love when he sees a beautiful twelve-year-old girl at his cousin’s wedding, writes love letters to her over several years but never meets her. Later, planning to elope with her without having met her, Mevlut is tricked by another cousin into eloping with the girl’s plain older sister. He develops a strong love for his mistaken bride over the years as they raise a family, but the subtle story of the changing values of the Middle-East and the impact of those changes on Mevlut’s life and family raise the simple story to the Middle-East version of Updike and Roth.Pamuk plays with the theme of determinism: the impact of Kismet, fate, and the changing environment caused by the overwhelming impact of western values and culture, particularly on Mevlut’s wife, Rayiha, and later their two daughters. The old themes of Dostoyevsky, the clash of East and West values, permeate Pamuk’s novels, but “Strangeness” is different. It focuses more on the single character and his wife trying to survive a changing world.A meek man, Mevlut, like most people in the world, is concerned about the survival and love of his family. He is not a political man, although politics swirl around him daily, or a devout Muslim, but he culturally follows the traditions of Islam and turns to religion during his periods of stress and tragedy. His meekness, his inability to confront the government bureaucracy and his wife’s cry to control her life, all clashing with the old Middle-East traditions, results in tragedy that Mevlut simply accepts as his fate, never acknowledging any responsibility. Mevlut thus becomes the common man in the Middle-East, ignoring or accepting the corruption, the human rights violations in the name of crime prevention and stability, the lack of freedom of speech in the name of nationalism, the subtle repression of women, even by a once secular state.This wonderful story of one simple man’s struggle with life seems to be a major change for Pamuk. It’s filled with metaphor and symbolism of feral dogs and conflicting cultures and politics covering his world with posters of their opinions and some will find the length, the numerous characters and rambling narrative tedious. I found myself skimming some parts but still mesmerized by the compelling story. Maybe as he ages, Pamuk will focus more on the emotions of the individual as he does in “Strangeness” and less on the conflicts of ideology as in “Snow.”

This is only the second Orhan Pamuk novel that I have read, and coincidentally in both cases because they have been the picks for my local reading group. The first one I read was My Name is Red, which to be honest I was not that enamoured with, however what a change as this book is so much better. Taking six years to write this book offers us a lot.The story of Mevlut is only part of this tale, and the friends he has and family, it is as you will soon realise also an elegy for the city of Istanbul itself. We of course read of things that affect Turkey as a whole, but this does centre on Istanbul and the expansion of the city as people move in from other parts of the country, changing so many different things. The book actually opens with what would traditionally be part of the middle, so beware of this, although it is noted in the tale and actually does work quite well with how this story is set out, and giving us a hook to carry on reading.We thus begin as Mevlut elopes with the woman that he saw and fell in love with at a wedding, the only thing being is that he has the wrong sister. Was he set up, or was it a genuine mistake? From there we start to go back in time to Mevlut’s earliest years, and then move onto the later years and the conclusion of the story. We see how Mevlut comes to Istanbul due to his father, who is originally a street vendor, selling yoghurt in the day, and boza by night, and sending money back home. Taking over the business eventually so we see the ups and downs as the city becomes more modernized with street vendors losing trade to big manufactories and shops.Taking in different elements so we read of corruption, earthquake, the changing face of the city, and indeed shopping, which becomes something more akin to what we experience in Europe. With Mevlut we read of his wedding and how he and his bride get along, trying to keep a roof over their heads, whilst also bringing up a couple of daughters. We thus end up with what is a family saga (which always seem to do well), with the story of a city and how it alters over time as all cities start to evolve not only business-wise but also accommodation-wise as more people move into the area. There is then fiction here but also some historical fact as we follow the story over the decades, and after the actual tale is a chronology, which gives the main events in the lives of our main characters as well as the real things that were going on in Istanbul and Turkey at the time. We are reminded of how the region is still rather unsettled not only seismically, but politically, the latter something which has held it back from joining the EU (unless you were one of those idiots who believed certain news stories during in the referendum, and I say idiots, because those who believed such things obviously have no idea of the real world, politics, or how such things work).Although relatively quite sedately paced there is still a lot of incident here, what with political attacks, murder, feuds, and lots of corruption. This obviously will not be for everyone; however it does make for an interesting tale and one that shows certain parallels to elsewhere, what with more traditional life being usurped by the more modern.

Organ Pamuk has woven an extraordinary tale about the lives, struggles, petty quarrels, hopes and disappointments of a group of poor people migrating to the city from their Anatolian village. At the centre is Mevlut, a dreamy shy boy of no academic talent or particular achievements save for an extraordinarily acute facility of connection with the urban landscape that he traverses nightly with his father, and later by himself, as he pursues his vocation as a street vendor of yoghurt, rice, roasted chickpeas and boza, the traditional fermented drink that becomes increasingly out of fashion as the years pass, forcing Mevlut to take on other jobs such as waiting on tables and even a spell as an electricity inspector investigating and exacting punishments for customers failing to pay their bills or hooking up an electricity supply illegally. But he always returns to his nightly wanderings, observing streets and people, the rich, the poor, the drunk, the desperate and the lonely, as well as the packs of stray dogs that are sometimes threatening, sometimes his friends.Against a backdrop of social change in Turkey from the beginnings of Ataturk's secular republic through to the post war rise of Islamist party politics, and the rapid and bewildering development of the city whose ancient landmarks and traditional businesses are disappearing, Mevlut stubbornly pursues his own path, and we accompany him on his journey as he attempts to come to terms with life, disappointment, and fate.The story is about the enduring power of love, for a place, for a woman he married by mistake - having wanted her more beautiful younger sister - for his father who never succeeded in life, and for his two daughters.This is probably Orhan Pamuk's best novel yet, beautifully and simply told, the story now meandering and now quickening like Mevlut's footsteps as he follows the winding streets, and like him we are carried forward with time's relentless flow.

My Name is Red was my first encounter with Orhan Pamuk and I was thrilled with the book and the art world he talked about. I highly recommend it for everyone who would like to have an inside in 16th century eastern art. A Strangeness in My Mind ( my second book of Pamuk) is the gripping story of Mevlut walking the streets of Istanbul selling Boza and Yoghurt and contemplating his life. The story takes you into the lives of his family and his relationships with people and the changing environment of Istanbul from 1954 unto 2012. I find it gripping enough to finish the 734 pages but I can't say I find it thrilling. An interesting read but I read the last pages fast because I wanted it to end. A bit repetitive maybe but on the other hand it set the rhythm and timing right.

Caveat: the translation is into American English which I find can be distracting ('gotten' etc.).But otherwise, a fabulous book.. 734 pages flew past too quickly. Much the most entertaining and easy to read of Pamuk's novels. Wonderful tale of Mevlut and his progress from rural Anatolia to Istanbul spanning the 1960's to date, his story and that of the city. Having been to Istanbul many times myself, it helps explain how the city has developed as it has over the past 50 years convincingly. But at the heart of the story, Mevlut's own love story.Highly recommended

No one writes as lovingly about their city as well as Orhan Pamuk does. Reading this novel will make you want to see for yourself the streets which the central character of Mevlut walks through in Istanbul. Pamuk also gives Mevlut, a poor boza seller and an outsider in many respects, a quiet dignity as well as a rich and fascinating inner life.Pamuk also writes beautifully about romance and married love. They’re closely linked to the theme of ‘kismet’ when it comes to love and other opportunities, and how it can go on to affect future generations. It’s such a wonderful novel: it doesn’t flinch from the unfairness and injustices Mevlut and his loved ones face, but it’s still filled with hope, humour and joy.