Book Review: My Name is Red by Orhan Pamuk

 My Name is Red 

By Orhan Pamuk ( Winner of Nobel Prize for Literature)

Published Year: 2001

Page Count: 415 pages 

Medium Used: Paperback 

Genre : Orhan Pamuk, Istanbul, Paintings, Ottoman Empire, 16th Century, Drama, Murder Mystery, Romance, 2024-read. 

Rating : 5/5 🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳

Something made me take reading this book way longer than my usual time. Its been over 10 days. But I have no regrets. I have savored every drop of this gorgeous nectar. The writing is simply superb. The prose is mesmerizing. This story comprises of a love story and a murder mystery. The writing transported me back to the time of ruling ottoman empire in Turkey. The story is narrated in first person point of view of various characters .. some of them living, some dead and some non living objects even. 

Orhan pamuk is the second author from Turkey I have encountered in my reading.. the first being Elif Shafak whom I have come to adore. This writing is much superior and consists of thorough investigation of the times of Ottoman, 16th century. He has won the nobel prize afterall! 

A young man has fallen in love with his uncle's daughter but when their wedding is denied, he leaves Istanbul and becomes a wanderer. He learns various trades and becomes a successful man. After 12 years when he returns, he doesn't remember his lover's face but only that she was his muse. Seeing her forlorn face,He falls in love once again. During these years, she has gotten married to a soldier and he is suspected to be dead the last four years. On the side, someone has committed a dual murder of a miniaturist and his master - who also happens to be the woman's father. The young man and his lover conceal the news of her father's death and get married in haste. With the looming possibility of the murder being blamed on him, the young man with a master illustrator seeks to find the actual murderer. 

Persians and Ottomans have always been inspired by the older masters of Herat and Tabriz. They have drawn and painted from memory of how Allah sees the things with his eyes (in perfection) rather than what they see in front of their eyes. The Franks and Europeans of the new times have given them ideas to draw with an individual style of what they see and also to make portraits. The main reason for the murders lies within this logic. I liked how the author hadn't deviated one bit from the logic plane he was driving at. He has weaved a brilliant tale!