A strangeness in my mind

Because I love reading and writing, I have decided to write a short review of every book that I read from now on, offering my personal perspective and thoughts. This way, I want to take the most out of each reading, make it a conscious learning experience and hopefully to inspire you to read some of the books I had the pleasure to encounter.

And yes, I gladly borrowed this book from the library. I am encouraging you not to buy, but to borrow, if you can, but also show some love to the amazing work of the writers.

„A strangeness in my mind” is a profound incursion in the Turkish culture, depicting life with all it had to offer to the people living in Istanbul, covering a span of over 40 years. It reveals the political colours of the times, with its uprisings and conflicts between communists and traditionalists, between Turkish people and Armenian people, the military coups that shape the country and the expansion of the city and its housing evolution.

Through the eyes of a street vendor, we see the streets of Istanbul changing over time, evolving, never staying still. His personal life and love story intertwines with the events of the city, creating thus a thorough portrait of the Turkish soul. A lifetime of work, love, change and making sense of it all.

The main character, Mevlut, started selling yogurt with his father when he moved from the village to Istanbul, at the tender age of 12. Later on, he continued selling boza, a national drink, proclaimed to be non alcoholic, when in fact, it was an escape route for all the faithful people still wanting to have a drink.

His father has taught him all there is to know about this hard work, how to find his way in the meandering streets of Istanbul, how to connect with his clients and stay humble, and even took him to a master to cure him of his fear of stray dogs. His advice would remain with Mevlut, ingrained in his identity.

„You’ll learn it all soon enough… You will see everything without being seen. You will hear everything but pretend that you haven’t… You will walk for ten hours a day but feel like you haven’t walked at all.”

This is me, reading in a park in Budapest, I have been carrying and reading this huge book with me in 3 different countries 🙂 I chose to read this book after I participated at a multicultural project. Being in a team with a couple of Turkish guys, discussing about the morality of our actions, I was amazed to see the differences in our ways of thinking, and decided to dive into books that might help me become more aware of their culture, their background and basically understand where they come from, both literally and figuratively.

The differences in our thinking came from how we see romantic relationships, cheating or how each sex should behave or not. The novel itself is a goldmine to explore how the mentality of Turkish people came to take form regarding such matters.

It was interesting for me to read the way Turkish people, mainly men, would go to cinemas showing Western movies, staying outside talking and smoking only to reenter the screening, when a sex scene would take place. The behaviour of the actresses in these movies both outraged and incited them, a definite rupture between desire and tradition.

„The scenes that the audience had come to see were never at the beginning. Thus, at the age of fifteen, Mevlut learned that sex was a kind of miracle that always kept you waiting.”

It was curious for me to read about the experience of women being stolen at a young age, or eloping with their loved ones so that they can escape an arranged marriage and how these acts would turn into never-ending, destructive blood feuds.

The cousin of Mevlut was his accomplice in such a case and his view defines all this phenomenon „Do you think running away with a girl is easy? said Suleyman.” „One little mistake, and before you know it, someone gets shot, there’s a blood feud and then people kill one another over it for years for no good reason, and proudly say it’s all about honour. Are you willing to take the risk?”

 But Pamuk does an amazing job creating a picture in our minds about what love, intimacy and true companionship could mean. Behind all the curtains, all the walls, all the veils in the Turkish culture, love and sex are so candidly described that it makes you yearn for this type of connection.

„He and Rayiha had lived in each other’s pockets for thirteen years. Even when they were separated during the day, they were still together. That kind of intimacy only came with the passionate love of youth.”

But what remained with me, like an after thought, lingering in the back of my mind after reading the novel, were the intricacies of our inner world and personal universe. Amongst all the other people, with their needs, interests, desires, we find ourselves walking, stumbling, running in this maze, and all we have in the end are our reflections and thoughts.

Mevlut is a deep thinker, losing himself in contemplation as he wanders on the streets of Istanbul, thinking about the meaning of life, good and wrong, about his experience with sex and love and his personal trajectory in life. Walking and musing on these matters was the epicenter of his existence, connecting all the knots and dots of his life.

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

I definitely recommend this novel, Orhan Pamuk is incredibly talented and rich in his narrative and description of human nature and life above all else.

Let me know what you think and if you would like to read more book reviews from me 🙂