Review: Istanbul by Ohan Pamuk

Title: Istanbul: Memories and the City
Author: Pamuk, Ohan
Length: 384 pages
Genre: Non-Fiction, Biography, Travel
Source: My Aunt’s bookshelf
Rating: 5/5
Why I Read It: I have another book by this auther (Snow) on my tbr shelf, this one looked really good, and I am intrigued by Istanbul as a city, I’ve always wanted to go there.
Date Read: 08/04/10

Another great read, I am so glad I picked this up. I love travel and eventually want to go everywhere. That being said, there are always those places that pique your interest without even knowing much about them. Istanbul is one of those places for me (though there are many!). Just the name, the small amount that I know about it, it all sounds so wonderful.

This book is a memoir about Pamuk’s younger years, but more so it is a memoir of his city. It is brilliantly written, full of incredible pictures that show the scenery which he describes. I could see what he was describing and feel it. I felt like I was there, or had been there, or at least that I very much wanted to go there. He talks about the changes that the city and its people have gone through in the last 150 years or so, especially focusing on the last 60 odd years that he has been alive.

And how could a great writer describe a city without mentioning its other great writers? In describing Istanbul and his memories of it he talks a lot about Western writers and artists who have written of Istanbul (Antoine-Ignace Melling’s paintings, the writing of Theophile Gautier, Admondo de Amici, and Gerard de Nerval, among many others). He also talks of the great writers and artists of Istanbul itself (especially Yahya Kemal, Ahmet Hamdi Tanpinar, Resat Ekrem Kocu, and Abdulhak Sinasi Hisar).

One thing that Pamuk talks about is hüzün. Hüzün, he says, is akin to melancholy but more than that. It is the collective melancholy of a people living in a defeated city. I am not going to try to describe it further as I can’t ever hope to match his beautiful writing, but here is a quote from page 103/104:

Istanbul… carries its hüzün by choice. And so it finds its way back to the melancholy of Burton, who held that “All other pleasures are empty. / None are as sweet as melancholy”; echoing its self-denigrating wit, it dares to boast of its importance in Istanbul life. Likewise, the hüzün in Turkish poetry after the foundation of the Republic, as it too expresses the same grief that no one can or would wish to escape, an ache that finally saves our souls and also gives them depth.