The White Castle (1985)

The story and life of a venetian who was captured by the Turks. A simpe story by first glance but it deals with some fundamental question of life, most importantly, 'Who am I?'. It didn't make me a Pamuk fan but it was an interesting journey.... ( )

i didn't like it, but may be because i expected a lot from it as a historical novel...
it was boring for me, i leave it several times,but finally i finished it... ( )

Turkey

This novel may remind you a little of the Star Trek--The Original Series episode "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield" in which two people seen by others as extremely similar to each other see themselves as quite different. While this plot is not the same as the 1966 Star Trek episode's, there are some similarities. The Italian narrator describes being captured at sea, thrown into a Turkish jail, and eventually winning the favor of a powerful patron (though as a slave). He spends much time with the mysterious Hoja, who looks shockingly like him. Much of the novel describes their reciprocal psychological torments and raises questions about identity, history, and stories, both individually and at a cultural level. The plot is not particularly standard, and the symbolism is a little heavy. The frame story that introduces the "manuscript" seems like it ought to be more than a literary device, but that is my only clue as to how it should be understood. Still, this was an interesting novel and I'd read another by Pamuk. ( )

Orhan Pamuk has won the Nobel Prize for literature and is supposed to be the premier man of letters in contemporary Turkey. However, I noted that more than one person on my friends' list on Goodreads was less than enthused with his books. Thus, instead of reading his more famous My Name is Red or Snow, I deliberately chose the slimmest volume on the shelf for my introduction--The White Castle--a mere 161 pages--yet this couldn't hold me even that far.

Set in seventeenth century Turkey, it's the first person account of a Venetian captured and enslaved by the Turks. He comes to be owned by a master who is his physical double, who demands he teach him all he knows. Basically, what lost me was the style. And not because it was difficult or abstruse. Despite quotes comparing Pamuk to such writers as DeLillo, Borges, Nabokov and Proust, the prose in this novel is very simple--even simplistic. I never felt pulled in by the story or characters. The picture painted by the prose felt sketchy. There's very little dialogue, none of which is off-set. It's not so much a back and forth but rather a lot is reported or summarized. A lot of the events were summarized too rather than shown. Nothing made me feel a sense of time or place or characters in ways vivid enough to feel worth my time--so I stopped. And I think that's enough of Pamuk for me. ( )

pamuk's story about the search of self in a culture gap context somehow failed to draw me in, or perhaps the fault was all mine, and I did not grasp the gist because of the fantastic stories twining and switching from one emotional turmoil to the next. perhaps it was a case of lost in translation, too, one can never be sure. the consequence: I will check twice before picking up another pamuk book. ( )