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Istanbul: Memories and the City (2003)

by Orhan Pamuk

Other authors: See the other authors section.

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingMentions
3,599733,495 (3.74)124
A portrait, by turns intimate and panoramic, of one of the world's great cities, by its foremost man of letters. Blending reminiscence with history; family photographs with portraits of poets and pashas; art criticism, metaphysical musing, and, now and again, a fanciful tale, Pamuk invents an ingenious form to evoke his lifelong home, the city that forged his imagination. He begins with his childhood, his first intimations of the melancholy awareness of living in the seat of ruined imperial glories, in a country trying to become "modern" at the crossroads of East and West. Against a background of shattered monuments, neglected villas, ghostly backstreets, and, above all, the fabled waters of the Bosphorus, he charts the evolution of a rich imaginative life, which furnished a daydreaming boy refuge from family discord and inner turmoil, and which would continue to serve the famous writer he was to become. --From publisher description.… (more)
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» See also 124 mentions

English (52)  German (5)  Finnish (2)  Italian (2)  Swedish (2)  Norwegian (2)  Dutch (2)  Spanish (1)  Portuguese (Brazil) (1)  French (1)  Catalan (1)  Lithuanian (1)  All languages (72)
Showing 1-5 of 52 (next | show all)
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  AnkaraLibrary | Feb 23, 2024 |
Before I read Orhan Pamuk's Istanbul several of my friends told me how much fun they had visiting the city with its historical palaces and fabulous mosques. I wanted to visit the street markets and the seasides. I've read enough history about Byzantium and the Ottomans to whet my interest in the ruins of empires gone by.

But Pamuk has painted such a grim, dirty, and poor city that it left me wondering if my friends visited the same town. Dirt and crumbling mansions. Crashing pollution. Fires. Hobos and homeless. Antiquated buildings and transportation. Old ferries. Old men in skull caps and chattering aunties. Civic corruption. My goodness. This could be Naples. Or Detroit.

It seems the national passion is melancholy. Too much east and not enough west. Maybe, too much crappy west and not enough appreciation of east.

Is this a place I want to visit?

Maybe.

There is so much humour and self loathing in the book to warrant a second look. As if maybe Pamuk is making a little fun at himself.

It is certainly well worth it to read about Turkish poets and novelists and historians. About how French writers and artists viewed the city from the vantage point of the 19th century. And about how Pamuk traces his own development as a writer.

Pamuk and I are different type of people, although we are similar in age. He drastically tried to leave his identity as a middle class Istanbulu (I love that word) to blossom as a writer. Like him as a teenager I roamed the streets and went for walks that lasted for hours. For him it meant becoming a writer. For me it meant becoming nothing. I fell under the spell of a turn of the century novel called The Man Without Qualities. It struck me that abandoning the preconceptions of who I was or who I ought to be gave me the freedom to discover much more about life.

Sans judgements. Sans status. Sans expectations.

I became a carpenter, an accountant, a forensic auditor, a retailer, a historian, an actor. Anything and nothing. I stopped writing when I stopped having anything of meaning to say. In that nothingness came freedom.

I wonder if becoming a writer has given Pamuk freedom. I wonder if he has forgiven his father for being a lecher. ( )
  MylesKesten | Jan 23, 2024 |
Neither a guidebook nor a travel memoir, but a dual biography of the author and the city. How their identities entwined, even defined each other. A good read, despite being repetitive. ( )
  HenrySt123 | Jul 18, 2023 |
9788439720294
  archivomorero | May 21, 2023 |
This turned out to be more of a memoir than I was expecting. I skipped around to the Istanbul parts which I really enjoyed. I also found it to be very well written so I have made it a point to get a few fiction titles by this author.
  sgwordy | Dec 31, 2022 |
Showing 1-5 of 52 (next | show all)
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» Add other authors (35 possible)

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Pamuk, Orhanprimary authorall editionsconfirmed
Demirel, SavasTraductionsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Freely, MaureenTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Heijden, Hanneke van derTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Meier, GerhardTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Miró, CarlesTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Piqué, EmmaTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Polat, AnnaTł.secondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
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Epigraph
The beauty of a landscape resides in its sadness.

Ahmet Rasim
Dedication
To my father, Gündüz Pamuk (1925-2002)
First words
From a very young age, I suspected there was more to my world than I could see: Somewhere in the streets of Istanbul, in a house resembling ours, there lived another Orhan so much like me that he could pass for my twin, even my double.
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A portrait, by turns intimate and panoramic, of one of the world's great cities, by its foremost man of letters. Blending reminiscence with history; family photographs with portraits of poets and pashas; art criticism, metaphysical musing, and, now and again, a fanciful tale, Pamuk invents an ingenious form to evoke his lifelong home, the city that forged his imagination. He begins with his childhood, his first intimations of the melancholy awareness of living in the seat of ruined imperial glories, in a country trying to become "modern" at the crossroads of East and West. Against a background of shattered monuments, neglected villas, ghostly backstreets, and, above all, the fabled waters of the Bosphorus, he charts the evolution of a rich imaginative life, which furnished a daydreaming boy refuge from family discord and inner turmoil, and which would continue to serve the famous writer he was to become. --From publisher description.

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