Istanbul
(O. Pamuk, 2006)
Maria Teresa De Donato’s Opinion
Reading the first
twenty pages of this book was a challenge. Having read thousands of books, I
concluded that you might assume you are reading a good one based on its start
and that there was no reason to continue reading if the book did not attract
you from the beginning.
Therefore, I was on the verge of giving in and giving
up on reading it.
However, while a part of me felt frustrated not being
able to understand where the author was heading with it, a little internal
voice encouraged me to keep reading it, suggesting I approach it from a
different perspective—from another angle—as if I were about to discover a
hidden treasure.
I am so happy to have listened to my instincts and,
after overcoming this uncertainty about what to do, wholly immersed myself -
body and soul - in reading this excellent autobiographical novel.
A world opened up to me! I was reading an image
reflected in the mirror!
Istanbul, what it has been over the centuries, is
reflected in the life and heart of the author just as the author is reflected
in the city. All the changes that have occurred over the years, but also and
above all over the centuries, are examined and retraced by Orhan Pamuk:
• the splendor of Istanbul from antiquity until its
accelerated decline caused by admiration and the consequent desire for
'Westernization';
• the speed and equally dramatic nature with which a
thousand-year-old culture - Byzantine and Ottoman - is swept away by the much
coveted 'modernity';
• its splendid and once luxurious and prestigious
buildings overlooking the Bosphorus Strait, now abandoned to their fate;
• an ancient and equally fascinating culture based on
high values demolished in the space of a few decades;
• an artistic, cultural, and historical wealth thrown
into the garbage and sacrificed to the God of Modernity and Consumerism.
A heartfelt thank
you to Prof. Orhan Pamuk, the famous Turkish writer, screenwriter, and
professor of comparative literature at Columbia University, for this splendid
work and for making me fall in love with his hometown, which I hope to visit
someday.
I recommend it to everyone, especially lovers of
history and foreign cultures and those who wonder whether destroying peoples'
cultural roots is wise.
This article was also published at the following link:
Istanbul
