Museum of Innocence by Orhan Pamuk

Museum of Innocense by Orhan Pamuk, was my first glimpse into Turkey and the life of elite circles in Turkish society, which seemed to me like a distant land back then.
This book was his first book after receiving 2006 Nobel Prize in Literature.

“Museum has the power to transform time into space”

The beauty of this book lies not only in its creative concept, but the depth with which love or the lack of it between two people has been portrayed. The passion and the depth are so wonderfully brought out as if the author was undergoing each of those feelings. I would not like to write anything about the story because that’s not what the book is so much about (ok…i know, sounds a little weird, but truly, the book is more about the way its written). The other reason I don’t want to discuss the plot is while the intensity of emotions runs very deep in the book, reasons for how it began seem a little superficial.

Keeping that aside, this book beautifully recreates that era and that Turkey. For the longest time, that visualization is what I knew of Istanbul till I actually visited it in flesh.

The detailed reflection of people, their values and their approach to life in Istanbul of that era, is very well analysed and brought out. One gets a peep into the bourgeoisie of 1970s Istanbul, the influence of the rest of Europe and a sort of westernisation ahead of the rest of Islamic world, that Turkey experienced. Opening up of people to ideas of freedom of speech and expression, appreciation of luxury products and using them as a means to establish one’s place in the society were all mini representations of the same.

Trivia: Orhan Pamuk created an actual Museum of Innocence or Masumiyet Müzesi in Istanbul consisting of everyday objects tied to the narrative.

So while, Orhan Pamuk has done a phenomenal job of bringing out the contrast between the rich bylanes of Istanbul with the shadier precincts of the city and its film circles, the book does get a little repetitive and boring at times.

Overall, great work of taking the reader back into the Istanbul of 1970s

For more such musings, check out Shadow Lines by Amitav Ghosh or A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry.