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The Museum of Innocence [Paperback]

Orhan Pamuk
3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (43 customer reviews)
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Book Description

2 Sep 2010

The Museum of Innocence - set in Istanbul between 1975 and today - tells the story of Kemal, the son of one of Istanbul's richest families, and of his obsessive love for a poor and distant relation, the beautiful Fusun, who is a shop-girl in a small boutique.

The novel depicts a panoramic view of life in Istanbul as it chronicles this long, obsessive, love affair between Kemal and Fusun; and Pamuk beautifully captures the identity crisis esperienced by Istanbul's upper classes who find themselves caught between traditional and westernised ways of being.


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Product details

  • Paperback: 752 pages
  • Publisher: Faber and Faber (2 Sep 2010)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0571237029
  • ISBN-13: 978-0571237029
  • Product Dimensions: 12.9 x 19.9 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (43 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 9,196 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Review

'Simply an enthralling, immensely enjoyable piece of storytelling.' --James Lasdun, Guardian

'[This] haunting novel of memory, desire and loss sets a ferociously high standard for the literary fiction of the decade' --Jane Shilling, Sunday Telegraph

'I loved this book. It made me want to write a letter to the author. Dear Orhan Pamuk, this book is now on the shelf with my very favourite books of all time. Thank you for letting us into your mind and your world.' --Suzanne Vega, The Times Books of the Year

'Pamuk has created a work concerning romantic love worthy to stand in the company of Lolita, Madame Bovary and Anna Karenina.' --Financial Times --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Book Description

Orhan Pamuk's gripping tale of forbidden love - now in paperback

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
48 of 58 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Overwhelming 2 Jan 2010
By Hud
Format:Hardcover
This is my 3rd Pamuk book and it leaves me overwhelmed. It is astonishing in revealing the tiny details that make up our lives, overwhelming in it's description of that emotion that many of us will recognise. I have never been to Istanbul but I think I have now, I think I understand why someone would be crazy enough to be obsessed by a love for his entire life, to collect every object related to that love, to wonder if it's possible for any of us to lead happy lives, or whether we would even recognise it when happiness had arrived, or that we had let it slip us by? That is the question 30 year old Kemal o asks himself as the novel starts. I started reading this on xmas day and couldn't stop until i finished it today.
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33 of 40 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars The Musuem of Innocence. 3 May 2010
By TomCat
Format:Hardcover
Like in many books by Orhan Pamuk, the real shining star of this novel is Istanbul. The story charts the development of the city's social mores and customs from an Eastern-dominated Conservatism to a much more Western system of values and conceits. Thus such concepts as pre-marital sex, female independence and free-market capitalism are among the major themes of the novel.

It's a great shame, then, that the actual plot of the book falls far short of being the magnum-opus of love and life that the author is attempting.

Kemal, the novel's protagonist, spends the majority of his life in love with Fusun; a `beautiful shop girl' and distant relation. In an attempt to record and preserve their relationship, he begins to hoard inanimate objects which, in one way or another, are relevant to his and Fusun's story - this collection being the titular `Museum of Innocence'.

Pamuk's handling of this rather twee idea is charming at first, but soon becomes so repetitive that the theme of collecting almost descends into farce. Kemal attributes the same emotional weight and significance to every item of Fusun's that he steals. While it is understandable that Kemal would get upset, even distraught, as he contemplates his absent lover's most prized items of jewellery, seeing him cry over her half-eaten food and cigarette stubs in the same way is just taking the concept too far.

In fact, much of the novel's failings come from Pamuk over-reaching himself. Many of his metaphors are extended beyond the point at which they're enlightening (such as an overly long and gratuitous description of how love can be a real, physical pain), and his characters just aren't as complex as the narrator would have us believe. Fusun, the object of love in the novel, comes across as a stroppy and juvenile woman, stuck in a perpetual adolescence. Similarly, Kemal's optimism and chirpy out-look is at odds with his supposed heart-ache and despair.

The first half of the novel is the best - but in a book of this length, that leaves a lot to be desired in the overly repetitive and ambling second half.

Unfortunately, `The Museum of Innocence' fails at as many things as it succeeds. A beautiful and fascinating social history of Istanbul is given somewhat of a back-seat to a bland and uninspiring love story. Nothing ever seems at stake in this novel - there is no real sense of risk. The reasons why Fusun and Kemal don't just get-it-together are largely nonsensical, given the supposed level of passion involved.

The predictable ending of the book is somewhat more engaging that the preceding three or four hundred pages, but again the author is attempting too much. The reasoning behind Fusun's final act isn't explored at all, and the novel finishes with that awful modern-cliché of inter-textual revelation a-la `Atonement'. I was left disappointed, and feeling that this novel could have been so much more, if only Pamuk had held back with certain aspects, and pushed forward with others.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Insights into the Obsessive Love of Things 11 Oct 2012
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Orhan Pamuk,
The Museum of Innocence

It is both easy and difficult to talk about this intriguing novel by the recent Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature - a prize of course awarded for lifetime achievement rather than for a particular book. The easy part is to tell the plot, which usually in my experience takes up at least half of a review. The difficult part is to convey the quality of one's reading experience. So, to the plot, briefly:

Kemal, who tells the story - later we discover his story is ghost-written by a friend - is a wealthy businessman who falls in love with a poor shopgirl, one who has recently come third in a beauty contest. Unfortunately, he is engaged to an aristocratic girl to whom marriage for familial and business reasons would be more suitable. So far, so trite, but this is not Jane Austen all over again; this is romance, writ large to the nth degree. For Kemal is an obsessive; he not only cannot detach himself from Füsan the shopgirl, but can think of nothing else. All through the period of his engagement and, later, his marriage to Sibel, Kemal collects memorabilia associated with his beloved. This collection of sacred relics begins with a lost ear-ring and ends with a museum.

What is remarkable about this everyday story of an infatuated lover is the revelation of an interior world, where recalled scenes and images are as life-sustaining as the memorabilia he treasures. Cigarette butts with Füsan's lipstick on and stolen kitchen equipment are but two of the thousands of his objets d'art. Each item brings back a time and place where he loved and suffered in the past. He polishes them or kisses them in his mother's apartment where he sets up his shrine. His fling with Füsan took but a short time, but it remains with him for life. Of course, he occasionally asks himself what good this `love' does him or anyone else. The answer is not a scrap - the reverse in fact. But he can't help himself; the drug will never leave his system, and if it did do so by a miracle, the reader feels the poor man would not survive.

The claustrophobic setting is Istanbul in the 1970s and beyond. The streets are narrow and crowded and the heat suffocating. Kemal names every street along which he has passed, dreaming of the beloved or remembering his later suffering. He presents the reader with a map, highlighting important features, and, to complete his encyclopaedia of folly he appends to a 700+ page novel a paginated index of all the characters mentioned.

What I loved most about this Proustian novel was the privileged view I was given of another consciousness, a madman one might say, a self-destructive obsessive, one who sacrifices everything for a dream, a no doubt selfish illusion about a fairly unexceptional girl. Except that we are made to realise that nobody is unexceptional, that the other characters whom Kemal damages are alive and immortalised in the book, just as his treasures are enshrined in his museum. We feel sympathy for them, even those who are hostile to him.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
3.0 out of 5 stars An overly long tale of obsession
The last sentence of this novel is: "Let everyone know, I lived a very happy life." These are the words of the protagonist, Kemal speaking to the author Orhan Pamuk. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Sally Walker
3.0 out of 5 stars Very strange book
Maybe I just don't get Orhan Pamuk. This is the second book of his I've read (decided to give him another try) and I can't really understand why he gets such great reviews. Read more
Published 4 months ago by bookworm
5.0 out of 5 stars This is a must read!
This book by a recent Nobel prize winner is not only a beautiful story, but a critique of Turkish society and culture. Read more
Published 4 months ago by MRS B JONES
5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant
I have read 3 of Pamuk's books and wasn't disappointed with this one. I couldn't put the book down once I started reading it and finished within a week. Read more
Published 7 months ago by TabbyLondon
5.0 out of 5 stars Love & Obsession
I bought this book for my wife on the strength of the back cover plaudits and the Nobel prize for its author. Read more
Published 8 months ago by Prince of Persia
5.0 out of 5 stars Orhan Pamuk
Orhan Pamuk is extra ordinary writer, i dont know why some people rate it under 5 stars, what lovely language he used when he writes
you should read his other books as well
Published 9 months ago by Istanblue
5.0 out of 5 stars Loved it
I can see why people struggled with this book as it is very detailed and slow-paced. However it did appeal to me. I was able to relate to the main character's obsession. Read more
Published 11 months ago by G. Senozan
1.0 out of 5 stars disappointed
First few chapters was ok to read but after it became a slow read.
I didn't even finish the book to know what happened because the story felt like it wasn't going anywhere.
Published 13 months ago by Naina H Meghani
2.0 out of 5 stars Obsessive
Tale of obsessive love and loss set in Turkey over the last 40 years. Daily lives of those within certain social strata are described in detail - great detail - with only passing... Read more
Published 14 months ago by JoTownhead
5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant read
This book was a present so haven't read it but it's meant to be brilliant. The service was very speedy.
Published 16 months ago by sanmo
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