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Orhan Pamuk

Erdağ M. Göknar

My Name is Red Paperback – 4 Aug. 2001

by Orhan Pamuk (Author)

4.1 1,528 ratings

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In the late 1590s, the Turkish Sultan secretly commissions an illuminated book: a celebration of his life and his empire. At a time of violent fundamentalism, however, this is a dangerous proposition. Then one of the miniaturists is murdered. The Sultan demands an answer within three days.

Print length

417 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Faber & Faber
Publication date

4 Aug. 2001
Dimensions

0.25 x 0.25 x 0.25 cm
ISBN-10

0571200478
ISBN-13

978-0571200474
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Product description

Amazon Review

Orhan Pamuk is one of Turkey's premier novelists and My Name Is Red, when published in the original Turkish in 1998, became the fastest-selling book in Turkish history. It is high time then that a translation to English was made, and this publication will be widely welcomed by Pamuk's growing legion of English-speaking admirers.

In the late 16th century, during the final years of the reign of Ottoman Sultan Murat III, a great work is commissioned, a book celebrating the Sultan's life. The work is conducted in secret, to the ignorance of the artists involved, for fear of a violent religious reaction to the European style of the illuminations in the book. An artist goes, missing, feared dead, and Black, a painter who has been in a self-enforced exile because of spurned love, returns to help his former Master investigate the disappearance.

Pamuk's prose is as exquisite and rich as the elucidations it describes. This is a dense, atmospherically fevered book, which demands a high level of patience and attention from the reader, perhaps mirroring the patience of the miniaturists. Written in the first person, with multiple narratives, this is a book full of unreliable witnesses, and as the various stories of the narrators unfold, the truth of the disappearance slowly emerges. The sense of place and time are carefully constructed and diligently maintained throughout the novel, which, like Umberto Eco's The Name Of The Rose, far exceeds the genre of literary historical crime to become a hypnotic meditation on religion, love, time, patience and artistic devotion. --Iain Robinson

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Faber & Faber; First Edition (4 Aug. 2001)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 417 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0571200478
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0571200474
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 0.25 x 0.25 x 0.25 cm

Customer reviews:
4.1 1,528 ratings

About the authors

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Orhan Pamuk
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Orhan Pamuk, described as 'one of the freshest, most original voices in contemporary fiction' (Independent on Sunday), is the author of many books, including The White Castle, The Black Book and The New Life. In 2003 he won the International IMPAC Award for My Name is Red, and in 2004 Faber published the translation of his novel Snow, which The Times described as 'a novel of profound relevance to the present moment'. His most recent book was Istanbul, described by Jan Morris as 'irresistibly seductive'. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2006. He lives in Istanbul.
Photo by David Shankbone (Orhan Pamuk discusses his new book about love) [CC BY 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons.
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Erdağ M. Göknar
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Erdağ Göknar is Associate Professor of Turkish and Middle East Studies at Duke University and an award-winning translator. His translation of Orhan Pamuk's historical novel MY NAME IS RED won the International Dublin Literary Award (2003), marking Pamuk's emergence as an author of world literature and contributing to his selection as Nobel laureate (2006). The best selling novel was reissued in 2010 as part of the Everyman's Library Contemporary Classics series. Göknar is also the translator of A.H. Tanpınar's iconic novel of Istanbul, A MIND AT PEACE, and Atiq Rahimi's anti-war novella set in Afghanistan, EARTH AND ASHES. His critical literary study, ORHAN PAMUK, SECULARISM, AND BLASPHEMY: THE POLITICS OF THE TURKISH NOVEL (Routledge 2013), argues that the productive tension between Turkish Islam and state secularism give Pamuk's work currency as world literature. Göknar's poetry collection, NOMADOLOGIES (Turtle Point 2017), engages themes of Turkish-American diaspora.
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An illuminating read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 18 September 2002

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Reading the storyline of this novel and indeed some of the other reviews one could put off the purchase, however, don't be. To write a review is difficult as its a hard book to describe. On the negative side there are times when the descriptions of illumination and the comparison of painting styles between east and west are heavy going and sometimes I found myself reading whole chapters with no real understanding of their relevance. However, as I got further and further through the book everything slowly came into focus. In the end my only complaint was that there were no examples of illuminations within the book as it fired my imagination to see the work of these painters who were so clearly obsessive about perfecting their art. If you are more confused now, its a description of life in Istanbul,its a love story, its a detective novel, its a book about the conflicting cultures of east and west, its definately a book that makes one think but most of all its a interesting which unlike many books keeps ones attention until the end.

21 people found this helpful

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Roman Clodia

Mis-packaged meditation on art, aesthetics and religion

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 10 April 2008

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Firstly, despite the way Faber have decided to promote this book, it's not a murder mystery in the way those words are usually understood: so if you're looking for a thriller with clues, twists and turns, this definitely isn't it. Partly for that reason I think the reviews which compare it with Eco's The Name of the Rose are off-point. That was a book which playfully refers to the intertextual nature of all reading; reading isn't what's at stake in Pamuk's book at all.

Instead it is a profound and engaging meditation on the contrasting and sometimes conflicting views of eastern and western aesthetics of art, especially visual and religious art: or, rather, the religiosity of art.

Yes, there is a murder which kicks off the story, and another one mid-way through (very brutal and disturbing) but who did it really isn't either the point or the driver of this book. There's also a love story at its heart, but one which draws on the Persian epics that it constantly refers to and so half invites and half resists comparisons with western love stories.

Other reviewers have complained about the narrative voices all sounding the same, and that is the case, but I assume because Pamuk isn't interested in writing a character-driver novel. Also don't read it if you're expecting a lush historical full of exotic detail as that's not the type of book it is (Gregory, Chadwick et al.)

In summary, this is an intellectually-accomplished and brave novel that deals with hard subjects. It's not a difficult read but it is a slow one, one that you need to take your time over and digest, not a page-turner where you can't wait to find out what happens next. I think it's an important book but it won't be to everyone's taste.

29 people found this helpful

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Amazon Customer

Dense and evocative

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 21 March 2023

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The level of learning and poetical description in this novel is wonderful. It's a long but worthwhile read. Delve in!

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Charlotte

Couldn’t get into this

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 28 August 2022

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Couldn’t really get into this. Gave up after 50 pages. Not much was happening and didn’t connect with the characters

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jklm

I enjoyed the different 'voices' used to drive the story along

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 11 September 2016

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Despite being rather too wordy at times, this is fascinating on many levels. It is such an interesting insight into Islamic thinking. Even though it is set in the 1500's, other more modern stories from the Islamic world indicate that a lot of the thinking and behaviour is similar now.
Unlike a couple of other reviewers, I enjoyed the different 'voices' used to drive the story along. The mystery and the love story served well to keep me reading to the end and the ending was very satisfying.
As a woman, It led me to reflect that it is only very recently that women have lost their second class status in the West. In the Islamic world at different times and places - like 16th century Istanbul - the societal structures seem to have forced both men and women to behave rather strangely, to modern Western eyes.

5 people found this helpful

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charlie k

Great read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 16 February 2019

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First book I've read by Orhan Pamuk and certainly it won't be the last! I think like Salman Rushdie, you need to understand the writer's psyche to enjoy books like this. That said, I found the Satanic Verses a tricky read but then again, I've been told by Muslims you need to understand the Koran. I am not religious so I'm not going to comment on that. My Name Is Red is not like the Satanic Verses so let's clear that up. It is in its entirety a great read. I read over the Christmas period and I was literally devouring great swathes of it at any time. When I finished it I gave it to my brother who wouldn't really read this sort of book but even though he's older, he's now prone to experiment with his reading. I haven't heard back from him on it. He may not read it for months! I love historical fiction and Orhan Pamuk does it as good as any one else. Umberto Eco springs to mind while I read this.

6 people found this helpful

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P. J. Martin

A most unusual read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 21 December 2021

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An interesting book. I wasn't sure whether i wanted to complete it or not but stuck with it and got hooked. The author knows how to create tension, all set against the background of the 16th century Ottoman empire, mainly in Istanbul, with the fight for the modernisation of Islam against the encroaching values of the west; a battle fought out between miniaturist painters, with death, violence and love all playing their part. I shall be thinking about this book for quite a long time.

2 people found this helpful

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Amazon Customer

Worth a read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 11 May 2022

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Such rich characters and history beautifully woven into the story.

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My Name is Red Paperback – 4 Aug. 2001

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Orhan Pamuk

Erdağ M. Göknar

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