Snow – Orhan Pamuk

10Feb07

This is a review of Orhan Pamuk’s latest novel, Snow, which I wrote for Johns Hopkins News-Letter, but they couldn’t run it since Snow was published over six months ago.

Long under-appreciated in the United States, Nobel-Prize-Winner Orhan Pamuk is finally receiving the recognition he deserves. With the introduction of Pamuk’s seventh novel, Snow, translated by Maureen Freely, Americans are beginning to see why this Turkish writer is so revered in his home country. Although begun before September 11th, Snow has been described as “essential reading for our times,” (Headscarves to Die For, Margaret Atwood, NY Times Book Review) highlighting the debate between religion and secularism. Pamuk’s books, including titles such as My Name is Red, and The New Life, all focus on writing his native country into being. In Snow, Pamuk gives a voice to the many different individuals living in Turkey; from the Islamic Kurd to the westernized atheist, Snow is a story about the motivations and beliefs which drive our actions, our thoughts, and our dreams.

The novel is primarily the story of Ka, a poet who hasn’t written anything in years, and his trip to Turkey after twelve years spent in political exile. Returning chiefly for the funeral of his mother, Ka moves on to the small town of Kars, in Anatolia. He has several motives for visiting the small town, he claims to be reporting a recent rash of female suicides for a paper in Instanbul, but also harbors a secret desire to see Ipek, a beautiful woman he knew from college, who has recently divorced. Engaging different people in the village, including a local Sheikh named Efendi, an enigmatic terrorist named Blue, and a religious teenager Necip, Ka encounters the entire spectrum of Kars’ inhabitants.

Distrusted by almost everyone in Kars, Ka finds himself constantly shadowed by plainclothes policemen. Everyone in the village knows why he is there; and has their own reason for wanting him to not report on anything about Kars. The Turkish government is wary of him writing an article about the suicide girls because it is rumored the reason they have done so is in response to a state decree banning the covering of head-scarves from the universities. The families are hesitant of the girls personal reasons for suicide being disclosed to the public. The political Islamists, who consider suicide to be a grave sin, do not want the girls to be turned into martyrs, or idealized. Through out his interviews, Ka is met with a lot of resistance, however due to a severe snow storm, Ka is stuck in the city for several days.

The story itself is told from the perspective of one of Ka’s close friends, whose name happens to be Orhan. Orhan attempts to piece together Ka’s time in Kars, during which a political revolution takes place, and the city of Kars is placed under the authority of a failed theatre troupe, led by the actor Sunay Zaim. The city’s response to the coup reflects a town used to political turmoil and instability. While some of the citizens see this as an opportunity to bring change to the small town, others remain unimpressed, fully aware that such a drastic and poorly organized coup cannot last long.

Forced to spend most of his time wandering the empty streets and small teahouses, Ka finds himself in a unique position. For the first time in several years, he is writing poems. Not only that, he also finds himself close to a happiness which he has always thought to exist only in fleeting moments. As the snow melts and the revolution comes to a close, Ka sees his newfound happiness falling away from him. He becomes desperate, willing to go to extraordinary lengths to hold on to what he believes to be his last chance at a happy life.

There are many stories within the pages of Snow, each one of them painting a large picture of the sorts of individuals who make up Pamuk’s home country. As the character Orhan discovers during his attempt to piece together his friend’s last trip to Kars, the events which took place during the few short days of “the revolution” had a lasting effect on Ka. The trip leaves Ka a changed man, filled by a desire to develop and publish the nineteen poems he wrote during his time there. In Snow, Orhan Pamuk’s attempt to “write his country in to being” is wholly successful, and what is created is a sprawling narrative whose depth is all encompassing.