[AN7]⇒ PDF Free The New Life Orhan Pamuk 9780571193783 Books

The New Life Orhan Pamuk 9780571193783 Books

Download As PDF : The New Life Orhan Pamuk 9780571193783 Books

The New Life Orhan Pamuk 9780571193783 Books

Some time ago - almost casually - I had the lucky chance to read "My Name is Red", one of the best novel of these last years. So it was almost natural to continue in my exploration of Ohran Pamuk's imaginary universe.

This book, again, is equal to his fame.

Pamuk is a great, possibly one of the most interesting contemporary writers and this novel is but a new proof of his storytelling ability and of his writing craftsmanship.

Compared to "My Name is Red" this work is more complex, with a "post-modern" character because of the style and also of a certain pace of narration and peculiar sensibility.

It is a story of a fascination with a book (the beginning reads "I read a book one day and my complete life has changed") that transfigures the life of the hero and compels him to leave family, abandon studies and travel endlessly though an enchanted Turkey. This book becomes a drug, a new faith, the promise of a new existential plenitude, not transient, non "plastic" and non frail as everyday modern life.

A delicate love story, encounters with an assorted humanity (the right wing boss, the compassionate conservative, fellow readers addicted to the same book, shady secret agents,...), a landscape transformed by a visual sensibility led to the extreme, and the inescapable tragedy at the end (a true tragedy?)...

What I enjoyed most is the pace of the book: a symphony, with endless variations on the theme, sometimes with almost hypnotic result.

But under the serene surface, as most the books of Ohran Pamuk, the novel reveals a work of incredible craftsmanship, in which you can see both the gifted writer and the curiosity of a voracious reader.

There are specially two dimensions - not directly related to the story that can be read also in the literal sense - in which you can interpret the story differently: the all pervading symbolism and the meta-literary or hyper-literary level.

The novel is pervaded, deeply permeated by symbolism, but as a non Turkish reader, I guess that some of it inevitably escaped me.

Beginning with names, everything reminds of this different level: Doctor Fine, New Life Caramels, Memory Lane Restaurant, Bliss pills, the names of the spies (Omega, Zenith, Serkisof, Seiko - all from watches), up to the name of the beloved Janan,...

I guess the story can easily be read as well as a kind of modern Turkish "Pilgrim Progress": the search for a paradise lost and a document of the bleeding wound of modernity, the frustration at the "Great Conspiracy" of the West to the traditional values (a theme developed by Pamuk also in other novels). Compared to "My Name is Red", symbolism in "The New Life" is much more visible, and is also one of the reasons because the psychological analysis of characters here is less developed.

The meta-literary dimension is better perceivable to the non Turkish reader because of the international breadth: the specially strong influence of Borges (the theme of the fascination with books, the deeply felt, skeptic search for a meaning, a kind of ecstatic contemplation, a serene agnosticism), but also of Peter Hoeg (especially the one of "The History of Danish Dreams", one of the best novels of the last decade, with its dreamy warping of the time dimension). But the book is permeated as well by a specific visual sensibility of the early `90s: for the cinema specially the baroque and acid images of Derek Jarman and those emotionally charged of Tornatore (the fascination with kissing scenes in "Nuovo Cinema Paradiso",...).

You are truly welcome if you can suggest other readings or just share ideas and comments!

Thanks for reading.


Tags : The New Life [Orhan Pamuk] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. 'I read a book one day, and my whole life was changed.' So begins The New Life, Orhan Pamuk's fabulous road novel about a young student who yearns for the life promised by a dangerously magical book. On his remarkable journey,Orhan Pamuk,The New Life,Faber & Faber,0571193781,Fanaticism,Fiction,Fiction Literary,General & Literary Fiction,Modern & contemporary fiction,Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945),Modern fiction

The New Life Orhan Pamuk 9780571193783 Books Reviews

This book reads like poetry. There is longing and mystery, intrigue, deception. I identified with the main character, even though he was male.

I own this book in hardback and I can't really afford a lot of books. I just know that I will read this book over and over again throughout my life. )
After reading the opening sentence of the New Life, "I read a book one day and my whole life was changed," I wondered whether reading The New Life itself was going to change my life.

This is the story of Osman, an engineering student, who becomes obsessed with a book and falls in love with a girl, Janan, who shares the same obsession. This novel is mainly the story of their journey through Turkey, going aimlessly from city to city, searching for this new life promised by the book.

At some point, as a reader, we doubt about their sanity, and we wonder what the real meaning of this mystical journey is? Is Pamuk the modern literary version of a whirling dervish looking for God or the meaning of life or one's self like Sufis? Or does this new life is all about an identity crisis, like one of the favorite themes of Pamuk?
Could it be that Osman's wandering represents Turkey and its tormented historical journey to reach a point where the never ending conflict and contradiction between the East and the West would finally reach an end?

Again, like all his other novels, the new life is not an easy read, but it is full of poetic philosophy and ambiguous dilemmas, and this was what I liked the most. Because I was tempted to put the book down every few pages, and like tasting a good wine, I had to ponder about the underlayer meaning of what I had just read.

In my case, as much as Pamuk has changed my life with each of his novels, I have to confess that I have also transformed his words because of my own particular point of view. The beauty of Pamuk's work is that whatever conclusion any reader might reach, nothing in his work is ordinary. Each of us is going to read the book through our own eyes, and changing it because of who we are, as if each reader has to rewrite this whole journey ... and this is Orhan Pamuk's strength.
Some time ago - almost casually - I had the lucky chance to read "My Name is Red", one of the best novel of these last years. So it was almost natural to continue in my exploration of Ohran Pamuk's imaginary universe.

This book, again, is equal to his fame.

Pamuk is a great, possibly one of the most interesting contemporary writers and this novel is but a new proof of his storytelling ability and of his writing craftsmanship.

Compared to "My Name is Red" this work is more complex, with a "post-modern" character because of the style and also of a certain pace of narration and peculiar sensibility.

It is a story of a fascination with a book (the beginning reads "I read a book one day and my complete life has changed") that transfigures the life of the hero and compels him to leave family, abandon studies and travel endlessly though an enchanted Turkey. This book becomes a drug, a new faith, the promise of a new existential plenitude, not transient, non "plastic" and non frail as everyday modern life.

A delicate love story, encounters with an assorted humanity (the right wing boss, the compassionate conservative, fellow readers addicted to the same book, shady secret agents,...), a landscape transformed by a visual sensibility led to the extreme, and the inescapable tragedy at the end (a true tragedy?)...

What I enjoyed most is the pace of the book a symphony, with endless variations on the theme, sometimes with almost hypnotic result.

But under the serene surface, as most the books of Ohran Pamuk, the novel reveals a work of incredible craftsmanship, in which you can see both the gifted writer and the curiosity of a voracious reader.

There are specially two dimensions - not directly related to the story that can be read also in the literal sense - in which you can interpret the story differently the all pervading symbolism and the meta-literary or hyper-literary level.

The novel is pervaded, deeply permeated by symbolism, but as a non Turkish reader, I guess that some of it inevitably escaped me.

Beginning with names, everything reminds of this different level Doctor Fine, New Life Caramels, Memory Lane Restaurant, Bliss pills, the names of the spies (Omega, Zenith, Serkisof, Seiko - all from watches), up to the name of the beloved Janan,...

I guess the story can easily be read as well as a kind of modern Turkish "Pilgrim Progress" the search for a paradise lost and a document of the bleeding wound of modernity, the frustration at the "Great Conspiracy" of the West to the traditional values (a theme developed by Pamuk also in other novels). Compared to "My Name is Red", symbolism in "The New Life" is much more visible, and is also one of the reasons because the psychological analysis of characters here is less developed.

The meta-literary dimension is better perceivable to the non Turkish reader because of the international breadth the specially strong influence of Borges (the theme of the fascination with books, the deeply felt, skeptic search for a meaning, a kind of ecstatic contemplation, a serene agnosticism), but also of Peter Hoeg (especially the one of "The History of Danish Dreams", one of the best novels of the last decade, with its dreamy warping of the time dimension). But the book is permeated as well by a specific visual sensibility of the early `90s for the cinema specially the baroque and acid images of Derek Jarman and those emotionally charged of Tornatore (the fascination with kissing scenes in "Nuovo Cinema Paradiso",...).

You are truly welcome if you can suggest other readings or just share ideas and comments!

Thanks for reading.