My knowledge of the history of Turkey, or anywhere in that part of the world, is pretty scant. Because I wanted to learn more about this country we planned to spend a month in, I sought out a historical fiction novel to help me out. I chose Orhan Pamuk’s My Name is Red. Pamuk is a Turkish author who won the Nobel Prize for literature in 2006.
Before reading, I knew that this book took place during the Ottoman Empire in Istanbul, that it was a murder mystery, that it was told from the perspective of a large cast of characters, and that one of the characters was the man who had been murdered (narrating posthumously). Intriguing, right?
In addition to all this, the murder victim and all of the suspects are miniaturists, working together to create decorative illustrations for a revolutionary new book for Sultan Murat III. The revolutionary part was that the Sultan had become enamored by a new style of painting he had seen in Europe using perspective and unique identifiable faces on the peoples depicted. It was already pushing the limits in Islamic society to have illustrations at all, and adding this to the mix was enough to provoke murder! So, in addition to the murder drama were art, history and religion lessons. All topics I’m interested in.
It was a special experience to begin reading this while visiting Istanbul and touring the same mosques and palace gardens where all of this story took place 400-ish years ago.
I will caution that this book is certainly not for everyone. In addition to some moments of gory violence, sex (both hetero and homo-pedophile) is casually referred to at various points. If that doesn’t bother you, or if you can read past it, the story is well written, entertaining and informative. This book pairs well with a gin and tonic (cin tonik) and roasted Turkish hazelnuts.
