Museum of Innocence by Orhan Pamuk

Name: Orhan Pamuk

Year Won: 2006

Read: Museum of Innocence

Original Language: Turkish

Reason: "who in the quest for the melancholic soul of his native city has discovered new symbols for the clash and interlacing of cultures"

About: The Museum of Innocence is about a rich young Turkish man who falls in love with a poor relation then utterly destroys his life with his obsession for her. He slowly gathers items from the time they spend together and at last assembles it in the titular "Museum of Innocence" (which in a hilarious twist, was created to mirror the book...so is a real place in Istanbul.)

What I liked: I find Orhan's writing almost magnetic. I love how he describes Turkish life (in the 70s in this case) and the contrasts between the western, secularized society and more traditional values.

Orhan also has a sense of humor that I find charming. He inserts himself into the story very briefly in a rather entertaining way and, of course, the museum is both real and not real.

Finally, I kind of like that the narrator is a total knob. He's one of the least sympathetic characters in the story (I'm more fond of almost any of the side characters), and it's never really clear to me whether the woman he obsesses over actually likes him, or just hopes he'll use his money to make her a movie star. It's layered in a way that I find really interesting.

What I Disliked: Not much. I really like this book. With that said, I wish it was a bit clearer as to whether the protagonist is supposed to come off as being as much of a knob as he is. If he's truly supposed to be sympathtic (and the woman he's in love with is truly supposed to return his affection), the story comes off as pretty sexist, TBH, with a rich douche basically wanting to 'save' a pretty poor relation, only fate gets in the way. I don't think this is the way this story is meant to be interpreted, though, but I could be wrong.

Should it have won a Nobel: This was written after Pamuk won his Nobel, so it's kind of irrelevant. I liked this, but is it Nobel worthy? IDK.

With that said, I think Pamuk won because of his somewhat comedic, definitely surreal, picture of terrorism in Snow, which absolutely is a masterwork and deserves a Nobel SO MUCH.

Next Up: "The Golden Notebook" by Doris Lessing