|
We have in
our internet reader circle just completed
We have in our internet reader circle just completed Orhan Pamuk's novel
'My name is Red' (in Finnish: 'Nimeni on Punainen'). I have never read
anything like this, even if this book contains features that are very common.
This book is a piece of art history and art philosophy, a detective story,
a love story. To me it seems to have also features of a travel story, a
psychologic case study. All those and perhaps still something in a fascinating
mixture. It is very easily accessible, a reader's joy in all respects.
In its sovreign style it clearly surpasses most Nobelists, in fact it is
a Nobelist in my eyes. Pamuk deserves a Nobel prize as well as the Estonian
master Jaan Kross, these two more than anybody other living writer, better
than several recent recipients.
Pamuk's book without being surrealistic, at least not clearly and pre-eminently
as Marques's 'Hundred years of Solitude' is as full of phantasy as that.
Pamuk's narrativeness does not stay second to that of Saramago. Joyce's
day of Ulysses is damaged by his cheap tricks of telling the story, clearly
inferior to Pamuk's straightforward style of making everything clear to
the reader. In 'My name is Red' there is something mystic like in Mika
Waltari's books, another writer who would clearly have deserved the greatest
literature award and recognition, but instead enjoys continuing popularity.
As a detective story 'My name is Red' is in its originality comparable
with the greatest of all detective stories, 'Crime and Punishment' by Dostoyevsky.
Like Dostoyevsky Pamuk discloses the murderer right at the beginning, but
unlike Dostoyevsky still leaves the reader uncertain until the final phase
of the book. Although comparably in ingenuity with Dostoyevsky's Pamuk's
approach does not in any respect resemble that of Dostoyevsky's. Dostoyevsky's
murderer undergoes a long process of punishment and rehabilitation, without
remarkable success, however. Pamuk's murderer gets an 'eye for eye treatment'
but is not deeply analysed like Raskolnikov in 'Crime and punishment'.
In Pamuk's 'My name is Red' much space is devoted to life in the shadow
of the murders.
In Pamuk's book very great attention is paid to art history and art
philosophy. The difference between the Christian and Islamic art is repeatedly
exposed. In my opinion a much shorter treatment would have been sufficient,
perhaps also possible from the point of view of the story itself, of which
the artistic speculations form an essential part, however. The art has
an essential part in the motive of murder as well as a clue to disclose
the solution of the crime.
It seems to me that the writer has had some difficulties to round the
story at the end, so that the reader's initial enthusiasm cannot any more
flourish as it does at the beginning. But the overall excitement and satisfaction
stands comparison with any comparable literary masterpiece.
|
o AJK kotisivu o Pamuk