The Black Book is a stunning tapestry of Middle Eastern and Islamic culture, and confirms Pamuk's reputation as a writer of international stature. Richly atmospheric and Rabelaisian in scope, this work is a labyrinthine novel suffused with sights, sounds, and scents of Istanbul as it plumbs the mystery of identity, fiction, and reality.
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The Black Book is a stunning tapestry of Middle Eastern and Islamic culture, and confirms Pamuk's reputation as a writer of international stature. Richly atmospheric and Rabelaisian in scope, this work is a labyrinthine novel suffused with sights, sounds, and scents of Istanbul as it plumbs the mystery of identity, fiction, and reality.
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Seller's Description:
Near Fine in Fine jacket. 1st Printing. A near fine US first edition, first printing hardback (pushing to spine ends)-in a fine dustwrapper (not price-clipped) fitted with a protective and removable mylar sleeve-All my books are always securely packed with plenty of bubblewrap in professional boxes and promptly dispatched (within 2-3 days)-SIGNED BY ORHAN PAMUK-Pictures are available upon request-
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Seller's Description:
Near Fine in Very Good jacket. Stated First Printing. Near fine copy in a very good dust jacket with only flaw being a small crease at bottom of inside flap. Jacket is in a mylar protector.
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Seller's Description:
Very Good. 1994 Farrar Strauss Giroux hard cover-1st edition 1st printing-minor staining to page edge-otherwise dust jacket fine cover fine binding strong contents clean-enjoy.
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Seller's Description:
Like New. 1st edition 1st printing-slight staining to top closed page edge-otherwise a fine clean like new collectible with like new dust jacket now in mylar cover-enjoy.
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Seller's Description:
Fine book in a fine dust jacket. 400 pages. First American Edition. Translated from the Turkish by Güneli Gün. Pamuk's second novel to appear in English, a labyrinthine mystery set in Istanbul. Pamuk received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2006. Fine in fine dustjacket.
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Seller's Description:
Near Fine in Near Fine jacket. Review Copy. 8vo-over 7¾"-9¾" tall. Signed by Author First US edition, first prnt. Originally published in 1990 by Can Yayinlavi Ltd. as Kara Kitap. Translated from the Turkish by Guneli Gun. Signed by Pamuk on the title page. Publisher's announcement sheet laid-in. Author reading event flyer laid-in. Cloth spine ends lightly wrinkled and one board corner with weak bump; dustjacket with few shallow spine edge wrinkles. Tight copy in Near Fine condition in a Near Fine dustjacket with an archival cover. Pamuk's second book to appear in English.
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Seller's Description:
Fair. May contain writing notes highlighting bends or folds. Text is readable book is clean and pages and cover mostly intact. May show normal wear and tear. Item may be missing CD. May include library marks.
What am I to do, oh readers, for I do not recognize myself. I have read the Black Book and am transformed. I am not a nihilist who absorbing the dark fruit of the Black Book's heart-rending conclusion nor an anarchist; for the Black Book shows the foil of living under half-lit regimes I am not a modernist, the Black Book details the past's ragged urging to be recalled, nor traditionalist, for the author Orhan Pamuk clearly illustrates the folly of doctrinaire beliefs, be they secular, political, religious or even, (God help us) romantic. In a magazine article, Mr. Pamuk described Istanbul, the setting of this novel as having "no symmetry, no sense of geometry, no two lines in parallel." The same can be said of the Black Book's plot. Though I am no hedonist, feminist, satirist, cynic, nor even lotus-eater, I AM wistfully numinous. The Black Book is filled with Sufi ("Hurufi") references to Islamic numerology and mystical sensibilities. The delicate threads of the plot inspire me with the same maniacal passion for the Orahn Pamuk, that Jelal, elusive essayist and one of the book's central characters enjoys among the Istabullis . Make no mistake, The Black Book is marvelous fiction. Jelal's weary dance with the absurd realities of Turkish life compels him to capture that grand madness in daily columns depicted throughout the book. The essays rightfully become the stuff of national obsession. The chapter entitled, "The Day the Bosphorus Dries Up," is alone worth the price of the book. Ruya (meaning "dream") is the book's missing link. Her disappearance is the central mystery of the story and a great ordeal to her husband Galip, the book's sweet, bemused protagonist. Once again, Mr. Pamuk gives us brilliant play on the nature of identity. Galip mimics Jelal's personae while searching for Ruya, his missing wife. When Jelal's newspaper column is threatened by his disappearance, Galip substitutes his own writing for Jelal's. Thusly, Galip fulfills a long-held desire to meet Jelal's creative skill. Something essential is given continuity by Galip's absorption of Jelal's art. And much of the Baclk Book's subtext is about continuity or the lack thereof. While Galip searches for Ruya and Jelal (his cousin), he sleuths through the unlit corners of Jelal's obsessively private life. In one of my favorite passages, Galip discovers Jelal's hidden apartment furbished with garrulous fixtures from thier shared and lost childhood. Sufi themes abound in the Black Book which call to mind further notions of identity and the sense of historical estrangement. "Modern" Turkish life is lived with blunted access to a colorful, if interrupted, past. Sufi symbols from Ottoman times in the storyline exist alongside reminders that these Orders were eradicated a single decree of Ataturk, Turkey's great modernizer. Mystical references are clue to an important theme of the author: the right to know what the inheritances of the past are in relation to the present. Ruya, gone without explanation, is presumed by Galip to be with Jelal, who is her half-brother. While the reader doesn't observe her directly, neither it seems, does Galip, her husband, even when she is fully present. What we do observe of her is the awe and wonderment she inspires. She manages to signify both feminine spirit and palpable disillusionment with the role. Galip never questions why she leavesor what she does (and doesn't do). He is compelled by love to find her in what becomes a contemporary twist on the classical (Sufi) theme of "search". In the Black Book we see a land we may come to inhabit as the new millenium injects stranger and stranger ciphers into our lives. Mr. Pamuk appears to being saying that all the willfulness of our times cannot interpret these "signs" if they are read out of context. Though dense, the Black Book is brilliantly written for those who prefer a mystery that remains . . . mysterious. It suggests powerfully, that love is the best reason we have to plod on. It also suggests we are more "alive" when tending our enigmas. Bravo, Orhan Pamuk, I am so drunken with your prose: though of revelry and Istanbul, I have no tale to tell.
MaryR76
Mar 16, 2007
A Rich, Dark Dream
This many layered book is intensly visual, creating images that linger long after the plot line fades. The narrative has a dream-like quality, moving through time and memory, space and imagination. I cared deeply not only about the narrator (Galip) but also about Celal Bey, the central character known only through his writing.
