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Showing posts from November 22, 2023

MY NAME IS RED, A NOVEL BY ORHAN PAMUK (BOOK REVIEW AND RECOMMENDATION)

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Hello dear friends and fellow bloggers! I'm back with another reading recommendation. My Name is Red is a novel by Turkish writer Orhan Pamuk.  Published in 1998, this lengthy postmodern historical novel focuses on a group of miniaturists working in sixteenth century Istanbul. Most of the major characters are a part of the same group of artists. The novel opens with a murder mystery. What follows is a story that has two main characters  (protagonists if you will) but also subplots.  There is a love story of sorts within this murder mystery, but   My Name is Red is not a typical romance. It's, in many ways, a philosophical and detailed dive into Ottoman Empire. The realism of this novel is at times graphic (featuring graphic descriptions of violence) and at times dreamy (featuring poetical descriptions).   My Name is Red often focuses on philosophical debates about the nature and purpose of art. It uses postmodernist writing techniques and is narrated by various characters, some