Istanbul: Memories and the City (2003) | By Orhan Pamuk
On the one hand, this is a mosaic of many possible views of the city: from Theophile Gautier and Melling to the popular Turkish journalists of Atatürk’s era at its height. On the other hand, Istanbul is above all an autobiography. At the end of the day, that is the city in which Orhan Pamuk has always lived and which he has described in all of his works – from The Black Book to The New Life.
Even though Istanbul is not written in the fictional form Orhan Pamuk usually employs, it stays true to the logic of his remaining works, by presenting a mixture of philosophical considerations, fantasies, love, sadness and melancholic political and social reflections.
The book’s autobiographical elements offer an interesting insight into the life of the Europeanised Turkish elite in the second half of the twentieth century, and its attitude toward the religiosity that rushed into the city from the country’s interior. In this book, Orhan Pamuk describes the same problem he addressed in his novel Snow, but supports it with more factual and documentary evidence.
| Readers' Comments: "I loved this book - I purchased it in Stansted airport on my way to Northern Cyprus and started reading it as we flew to our scheduled stop-over at Istanbul airport for the regulation 45 minutes, frustratingly not able to get out of the plane, just catching a glimpse of the minarets and the bosphorus as we came in to land! Unlike some other readers who appear to have found this a monotonous read, I found it fascinating and Orhan Pamuk succeeded in evoking the era of his own upbringing in Istanbul. The nostalgia for the city of his childhood is overwhealming and the photographs and postcards which illustrate this biographical work add to the intense feeling he has for the place. I have not yet visited Istanbul but it is definitely on my list! Now I have also read and thoroughly enjoyed The Museum of Innocence too, that desire to visit has increased!" Rachel Markwick
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Epicure
Balkans
Three Bizarre Watermelon Recipes
The watermelon – this bright, contrasting symbol of summer
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Curiosity Chest
Balkans
The Red and White Strings that Welcome Spring in Bulgaria and Romania
I remember walking along Canal Street in New York’s Chinatown on March 2 a few years ago, when I saw a man sporting a small ornament made of red and white thread pinned to his coat lapel. He must be Bulgarian, I thought to myself with a sudden rush of homesickness, but now realize that he may have been Romanian as well.
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Useful Reads
Bulgaria
Street without a Name: Childhood and Other Misadventures in Bulgaria (2008) | By Kapka Kassabova
Danube blues
Text by Nicholas Lezard for The Guardian*
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Music
Bulgaria
The Choir that Turned England a Bit Bulgarian
One of the few constant sources of pride for Bulgarians is traditional folk music, and especially singing. But not the Oriental-beats-modified kind that often booms in nightclubs, giving their clientele the urge to jump atop tables and chairs and sway their hips around; rather the kind that, when heard, mesmerises you and gives you goose bumps, the kind that is haunting with its out-of-this universe quality, mostly figuratively but sometimes literally as well.
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Photogalleries
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A Perfect Shot
In Homo Urbanus Europeanus, exhibited May 9-24 in front of the National Theatre in Sofia, Jean-Marc Caracci presents his photographs of people in the urban environment of European capitals.
RED&WHITE SOFIA. On the 1st of March Bulgarians say goodbye to the winter. They buy each other red&white threads to carry around until they see a stork and spring can begin. Photography by Lode Desmet
BULGARIA D'OR: The Bulgarian countryside, patinated with the noble golden dust of the autumn. Photographs by Lode Desmet
360 degrees Bulgaria, an exhibition by photographer Alexandar Ivanov, is on display at the Sea Garden in Varna until August 28. It will be shown at Plovdiv’s Central Square from Sept 5.
The exhibition Photographs of a Trip Through Bulgaria by Hungarian photographer András Balla can be seen in Sofia's Hungarian Cultural Institute, at Aksakov 16 Street, until August 22
Instant Spring in Sofia | Photographs by Lode Desmet
Off-the-season Beauty of Bulgaria's Black Sea Coast | Photographs by Adelina Iliev
Bulgaria's Northern Black Sea Coast
Photographs by Albena Shkodrova
excellent smugs