The Black Book – Orhan Pamuk (33/50)

I bought this book close to the Bosporus, while I drank Mokka. Turkey was something new, a center of the world that is usually ignored in the lessons of History taught in the western hemisphere. In that sense, it was a discovery for me, and I wanted to read the author that I left on my table before coming to Germany. One of the last books I tried to read in Colombia was “Istanbul” but time was not enough and I was decided to leave.

“The Black Book” is a long novel written by Orhan Pamuk, a Turkish author and winner of the Nobel Prize. The book was published in 1990 and translated by Maureen Freely. According to the “Afterwords” this book is set in the 80s some months before a coup took place to reestablish order. While during the 60s the country turned to protectionism, save the country from the fleeing industries, a military coup was executed to prevent the loss of religious freedom. In the seventies students turned to the left pursuing to reestablish democracy and as usual, repression arrived after it.

Galip, the main character realizes that his wife has left him. To find her he tries to reach Celal, a journalist whose close bond to his wife might explain why and where she disappeared. While searching Celal he goes through Istanbul and its stories. The book alternates the experiences of Galip and the mysterious columns of Celal.

The journalist has been writing for many years about the life in Istanbul, its past and most of his followers believe that he leaves clues to something bigger. Galip shares this obsession for Celal, a desire to understand his mind and experiences. While he is looking for his wife he must go through the Byzantine, Ottoman and recent past of the city. He gets to learn about religious factions, the relationship between Turkish and Jewish, rebels who try to recover the byzantine Empire, stories of Sultans who were obsessed with dwarfs and let them live in one island and as well about another sultan that walked disguised in pursue of his identity. 

Celal is complex because he writes and disappears, his family does not know about him, and he participated in one of the failed coups against the government. Galip gets to open his apartment and impersonates him when talking by phone to his fan base.  Questions about his own identity emerge and those questions mix with the questions of an old sultan who wore disguises. He feels embarrassed sometimes because some fans know more about Celal than himself, but he keeps answering and trying to find him.

After his adventures in the city, he receives a threatening call from an ex-colleague of Celal. He wants to kill the journalist because he believed in the revolution, while he always examined it with cynicism. Furthermore, Celal cheated with his wife, who was his playground mate. Galip makes an appointment and tries to improve the situation by calming the man calling. However, when Galip leaves the apartment to impersonate Celal, he realizes that the journalist was murdered. All that time that Galip invested looking for his wife was used by them hiding in the same building (City of Hearts). Celal and Rüya were staying in the attic and once they went to watch movies, they were killed.

I like that the book is a very well-informed source of life and past of Istanbul. The characters that Galip meets are representative of different realities or periods of history. Authoritarism is also present, for example navigating is very restricted after some hours. I could see a similar atmosphere when I noticed metal detectors in every train station. I guess some things need time to change. 

I disliked that the main story is not that strong. A husband loses his wife and he wants to find a journalist. I would have liked more complexity in the storyline, finally it is what makes a book stronger when some elements of history are not relevant anymore. I am not suggesting that the criticism of the book is not current but will it be after 200 or 300 years?