About this title: In the late 1590s, the Turkish Sultan secretly commissions an illuminated book: a celebration of his life and his empire. At a time of violent fundamentalism, however, this is a dangerous proposition. Then one of the miniaturists is murdered. The Sultan demands an answer within three days.
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Edition: Vintage Intl ed.
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Vintage Books USA
Date Published: 2002
ISBN-13:9780375706851ISBN:0375706852
Description: Very good. No dust jacket as issued. Read once, very good condition, top corner is bent. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 432 p. Audience: General/trade. read more
Edition: Vintage Intl ed.
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Vintage Books USA
Date Published: 2002
ISBN-13:9780375706851ISBN:0375706852
Description: Good. No dust jacket as issued. Pages are beginning to tan. Has a little wear. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 432 p. Audience: General/trade. read more
Description: Good. 0375706852 25769 PB: spine smooth, text appears clean, but may contain highlighting/underlining, or any other marks (as it is a used book) cover has light shelf wear-allow up to 21 business days for standard USPS media mail. wt1lbpf. read more
Description: Very Good. 0375706852 Paperback, Condition: Very Good; this book is in very good condition with light curve to the spine / light reading creases to the covers. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Faber and Faber
Date Published: 2002-07-08
ISBN-13:9780571212248ISBN:0571212247
Description: New. Brand New. Gift Condition. Free tracking # included! International buyers are welcome. We ship every business day. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed! read more
Description: Good. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Vintage Books, New York, New York, U.S.A.
Date Published: 2002
ISBN-13:9780375706851ISBN:0375706852
Description: Good. Softcover: Cover has some wear, corners bumped and the back cover and several pages have small creases. The text is clean and unmarked. The spine is not creased, cover has original sheen. 417 pgs. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Faber and Faber
Date Published: 2002
ISBN-13:9780571212248ISBN:0571212247
Description: Good. **SHIPPED FROM UK** We believe you will be completely satisfied with our quick and reliable service. All orders are dispatched as swiftly as possible! Buy with confidence! read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Faber and Faber
Date Published: 2001
ISBN-13:9780571200474ISBN:0571200478
Description: Good. **SHIPPED FROM UK** We believe you will be completely satisfied with our quick and reliable service. All orders are dispatched as swiftly as possible! Buy with confidence! read more
"This novel was another recommendation from a close friend with reliable taste. It is a multifaceted work of tremendous depth and power, which despite its immense breadth and meticulous attention to detail, reads relatively fast. The plot centers on Black Effendi and his involvement in a murder amongst miniaturists (anointed, glorified multi-medium illustrators) hired to celebrate the glory of Islam through paintings, and his feelings for his forbidden love. But I would argue that the plot does very little to raise Pamuk's work to levels of brilliance - that is left to his style.
Unlike a traditional novelist, Pamuk does not adopt a singular perspective, but instead switches from chapter to chapter between characters, giving readers completely new thoughts and motives. On top of being an exceptional exercise in dramatic irony, it's a rich literary experience that encourages multiple reads. Often, chapters aren't narrated by characters at all, but instead drawings (some of which include a dog, two dervishes, a tree) or even objects - one chapter is told through the "eyes" of a coin. Pamuk does this but not without changing voice. Chapters narrated by Shekure, the protagonist's love interest, are more confiding and nurturing; those spoken by Master Osman, a revered miniaturist, are rich with history and culture; and chapters told by the "murderer" are full of secrecy and are usually the most beguiling because it invites readers to try and discern his identity.
Pamuk's work isn't just a well-written detective novel. In fact, strict plot developments probably account for less than half of the work. The rest is given to meditations on the power of art. In Pamuk's post-modern, almost cubist style, each miniaturist is given free rein to discuss the value of art as it relates to truth, sincerity, style and how imitation can render immortal a person or the object he translates to paper. For a novel with no pictures or illustrations, Pamuk goes to great length to describe the paintings and stylistic minutiae that accompany and often plague the miniaturists and their craft. Some of these musings delve into the metaphysical: is a drawing a representation of the object's ideal, or its meaning, or is it the image of the artist's memory?
My Name is Red, when stripped of its stylistic experiments, historical expositions and sermons on the power of aesthetics, is a pretty straightforward story about murder and love. But then it wouldn't be such a grand literary accomplishment. I recommend this book to anyone who appreciates classical literature with modern structural twists."
"There's a fine line between I liked it and I really liked it, isn't it? Please agree with me, because I can't decide between 3 and 4 stars. Not important, anyway. I did like it, despite the length, despite all those details referring to names of shahs, miniaturists and all kind of Persian and Turkish art references I wasn't familiar with. Speaking of that, the (excellent) Romanian edition has a very useful glossary at the end of the book, plus the footnotes (did I ever mention I'm a sucker for footnotes?). The story is quite captivating and it has a little bit of everything - romance, murder, mystery, good VS evil, old/traditional VS new and a huge amount of info about Ottoman culture, art and lifestyle. And, another interesting thing, each chapter is told from a different perspective, whether it's one of the characters or a detail from the miniatures (a tree, a dog or a colour). Entertaining by all means. Go get it! (And yes, I guessed right about the murderer. Boy, I'm good!)"
"I loved this book. It's passionate, provocative and intelligent, surprisingly bringing the field of 16th-century miniaturist painting to bear on aesthetic and ethical issues that seem urgent (at least for artists) today. The main concern is with the notion of 'style' in art: is it desirable to have a personal style as an artist or are traces of style simply evidence of faults? In the process of investigating this question we discover the more fundamental question: what constitutes 'style'? Characters in the novel approach these questions philosophically, but the characters' positioning within a story makes for a much richer account than a philosophical treatise on the subject could give. The characters have their views on style, but at the same time they are actors - fiercely competitive ones - and any account of their actions according to their philosophical beliefs would be mere theorizing. Two murders and one wedding occur alongside such diverse attempts at explanation by the participating characters as to defy rational accounts of motivation.
Each chapter shifts the first-person narrative to a different character in the story, some of whom even conceal their own voice while narrating. The opening chapter 'I Am a Corpse' gives just the bold shock needed for a book on the seemingly genteel subject of miniature painting.
Hope to read the whole book again, among other reasons in order better to learn the Middle Eastern history contained here from the perspective of Turkey."
"Someone or other once said that "self-confidence is knowing what you can't do well, and avoiding it." While that perspective sounds like a recipe for a fairly limited life, there's an element of truth to it -- particularly when it comes to writing.
There's a kind of writerly skill that almost never gets mentioned in book reviews, because it precedes anything that appears on the page. It's the process of choosing a plot and structure for the as-yet-nonexistent novel: part inspiration and part calculation, a kind of half-conscious gestation during which the writer chooses a quarry that matches their particular strengths and weaknesses. We can call this the cunning of the author, which consists of (to revisit the maxim above) knowing what you can't do well, and avoiding it -- or better yet, turning that shortcoming to your advantage.
My Name Is Red is possibly the best example of "writerly cunning" I've ever encountered. Ostensibly, the plot is a kind of stylized murder-mystery: at the Ottoman court in Constantinople, a miniaturist (manuscript illuminator) is killed while working on an innovative, possibly blasphemous book, and everyone scrambles to find out whodunnit. Within this "frame story" however, My Name Is Red is something much more: narrated by something like seven primary characters (with voices from a few secondary characters, and even inanimate objects, chiming in), it's a debate about individuality vs. tradition, and the nature of selfhood.
According to Ottoman tradition, a miniaturist should not have a recognizable painting style, and should not even sign their own work: they should function as anonymous clerks, revealing God's creation. Contact between this tradition and Venetian (western European) painting, in which individual style was highly valued, inevitably led to upheaval within the Ottoman artistic world. Each of the characters in this novel is torn between the "old way" of doing things, in which the significance of individuals (both in art and in life) is minimized, and the tempting (but perhaps blasphemous) idea that individual style has value and should not be hidden. In a reductionist sort of way, we might call this a tug-of-war between group- and individual-based notions of identity.
All of this is interesting enough, but Pamuk's stroke of genius is this: he simply cannot (it seems) convincingly write from multiple distinct points of view.
Brilliant.
By writing a novel told by multiple characters, each of whom longs to have an individual style -- but all of whom sound exactly the same -- Pamuk illustrates dramatically the pathos of these characters, and the cognitive distance between the worlds they hope to bridge. This is a feat of writerly cunning and ingenuity that left me, quite simply, in awe.
On the other hand, as a reader, much of My Name Is Red left me cold. The sameness of all the voices in the novel does begin to grow tedious after awhile, and the stories-within-a-story told by various characters felt like contrived digressions. This is more a writer's book than a reader's -- but as a work of authorial architecture, it is a masterpiece."
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