A few months back, I was looking out for some good reads in award winning fiction, and that is where I came across My Name is Red.
For 6 pages one holds a conversation with a corpse at the bottom of a well. It is telling us how it wound up there and it hopes for someone to come along and discover it, and also avenge the murder. These pages created a deep confusion in my mind, but it also brought about an interest in the style of writing employed.
The story is set in Istanbul, and opens with Black coming back to Istanbul after he left the city when he was a young boy. He returns, meets his miniaturist master, his fellow students at that time, who have become masters and full fledged artists now. The story moves through the lives of those linked to Black and his past, their present and then we walk through the years which were in between throughout the entire book. There are two stories which we see moving simultaneously; one is the love story between Black and Shekure (the master’s widowed daughter with 2 kids) and the murder mystery of one of the miniaturist (the corpse at the bottom of the well).
Another interesting aspect of the book is the chapter names and how each chapter is written in a first person narrative of one of the characters in the book. The history content is not too high, though there is a great deal of culture and society details which have been extensively portrayed. It’s a very refreshing read, and very different from any fiction I have read in a long time.
For 6 pages one holds a conversation with a corpse at the bottom of a well. It is telling us how it wound up there and it hopes for someone to come along and discover it, and also avenge the murder. These pages created a deep confusion in my mind, but it also brought about an interest in the style of writing employed.
The story is set in Istanbul, and opens with Black coming back to Istanbul after he left the city when he was a young boy. He returns, meets his miniaturist master, his fellow students at that time, who have become masters and full fledged artists now. The story moves through the lives of those linked to Black and his past, their present and then we walk through the years which were in between throughout the entire book. There are two stories which we see moving simultaneously; one is the love story between Black and Shekure (the master’s widowed daughter with 2 kids) and the murder mystery of one of the miniaturist (the corpse at the bottom of the well).
Another interesting aspect of the book is the chapter names and how each chapter is written in a first person narrative of one of the characters in the book. The history content is not too high, though there is a great deal of culture and society details which have been extensively portrayed. It’s a very refreshing read, and very different from any fiction I have read in a long time.
Hey, check out the latest post on my blog. I am sure it will strike a chord in you. (this ain't really spam :-p)
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Always love a book recommendation. I've never read anything from this author, but a Nobel prize is a Nobel prize :)
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