Customer Reviews

Memed, My Hawk

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4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(2)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

I started book on a Friday night and ended up reading until the first lights of day. I had to get an early breakfast to continue reading. Such is the captivity of the story of "Memed the Skinny".

"Memed My Hawk" is Yasar Kemal's most famous novel, and is followed by 3 sequels. It's the story of a rebellious young boy in Southern Turkey in 1930s versus the tyranny of the feudal lord. However, please do not pick up this book expecting a locally consticted fairy tale. Mr Kemal, a nominee for the Nobel Prize in Literature, has always written about universal struggles against opression in with substantial depth and successful clarity.

Mr Kemal is known for his detailed descriptions of the natural and political environment around the Taurus mountains - which incidentally happen to be the birthplace of this reviewer - with a rich, colorful language. Unfortunately, I am unable to comment on the (English) translation since I have read the book in its original Turkish edition only. But I must advise the (English) reader to look for the best translation of the work if at all possible.

Please do not consider me biased because we share the same hometown with Mr Kemal(which is a very important aspect of Turkish friendships). But I can easily say that this is the first thing you must read if you are entering the world of Yasar Kemal and Turkish Literature. And you must follow this by Orhan Pamuk's "Black Book"...

Down in that fertile part of southern Anatolia called the Chukurova, where crops yielded forty-fold and deer, birds, and beetles throve, the feudal landlords, who owned entire villages, oppressed the peasants mightily. They took whatever share of the crops they desired and could beat the villagers on any whim, or even drive them from their homes. Justice was an undreamt-of luxury. For rebels, or for those who had incurred the landlords' wrath, the only alternative-besides joining the Army---was to become a bandit in the mountains. The life of a bandit, though, however free, was usually short. Yashar Kemal, who grew up in this area, wrote this novel back in the 1950s; his first major work, which by now has been translated into nearly every major language and has become a modern classic.

Kemal introduces the life and traditions of the inhabitants of the Chukurova, a region unknown in most parts of the world. At least, he gives us a picture of the life they had in the 1920s or `30s. The novel describes the social conditions then existing there, introduces dozens of interesting, colorful characters, and also focusses on the natural environment, which by our times, has mostly disappeared. All this is done through the medium of a fast-moving, action-packed story which could be the script of a film (and may well have been, though I never saw it anywhere). Memed, a slim young man, wishes to marry Hatche, a beautiful village girl. The nasty landlord has other ideas---he wants her to marry his ugly nephew. The young lovers elope into the forest, but are surrounded by the landlord's minions. Memed draws his pistol and shoots the nephew dead, wounding the landlord. Memed winds up as a bandit, Hatche winds up in jail, and the rotten landlord has Memed's mother beaten to death. Her son swears revenge. Nomads, trackers, crazy bandit chiefs, tough peasant women, village farmers, policemen---the number of lifelike characters is endless. Memed not only turns bandit, but he becomes a Robin Hood character, a legend in his own time, who defies the prevailing feudal order and even re-distributes the landlord's fields to the tillers at one point. No wonder they loved him ! Perhaps some of Kemal's later work is deeper psychologically, perhaps his palette of colors got wider, but MEMED MY HAWK stands out as a great story written in masterful style. It is a novel about justice, a novel that treats basic human emotions in any time or place. It heralded the arrival of a major author on the world scene. I recently read it again. I liked it just as much.

I read this book because I saw in the cover (Spanish edition) the UNESCO logo. A novel endorsed by UNESCO? It couldn't be bad. Well, it turned out to be great.
This is the story of Memed, an 11- year old kid who lives with his mother in a small Turkish village. Tired of hardship and hard work, he decides to leave his impoverished home. He escapes and is taken in by an old, good-hearted peasant. His mother believes he is dead, and looks for him for several days until she finally gives up hope.
But Memed starts feeling homesick, so he decides to go back home. Bad call. The local landowner, a ruthless man, hears that Memed is alive and sets off to recover the child, a part of his labor force. And this is only the beginning...
This is a great book by a great author. If you' ve had the luck to arrive to this page and read the reviews, go and get a copy of this book. A fascinating story awaits you.

I was mesmerized by this book. It looked like a dusty old classic on the libary shelf, and, being insanely motivated by all things Turkish in my excitement to study there, I picked it up and started to read anyway.PLEASE read this book!! It is beautiful!! The descriptions of the plains reminds me of rural Ohio, making me feel some ease at the prospect of my new local. However, the eye for the Turkish countryside could belong only to a native like Kemal!! And the story is fast-paced and brilliant, never, ever leaving the reader bored. Such a joy to read, inspiring, makes one happy to be human-being, somewhere capable of great feats or the ability to recognize them.... AMAZING!!

Yasar Kemal's book, Memed My Hawk, written in the late fifties when Turkey was still a mainly agrarian society, is a folk tale about a young villager's struggle for freedom from the yoke of the local landlord. These landlords (Agas) controlled much of the arible land in Turkey where tenant farmers and villagers struggled to make a living. Under the power and control of the Agas, daily life for villagers was full of frustration and suffering.

The Turkish title, Ince Memed, which translates "Skinny Memed", relates to the physical attributes of the main character whereas the English title refers to Memed's heroism. Rich in symbolism and highly lyrical, the story engulfs the reader in Memed's (perhaps Yasar Kemal's) burdened life and his fight against Abdi Aga's unjust and despotic rule. Edouard Roditi's excellent translation provides for the reader the full range of colors with which Yasar Kemal paints his epic portrait.

In the early sixties when Peter Ustinov was in Istanbul to promote his play, "Photo Finish", he endeared himself to the Turks and walked away with the movie rights to Memed, My Hawk. The movie, which Ustinov made later under the same title, was a poor adaptation of Yasar Kemal's wonderful story. Ustinov's portrayal of Abdi Aga was forgettable. Pity.

This book is certainly an exhilarating page-turner! But not merely this: Lush descriptions of the Turkish countryside as it existed at the time, a cast of characters Tolstoyan in their sweep, and, above all, an epic story of a downtrodden hero---In short, the book is a Romance. It is not, though, the simple-minded, pat story that one sometimes associates with this term. It is a Romance in the sense that War and Peace and Don Quixote are Romances. The author goes to some pains in the introduction to explain why he has written this sort of book, instead of something dry and dispiriting as many of the works of, say, V. S .Naipaul are. If I could sum up these arguments, it would be that such a work as Memed, My Hawk touches on what is written in every human heart. And it does. It is ribald, comic, sad, distressing, heartbreaking---all the emotions, which, blended together, make up a human life. It is also, of course, more specifically, about a particular human named Memed, who embodies these traits in an heroic fashion. - I don't think that it belittles this book a jot to compare it to the movie Braveheart. I found myself reminded of this cinematic work more than anything else throughout the book---There are so many thematic and plot similarities. Let's put it this way, if you love Braveheart, you will love this book. But also, if you love War and Peace or Don Quixote, you will love this book. And I say, good and well, let's have the old pathos and lyricism back that made literature what it is. Let's not leave it to the dry hacks who warn us, like so many bloodless Jeremiahs, of the perils of following our hearts. Let's let literature be literature! ---But never mind me. Let's let Kemal have the last word:

"No matter how limited a man's field of vision, his imagination knows no bounds. A man who has never been outside his village of Deyirmenoluk can still create a whole imaginary world that can reach as far as the stars. Without travelling, a man can penetrate to the other end of the world. Even without much imagination the place where he dwells can become different in his dreams, a true paradise." P.77

So, go. Read and Dream!

Yasar Kemal is considered not only the grand old man of modern Turkish literature, he is one of the world's great storytellers. Memed is a young man torn from his family and lover by his own refusal to break his own body and spirit in exchange for the starvation offered by the modern-feudalist landowner. Kemal's works are humanistically political at heart,(which is why he continues to find himself before Turkey's courts on charges of treason)and yet they stand on their own as folk tales of simple passion, hope and heroism. Kemal is always complex and simple simultaneously, like humans themselves. For myself, a visit to Turkey was not essential to understanding Kemal's work, though it added flesh that has only deepened my love for this master's work

What I remember about this book is how passionately each chapter starts, usually with a description of nature before plunging "in medias res" into the action. The vivid description of colours, sounds and smells is meant to convey the intensity with which the bandits live their lives - lives which unstable and may be brief. Memed packs as much experience and sensation into his existence as possible, while possible. This mood is what makes the book great, not the commonplace plot.

This book was so well written. I could not put it down. I read it in one sitting. I loved the story of a small boy taking on the corrupt pasha system. How he refused to be broken. I felt anger at the villagers betrayal of Memed, and I cried for poor Hatche wrongly imprisoned,and cheered when Memed began to avenge the wrongs of the past..... I would recommend this book to anyone. Who enjoys fine literature.

I was 15 years old when I read this book. Now, many years later, I did it again.I love this book! I would recommend this book to everyone.