Portrait of a Turkish Family [Paperback]

Irfan Orga (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 13, 2003

Describes in chilling, yet affectionate, detail the disintegration of a wealthy Ottoman family, both financially and emotionally. It is rich with the scent of fin de sieclé Istanbul in the last days of the Ottoman Empire. His mother was a beauty, married at thirteen, as befitted a Turkish woman of her class. His grandmother was an eccentric autocrat, determined at all costs to maintain her traditional habits. But the war changed everything. Death and financial disaster reigned, the Sultan was overthrown, and Turkey became a republic. The red fez was ousted by the cloth cap, and the family was forced to adapt to an unimaginably impoverished life. Filled with brilliant vignettes of old Turkish life, such as the ritual weekly visit to the hamam, as it tells the ""other side "" of the Gallipoli story, and its impact on one family and the transformation of a nation. ""It is just as though someone had opened a door marked `Private' and showed you what was inside.... A most interesting and affectionate book.""-Sir John Betjeman. ""A wholly delightful book.""-Harold Nicolson

Editorial Reviews

Review

"This book is a little masterpiece" Robert Fox, Daily Telegraph<br /><br />"This book is a little masterpiece" Robert Fox, Daily Telegraph<br /><br />"This book is a little masterpiece" Robert Fox, Daily Telegraph<br /><br />A wholly delightful book. --Harold Nicolson<br /><br />It is just as though someone had opened a door marked Private and showed you what was inside.... A most interesting and affectionate book. --Sir John Betjeman<br /><br />This book is a little masterpiece --Robert Fox, Daily Telegraph<br /><br />A wholly delightful book. --Harold Nicolson<br /><br />It is just as though someone had opened a door marked Private and showed you what was inside.... A most interesting and affectionate book. --Sir John Betjeman<br /><br />A wholly delightful book. --Harold Nicolson<br /><br />It is just as though someone had opened a door marked Private and showed you what was inside.... A most interesting and affectionate book. --Sir John Betjeman<br /><br />A wholly delightful book. --Harold Nicolson<br /><br />It is just as though someone had opened a door marked Private and showed you what was inside.... A most interesting and affectionate book. --Sir John Betjeman<br /><br />A wholly delightful book. --Harold Nicolson<br /><br />It is just as though someone had opened a door marked Private and showed you what was inside.... A most interesting and affectionate book. --Sir John Betjeman<br /><br />A wholly delightful book. --Harold Nicolson<br /><br />It is just as though someone had opened a door marked Private and showed you what was inside.... A most interesting and affectionate book. --Sir John Betjeman

A wholly delightful book. --Harold Nicolson

It is just as though someone had opened a door marked Private and showed you what was inside.... A most interesting and affectionate book. --Sir John Betjeman

About the Author

Irfan Orga was born into a rich Ottoman family which was decimated, financially and emotionally, by the First World War. He joined the Turkish Air Force but was forced into exile by a law forbidding members of the armed forces to marry foreigners. Living in England with his Anglo-Irish wife and their son Ates, he was largely supported by his wife, though the publication of Portrait of a Turkish Family and The Caravan Moves On made him a literary celebrity in the 1950s.

Product Details

• Paperback: 316 pages
• Publisher: Eland Books (June 13, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0907871828
• ISBN-13: 978-0907871828
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #422,688 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A beautiful book, April 1, 2002

By 

Anita Kuehnel (Vancouver, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Portrait of a Turkish Family (Paperback)

I was talked into buying this book by the owner of a book shop in the Sultan Ahmet, the old part of Istanbul. The back page had a guarantee that if I didn't like it, I could get my money back. What could I lose?

As it turns out, I couldn't put the book down. The way in which Mr. Orga's powerful use of words created visuals of old Istanbul and relevant cities was brilliant. The story became very three-dimensional right at the outset.

The account of Mr. Orga's family's survival during heart-wrenching times is inspiring; while the pain and suffering are so well conveyed, there is nothing gruesome about the book. The delicate way in which thoughts and events are described invokes the visuals and emotions the reader requires to feel the gravity of the situations; however, there is still a beauty of the human spirit that belies it all.

This is a story I would recommend to any reader who enjoys feeling a story, rather than just reading it; to readers whose inner world is affected, even if just a little bit, by experiencing a well-presented story.

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This book is quite amazing! - A little gem!, January 7, 2002

By 

Andrew B. Obin "begemot2000" (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Portrait of a Turkish Family (Paperback)

In the age of postmodern attempts to describe what "real" families are like Orga offers a compelling look at the life of a Turkish family (hence the title I guess)during the period between 1912 and 1940. This is an autobiography, the writer who is not a native English speker wrote the book in English - I give it 4.5 stars only because I find the language to be somewhat lacking, at the same time the subject matter is simply breath-taking

The author who was born into a prosperous family describes his family descent into poverty during WWI and their struggle to survive after the war. the book also offers a glimpse at the transition in Turkey's culture in the aftermath of WWI and Kemalist revolution.

The book is very moving and the descriptions of the authors family are real the problems that people in the book are facing are also real offering a welcome respite from the made-up troubles of the families in current literature that strive to appear real.

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The glory that was Istanbul, June 29, 2000

By 

Nikos Vatopoulos - See all my reviews

This review is from: Portrait of a Turkish Family (Paperback)

This is a delightful and deeply moving family saga spannining the years between 1910 and 1940 in Istanbul. It is kind of an autobiography, memoirs narrated from the eldest son of a once powerful Turkish bourgeois family. It stresses the tension of the transition from the Ottoman regime to that of the modern democracy invented by Kemal Ataturk. It is like a lament for the loss of the old order, not of the Ottoman one, because the author is a solid democrat, but of the old serenity as conceived by the bourgeois classes before 1918. The reader may enjoy some moments of excellent style in the traditional narrative literary form. The old Istanbul comes out as from an Edwardian scrap book. A non-Turkish reader will learn a lot for the clashes and the turmoil deep in the Turkish soul during and after the Great War. This is a masterpiece of low-key traditional literature, a piece of work that gives emphasis on the richness of sentiments. A must.