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A Strangeness in My Mind: A novel Hardcover – October 20, 2015

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Orhan Pamuk (Author)
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Orhan Pamuk (Author), Ekin Oklap (Translator)
4.3 out of 5 stars 81 customer reviews
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Product Details

  • Hardcover: 624 pages
  • Publisher: Knopf; 1 edition (October 20, 2015)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0307700291
  • ISBN-13: 978-0307700292
  • Product Dimensions: 6.4 x 1.5 x 9.4 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 2.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (81 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #48,230 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Top Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 starsA Novel for All Seasons
By Foster Corbin TOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE VOICE on September 17, 2015
Format: Hardcover Vine Customer Review of Free Product ( What's this? )
At this stage of my life with still so many unread novels and so little time, even a Nobel Prize winner had better have something to say if he expects me to plow through a novel of almost six hundred pages. Orhan Pamuk in A STRANGENESS IN MY MIND does. I got my comeuppance. I rejoice that the long and sometimes difficult trip was worth it. And I am reminded once again why we who read novels do so in the first place: for the brief time we are engaged, to be transported to sometimes a land far away—in this instance—Turkey—and to meet interesting and exotic people, whom we would otherwise not know—here it is Mevlut and a dozen or so supporting characters who ultimately remind us of us, our own family, our friends, our neighbors.
.
At the center of this sprawling epic of a novel is Mevlut, a vendor of vogurt and boza. We follow him through forty years or more of his life. At the beginning of this book, in language that eerily sounds like it could have come from an early British Eighteenth Century novel, we read: “Being the Adventures and Dreams of Mevlut Karatay, a Seller of Boza, and of His Friends, and Also a Portrait of Life in Istanbul Between 1969 and 2012 from Many Different Points of View.” In a note from Mr. Pamuk’s editors at Knopf, we find out that Mevlut is tricked into marrying the wrong woman, so I am revealing no more than what I too knew before I started the book if I am telling too much of the story. A lot of this novel then has to do with what happens after what we surely must say is a serious setback for this hero of our time. We are witness to all events in this humble man’s life and the lives of those he loves: people marry, they have children, their children grow up, marry and leave home, they go into military service, some of them die, they move to better houses.Read more ›
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5.0 out of 5 starsThe story of a life and the chronicle of a society
By Blue in Washington TOP 500 REVIEWER on September 15, 2015
Format: Hardcover Vine Customer Review of Free Product ( What's this? )
Orhan Pamuk's writing is amazingly clear, honest and enthralling in "Strangeness in My Mind". Told in episodes that begin in Turkey in the 1960s and stretching into the present, the book is the saga of a country boy (Mevlut) who leaves his rural village to make a life in the sprawling metropolis of Istanbul. His successes and misadventures are pretty much apace with Turkish social and political events of the time, and while Mevlut becomes a city person over time, his ties to his village and family never really fade and continuously determine how his life progresses in Istanbul.

Pamuk's straightforward portrayals of his country--subtler in some books than in others--are generally a "warts and all" approach that appeals to a universe of readers, but often outrage his fellow Turks. A Turkish friend of mine describes "Strangeness..." as "one of those books. True to life but not flattering to Turkish society." As an outsider, I don't agree with the latter observation and take the book as an astute chronicle of humanity that, stripped of specifics, could be a story of any person in a traditional society striving for something better in a rapidly changing environment.

This is a saga to read at a leisurely pace and to savor the many voices that bring the story to life.
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5.0 out of 5 starsMay be Orhan Pamuk's best novel yet.
By Larry VINE VOICE on September 16, 2015
Format: Hardcover Vine Customer Review of Free Product ( What's this? )
Orhan Pamuk writes about what he knows and he knows Istanbul. He wrote a wonderful account of that city in a nonfictional format. His fictional work tend to be all encompassing. They can be almost maddeningly slow but they are so beautifully written that the reader will languish in the phrases. Realism and minute details are inherent in his work. His novel, THE MUSEUM OF INNOCENCE concerns a very difficult love affair mostly unrequited between a young man and a younger woman. It takes place over years. In fact, as the author revels in realism, he has opened a museum based on artifacts of that novel. The museum is in Istanbul and stands as one of the very best modern art projects that I have ever seen. Now, after several years, Orhan Pamuk has finally come out with another novel and, in my opinion, his best work yet. It is a Dickensian novel about the life of a man, Mevlut Karatas, a seller of the Turkish drink, boza. The story begins when he elopes with a girl he saw at a wedding. The only part visible to him were her eyes. He fell in love with her- not speaking with her. He wrote her love letters and she eventually agreed to elope. However, as the first chapter ends, he realizes the woman he is with is not the same as who he saw at the wedding. The story then begins with Mevlut as a child and takes us through his life. Istanbul is a major part of the story because it also describes the history of the city from the 1960s to the current time. Into his life wonder a whole host of characters. The reader experiences the highs of his life and the crashing lows. of Mevlot. The novel is very long but all encompassing.
This may be the best novel yet of Orhan Pamuk. The novel is beautifully written and so very realistic.Read more ›
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5.0 out of 5 starsA work of beauty
By John E. Drury VINE VOICE on September 2, 2015
Format: Hardcover Vine Customer Review of Free Product ( What's this? )
In a sense, Dickensian (London), even Balzac-esque (Paris), Orhan Pamuk's " A Strangeness in My Mind," celebrates Istanbul in the life of Mevlut Karatas, a yogurt and boza street vendor, who plies his back breaking trade, lugging his loads with honest labor, a deep love of his wife and two daughters, a fatalism and respect for humanity. This book is Pamuk's novelistic sequel to his autobiographical "Istanbul," a personal expiation of his educated, upper class upbringing honoring the poorer classes from the small Anatolian towns who populate this vibrant city of diverse ethnicity and historical importance. His writing is straightforward, the tale often told by first person commentary from Mevlut's friends, his father, father-in-law, wife, his children. Its beauty is in its stories, the complexities of his relationships, Mevlut's adherence to the basic tenets of his Islamic faith, the throb of the life of the commerce and the work - always the work - of the city, and, the tenacity of the human condition.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 starsFive Stars

He is a tough read - but worth the effort.

Published 25 days ago by Bookworm
5.0 out of 5 starsWonderful take on a changing world

I love Pamuk's narrative!
The book reflects on changes in Istanbul and in a world that is going through modernization.
Beautifully written!
Lovely story.

Published 27 days ago by nikita
5.0 out of 5 starsEveryman in Istanbul

Few writers move easily between the micro and the macrocosm of the worlds they create. Pahmuk does so skillfully and seemingly organically. Read more

Published 28 days ago by lculp
4.0 out of 5 starsBeautifully written and pensive; modern history of Istanbul

I made the mistake of starting this book when the busyness of life meant I could only read it in fits and starts and I found it hard to be gripped by the quiet story. Read more

Published 1 month ago by Alison Krupnick
4.0 out of 5 starsAn enjoyable read about life in another place & time

A very pleasant read. Interesting insights into life growing up in Istanbul & the surrounding villages. I would recommend it.

Published 1 month ago by stuff
3.0 out of 5 starsThe book gives one a very good feel for early settlement of Istanbul...

The book gives one a very good feel for early settlement of Istanbul and its environs. I expected a faster moving story. Enjoyed the book but he's written better ones.

Published 1 month ago by Helen Sherman Wade
5.0 out of 5 starsthe book was a great review of the people and the conditions under...

For us, who first went to Turkey 50 years ago to live in Istanbul , the book was a great review of the people and the conditions under which they lived.

Published 2 months ago by Roscoe F. Ward
5.0 out of 5 starsA profoundly moving micro-history and love story - a masterpiece of...

Having read his previous memoir ISTANBUL, it was fascinating to see Pamuk impose his impressions of the city onto a fictional narrative about a poor boza seller who suffers "a... Read more

Published 2 months ago by Bethany Fair
3.0 out of 5 starsNot as good as some of his previous works

Not as good as some of his previous works, but still worth reading. Istanbul is an interesting city with fascinating history.

Published 2 months ago by James Tao
5.0 out of 5 starsLooking for strangers in MY mind

Excellent.

Published 2 months ago by Eda Sahin

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