My Name Is Red-Book Review
Note: The pictures in the posts are quotes from the novel.
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My Name Is Red is a part murder mystery, part love story set in 16th-century Istanbul. It is structured such that each chapter is in the form of a first-person narration by a character-living or dead-or an inanimate object like a coin or the color red, etc. This makes for a story told through multiple perspectives.
The Sultan of the Ottoman Empire has commissioned a manuscript showcasing his achievements to be illustrated in the European style by the most talented miniaturists in the kingdom. The book is supposed to be prepared in secret, however, because the European style of painting is considered blasphemous by the religious fundamentalists at home in Istanbul. When one of the artists is murdered, it falls upon the protagonist in the book to solve the mystery and catch the culprit, all the while hoping to rekindle his boyhood romance.
Even though this is the main plot of the novel, the central conflict of the story is based on the dichotomy between the Western and Eastern ways of painting. The Western style aims to bring out individuality-both of the subject and the painter-through portraits drawn as they’re seen with the eye. The Eastern style negates individuality altogether and focuses, rather, on the essence of things, as they would appear to God. It considers portraits idolatrous.
Pamuk captures the issues arising from this division, which, even though in this book are limited to the world of artists and painting, can easily be deduced to reflect broader civilizational conflicts. The book offers detailed insights into how big a role art and lifestyle play in cultivating a distinct identity for a people and how any deterrence from the set ideals is seen as a threat that -the traditionalists, especially, believe- must be resisted by all means possible. It doesn’t forget to point out the irony, however, that this same art and lifestyle has been a product of the amalgamation of various other cultures in the past and so, the addition of a new one is nothing new. This fact is conveniently brushed off by the traditionalists either because it does not threaten their moral beliefs or because, simply, it is how they have known their culture since the beginning of their lives so it does not disturb them.
In the end, resistance does eventually give way to change and that is the nature of things. My Name Is Red also shows how much religion intersects with civilization and how in areas where religious fundamentalism is rampant, the real power lies with these extremists, and if peace is to be kept, the state will always have to run in a way that does not step out of the dictates laid down by them.
If I had to pick one word to describe how I feel towards this book, I would go with ambivalent.
On the one hand, I found the writing to be beautiful and poetic in many places especially the chapters pertaining to Death and Satan, both of which I found very witty and interesting. I loved how even though the narration shifted between characters with each new chapter, the narrative still flowed seamlessly. The element of mystery created at the outset by the dramatic voice of a corpse also kept me hooked.
On the other hand, I felt like the mystery element was only confined to the beginning and the end of the book. The middle largely constituted of diversions to allow for philosophical discussions on art, which I understand were meant to expound on the central conflict, but which were nonetheless very redundant and onerous. I do not know whether this was due to the writing or the translation but I had to will myself to keep reading through most of them because they greatly slowed down the pace of the novel and served as unnecessary tangents to the story without adding something substantial to the discussion. The characters, too, were largely one-dimensional with character development essentially lacking. The love story aspect felt like a useless additional limb, joined by force to a plot and having no real purpose or place in the main conflict.
All in all, this book requires as much patience as an interest in the topic. I would recommend it to anyone interested in history, art and philosophy. If, however, you do not have the time to plow through several hundred pages of varying yet repetitive descriptions and are looking for a thriller that will build up to a dramatic climax, this is not the book for you.
