MARIA MELCHIORRE
Special to The Leader
“Kafamda Bir Tuhaflık,” or “A Strangeness in My Mind,” is the latest novel by Turkish Nobel Laureate Orhan Pamuk. Iclal Vanwesenbeeck, Associate Professor of English Literature, recently had the opportunity to review the novel for the academic journal, World Literature Today. Vanwesenbeeck — who published the piece under her maiden name, Cetin — had previously published a number of articles with World Literature Today, including reviews of some of Pamuk’s earlier works.
“It’s really a compassionate, emotional attempt at understanding change and narrating memory through major changes in the urban landscape,” she said of the novel, which tells the story of Melvut, a Turkish peddler of an Ottoman drink called “boza.”
“There’s something very nostalgic about that,” she said of the central character being a street vendor. “They existed in Turkey, and primarily Istanbul, 30 years ago. They no longer exist because it’s filled with chain restaurants. Even the most simplistic street food has turned into these corner chain restaurants.”
Pamuk has generally dealt with the questions and implications of Eastern vs. Western cultural identity. In this new book, the questions of that East/West divide are still present under the influences of capitalism and urbanization, but the focus is more on understanding these changes.
Furthermore, Pamuk has tended to narrate the topics of poverty and suffering from the outside, typically through a bourgeois intellectual protagonist. With “A Strangeness in My Mind,” his main character is no longer merely observing.
“He picked a very, very different road,” said Vanwesenbeeck. “I was kind of arrested by his masterful narration of this odyssey.”
“He is incredibly empathetic,” she said of Pamuk’s portrayal of a more vulnerable character. “There’s something that’s emotionally very appealing in this work.”
Vanwesenbeeck reviewed the original Turkish edition of the novel. The English translation of the text is due out in October. Her review can be read online at World Literature Today’s website.