I read and posted about this book on December 11, 2011. Below are the reviews from the RAs.
Katherine - I wish I knew Turkish and could read the
original version because it takes about 10 pages to really get engrossed, but
after that point it’s incredibly flowery and descriptive. It was really
interesting to watch Black’s obsessive personality come out. I mean it was
always underlying with his love for Shekure and then his need to see the final
painting that he and Enishte created. I actually found this comical. It was so
interesting because he had already created it and knew what it looked like at
the time but then started doubting everything and had to see it again. It was
as if he no longer could even trust himself and his profession which he had
been doing for so many years. Honestly I felt that the entire plot with the
killer was not very important. For most of the book I completely forgot that
the underlying message was a murder mystery. Rather I was focused solely on the
descriptions of each character. Pamuk did a wonderful job creating these
characters and showing their evolutions throughout the novel and he did it
through an exciting way of both personal accounts and the descriptions of
others.
Justin - A story involving multiple plot lines, a
hard to follow story, and one more thing...about 20 narrators, My Name Is
Red offers an intricate read for the advanced reader. Be warned,
this is not a "pick up, put down" book, but one that must be read in
long chunks. The language was beautiful, but for me, it just wasn't a
page turner. Too much detail on parts that should have been two sentences
and vice versa. My Name Is Red can be a good book for some, I
just was not feeling it.
Ashima - My Name is Red has a case of
the greedies: it seems as if Orhan Pamuk bit off more than he could chew. The
density was intimidating at first, but it quickly turned to off-putting. He had
written sentences, but he wasn't saying anything. The prose poses more as a
work of art, florid and metaphor-laden, than it serves as an effective vehicle
for storytelling. It could be due to the fact that it is originally written in
Turkish, but I'd love to hear from a native speaker who read the book- was the
celebrated beauty of the novel just lost in translation?
Addie - When reading the book, My Name is
Red, I had a feeling that I was constantly behind and never ahead of the
plot. I know the author was definitely toying with the notion of portraying a
piece of art within an art, however I felt he may have been trying so hard for
the reader not to know what was happening, that in the process he may have lost
the reader almost completely by not getting or "hitting" pivot plot
reveals at particular moments in the story. Also the notion of the translation
from Turkish to English was fascinating to me because I think it informed for
me, as an native American-English speaker, some things I would be unfamiliar
with culturally that would advise me to research and look things up about the
Turkish culture. Overall, although I wasn't able to enjoy all aspects of the
story (or the multiple stories in this case), I was glad and appreciative of
the discussion we held in the book club that helped me develop better
depictions and background on the characters.
Swati - The premise of the novel is extremely
interesting - a murder mystery set in early Turkey/Persia. Very well researched,
My Name is Red taught me a lot about miniaturist culture in Persia,
something I previously knew nothing about. The story itself, however, was
confusing. With a murder mystery, it is important to keep the readers guessing,
but only to a certain point. Pahmuk takes a lot of detours in trying to get to
his point, a point which, at many times, gets completely lost in everything
else he says. It seems that he was trying to get too much information across to
the reader, without fully clarifying and explaining his story, leaving the
reader confused in a sea of explanations that don't quite fit together.
Not only that, but the actual prose of novel is dense without purpose. Pahmuk
uses many beautiful sentences, but they seem to have no purpose in the plot or
ambience of the novel. One saving grace of the novel was the characters, of
which there many. Because he wrote in the voice of each of his characters, I
was able to understand and relate to many of them. I thought Pahmuk's approach
to writing the murder mystery was really great. Overall, however, the novel
came across to me as confusing and slightly pretentious - I like his general
writing style, but this particular novel didn't have a good flow, as far as I'm
concerned, and I'm pretty sure I still have no idea what happened at the end.
Nikhita - Orhan Pamuk's "My Name is
Red" is an unexpectedly good read. Told from the perspectives of different
characters, sometimes nonhuman ones even (Satan, coin, the color red, etc.),
this book is well-written and extremely descriptive - probably alluding to the
occupation of the main characters as miniaturists (a specific type of painter).
From the first page, where you find out that the narrator is speaking from the
grave after being murdered, I found myself recalling another book, Lovely
Bones, which also commences in the same fashion. However, Pamuk's book carried
out much differently and though at first glance appeared to be a murder
mystery, actually turned out to be much more. Elegant Effendi's murder was
simply the lens by which to examine all of the other characters, who are each
unique and interesting in their own right. As we are pulled into story after
story, the novel becomes increasingly dramatic and ends in a surprising twist.
All in all, a fantastic book and definitely understandable for a pick as a
favorite R.A. novel.
Malina - First, I must say I love reading.
Books are stories, they're snippets of real life that I can take on when I am
tired of my own. I love reading, getting lost in stories and characters and
different times. But, sometimes I don't enjoy a story for one reason or
another, maybe it was too long or not engaging or I felt suffocated by the
density of the text. My Name is Red was suffocating. Though I am sure many
enjoyed this tale, I found it difficult to read and finish within the time our
book club alotted. Indeed, to be fair - I did not finish the book.The
characters were not easy for me to identify with, but I will give this book a
fair trial this summer.
