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{{short description|2002 novel by Orhan Pamuk}}
⚫ {{Infobox Book
{{about||the 2004 science-fiction novel by Adam Roberts|The Snow (novel)|the 2010 novel by Ronald Malfi|Snow (Malfi novel)}}
⚫ {{Infobox book
| name = Snow | name = Snow
| title_orig = Kar | title_orig = Kar
| translator = ] | translator = ]
| image = | image = File:Snow (novel).jpg
| image_caption = Cover of the US edition | caption = First edition (Turkish)
| author = ] | author = ]
| illustrator = | illustrator =
Line 11: Line 13:
| language = ] | language = ]
| series = | series =
| genre = ] | genre =
| publisher = ] | publisher = ]
| release_date = 2002 | release_date = 2002
| english_release_date = 2002, ] | english_release_date = 2004, ]
| media_type = Print (] & ]) | media_type = Print (] & ])
| pages = 426 pp. | pages = 426 pp.
| isbn = ISBN 0-375-70686-0 (] ed.) | isbn = 0-375-70686-0
| isbn_note = (] ed.)
| oclc = 61119056
| preceded_by = | preceded_by =
| followed_by = | followed_by =
}} }}
'''''Snow''''' ({{lang-tr|Kar}}) is a novel by Turkish author ]. It was published in Turkish in 2002 and in English (translated by ]) in 2004. The story encapsulates many of the political and cultural tensions of modern Turkey and successfully combines humor, social commentary, mysticism, and a deep sympathy with its characters. '''''Snow''''' ({{langx|tr|Kar}}) is a novel by Turkish writer ]. It was originally published in ] in 2002, followed by an English translation by ] that was published in 2004. The story encapsulates many of the political and cultural tensions of modern Turkey, including a real suicide epidemic among teenage girls, which took place in the city of ].<ref name="Bilefsky2006-07-12" /><ref name="Bilefsky2006-07-16" />


==Plot summary== ==Plot summary==
Ka is a poet, who returns to ] after 12 years of political exile in Germany. Ka reunites with a woman named İpek, whom he once had feelings for, whose father runs the hotel he is staying in. The snow ("Kar" in Turkish) has been falling as Ka enters the town, and soon all the roads out of town are blocked. In a café, Ka and İpek witness the shooting of the local Director of the Institute of Education by a Muslim extremist from out of town.


Ka visits Muhtar, İpek's ex-husband, who tells him about his experience of finding Islam, and how he got into politics. He is the current candidate running with the Islamist Prosperity Party in the municipal elections. The police pick up Ka and Muhtar as part of their investigation of the Director's murder. Ka is questioned and Muhtar is beaten.
A poet who goes by the name Ka returns to Turkey after a twelve-year political exile in Germany. A friend in Istanbul who works for a newspaper suggests that he go to the town of ], near Turkey's far eastern border, posing as a journalist. Recently, the suicides of a number of young women in the area have brought attention to the small town. Ka begins to interview residents and learns what he can about the deaths. The suicides are causing much controversy among local Muslims as suicide is forbidden in the religion.


Though he has suffered from writer's block for a number of years, Ka feels inspired and composes a poem called "Snow", which describes a ] experience. Other poems follow.
Ka reunites with a woman named Ipek, whom he once had feelings for and whose father runs the hotel he is staying in. Ipek had married a man named Muhtar, but the two are now divorced, partly due to Muhtar's newfound interest in political Islam. While Ipek and Ka are in a café, they witness a shooting of the local director of the Institute of Education by a Muslim extremist from out of town who blames the director for the death of a young woman named Teslime, claiming she killed herself because of the director's ban on head-scarves in school. After the incident, Ka visits Muhtar, who tells him about his experience of finding Islam, which relates to a blizzard and meeting a charismatic sheikh named Saadettin Efendi. The police pick up Ka and Muhtar due to the killing of the minister. Ka is questioned and Muhtar is beaten.


Ka is brought to a secret location to meet with "Blue" (named "Lacivert" in the Turkish original, meaning an "Indigo" or "Navy" shade of blue), a charismatic Islamist with a fearsome reputation as a terrorist who Ka alternatively admires and fears. One of Blue's followers, Necip, is a student at the local religious high school. Necip and his friends ask Ka about his atheism, and Necip's earnestness and good-heartedness soon endear him to Ka, and his Islam-influenced science fiction stories inspire more of Ka's poems, one of which he reads out at the National Theatre.
Though most of the early part of the story is told in the third-person from Ka's point of view, an omniscient narrator sometimes makes his presence known, posing as a friend of Ka's who is telling the story based on Ka's journals and correspondence. This narrator sometimes provides the reader with information before Ka knows it or foreshadows later events in the story.


Soon after Ka leaves the National Theatre after his recitation, a play named "My Fatherland or My Headscarf" is acted out by Sunay Zaim, Funda Eser and their troupe of actors. When this play inevitably angers the Islamists who attended the event specifically to protest this play, soldiers ascend the stage and respond by shooting into the audience, killing several people including Necip. Sunay Zaim launches a coup, declaring martial law.
Though he has suffered from writer's block for a number of years, Ka suddenly feels inspired and composes a poem called "Snow," which describes a ] experience. Other poems follow. At Ipek's suggestion, Ka goes to see Sheikh Saadettin and confesses that he associates religion with a backwardness that he does not want himself or Turkey to fall into. But he feels a sense of comfort with the sheikh and begins to accept his new poems as gifts from God.


İpek insists that she will not sleep with Ka while her father is under the same roof—an impossible condition, as Turgut Bey never leaves the hotel. Seizing an opportunity, Ka meets with Blue and Kadife (İpek's sister), pretending to represent a German magazine interested in publishing a statement by the Islamists against the massacre and the coup, and convinces them to arrange a meeting of local politically conscious citizens—including Turgut Bey—where they can collectively come up with a statement to publish in the German magazine. The meeting showcases the differences between the various groups in Kars, while Ka is finally able to sleep with İpek.
Other significant characters Ka encounters include a wanted Muslim radical named Blue and Ipek's younger sister Kadife, who has joined and become the leader of the "head-scarf girls," those who insist upon being "covered." Through Kadife, he meets another head-scarf girl, Hande, who suggested suicide to Teslime but insists she did not intend for the girl to follow through.


Ka is taken to meet Sunay Zaim, an actor whose group put on the play at the National Theater and who is now orchestrating the round-ups and investigations of suspicious persons. The isolation of Kars, and Zaim's old friendship with the officer in charge of the local garrison, enabled him to become a revolutionary dictator in real life as well as on the stage.
Ka is impressed by Necip, a student at the religious high school, who, like many of the young Muslims at the school, is quite taken by Kadife. The narrator lets the reader know that Necip will die soon. Growing tensions between secularists and Islamists explode during a televised event at the National Theater, during which one secular group puts on a classic play condemning head scarves. When Muslims protest, three nationalists take the stage and start firing. Necip is among those killed. The police and military establish martial law, and Ka is taken in for questioning because he has been seen with Islamists. He is shattered to find Necip's body in the morgue and identifies him as the one who led him to Blue.


Ka negotiates a deal with Sunay Zaim that will result in Blue's release, as long as Kadife agrees to play a role in Zaim's production of ]'s '']'' and removes her head-scarf on live television during the show. The play is scheduled to take place on the second night of the "Theatre Coup", when the melting snow suggests that the roads out of Kars will soon reopen.
Ka is taken to meet Sunay Zaim, an actor whose group put on the play at the National Theater and who is now orchestrating the round-ups and investigations of suspicious persons. As the snow has made the roads and railroads impassable, no outside authorities are able to intervene in the coup. Ka is then taken by Kadife to speak with Blue, who is Kadife's lover. Ka convinces Blue that he has a contact at a newspaper in Germany who will be willing to print a statement denouncing the coup if Blue can get support from non-Islamists. To further this fiction, Ka returns to his hotel to convince Kadife and Ipek's leftist father Turgut Bey to collaborate on the statement. After the father and Kadife leave, Ka's longing for Ipek is fulfilled when the two make love.


⚫ Ka's actions immediately after leaving the theater remain a mystery that is never completely untangled. Orhan is, however, able to establish that Ka was later taken by the military to the train station, where he was put on the first train scheduled to leave. Ka complied but sent soldiers to retrieve İpek for him. However, just as İpek said her farewells to her father, news arrived that Blue and Hande were shot. İpek was shattered and blamed Ka for leading the police to Blue's hideout.
At this point, the narrator, who identifies himself as a novelist named Orhan, flashes forward four years and relates that Ka spent the last years of his life obsessing over Ipek and writing unsent letters to her before being murdered in Frankfurt. The narrator will play a much larger role in the story in the later chapters of the novel. We are clearly meant to identify the narrator with Orhan Pamuk himself as he later identifies '']'' as one of his works.


In the end it is disclosed that a new group of Islamic militants was formed by younger followers of Blue who had been forced into exile in Germany and based themselves in Berlin, vowing to take revenge for the death of their admired leader. It is assumed that one of them assassinated Ka and took away the only extant copy of the poems he had written.
Turgut Bey attends a meeting at which representatives from the various factions opposed to the coup, including Islamists, leftists, and Kurds, attempt comically to produce a coherent statement to the European press denouncing the action. After Blue is arrested and held by the nationalists, Ka negotiates a deal with Sunay Zaim that will result in Blue's release but only if Kadife agrees to play a role in Zaim's production of ]'s '']'' and remove her head-scarf on live television during the course of the play. Both Kadife and Blue agree.


==Reception==
Ka is soon picked up and beaten by two policemen who are trying to keep tabs on Blue. He is also given the devastating news that Ipek was Blue's mistress during her marriage to Muhtar and still keeps in contact with him. Ipek confesses the affair and further indicates that Kadife only got involved with Blue out of envy. Ka's jealousy is intense and the two fall asleep after weeping together. She still believes that they can go to Frankfurt and be happy, and he eventually comes around to believing it again too. However, before they can leave he must convince Kadife to not take her head-scarf off during the play as both Ipek and Turgut Bey have become very concerned at the possible reaction of the students from the religious school.
Upon release, ''Snow'' was generally well-received among the British press.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Article clipped from The Daily Telegraph|url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-daily-telegraph/151536487/ |access-date=8 June 2024 |website=]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Article clipped from The Daily Telegraph|url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-daily-telegraph/151536499/|access-date=8 June 2024 |website=]}}</ref> The book was also generally well-received amongst American press. According to '']'', the book received "positive" reviews based on 9 critic reviews with 5 being "rave" and 2 being "positive" and 2 being "mixed".<ref>{{Cite web |title=Snow |url=https://bookmarks.reviews/reviews/snow/ |access-date=16 January 2024 |website=]}}</ref> On ], the book received a 77 out of 100 based on 21 critic reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".<ref>{{Cite web |title=Snow|url=http://www.metacritic.com/books/authors/pamukorhan/snow |access-date=14 January 2023 |website=]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090209033029/http://www.metacritic.com/books/authors/pamukorhan/snow|archive-date=9 Feb 2009 }}</ref> On '']'' Nov/Dec 2004 issue, a magazine that aggregates critic reviews of books, the book received a {{rating|4.0|5}} (4.0 out of 5) based on critic reviews with the critical summary stating, "With ''Snow'', Pamuk aims to deliver this pistol-shot—and then go on performing. A couple of critics pronounce the experiment a failure; in his attempt to replicate the confusion of life in modern Turkey, Pamuk leaves some readers bewildered. However, most applaud Snow as a very rare performance indeed: a political novel that presents a nation and its people in all their maddening complexity".<ref>{{Cite web |title=Snow By Orhan Pamuk|url=http://www.bookmarksmagazine.com/book-review/snow/orhan-pamuk|access-date=14 January 2023 |website=]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160829023619/http://www.bookmarksmagazine.com/book-review/snow/orhan-pamuk|archive-date=29 Aug 2016}}</ref> Globally, the work was received generally well with '']'' saying on the consensus "Most very impressed, with a few reservations".<ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-10-04 |title=Snow|url=https://www.complete-review.com/reviews/pamuko/snow.htm |access-date=2023-10-04 |website=Complete Review}}</ref>


==Awards and prizes==
⚫ Despite Ka's urging, Kadife insists upon uncovering herself during the performance. Ka is taken by the military to the train station, where he is put on the first train scheduled to leave now that the routes from the town are open again. Ka complies but sends soldiers to retrieve Ipek for him. However, just as Ipek is saying her farewells to her father, news arrives that Blue and Hande have been shot. Ipek is shattered and blames Ka for leading the police to Blue's hideout. Instead of going to Ka, she and her father go to the theater to see Kadife.
* ] – ]
* ] – shortlist of ]
* ] – ]


==See also==
The novel's narrator describes events at the theater as if he has reconstructed them from various sources. Kadife and Zaim have an on-stage discussion about suicide and the different reasons why men and women kill themselves. A garret and noose are set up, and Zaim hands Kadife a gun after he demonstrates that it is not loaded. When Kadife shoots Zaim much of the audience assumes his death is staged, and even Kadife appears to be surprised that the gun is in fact loaded. As the snow has subsided, Ka's train departs and local authorities enter the town to stifle the coup and restore order.
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ], a ] women's group


==References==
Years later, the narrator goes to Kars to uncover details on Ka's story. He meets with many of the principals, including Kadife, who served very little time for what was ruled an accidental homicide and is now married to a student from the religious school. In his talk with Ipek he tells her that Ka was a shattered man who never forgot about Ipek but was prevented from returning to Kars due to a warrant for his arrest. Ipek is still convinced that Ka betrayed Blue. Indeed, the narrator soon finds evidence that suggests that Ka went back to talk to the police after his visit to the theater and probably told them where to find Blue. Ipek has remained unmarried and devotes herself to her nephew.
{{reflist
| refs =


<ref name="Bilefsky2006-07-12">
{{cite news
| last = Bilefsky
| first = Dan
| authorlink = Dan Bilefsky
| title = 'Virgin suicides' save Turks' 'honor'&nbsp;– Europe&nbsp;– International Herald Tribune
| date = 2006-07-12
| newspaper = The New York Times
| url = https://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/12/world/europe/12iht-virgins.2184928.html
| accessdate = 2011-05-13
}}
</ref>


<ref name="Bilefsky2006-07-16">
{{cite news
| last = Bilefsky
| first = Dan
| authorlink = Dan Bilefsky
| title = How to Avoid Honor Killing in Turkey? Honor Suicide
| newspaper = The New York Times
| date = 2006-07-16
| url = https://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/16/world/europe/16turkey.html
| accessdate = 2011-05-13
}}
</ref>

}}

==External links==


{{Orhan Pamuk}} {{Orhan Pamuk}}
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] ]
]

]
]
]
]
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Latest revision as of 01:10, 12 December 2024

2002 novel by Orhan Pamuk For the 2004 science-fiction novel by Adam Roberts, see The Snow (novel). For the 2010 novel by Ronald Malfi, see Snow (Malfi novel).
Snow
First edition (Turkish)
AuthorOrhan Pamuk
Original titleKar
TranslatorMaureen Freely
LanguageTurkish
Publisherİletişim
Publication date2002
Publication placeTurkey
Published in English2004, Faber and Faber
Media typePrint (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages426 pp.
ISBN0-375-70686-0 (United States ed.)
OCLC61119056

Snow (Turkish: Kar) is a novel by Turkish writer Orhan Pamuk. It was originally published in Turkish in 2002, followed by an English translation by Maureen Freely that was published in 2004. The story encapsulates many of the political and cultural tensions of modern Turkey, including a real suicide epidemic among teenage girls, which took place in the city of Batman.

Plot summary

Ka is a poet, who returns to Turkey after 12 years of political exile in Germany. Ka reunites with a woman named İpek, whom he once had feelings for, whose father runs the hotel he is staying in. The snow ("Kar" in Turkish) has been falling as Ka enters the town, and soon all the roads out of town are blocked. In a café, Ka and İpek witness the shooting of the local Director of the Institute of Education by a Muslim extremist from out of town.

Ka visits Muhtar, İpek's ex-husband, who tells him about his experience of finding Islam, and how he got into politics. He is the current candidate running with the Islamist Prosperity Party in the municipal elections. The police pick up Ka and Muhtar as part of their investigation of the Director's murder. Ka is questioned and Muhtar is beaten.

Though he has suffered from writer's block for a number of years, Ka feels inspired and composes a poem called "Snow", which describes a mystic experience. Other poems follow.

Ka is brought to a secret location to meet with "Blue" (named "Lacivert" in the Turkish original, meaning an "Indigo" or "Navy" shade of blue), a charismatic Islamist with a fearsome reputation as a terrorist who Ka alternatively admires and fears. One of Blue's followers, Necip, is a student at the local religious high school. Necip and his friends ask Ka about his atheism, and Necip's earnestness and good-heartedness soon endear him to Ka, and his Islam-influenced science fiction stories inspire more of Ka's poems, one of which he reads out at the National Theatre.

Soon after Ka leaves the National Theatre after his recitation, a play named "My Fatherland or My Headscarf" is acted out by Sunay Zaim, Funda Eser and their troupe of actors. When this play inevitably angers the Islamists who attended the event specifically to protest this play, soldiers ascend the stage and respond by shooting into the audience, killing several people including Necip. Sunay Zaim launches a coup, declaring martial law.

İpek insists that she will not sleep with Ka while her father is under the same roof—an impossible condition, as Turgut Bey never leaves the hotel. Seizing an opportunity, Ka meets with Blue and Kadife (İpek's sister), pretending to represent a German magazine interested in publishing a statement by the Islamists against the massacre and the coup, and convinces them to arrange a meeting of local politically conscious citizens—including Turgut Bey—where they can collectively come up with a statement to publish in the German magazine. The meeting showcases the differences between the various groups in Kars, while Ka is finally able to sleep with İpek.

Ka is taken to meet Sunay Zaim, an actor whose group put on the play at the National Theater and who is now orchestrating the round-ups and investigations of suspicious persons. The isolation of Kars, and Zaim's old friendship with the officer in charge of the local garrison, enabled him to become a revolutionary dictator in real life as well as on the stage.

Ka negotiates a deal with Sunay Zaim that will result in Blue's release, as long as Kadife agrees to play a role in Zaim's production of Thomas Kyd's The Spanish Tragedy and removes her head-scarf on live television during the show. The play is scheduled to take place on the second night of the "Theatre Coup", when the melting snow suggests that the roads out of Kars will soon reopen.

Ka's actions immediately after leaving the theater remain a mystery that is never completely untangled. Orhan is, however, able to establish that Ka was later taken by the military to the train station, where he was put on the first train scheduled to leave. Ka complied but sent soldiers to retrieve İpek for him. However, just as İpek said her farewells to her father, news arrived that Blue and Hande were shot. İpek was shattered and blamed Ka for leading the police to Blue's hideout.

In the end it is disclosed that a new group of Islamic militants was formed by younger followers of Blue who had been forced into exile in Germany and based themselves in Berlin, vowing to take revenge for the death of their admired leader. It is assumed that one of them assassinated Ka and took away the only extant copy of the poems he had written.

Reception

Upon release, Snow was generally well-received among the British press. The book was also generally well-received amongst American press. According to Book Marks, the book received "positive" reviews based on 9 critic reviews with 5 being "rave" and 2 being "positive" and 2 being "mixed". On Metacritic, the book received a 77 out of 100 based on 21 critic reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews". On Bookmarks Magazine Nov/Dec 2004 issue, a magazine that aggregates critic reviews of books, the book received a (4.0 out of 5) based on critic reviews with the critical summary stating, "With Snow, Pamuk aims to deliver this pistol-shot—and then go on performing. A couple of critics pronounce the experiment a failure; in his attempt to replicate the confusion of life in modern Turkey, Pamuk leaves some readers bewildered. However, most applaud Snow as a very rare performance indeed: a political novel that presents a nation and its people in all their maddening complexity". Globally, the work was received generally well with Complete Review saying on the consensus "Most very impressed, with a few reservations".

Awards and prizes

See also

References

  1. Bilefsky, Dan (2006-07-12). "'Virgin suicides' save Turks' 'honor' – Europe – International Herald Tribune". The New York Times. Retrieved 2011-05-13.
  2. Bilefsky, Dan (2006-07-16). "How to Avoid Honor Killing in Turkey? Honor Suicide". The New York Times. Retrieved 2011-05-13.
  3. "Article clipped from The Daily Telegraph". Newspapers. Retrieved 8 June 2024.
  4. "Article clipped from The Daily Telegraph". Newspapers. Retrieved 8 June 2024.
  5. "Snow". Book Marks. Retrieved 16 January 2024.
  6. "Snow". Metacritic. Archived from the original on 9 Feb 2009. Retrieved 14 January 2023.
  7. "Snow By Orhan Pamuk". Bookmarks Magazine. Archived from the original on 29 Aug 2016. Retrieved 14 January 2023.
  8. "Snow". Complete Review. 2023-10-04. Retrieved 2023-10-04.

External links

Works by Orhan Pamuk
Novels
Screenplay
Non-fiction
Categories: