Snow

by Orhan Pamuk

Quote lifted from Amazon:
"The reader is exposed to a panoramic view of Turkey's political and religious conflicts and ethnic tensions. His multitude of characters represents every conceivable strand of Turkish society: Ataturk secularism and pro-European modernism on the one hand and various religious factions of Muslim faith on the other. By compressing the events into one locale, a remote, poor and backward town, Kars, in Eastern Turkey, he creates a charged playing field. A major snowstorm has cut off the access roads to the town, bringing the conflicting positions to boiling point. An artistic performance, including a poetry reading by Ka are marred by a "massacre". A couple of murders occur. The mayoral election, which would have been won by an Islamist over a local Secularist, is cut short by a military coup. In addition, the town has become notorious in the Istanbul headlines for several suicides and suicide attempts by the so-called "headscarf girls". The assumption being that the girls decided to end their life because they were not allowed to wear their headscarf in school. Yet, their motivations are more complicated than that.

Within this complex political turmoil, wanders Ka, the protagonist of the story. A recently unproductive poet, he returned from Germany to attend his mother's funeral. He has also reasons for coming to Kars. Presenting himself as a journalist, he claims to be interested in the stories behind the headscarf girls' suicides. On a personal level, he wants to find a "Turkish girl" to marry and take back to Germany."

Ka finds the interminable snow beautiful, probably the only thing of beauty in the town.  He later arranges his poems on the structure of a six sided snowflake.

Ka finds the environment, or his experiences, or both, stimulating and he finds his creative juices start to flow resulting in several poems. The characters in the book are quite eccentric, even comical in their behaviour.  I have to say that I found Ka infuriating, tremendous things were happening in the town and his main concern seemed to be his puppy love for his female friend.  He seemed to be willing to go along with everyone, never challenging them or stating his own position.  An avowed atheist he seemed to come to believe in god after meeting some of the mystics in town. What was that about???   I found his behaviour very irresponsible and unforgivable.  I wanted to give his shoulders a shake.  He did not leave with the supposed love of his life, nor did he deserve to do so. The main character reminds me of a character from Dostoevsky.

This was a very complex and powerful book.  The book is not an easy read but the story is certainly relevant in today's world with the controversy about secular and non secular government, etc.