Other Colours
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- 125,00 kr
Publisher Description
From Orhan Pamuk, winner of the 2006 Nobel Prize in Literature, and author of My Name is Red and Istanbul, comes a collection of immediate relevance and timeless value. His original pieces have been sympathetically revisited by the author, and the result is a new work of great narrative richness and intensity. Other Colours ranges from lyrical autobiography to essays on literature and culture, from humour to political analysis, from delicate evocations of his friendship with his daughter to provocative discussions of Eastern and Western art.
Reflections on Pamuk's first passport, his first trip to Europe, his father's death, his political views, his recent court case, and the Istanbul earthquake share space with a collection of pieces on writers as various as Laurence Sterne and Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Vladimir Nabokov and Mario Vargas Llosa. There are sections on Istanbul, New York - where Pamuk lived for two years - and on the writing of each of his novels. Interspersed among these are some of Pamuk's own illustrated works of art, and a short story 'Looking Out the Window'.
My Father's Suitcase, Pamuk's 2006 Nobel Lecture, a brilliant illumination of what it means to be a writer, completes the selection from one of literature's most eminent and popular figures.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Though the latest book from Nobel Prize-winning Pamuk (Istanbul, Snow) is a standard late-career essay collection, it makes clear the reasons behind the Turkish author's acclaim. Eschewing flash and flourish, Pamuk's style is plain, simple and persuasive-but therein lies its subtle power, well represented over more than 75 pieces divided into sections like "Living and Worrying" and "Politics, Europe, and Other Problems of Being Oneself." Self-reflection and cultural evolution emerge often as twin themes, as in his consideration of the Thousand and One Nights: "In those days, young Turks like me who considered themselves modern viewed the classics of eastern literature as one might a dark and impenetrable forest." These concerns lead naturally to political considerations, such as his conclusion that "the lies about the war in Iraq and... secret CIA prisons have so damaged the West's credibility in Turkey... it is more and more difficult for people like me to make the case for true western democracy in my part of the world." There's humor as well; in "Giving Up Smoking," a smoking cab driver begs Pamuk's pardon: "He was opening the window. 'No,' I said, 'keep it closed. I've given up smoking.'" Also included are musings on his own books and a short story, "To Look Out the Window." Disarmingly honest, Pamuk refuses to give in to melodrama or stylistic quirks, giving his feeling and frustration crystalline clarity and lasting weight.
