Particularize Out Of Books The Bastard of Istanbul
| Title | : | The Bastard of Istanbul |
| Author | : | Elif Shafak |
| Book Format | : | Hardcover |
| Book Edition | : | First Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 368 pages |
| Published | : | January 18th 2007 by Viking Adult (first published March 2006) |
| Categories | : | Fiction. Historical. Historical Fiction. Novels. Asian Literature. Turkish Literature |
Elif Shafak
Hardcover | Pages: 368 pages Rating: 3.83 | 33593 Users | 3797 Reviews
Rendition To Books The Bastard of Istanbul
From one of Turkey’s most acclaimed and outspoken writers, a novel about the tangled histories of two families. In her second novel written in English, Elif Shafak confronts her country’s violent past in a vivid and colorful tale set in both Turkey and the United States. At its center is the “bastard” of the title, Asya, a nineteen-year-old woman who loves Johnny Cash and the French Existentialists, and the four sisters of the Kazanci family who all live together in an extended household in Istanbul: Zehila, the zestful, headstrong youngest sister who runs a tattoo parlor and is Asya’s mother; Banu, who has newly discovered herself as a clairvoyant; Cevriye, a widowed high school teacher; and Feride, a hypochondriac obsessed with impending disaster. Their one estranged brother lives in Arizona with his wife and her Armenian daughter, Armanoush. When Armanoush secretly flies to Istanbul in search of her identity, she finds the Kazanci sisters and becomes fast friends with Asya. A secret is uncovered that links the two families and ties them to the 1915 Armenian deportations and massacres. Full of vigorous, unforgettable female characters, The Bastard of Istanbul is a bold, powerful tale that will confirm Shafak as a rising star of international fiction.Point Books Toward The Bastard of Istanbul
| Original Title: | Baba ve Piç |
| ISBN: | 0670038342 (ISBN13: 9780670038343) |
| Edition Language: | English |
| Characters: | Asya, Armanoush |
| Literary Awards: | Orange Prize Nominee for Longlist (2008) |
Rating Out Of Books The Bastard of Istanbul
Ratings: 3.83 From 33593 Users | 3797 ReviewsCommentary Out Of Books The Bastard of Istanbul
If you're interested in the Middle East and/or Turkish history and/or the Armenian genocide, this book is likely for you. If you're not, it's not a bad book, but great stretches of it may bore you. I really enjoyed the characters and would've liked to have known them better and had less of those historical details. It made the book more of a slog. There were sections that read like a five or very close, but also great swathes of boredom and feeling like I'm being hit over the head so the authorThe lines are beautiful.The humor is priceless.The questions are numerous.One example being: what is the value of truth?Is truth always to be sought, AT ALL COSTS?because: "the past is anything but bygone."and as Elif Shafak also so eloquently speaks: "Once there was. Once there wasn't. God's creatures were as plentiful as grains and talking too much was a sin, for you could tell what you shouldn't remember and you could remember what you shouldn't tell."The humor - I adored the depiction of
While I take my hat off for the commendable intentions and courage of Shafak for writing this book, the literary merit of this work, as far as I can judge, is close to nil. Dull characters, repetitious quasi-jokes, jagged storylines, essay-like prose (where you can clearly see through her ideology) fill the pages of this book and make reading it close to torture. And no redemption really with the ending. No, quite the contrary: It makes things really worse. Things I didn't appreciate at all: -
From BBC Radio 4:Two families - one Turkish, the other Armenian-American - are bound by the same horrific past. Written by Elif Shafak and dramatised by Hattie Naylor.One rainy afternoon in Istanbul, a nineteen-year-old, unmarried woman walks into a doctor's surgery. "I need to have an abortion," she announces.Twenty years later, Asya Kazanci lives with her extended family in Istanbul. All the Kanzanci men die early, victims of a mysterious family curse, so this is a household of women. Among
"Separation can be a form of connection. Writing in English creates a cognitive distance between me and the culture I come from; paradoxically, this enables me to take a closer look at Turkey and Turkishness." (Elif Shafak)I am usually rating my books without taking into consideration whether I like the author or not. In this case I will make an exception (please forgive my weakness): If I only rated the literary qualities, I would give this book three stars. The fourth star is an expression of
Wow! This was something! I have to admit I missed the feeling of oneness in a book. Right after I finnished it (& took a deep breath), I turned on my computer determined to read more about the author, the story, ideas, opinions. I like to do that when I don't want a book to end. Unfortunately, I got to an old conclussion of mine again: critique and dissection of the book has no charm. I clicked on some links and there I had! opinions about how characters evolve and how the novel is built,
Yet another excellent novel largely about the Turkish Armenian genocide. I have read quite a few of these as well as some non-fiction on the subject, and it never ceases to amaze me that to this day, many Turks and the Turkish government refuse to acknowledge that it even happened.Anyway, this is a very good book, with very memorable characters, and a page turner of a story. Also has a surprise ending that I definitely did not see coming.
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