Istanbul: Memories and the City (Vintage International)

The book was neatly wrapped in kraft paper before being carefully packaged to avoid damage in transit. Zero plastic packaging too 😍! Arrived in perfect condition. Very happy with purchase from Unique Globe Curiosities Gift Shop. Thank you.

Istanbul: memories of city by Orhan Pamuk; interesting personal recollections of a city which suffered collective melancholy after its loss of empire. It became poor and all its old wooden houses were burned down and replaced with ghastly concrete buildings as it tried to Westernize. Whole generations of families lived in the same multistorey houses and the city became bigger and bigger. The book was an interesting jaunt down memory lane, more poignant for those who know something of the modern city.

Fascinating history of the city and brilliant read of the author's complex childhood

Quite self indulgent at times although the atmosphere of old black and white Istanbul is conveyed. Certainly not my favourite book.

This shouldn’t work so well but it’s a fascinating read. What could be a banal description of his home city is brought alive by the way he finds beauty in the familiar and his very readable turn of phrase.

An excellent introduction to Istanbul, especially its evolution from the 1930s to the 2000s - focusing on the years of Pamuk's childhood and adolescence in the 50s, 60s, and 70s. Having visited Istanbul in February 201, I wanted to try to get to the heart of this great city. Pamuk's book took me a long way in and made me want to read his novels. It was also a touching personal history. Strongly recommended to anyone with a yen to understand Istanbul and its people.

Exactly what you'd expect from Pamuk. Leaves you wishing you'd been able to visit the Istanbul of his childhood/ youth.

Bought as a present. Nice hardbook book…and well written by Nobel prize winner. Great for people interested in old Istanbul, its history and Pamuks memories of his childhood.

This book has quickly become one of my favorites. Orhan Pamuk’s Istanbul is not just a memoir — it’s a deeply emotional, poetic love letter to a city he’s known all his life. What fascinates me most is how, despite growing up in Istanbul and spending his entire life there, Pamuk never loses his ability to love the place. He continues to see it with fresh eyes, discovering beauty in its melancholy and joy in its worn streets. His writing is charming, rich with feeling, and full of a quiet wonder that’s contagious. Pamuk doesn’t romanticize the city — he captures it with honesty and depth — but there’s still such warmth in the way he describes even its sadness. It made me feel like I was walking alongside him, seeing Istanbul through his eyes. I didn’t want it to end.

Ah, to understand a Turk. To comprehend a vast, neglected city like Istanbul, a once-splendid hub of empire and now the veritable locus of "East Meets West." Even better, to glimpse intimately, what makes a great author, great. If you haven't read any of Orhan Pamuk's work, reading this fine memoir is the perfect place to start, it can only whet your appetite for future readings. If like me, you lament that nothing remains unread in Pamuk's translated canon, then this book will feel like pure luxury, like a series of grace notes floating over a collection of excellent fiction. "Istanbul: Memories and the City" has many tender accounts of the author's childhood and family life along with insightful musings on the character of Istanbul and its denizens, the Istanbullis. Certainly, the book's central theme is an exploration of how relationship and birthplace make us what we are. As Mr. Pamuk makes plain, (and lucky for us) he was born in no ordinary city. In addition, the book harkens directly to the zany, dream-afflicted characters found abundantly in Mr. Pamuk's work, which the memoir makes amply clear, are so much in their parts . . . like unto himself. Once again, Pamuk has us pondering the structure and nuance of Identity, this time as a grand idea explored through the medium of childhood and birthplace. The sensitive candor with which Mr. Pamuk describes his background and relationship to the City is quite touching. The chief literary pleasure of the book has to be the chapter describing "Huzun" (which may be an aging sister to notions of "Kismet"). "Huzun," according to Pamuk, is a collective melancholy consisting of, in differing degree; longing, nostalgia and unrequited love. Mr. Pamuk explains how the experience of "Huzun" both limits and expands the life of Istanbul, its citizens and himself, as a quality central to shared identity. Despite Istanbul's storied allure, the book highlights the deeper mystery of Istanbul's past, belying old notions of "orientalism," while revealing the cultural affect of early 20th century "Westernization" and its resulting distortions. The Ottoman past becomes the modern Turkish state within the lifetime of his grandmother and parents. This transformation is most opaque when Mr. Pamuk recalls the interminable, empty "western-style "sitting rooms" used by the apartment dwellers to bear witness to their incipient "Westernization." Photographs of neglected Ottoman-era houses leaning sadly into each other over the Bosphorus, along with pictures of the author's family are an exceedingly pleasant accompaniment to the text. Also not to be missed, is the chapter on the never-quite-completed and wholly subjective "Encyclopedia Turkey." This chapter captures a certain frenetic intensity that lies with The Turks, a people who did the unthinkable by adopting new habits of dress, writing and socio-political organization within an unimaginably short period of time. The energy behind this intensity appears (to this reader) to counterbalance the undertow of "Huzun," in both Mr. Pamuk's memoir and his collected fiction. By the author's account, the chaos wrought by the redirection of Turkish society and its requisite "Westernization" resulted in difficult years for Pamuk's family and the legacy of Istanbul. Fortunately, today Turkey is the seventh fastest-growing economy in the world. Similarly, Mr. Pamuk is an internationally recognized writer (12OCT2006, A Nobel winner! Congrats, Mr. Pamuk!) Paramount to "Memories and the City" is the true art of sweet memoir. As Mr. Pamuk engages us in his city and childhood, (even a first romance) the shades of Hoja, young bus riders from "The New Life," shadows of the poet Ka from "Snow" and especially Jelal, that crazed columnist from "The Black Book," rise above the blue haze of Istanbul's "Huzun" with devastating grace, to the reader's extreme delight.

Meu primeiro livro de Orhan Pamuk, que me fez admirar este autor e suas românticas histórias vividas ou contadas sobre Istambul.

A beautiful edition by Vintage International. One would not have any regrets about the price after receiving this book. The cover is of sturdy matte card, and the paper seems to be durable and of very good quality. There are a wealth of photographs. A good book to add to your library or collection. :)

Excellent read