Snow by Orhan Pamuk

Title: Snow
Author: Orhan Pamuk
Publisher: Faber and Faber (Penguin India)
Pages:448
Price: Rs 350
ISBN:9780571222995
Rating: 5 out of 5
Source: Personal

Buy Snow from Flipkart.com
Buy snow from Amazon.com


Summary
Poet Ka (kerim Alakusoglu) returns to his homeland Turkey after 12 years of political exile in Germany.. As a journalist he has two motives one to get to the roots of the sudden suicides among girls and the upcoming election, but the main intention is to revive the flair he had for a classmate who is now separated from her husband.... In a city clung between  extreme religious ideologies and secularism this journey gives  Ka to relive his life and rediscover the poet that he is....

Review
This was the first Pamauk's book I read and I became an instant fan...To call it a romantic or a political novel would be injustice to both genre for it is a beautiful union of romance at the heights with all its political turmoil...The novel begin with snow as in backdrop and snow is omnipresent all through...Though Ka returns to his hometown for his mother's funeral there is no mention about it there after... Ka enjoys the status of a celebrity in his hometown at the same he is the most distrusted by his fellowmen .. Ipak Ka's romantic interest is stuck with her life when her husband can only think and breathe religion and its principles that she is unable to follow....Islamic extremism overflows all through the novel.. Director of Institution of education is killed by a muslim extremist as he supposedly thinks the director to be the reason behind the suicide of girls by banning the head scarf.. Even when his people are hostile to Ka, he tries his best to get the bottom of the mass suicides...,he wanders through alley of Kars to institution where the religion has an upperhand over educational reforms..Pamuk's trademark of the beautiful portray of his city even in ruins and remnant is a treat to read, where all the structure stand still as a mute witness..To complete it all there is an editor in the local newspaper who publishes things even before they actually happen...
Ka's self -discovery as a poet is elegantly portrayed., as he comes face to face with all experiences in his home town naming it  "Snow" and  rest  of the poem just follows.. Theater becoming a military coup is the best way of expressing the state of affairs in a city...Characters such as  that of Sheikh Saadettin's is woven charmingly conveying a message to the reader...Politically reluctant Ka starts taking part in them inorder to safe guard himself and to marry his ladylove..Thus Ka's vantage on all these ideologies are of that of an outsider while Sheikh Saadetein 's views are of that of an insider, all the contrast are brought out well...All human emotions such jealously, sympathy, empathy, happiness ideally comes out  from Ka., his passion swings between obsession to hysteria...The best part of the novel is its being unpredictable....Outrage of Blue an islamic fundamendalist to Ka is more out of  fear than anger, his fear of misrepresentation of the suicides to the rest of the world is an ideal footing that all such events suffer from...Like other characters the headscarf girls also form an important aspect of the novel in spite of being dead .,they are dragged in time and again by anyone as per their convenience and even Ka struggles to get an idea of their feelings or experiences till it is staged by Khadife's performance..
I love this one especially form Fazil to Ka
Fazil says
"If you write a book set in Kars and put me init, I'd like you to tell your readers not to believe anything you say about me, anything you say about any of us. No one could understand us from so far away."
Reference is made to the western countries..
The story moves through a third person's perspective and it was disheartening to find out about Ka's death..The novel is a full package for a reader in all its form, just read and relish every bit of it...