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My Name Is Red | 
| Author: Orhan Pamuk
Creator: Erdag Goknar
Publisher: Vintage
Category: Book
List Price: $14.95
Buy Used: $2.00
You Save: $12.95 (87%)
New (57) Used (76) Collectible (3) from $2.00
Avg. Customer Rating:  122 reviews
Sales Rank: 6556
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 432
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 8 x 5.1 x 1
ISBN: 0375706852
Dewey Decimal Number: 894.3533
EAN: 9780375706851
ASIN: 0375706852
Publication Date: August 27, 2002
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
At once a fiendishly devious mystery, a beguiling love story, and a brilliant symposium on the power of art, My Name Is Red is a transporting tale set amid the splendor and religious intrigue of sixteenth-century Istanbul, from one of the most prominent contemporary Turkish writers.
The Sultan has commissioned a cadre of the most acclaimed artists in the land to create a great book celebrating the glories of his realm. Their task: to illuminate the work in the European style. But because figurative art can be deemed an affront to Islam, this commission is a dangerous proposition indeed. The ruling elite therefore mustn’t know the full scope or nature of the project, and panic erupts when one of the chosen miniaturists disappears. The only clue to the mystery–or crime? –lies in the half-finished illuminations themselves. Part fantasy and part philosophical puzzle, My Name is Red is a kaleidoscopic journey to the intersection of art, religion, love, sex and power.
Translated from the Turkish by Erda M Goeknar
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| Customer Reviews: Read 117 more reviews...
 A book of very special qualities September 22, 2008
I find this to be a very special book for different reasons. One reads novels and stories, and one may find them engaging and interesting. But this is different. It is more than just this. One must 'get' into the style before starting to enjoy the reading and appreciate its beauty and dept. What caught my spirit most was the many reflections on the philosophy of art that Pamuk expounds along the way. Particularly, I was very much impressed by his views on what one may call the 'darkness of God'. One may find literature on the 'silence' of God, or even on the 'humility', and 'suffering', of God - all paradoxical concepts of a somewhat mystical nature. But one may rarely, if ever, come across reflections, and, moreover, so simple and profound, on the 'darkness' of God. This book is just one of them. Most of us are familiar with the image of God as light; with the vision that God bestows light on the human intellect to 'see' or 'behold' things. But Pamuk gives a much more interesting and captivating perspective to this. In order for us to 'see' God bestows pitch darkness, and in the darkness of our physical vision we 'see' the unseeable. This concept is analogous to those of God's eloquence in perfect silence, greatness in extreme humility, and impassibility in his impressive suffering. Pamuk gives the concept of darkness a new interpretation, inviting the reader to explore the 'darkening away' of the world from the vision of the physical eye, or, better still, from the distracted view of our 'intellectual eye', in order to concentrate or focus entirely our faculties on the mystery of God. And Pamuk gives us this and much, much more - including a beautiful love story, and a fascinating murder investigation -, within a narrative that delves into the diverse, but maybe complimentary, world-view of the Islamic East and the Christian West. You will find various aspects of this book returning to you over and over again after finishing it. In a good sense, its reflections are surprisingly haunting.
You must burn to learn... September 7, 2008
There are already too many excellent reviews here, so I won't try to repeat what's already written. My impression upon reading "My Name Is Red" is that of being drawn through a bazaar by the author, who has me by the arm, at times supporting me and at other times pulling me off balance. In the beginning, the book reads as if you are on the edge of a vortex; as you travel through the novel, you will recognize that you've come full circle and are back where you began, except that with each iteration you've learned a little more, and better understand, what's happening around you. Each orbit comes more quickly, culminating in a swirling vortex of resolution at the very end of the novel. I am very pleased with the writing of this novel and I thank the author for the education I've brought away from it. Novels that enrich your life and expand your awareness are rare: "My Name Is Red" is one such book. If you're a fan of early Eco and Rushdie you'll be quite comfortable here, in that you know going in that this is not going to be an "easy" read; you are going to have to think, make connections for yourself, and be patient while the author teases out the subtleties of the story. Many will begin this literary journey, and as you can see from the scattered "one-star" reviews some will not finish. If you love a great plot, excellent characters, rich settings, a taunting mystery, and if you love to learn... this book is for you.
Both form and function explore a deeper conversation about the meaning of art August 30, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Though at first glance My Name is Red is a murder mystery and love story, it's true genius is not found so much in the plot twists and turns but rather in the unusually poetic narrative strategy and voice, and in the brilliant discussion on the purpose and meaning of art. I didn't find any of the characters in this novel to be particularly interesting or relatable, and I had little interest in the outcome of the novel. What really grabbed me about this story was its very nuanced and extensive commentary on art as either a representation of true culture and harsh reality or as an attempt at divine interpretation and idealistic rendering.
As a cellist, I often grapple with the issue of purpose and interpretation of my music. Creating art is a constant battle between creating what you see or hear in your head while doing justice to the reality of the notes on the page or the landscape in front you. Orhan Pamuk cleverly creates his own piece of art within the dialogue and narration of the book. While much of the discussion in the book revolves around a crisis in art and most of a culture's stern opposition to change and individual style, the manner in which Pamuk narrates this story shatters literary convention and drastically changes the way that we, as readers, learn of events. It was by no means an easy read to begin with; the constant change in narrative voice and point of view takes a while to feel comfortable with. However once I understood the process of his story telling, the novel actually came to life in a whole new spectrum of colors. To my surprise, I found this new manner of description to be much more realistic and honest than a traditional singular narrative. In a world where there are no facts, and only interpretations (thank you Nietzsche) hearing every character's interpretation gives a much fuller picture than ever before. Pamuk trashes the idea of omniscient narrator, or having one narrator at all for that matter, and instates a completely original form of narration.
Just like the illustrators in the book question the validity of their traditional "style", Pamuk explores the idea of convention and originality, anonymity and individualism, through example and in depth discussion within the narrative. Both the form and function in this novel exemplify a fundamental and inevitable movement in art: change.
Read and See August 25, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I've read four books by Orhan Pamuk: this is my favorite so far. That opinion undoubtedly owes something to the cumulative effect of The Black Book, Snow, and Istanbul. Pamuk's style is dense, full of allusion and philosophical speculation. Stories are embedded within stories, creating a maze of thought that sometimes leads to illumination and other times just comes back to the beginning. After a while the reader either becomes accustomed to spelunking or gives up. I've found it very rewarding to stay with it, especially because of the sense I get that I'm understanding a different sensibility. My Name is Red invites the reader to think deeply about Islamic art as a form of meditation, an approach to the divine. As a Westerner, I've long been fascinated by the religious injunction to not portray living beings and the way that Islamic artists, who dedicate their life to the visual world, both obey and circumvent that law. The universal conflict between humanists and purists is made particularly graphic in the 16th-century context of Sultan Murat III's Istanbul. The artists and their families confront the same compromises, betrayals, and confusions that bedevil you and me as we struggle to reconcile the spirit and flesh with the constraints of our political and economic world.
The novel's plot is straightforward - find the killer, marry the right person - yet also labyrinthine. The pleasure one derives from plot, characterization, structure, and language feels like an add-on to the themes of mystery, mercy, vision, inspiration, love, artistic technique, etc. I often found myself drifting off, musing about such dissimilar topics as Persian stories, creative obsession, betrayal by old girlfriends, the effect of tripartite answers, and the presence of red objects in my immediate visual field. Reading My Name is Red was something akin to perusing an essay by Bacon, a story by Borges, or a lecture by Fuller. Pamuk invites you into his small, cramped, and slightly overheated room, offers you some Turkish coffee, begins a tale from the Book of Kings...and the next thing you know several hours have passed and you're walking the street seeing everything for the first time. He doesn't just make the old world new, he reminds us that it was just as new many years ago.
Another reason for Americans to read this novel is to counteract prejudice about the "Muslim world." The interminable media references to jihad and sharia law could make you think that fundamentalism is a necessary product of Muslim thought. (As a Post-Puritan Yankee, I should know better than to judge a group by its zealots.) Pamuk, in each of his books, reminds us that the spectrum of eastern thought and behavior is wide indeed. Although My Name is Red is historical fiction, it's very much a product of its time. Reading it with patience should yield wider smiles and brighter eyes.
 This book has been overrated August 9, 2008
Reading so many rates of this book I ended up buying one sample. It's just a waste of money! No, the book is not so bad; it's a reasonable one. The fact is that people overrated it as if was a marvellous book - and it is NOT!
From 3rd chapter on the reader become bored. The writer speaks more over art than ever! It's just a boring book!
I won't tell you more about this book because there are too many reviews here. I just can say to you do not waste your precious time and money on this book. It is one of the most boring book I have ever read!
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