Snow by Orhan Pamuk

Having read “The BlacK Book” last year finding it very hard work it was with some trepidation that I approached Snow, which is Pamuk’s most recent work of fiction.

In the interim, Orhan Pamuk won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2006. This , however, tends to be awarded for a body of work or a political stance in contrast to the Booker Prizes of this world which are awarded annually for individual works of fiction.

Pamuk is very much a celebrity in his home country and recently courted controversy with the Turkish establishment with his open and frank views on the Armenian genocide. So much so that he was in the dock last year for “bringing the Turkish Nation into disrepute…” or something similar. Needless to say, the case was thrown out. I think its more to do with Turkey’s wishes to enter the EU.

Snow is a bit more straightforward than “The Black Book” and deals with the visit by the poet, Ka, to the remote eastern border city of Kars to write an article on the recent spate of suicides by young Isamic women living there.

The book is written mostly in the first person by a novelist, (possibly Pamuk himself), chronicling Ka and his experiences during his three day visit.

Snow plays an important symbolic part to the story which can be read in several ways. For me, it served to isolate the city and cut if off from the rest of Turkey and the world and let the author use Kars as a microcosm for the rest of the Turkey. In the book, Ka uses a picture a snowflake to represent different aspects of this life and his visit to Kars.

The major theme of the book is the conflict between religion and the state in Turkey. Turkey is unique in the Middle East in being a totally secular state based on the constitution drawn up by Kemal Ataturk early in the 20th Century. That it has survived as such is testament to the strength of the Turkish republic.
The conflict between state and religion is represented in the book by the wearing of headscarves by young women in college which is a banned act. The reason given for their suicides is the requirement for them to remove the headscarf while in school.

During the the three day visit to Kars, Ka witnesses and inadvertently takes part in a attempted coup by the leader of a theatre group called Sunay Zaim.

As you can imagine there is a lot going on in this book and at times it is quite difficult to follow all the issues that are being brought up.

Overall, Snow is a very insightful, thought provoking and challenging book that should be read by anybody who is trying to educate themselves on the Turkish State.