A sombre tale of love

The celebrated Turkish writer has penned some memorable literature for a large part of this century. This novel opens the door towards an obsession that is love. The protagonist Kemal Basmaci leads a playboy lifestyle in Istanbul, and spends a lifetime in love with his distant cousin Fusun. Tragedy befalls the man until his life is torn apart at its seams. Comfortably poised between talking about the life and times of upper class Turkish society, Pamuk meanders through the story alternating between a life left wrought in pain in Kemal.

The protagonist is portrayed as someone who is sheltered away from the turbulent politics of Istanbul in the 1970s. His closeted upbringing in upper-class society makes him look at life from his position of privilege. He is absolved of society’s qualms and its thoughts on passion, sex and love. The novel is cleverly constructed as a fictive museum of memories that Kemal has built out of his personal recollections of his life lost in passion. He wishes to return to the flame of his past with Füsun while she goes through life, marriage and loss. Since he cannot possess her anymore, he begins reassembling her life through his memories of her in the museum of innocence. These objects and vignettes also act as touchstones of Istanbul during those dynamic years in the 1970s. In Pamuk’s masterful depiction of love, it is unattainable and lost. Yet, the book reminds us that one must forever endeavour the past in all of its fallacies for we are but made of memories.