
Istanbul
Memories and the City
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Narrated by:
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John Lee
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By:
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Orhan Pamuk
From the Nobel Prize winner and acclaimed author of My Name is Red comes a portrait of Istanbul by its foremost writer, revealing the melancholy that comes of living amid the ruins of a lost empire.
"Delightful, profound, marvelously origina.... Pamuk tells the story of the city through the eyes of memory." —The Washington Post Book World
A shimmering evocation, by turns intimate and panoramic, of one of the world’s great cities, by its foremost writer. Orhan Pamuk was born in Istanbul and still lives in the family apartment building where his mother first held him in her arms. His portrait of his city is thus also a self-portrait, refracted by memory and the melancholy—or hüzün—that all Istanbullus share.
With cinematic fluidity, Pamuk moves from his glamorous, unhappy parents to the gorgeous, decrepit mansions overlooking the Bosphorus; from the dawning of his self-consciousness to the writers and painters—both Turkish and foreign—who would shape his consciousness of his city. Like Joyce’s Dublin and Borges’ Buenos Aires, Pamuk’s Istanbul is a triumphant encounter of place and sensibility, beautifully written and immensely moving.
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Critic reviews
2005, National Book Critics Circle Awards, Finalist
2006, Nobel Prize, Winner
"Far from a conventional appreciation of the city's natural and architectural splendors, Istanbul tells of an invisible melancholy and the way it acts on an imaginative young man, aggrieving him but pricking his creativity." (The New York Times)
"Brilliant...Pamuk insistently discribes [a] dizzingly gorgeous, historically vibrant metropolis." (Newsday)
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I enjoyed the audiobook a lot, although the vast and detailed historical set of references the book provides sometimes makes the reading hard to follow.
Flaneur in Istanbul
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unengaging
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Got eyes through which I could see Istanbul no as normal tourist.
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travel that never leaves home
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Streets of Istanbul
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Only for those with interest in art history
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John Lee is superb as always.
Missed the narrative
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Insights to Istanbul
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Will have to listen to it again lest I missed something.
Istanbul through the eyes of an melancholic
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book playing in my ears as I slowly walked the streets with no plans my first 2 days. I wandered longer just to keep listening to the book without distracting myself with touristy things. My time in this city was emotionally deepened as a result. Part memoir, part ode to Istanbul: I fell in love with his style, honesty, and insight about life here. I strolled the Bosphorus many times at the end of being a tourist all day; I kept hearing his insights and emotions he attached for the remainder of the trip. I travel sola, but I had the best guide with me the first few days.
Wandered Istanbul as a sola traveler…with Pumuk as my guide
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