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Jim Fonseca's Reviews > Silent House
Silent House
by
[Revised, pictures added, spoilers hidden 4/20/22]
Turkey’s ongoing modernization, real estate boom, and politics provide the background for this story set in a small Turkish seaside city. We guess it’s around the 1970s. The book was originally published in Turkey in 1983.
Three adult grandchildren make their obligatory annual summer visit to their 90-year-old grandmother. The grandmother is crotchety and demanding especially to her live-in servant whom she alternately calls “the dwarf” or “the bastard.” He’s a child of her dead husband’s mistress.
Her grandchildren “…still haven’t figured out their grandmother isn’t capable of any reaction except disgust.” ‘The Dwarf’ is the perfect servant, catering to the old lady’s and everyone else’s whim despite the disdain and abuse he is subject to.
We learn the family history. The deceased grandfather was a medical doctor who got crosswise with Istanbul politicians and spent his life in exile in this backwater town drinking and toiling over a 50-volume encyclopedia “to bring Western knowledge to the East.” He was an avowed atheist, which terrified his devout wife, the grandmother.
Their only son, now dead, the father of the three children, was a local low-level civil servant, also a dreamer and an alcoholic.
The oldest grandson is a college professor, divorced, and a third-generation dreamer and alcoholic.
The granddaughter is a radical socialist, which gets her in serious trouble with the nationalist skin-heads in town.
The youngest grandchild is in high school, ready to go to college, hopefully abroad, but he has no money to do so. (view spoiler)
The book is a good read. It’s an early work by Pamuk, translated after he became famous for his other works. It has a lot of local color of Turkey and it’s a primer on why much of the developing world is in such chaos. It also shows us that modern life in Turkey is a lot like modern life in much of the rest of the world.
The author (b. 1952) won the Nobel prize in 2006. He’s best known among English reads for My Name is Red and Snow, both of which I have read and enjoyed. He grew up in an upper-class family experiencing decline, a theme in many of his works including this one, Silent House.
Here are links to my reviews of other books I’ve read by Orhan Pamuk:
My Name is Red
The Black Book
Snow
A Strangeness in My Mind
Top photo: Antalya, a Mediterranean seaside town in Turkey from themediterraneantraveller.com
The author from en.gariwo.net
by
Jim Fonseca's review
bookshelves: turkish-authors, modernization, family-saga, nobel-prize
May 31, 2015
bookshelves: turkish-authors, modernization, family-saga, nobel-prize
[Revised, pictures added, spoilers hidden 4/20/22]
Turkey’s ongoing modernization, real estate boom, and politics provide the background for this story set in a small Turkish seaside city. We guess it’s around the 1970s. The book was originally published in Turkey in 1983.
Three adult grandchildren make their obligatory annual summer visit to their 90-year-old grandmother. The grandmother is crotchety and demanding especially to her live-in servant whom she alternately calls “the dwarf” or “the bastard.” He’s a child of her dead husband’s mistress.
Her grandchildren “…still haven’t figured out their grandmother isn’t capable of any reaction except disgust.” ‘The Dwarf’ is the perfect servant, catering to the old lady’s and everyone else’s whim despite the disdain and abuse he is subject to.
We learn the family history. The deceased grandfather was a medical doctor who got crosswise with Istanbul politicians and spent his life in exile in this backwater town drinking and toiling over a 50-volume encyclopedia “to bring Western knowledge to the East.” He was an avowed atheist, which terrified his devout wife, the grandmother.
Their only son, now dead, the father of the three children, was a local low-level civil servant, also a dreamer and an alcoholic.
The oldest grandson is a college professor, divorced, and a third-generation dreamer and alcoholic.
The granddaughter is a radical socialist, which gets her in serious trouble with the nationalist skin-heads in town.
The youngest grandchild is in high school, ready to go to college, hopefully abroad, but he has no money to do so. (view spoiler)
The book is a good read. It’s an early work by Pamuk, translated after he became famous for his other works. It has a lot of local color of Turkey and it’s a primer on why much of the developing world is in such chaos. It also shows us that modern life in Turkey is a lot like modern life in much of the rest of the world.
The author (b. 1952) won the Nobel prize in 2006. He’s best known among English reads for My Name is Red and Snow, both of which I have read and enjoyed. He grew up in an upper-class family experiencing decline, a theme in many of his works including this one, Silent House.
Here are links to my reviews of other books I’ve read by Orhan Pamuk:
My Name is Red
The Black Book
Snow
A Strangeness in My Mind
Top photo: Antalya, a Mediterranean seaside town in Turkey from themediterraneantraveller.com
The author from en.gariwo.net
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Reading Progress
April 26, 2015
–
Started Reading
May 1, 2015
–
Finished Reading
May 31, 2015
– Shelved
September 6, 2015
– Shelved as:
turkish-authors
April 20, 2022
– Shelved as:
modernization
April 20, 2022
– Shelved as:
family-saga
April 20, 2022
– Shelved as:
nobel-prize
Comments Showing 1-13 of 13 (13 new)
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message 1:
by
Astraea
(new)
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rated it 4 stars
Oct 19, 2017 12:40AM
thanks a lot for great and complete review
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Astraea wrote: "thanks a lot for great and complete review"You're welcome Astraea, I am glad you liked it.
Lovely review! I'll make sure to include more Pamuk in my reading plans!
Vicky wrote: "Lovely review! I'll make sure to include more Pamuk in my reading plans!"Thank you Vicky! I've enjoyed all 4 things I read of his
Read My Name is Red and The Black Book both excellent and this looks the same, thanks for your great review . Hopefully I will get this soon, Jim.
Henry wrote: "Read My Name is Red and The Black Book both excellent and this looks the same, thanks for your great review . Hopefully I will get this soon, Jim."Henry, yes he's an excellent author. I've enjoyed all 4 of his I read. So many good books.....
Excellent review Jim! I’m picturing the crotchety grandmother int head and I can’t get it out now. 😂 This sounds really interesting overall.
Colleen wrote: "Excellent review Jim! I’m picturing the crotchety grandmother int head and I can’t get it out now. 😂 This sounds really interesting overall."Yes the crotchety grandmother rules the roost!
He is one of my favorite writers because he blends imagination and concreteness (the far-off taken on trust and the tangible to witness). His descriptive vision of Turkey in terms of place and people is fascinating.
Betty wrote: "He is one of my favorite writers because he blends imagination and concreteness (the far-off taken on trust and the tangible to witness). His descriptive vision of Turkey in terms of place and peop..."Betty, yes I really enjoy his books. And, like you, I enjoy reading about life in modern Turkey. The only one I've read that wasn't contemporary was My Name is Red
A wonderful review, Jim. I love Pamuk’s writing. I’m adding this. Thank you.
"We guess it’s around the 1970s."According to the book, the story takes place in July of 1980. In Chapter 3, a character states: “This date’s already passed,” he said. “It was supposed to be two months ago. Look, it says May 1980 here.”
