The White Castle
Orhan Pamuk
Vintage International
1985
Translated from Turkish by Victoria Holbrook 1990
Ms. Hen picked up this book at the Little Free Library near
where she lives. She had never heard of the book or the author, but she liked
the title and the cover so she took it home. It was free, so the price was
right. She has learned in seminars about writing that publishing companies give
attractive covers to books they think are worth it. So, a person can judge a
book by its cover, contrary to popular belief.
Ms. Hen didn’t know what to make of this novel at first. The
tone is quiet and unassuming. It takes place in what is supposed to be 17th
century Istanbul, but that is not explained in the novel. That was written on
the back of the book. The setting of this novel reminded Ms. Hen of Dorne, the
fictional country in GAME OF THRONES, which Ms. Hen learned is supposed to be
based on Spain. Ms. Hen thinks that both Dorne and the Istanbul of this novel
are places that have darkness hidden underneath them, but are bright, sunny,
dry locations, which can be deceiving. She read that the description of
Istanbul is not historically accurate.
Ms. Hen decided this novel is allegorical. It’s about a man
meeting someone who looks just like him, and that tortures his soul. It’s about
the dark side of us all that we don’t usually have to face. The protagonist
does not like that he gets to know his double and that fact between them is not discussed.
A young scholar travels from Venice, and is captured by the
Turkish, taken back to Istanbul and sold as a slave. He eventually comes in
the possession of a man who looks just like him. No explanation is offered as
to why they look exactly alike. They study together and Hoja, the master, asked
the slave to teach him everything he knows about science. They sit at a table,
which is not part of the Turkish culture, and write together. They also tell
each other their life stories.
This novel reminded Ms. Hen of WAITING FOR THE BARBARIANS by
J. M. Coetzee, in the way that it’s slow, atmospheric, and can have
multiple meanings. Ms. Hen had to read that novel twice when she was in
college, and she didn’t love it, and she doesn’t remember it that well, but she
remembers the feelings it gave her, of uncertainty and disgust.
There were a few mentions of chickens in THE WHITE CASTLE,
which Ms. Hen appreciated. The plague hit the city, and people were dying, and,
“A bricklayer who quarreled with all the neighbors about their chickens getting
in through his wall, had died screaming with fever one week ago.” And also Hoja
developed a weapon that he believed would destroy their enemies, “Hoja would
describe to me the devastation his red rooster would wreak upon his enemies.”
Hoja called his weapon the red rooster. Ms. Hen thinks it’s appropriate that a
weapon would be called a rooster because they’re tough.
Ms. Hen liked this novel, but it wasn’t the best book she
has read recently. She thinks that it was a little too slow for her taste, and
too masculine. Few women appear in this novel, which Ms. Hen didn’t enjoy.
Women are background characters and are not significant, which is historically
accurate, but that doesn’t mean Ms. Hen has to like it. Ms. Hen is sure that
there were interesting women in that era, though this novel doesn’t recognize
that. This novel is about a man finding himself and losing himself and
ultimately becoming someone else.
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