Snow

A Novel

By: Orhan Pamuk

Narrated by: John Lee

Length: 18 hrs and 33 mins

Publisher's summary

Following years of lonely political exile in Western Europe, Ka, a middle-aged poet, returns to Istanbul to attend his mother's funeral. Only partly recognizing this place of his cultured, middle-class youth, he is even more disoriented by news of strange events in the wider country: a wave of suicides among girls forbidden to wear their head scarves at school. An apparent thaw of his writer's curiosity - a frozen sea these many years - leads him to Kars, a far-off town near the Russian border and the epicenter of the suicides.

No sooner has he arrived, however, than we discover that Ka's motivations are not purely journalistic; for in Kars, once a province of Ottoman and then Russian glory, and now a cultural gray-zone of poverty and paralysis, there is also Ipek, a radiant friend of Ka's youth, lately divorced, whom he has never forgotten. As a snowstorm, the fiercest in memory, descends on the town and seals it off from the modern, Westernized world that has always been Ka's frame of reference, he finds himself drawn in unexpected directions: not only headlong toward the unknowable Ipek and the desperate hope for love, or at least a wife, that she embodies, but also into the maelstrom of a military coup staged to restrain the local Islamist radicals, and even toward God, whose existence Ka has never before allowed himself to contemplate.

In this surreal confluence of emotion and spectacle, Ka begins to tap his dormant creative powers, producing poem after poem in untimely, irresistible bursts of inspiration. But not until the snows have melted and the political violence has run its bloody course will Ka discover the fate of his bid to seize a last chance for happiness.

©2007 Orhan Pamuk (P)2007 Random House Inc.

Critic reviews

• Wiinner, 2006 Nobel Prize in Literature

"Ka's rediscovery of God and poetry in a desolate place makes the novel's sadness profound and moving." (Publishers Weekly)
"Pamuk's gift for the evocative image remains one of this novel's great pleasures: Long after I finished this book, in the blaze of the Washington summer, my thoughts kept returning to Ka and Ipek in the hotel room, looking out at the falling snow." (Ruth Franklin, Washington Post Book World)

Pushing limits

It’s an interesting story with lots of question marks as if the story is history which doesn’t really exist.
I wanted to know what happened to KA and listened to the story till the end, enjoyed the narration skills of John Lee and on the other hand it was a very long and too detailed story which I struggled and fought with myself not to quit as my curiosity won I finished listening to it until the end. Wow!

Moving and informative

Masterly written and read, it enthralled the Western reader to a rather remote and difficult to understand world

A lot of words around a few good chapters

Gosh, this was long. Too long. And I like long books, but this story has soo many redundancies. Also, very kitschy. There are a few very good chapters about the different political factions in Turkey, very well hidden in chapters and chapters about „happiness“ and a rather stilted love story. Maybe read „My name is Red“ instead.

This book really takes you there

I haven't read any other of Pamuk's works, but this book by itself proves him worthy of the nobel prize. His way of describing the surroundings, the athmosphere and the general mood really draws you in and takes you there. Pamuk also proves himself a mastermind of story telling. This is a deep, intriguing and engaging story. Great to listen to during the winter (especially here in Norway). I highly recommend it.
The narrator is great by the way.

enchanting story with a wonderful narrator

Pamuk's use of prose and language is unparalleled on the modern stage. This sad and surprising tale is well-crafted by the author and well-performed by John Lee.

I had to Finish it!

reminded me of Catcher and the Rye, I was intrigued to uncover the end of the story

"The tragedy in Kars"

What made the experience of listening to Snow the most enjoyable?

Hearing John Lee narrate Pamuk's work is always a pleasure. Although even his talent feels a bit worn out by the end of this long, intricate, and sometimes tedious saga.

Would you recommend Snow to your friends? Why or why not?

Only if they loved "Istanbul," "Strangeness in My Mind," and "My Name Is Red." I heard all these recently and like the Turkish settings, real and imaginary, old and new. But these titles require patience and an inherent interest in Ottoman or contemporary Turkish themes. "Snow" is ranked usually as one of Pamuk's two best books, along with "Red." Still, even at its peaks, these stories have a lot of languid passages and considerable, mundane detail.

Which scene was your favorite?

The conversation between the educational director and the Islamic firebrand. Followed by the first performance at the National Theater. These are linked as are many events over four days of the "little revolution in Kars" during a snowfall that is real and also metaphorical.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

No, too much to take in. Best to hear a few chapters at a time, and as with his other books, not to worry if some conversations or observations slip by. Pamuk packs a lot into his work. I am not sure he needs to stuff his titles so heavily. Humor and levity might go a long way.

Any additional comments?

While I liked the political observations about Kemalist Turkey in the mid-1990s, the book lacked a sympathetic protagonist. I also felt that the author "Orhan" investigating the "Tragedy of Kars" four years later gave away some end-points and wearied this listener. Editing his work down might do Pamuk a service. You drift off in so many sighs and woes.

A brief shining moment, over and over and over

The book opens with strong sense of person, place, and nostalgia of a city in the most Pamuk way you can expect, quite painterly and melancholy. Then there is a good amount of well laid out arguments and discourse over politics, suicide in the media, women and the wearing of head scarves, everyone’s opinion on the scarves, the existence of God, and what Westerners might opinionate about such things. It’s a real deep dive. What becomes somewhat irksome is that the story moves along so so slowly. You take that dive, and the story finally comes up for some air. the plot starts to gain traction again, but with the introduction of new characters always comes another deep dive into all the same subjects we just learned about. All the opinions and arguments we just listened to are rehashed over and over. And then the plot moves along a little more only to drag you down into another discussion on politics, scarves, suicide, and so on.
What can be appreciated about this, however, is that listening to these things happen In The book over and over you may come to realize how ridiculous it is to beat others down with your opinions and persecute others for their own. It’s a relatable trait, human beings are all quite in love with their own opinions and mercilessly persecute others for their own, and the story definitely beats this notion like a dead horse before we are rewarded with an ending.

All the good & bad that is Pamuk

Orhan Pamuk is both a brilliant and an intensely frustrating writer, and _Snow_ demonstrates this ambiguity full-tilt. His depiction of Kars--the details he lavishes on it--fully immerses us in small-town Eastern Turkey, with its heartbreak and dignity, corruption and sweet naivete. He honestly admits that it may well be impossible for Westerners (or Western Turks) to fully comprehend. His plot is complex, his love story bittersweet, his characters memorable, his political commentary quite pointed. AND THEN he makes the same points, lavishes us with the same details, weaves the same sidetracks, dissects the same characters, over and over and over again. His protagonist Ka cannot stop talking, his narrator "Orhan" is even worse, and as in every novel I have read of Pamuk's (most of them), I find myself wishing desperately that he had a more severe editor. He is brilliant; how much more stunning would he be with one-third fewer pages?
Listening to an audiobook helps this process, and the reader for _Snow_ is quite good.

magic

An exotic look into a culture that few western readers are likely to discover otherwise, translated and read with a feeling for making the strange familar and the familar strange. The "dramatic" coup is underlined by the enigmatic ending that leaves the reader wondering where the lines are drawn between what is real, what we invent for our own, various purposes, and what other perceive as reality. Pamuk well deserves his Nobel.