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The Museum of Innocence
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 20 hrs and 33 mins
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So begins the new novel, his first since winning the Nobel Prize, from the universally acclaimed author of Snow and My Name Is Red.
It is 1975, a perfect spring in Istanbul. Kemal, scion of one of the city's wealthiest families, is about to become engaged to Sibel, daughter of another prominent family, when he encounters Füsun, a beautiful shopgirl and a distant relation. Once the long-lost cousins violate the code of virginity, a rift begins to open between Kemal and the world of the Westernized Istanbul bourgeoisie - a world, as he lovingly describes it, with opulent parties and clubs, society gossip, restaurant rituals, picnics, and mansions on the Bosphorus, infused with the melancholy of decay - until finally he breaks off his engagement to Sibel. But his resolve comes too late.
For eight years Kemal will find excuses to visit another Istanbul, that of the impoverished backstreets where Füsun, her heart now hardened, lives with her parents, and where Kemal discovers the consolations of middle-class life. His obsessive love will also take him to the demimonde of Istanbul film circles, a scene of seedy bars, run-down hotels, and small men with big dreams doomed to failure.
In his feckless pursuit, Kemal becomes a compulsive collector of objects that chronicle his lovelorn progress and his afflicted heart's reactions: anger and impatience, remorse and humiliation, and daydreams that transform Istanbul into a cityscape of signs and specters of his beloved, from whom he can now extract only meaningful glances and stolen kisses in cars, movie houses, and shadowy corners of parks. A last change to realize his dream will come to an awful end before Kemal discovers that all he finally can possess, certainly and eternally, is the museum he has created of his collection, this map of a society's manners and mores, and of one man's broken heart.
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On the brink of a life-changing decision, Alexis Fielding plans a trip to her mother's childhood home in Plaka, Greece hoping to unravel Sofia's hidden past. Given a letter to take to Sofia's old friend, Fotini, Alexis is promised that through Fotini, she will learn more. Arriving in Plaka, Alexis is astonished to see that it lies a stone's throw from the deserted island of Spinalonga—Greece's former leper colony. Fotini reveals the story that Sofia has buried all her life: the tale of her great-grandmother Eleni and her daughters, and a family rent by tragedy, war, and passion.
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Will listen to it again someday
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The Razor's Edge
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The Great War changed everything and everyone, and Larry Darrell is no exception. Though his physical wounds from the war heal, his spirit is changed almost beyond recognition. He leaves his betrothed, the beautiful and devoted Isabel; studies philosophy and religion in Paris; lives as a monk, and witnesses the exotic hardships of Spanish life. All of life that he can find - from an Indian Ashrama to labor in a coal mine - becomes Larry's spiritual experiment as he spurns the comfort and privilege of the Roaring 20s.
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The Late Great Ms. Brookner
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The Last Summer Delivers
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It's the spring of 1924, and Lady Helena Montagu-Douglas-Parr has just arrived in France. On the mend after a near-fatal illness, she is ready to embrace the restless, heady allure of the City of Lights. Her parents have given her one year to live with her eccentric aunt in Paris, and Helena means to make the most of her time. She's quickly drawn into the world of the Lost Generation and its circle of American expatriates, and, with their encouragement, she finds the courage to pursue her dream of becoming an artist.
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A pleasant trip to 1924 Paris
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Throughly enjoyable
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This exquisite, resonant novel by PEN/Faulkner winner James Salter is a brilliant portrait of a marriage by a contemporary American master. It is the story of Nedra and Viri, whose favored life is centered around dinners, ingenious games with their children, enviable friends, and near-perfect days passed skating on a frozen river or sunning on the beach.
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For a long time, Nadja Spiegelman believed her mother was a fairy. More than her famous father, Maus creator Art Spiegelman, and even more than most mothers, hers - French-born New Yorker art director Françoise Mouly - exerted a force over reality that was both dazzling and daunting. As Nadja's body changed and "began to whisper to the adults around me in a language I did not understand", their relationship grew tense.
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Aweful
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First published in 1900, when Thomas Mann was 25, Buddenbrooks is a minutely imagined chronicle of four generations of a North German mercantile family - a work so true to life that it scandalized the author’s former neighbours in his native Lübeck.
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Where Have You Been All My Life, Thomas Mann?
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In fear for their lives after the sudden death of their mother, Adéla and Klára must flee Prague to find refuge with their uncle in Australia. Later, Adéla becomes a film director at a time when the local industry is starting to feel the competition from Hollywood. But even while success is imminent, the issues of family and an impossible love are never far away.
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Groan, Snore and Wince!
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Clara Callan
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Two sisters, small-town Ontario, 1934. Canadian author Richard Wright tells their story, from the ordinary to the extraoridinary with an eye for the commonplace and poignant sense of the larger undercurrents that change people's lives.
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charming intimate refreshing
- By L on 09-10-04
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Alexandr and Christine and Zachary and Lydia have been friends since they first met in their 20s. Thirty years later, Alex and Christine are spending a leisurely summer’s evening at home when they receive a call from a distraught Lydia: She is at the hospital. Zach is dead. In the wake of this profound loss, the three friends find themselves unmoored; all agree that Zach, with his generous, grounded spirit, was the irreplaceable one they couldn’t afford to lose. Inconsolable, Lydia moves in with Alex and Christine. The loss warps their relationships.
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It's all in the performance
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Fraud
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Top Shelf Brookner
- By David P on 09-15-15
By: Anita Brookner
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On the outskirts of a town 30 miles from Istanbul, a master well digger and his young apprentice are hired to find water on a barren plain. As they struggle in the summer heat, excavating without luck meter by meter, the two will develop a filial bond neither has known before - not the poor middle-aged bachelor nor the middle-class boy whose father disappeared after being arrested for politically subversive activities. The pair will come to depend on each other and exchange stories reflecting disparate views of the world.
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What listeners say about The Museum of Innocence
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Felicia
- 07-19-23
Great story, Turkish pronunciations not great
Obviously Pamuk is an excellent story teller and John Lee has a great narrative voice too, but he consistently pronounced the Turkish names and places incorrectly.
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Overall
- Prashansa
- 03-25-16
One of a kind museum
Loved this book. I was literally living with the characters as I heard the book. Deeply saddened to part with them when it was coming to the final chaptersm Loved the way John Lee has pronounced the Turkish words and names of people and places. My favorite chapterbwas the one titled 'Sometimes'. It was magical indeed.
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- Alex
- 01-14-18
Exellent.
If you could sum up The Museum of Innocence in three words, what would they be?
It one of the best books I ever read. And very unusual book.
What did you like best about this story?
Development of story
What does John Lee bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?
Make heroes close to me
If you could rename The Museum of Innocence, what would you call it?
It is good as is
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- bianca
- 08-29-19
The Museum of Innocence; a love story.
Orhan Pamuk managed to take me away in his wonderful story about Kemal and Füsun. Initially I found them both irritating; she seemed like a lovestruck teenager while he came across as nothing more than a male chauvinist.
In spite of the story being very long Orhan Pamuk managed to keep me interested. Where Füsun seemed to have gotten on with her life, Kemal became more and more obsessed with her. It got to the point where I - as a reader - almost lost respect for his character.
The turning point came when the book was about 75 % through. The way the story developed from that moment onward, I found extremely gratifying. This is a love story with enormous depth.
I was left behind with the question if Kemal had lead a happy life. In the book, his friends were pitying him. They were unable to see what the reader could see: a man who had made the love of his life into a life project by creating The Museum of Innocence. By then, my initial irritation had turned into awe.
A remark about the narrator: in spite of John Lee doing a very good job I couldn't give him 5 stars. Though it was clear to me had made an effort to pronounce all the Turkish names and words correctly this was not a succes. To give one example: throughout the book I heard him pronounce the name of the female main character in 4 different ways..
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1 person found this helpful
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- Silvi S
- 09-12-23
Very engaging
I couldn’t stop I wanted to listen more and more ! So much of the culture, tradition and love in a country like Turkey very impressive.
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- Curious Artist Librarian
- 09-20-14
The most amazing listen ever
Would you listen to The Museum of Innocence again? Why?
I cannot believe how beautiful this book is. Some of the reviewers thought the narrator is pathetic or whiny. I could not disagree more. They were not listening closely enough. There is so much packed into the interstitial pockets between narrative...exacting detail, philosophical pondering and a depth of understanding. Today, having heard the end of the book, which crescendos into a brilliant meditation on museums, collecting, the east's way of defining itself in relation to the west, I feel a profound sense of loss that it is over, as I did when My Name is Red was over. I miss it already.
Who was your favorite character and why?
Kemal and Orhan. I particularly love their relationship.
Have you listened to any of John Lee’s other performances before? How does this one compare?
No, I have not. He was divine.
Who was the most memorable character of The Museum of Innocence and why?
Cetin Efendi, the chauffeur, pilot of a 1956 Chevrolet, and patient man.
Any additional comments?
This book is so thoroughly thought-provoking, I will not be able to read or listen to anything for a time, as I fully absorb all it provoked in me.
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- Anonymous User
- 11-17-17
only inspiration follows this reading
This is an absolute masterpiece in my opinion. Love emerges as a deep, pure and irresistible force made of desire, sexual passion and idealization. In pursuit of happiness, the protagoinist finds it in a struggle with guilt. The guilt of being an outsider and the guilt of his blinding love
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall
- S. Weaver
- 03-29-10
a remarkable achievement
The main character is not likable, and I never could decide whether or not Pamuk wanted us to like him, which is part of what made the book so hypnotic. It's rare that you get a beautifully drawn character that sits on a razor edge of moral culpability without easily tumbling to either side. I think that's what I liked most.
And of course . . . there was John Lee. He is amazing. I listen to books just because he's the narrator. He somehow manages to avoid sounding pedantic when trying to get accents and pronunciations just so, which is a tricky thing to do.
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7 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Rebecca Lindroos
- 03-06-10
one of the very best I've ever heard
That's not an exaggeration. This is one of the very best audio books I've ever listened to and I've listened to hundreds. (Okay, so I'm a Pamuk fan, too.)
True, the book is not about heavy plot or action or even suspense. It's about a man's obsessive search for his past (Istanbul) with the major themes being the role of women, love and loss and guilt and social class- change. In a sense it's about
Istanbul itself.
The first person protagonist is not a particularly likable guy - he's rich, spoiled, selfish and hypocritical. He's engaged to a woman of his own class but has a totally illicit affair with his much younger and very beautiful cousin. The affair, while fairly short-lived, obsesses him for the rest of his life even though she disappears completely for awhile. At the point of the novel's main frame he's constructing a museum of artifacts based on his love. There are ways it's really comparable to Proust or Nabokov but Pamuk is totally fresh and new.
The narrator, John Lee, is pitch perfect - there were times when I just closed my eyes and listened to the rich prose.
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11 people found this helpful
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Overall
- ktbyrd
- 11-17-09
Pure poetry
An elegant use of metaphor to present the Turkish people, their history and their lives as not contrasted to the West.
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6 people found this helpful