This book was very difficult for me to get through but I finally finished it after a couple stops and starts. At one point I put it down and didn't want to read it any more. It was just too depressing. I did like the things I learned about Turkish politics and the Turkish people, their daily lives in this small crummy town in the middle of nowhere. The characters, especially the poet, were too enigmatic and complex for me. I didn't attach myself to any one as a reader. The poems themselves we... (show more)

This book was very difficult for me to get through but I finally finished it after a couple stops and starts. At one point I put it down and didn't want to read it any more. It was just too depressing. I did like the things I learned about Turkish politics and the Turkish people, their daily lives in this small crummy town in the middle of nowhere. The characters, especially the poet, were too enigmatic and complex for me. I didn't attach myself to any one as a reader. The poems themselves were never revealed to the reader so there was never that sense of happy completion, well at least he got some good poems out of the deal. It was a tragedy. My favorite thing about the book was, the way the snow was constantly brought into the story justifying the title at least. It kept me going, thinking at least at some point all of this is going to make sense. Too bad, it never did. (show less)

“Snow” is a book about the difficulties faced by a nation torn between tradition, religion, and modernization. Set in the farthest east of Turkey in a town named Kars, the locals are certain that in Western eyes they're all considered ignorant yokels. They suffer from a dreadful inferiority complex, and a need to prove themselves to counter that. Religion is the easiest crutch to rely on, and the struggle is not only with the West, however, but also with the strong tradition of secularism in ... (show more)

“Snow” is a book about the difficulties faced by a nation torn between tradition, religion, and modernization. Set in the farthest east of Turkey in a town named Kars, the locals are certain that in Western eyes they're all considered ignorant yokels. They suffer from a dreadful inferiority complex, and a need to prove themselves to counter that. Religion is the easiest crutch to rely on, and the struggle is not only with the West, however, but also with the strong tradition of secularism in Turkey itself. As one character says "to play the rebel heroine in Turkey you don't pull off your scarf, you put it on."

It is a novel of lesser scope than its grand and magical predecessor that is “My Name Is Red", and it is certainly more narrowly focused, although it is enriched by the author's same mesmerizing mixes: cruelty and farce, poetry and violence, and a voice whose timbres range from a storyteller's playfulness to the dark torment of a lost explorer. All this finds voices through characters whose tactile immediacy fades imperceptibly into a fog of ambiguousness and contradiction. But what makes it a brilliant novel is its artistry. Pamuk keeps so many balls in the air that you cannot separate the inquiry into the nature of religious belief from the examination of modern Turkey, the investigation of East-West relations, and the nature of art itself. All this rolled into a gripping political thriller.

Conclusively, “Snow” vividly portrays the cruelty and intolerance of both the Islamic fundamentalists and the representatives of the secularist Turkish state. More importantly, however, Pamuk has created believable, sympathetic characters representing both sides of that great divide and has given eloquent voice to their anger and frustration. These are no monsters but ordinary human beings who actually have much more in common than they would wish to acknowledge. (show less)

I came across this book when someone on an AP Lit listserv wrote about how he had met Pamuk in New York City at a restaurant. Apparently, this person, a teacher in Massachussetts, completely geeked out when he met Pamuk - as he had juts finished teaching "Snow" to his students. And apparently Pamuk was thrilled with this, so he asked the guy to sit down with him. Seemed like Pamuk - who, until I read that listserv posting, I had never heard of - was cool to me, so I picked up "... (show more)

I came across this book when someone on an AP Lit listserv wrote about how he had met Pamuk in New York City at a restaurant. Apparently, this person, a teacher in Massachussetts, completely geeked out when he met Pamuk - as he had juts finished teaching "Snow" to his students. And apparently Pamuk was thrilled with this, so he asked the guy to sit down with him. Seemed like Pamuk - who, until I read that listserv posting, I had never heard of - was cool to me, so I picked up "Snow." I thought it was incredible. It's all at once about politics, art, love, religion, politics & art, politics & love, art & love, art & religion, and especially politics and religion - all wrapped up in a kind of detective story. This is not an easy read, as many of the other reviews here will attest. And this is not the kind of book you give to someone and say "You will love this." However, I loved this book. Even though Pamuk won the Nobel in 2006, I can hardly wait to read some of his other books. (show less)

My one regret with this book is that I read it in two chunks of time separated by a few whirlwind months. I read the first half of the novel, which I found a bit hard to get into and a bit affected, then took two months off during which time my mind was completely preoccupied (I took the LSAT, went on vacation, got engaged!). Then I picked up the novel again and breezed through the second half which I found much better. The motif of snow wasn't as ubiquitous and its symbolism was more mat... (show more)

My one regret with this book is that I read it in two chunks of time separated by a few whirlwind months. I read the first half of the novel, which I found a bit hard to get into and a bit affected, then took two months off during which time my mind was completely preoccupied (I took the LSAT, went on vacation, got engaged!). Then I picked up the novel again and breezed through the second half which I found much better. The motif of snow wasn't as ubiquitous and its symbolism was more maturely developed and subtly suggested, the characters were more nuanced and the arc of the novel was much more engaging. Unfortunately, there are many characters it would have been nice to have remembered clearly from the first half of the novel that reappear in the second, so I had to play a bit of catch-up. Also, there is a lot going on in terms of reverse memesis, performativity, literary metatextuality, ghost writing, etc. that would have been nice to understanding more holistically rather than in the pieces which I read the novel. Finally, I sort of despised Ka throughout, as well as Ipek. I was much more emotionally involved with characters like Necip and Kadife, and especially Orhan, whose narrative returns to the present were, in my opinion, the best chapters. (show less)

Ugh. This book is repetitive, tedious, and exhausting. I'm very proud of myself for having finished it at all. The narrative of Snow advances in one direction until, having depleted the story of all inspiration and interest by repetition and overuse of tired thoughts and themes, the plot makes seemingly unplanned changes in direction, only to overexert these storylines as well. It's surprising that such interesting material (first, women who commit suicide because of a headscarf ban, then a c... (show more)

Ugh. This book is repetitive, tedious, and exhausting. I'm very proud of myself for having finished it at all. The narrative of Snow advances in one direction until, having depleted the story of all inspiration and interest by repetition and overuse of tired thoughts and themes, the plot makes seemingly unplanned changes in direction, only to overexert these storylines as well. It's surprising that such interesting material (first, women who commit suicide because of a headscarf ban, then a comparison between God as understood personally and by a community, then unrequited love, etc) can be so boring to read about. Even the flat and unimaginative characters seem weary. Pamuk makes an attempt to distract from the poorly constructed plot by shrouding his novel in a cloak of mystery. This makes you think you just haven't understood or somehow missed the key that brings everything together and makes the struggle to keep reading (and stay awake) worth the while. As far as I can discern there is no such key. (show less)

It's nice to have read a book about a topic/country that I know very little about, but I don't think that it necessarily had to be 'Snow'.

Parts of it reminded me of reading Russian literature, in that the responses of the characters to certain situations seemed so foreign, disconnected, and not what I'd expect from someone who, say, had just witnessed a murder, or been beaten for information - I certainly wouldn't be thinking about going back to my hotel to watch a certain TV show, but perh... (show more)

It's nice to have read a book about a topic/country that I know very little about, but I don't think that it necessarily had to be 'Snow'.

Parts of it reminded me of reading Russian literature, in that the responses of the characters to certain situations seemed so foreign, disconnected, and not what I'd expect from someone who, say, had just witnessed a murder, or been beaten for information - I certainly wouldn't be thinking about going back to my hotel to watch a certain TV show, but perhaps it's different when you live in a society that has had to adjust to violence as part of the norm (I don't know, I'm just trying to understand Turkish life from this one novel).

If the novel is at all accurate, then a couple things I can conclude are:

1. I understand less of Islam than I thought (I thought morality was important in Islam, but this book seems to portray extra-marital relationships as being normal for Muslims).

2. Turkey (and perhaps other eastern countries) are obsessed with the 'West'. They're constantly talking about the West, and what the West would say, and how the West would view them, and frankly I think that most of the West just doesn't think that much about the East. Perhaps it's different in Europe.

By the way, it would have been nice if a book that talked so much about poetry could have included some poetry.

So, I did enjoy the read a little, but I don't think I'll be recommending the book because it's just not that great, and there are plenty of great books out there that need to be read first, but at least this will give me something to talk about if I run into someone from Turkey. (show less)

I can't believe I've finally finished this book. I've been reading this by parts for almost half a year. It's the Nobel prize winner so I don't think my opinion is really important. But I rather didn't like this. The first 300 pages were the real challenge, the story is so slow as the slowly falling snow it refers. The second part is a bit more vivid but it's still very uneasy reading. Actually the words that finally made me closer to this book appeared at the very last page where the young T... (show more)

I can't believe I've finally finished this book. I've been reading this by parts for almost half a year. It's the Nobel prize winner so I don't think my opinion is really important. But I rather didn't like this. The first 300 pages were the real challenge, the story is so slow as the slowly falling snow it refers. The second part is a bit more vivid but it's still very uneasy reading. Actually the words that finally made me closer to this book appeared at the very last page where the young Turkish muslim says that all that the readers imagine about what happened while reading the book wasn't true. Till that time I felt the anger reading about the two very different edges of Turkish lives: the poor country where all the people are dreaming to move to Europe or the country with the old and very strict evil traditions. I visited Turkey few times and think that the reality is somewhere in the middle if not quite the different. So I was really bored to read that Turkish men are eager to leave Turkey on almost every page... Maybe I'm not right or haven't catched something important but this book will not become one of my favourites. (show less)

Snow is a tragic love story set in the politically tumultuous city of Kars in eastern Turkey. The story is wonderfully interesting, as it depicts places and culture much differently than in a typical novel. The protagonist is a poet, who gets caught up in a coup between the secular vs. Islamist factions in the middle of winter, and who also finds love amidst the chaos and snow. The authors description of the poets machinations and how the poet views his own work is frightfully good. However, ... (show more)

Snow is a tragic love story set in the politically tumultuous city of Kars in eastern Turkey. The story is wonderfully interesting, as it depicts places and culture much differently than in a typical novel. The protagonist is a poet, who gets caught up in a coup between the secular vs. Islamist factions in the middle of winter, and who also finds love amidst the chaos and snow. The authors description of the poets machinations and how the poet views his own work is frightfully good. However, in the translation and editing seemed to have suffered a bit, as the story drags in a few places. I though the political commentary concerning women killing themselves to have the right to wear their headscarves is played bigger in the commentary about the book than in the book itself, as the book concerns itself more with the larger issues of secularism and Islamistism as political commentary.

And as a foreigner living in Germany, I found particularly interesting the view presented by the protagonist of how Turks in Turkey view Germany. I can recommend this book especially for those looking to read a novel as much about the setting as for the story. (show less)

This was my first Pamuk and I was impressed.

Exiled poet Ka returns to his native city of Ka for two reasons. 1) To investigate a group of girls who and 2) to rekindle a love interest. As the title the suggests it is snowing very heavily in Kars.

At heart this is a political novel. Mainly focusing on the westernization of Turkey and the battle to keep muslim traditions. Ka, as a German inhabitant prefers that traditions such as head scarves are removed and yet he is weirdly drawn to th... (show more)

This was my first Pamuk and I was impressed.

Exiled poet Ka returns to his native city of Ka for two reasons. 1) To investigate a group of girls who and 2) to rekindle a love interest. As the title the suggests it is snowing very heavily in Kars.

At heart this is a political novel. Mainly focusing on the westernization of Turkey and the battle to keep muslim traditions. Ka, as a German inhabitant prefers that traditions such as head scarves are removed and yet he is weirdly drawn to the muslim ideals.

In the end his more radical side takes over but with a consequence to him as well the people connected to Ka.

As a character Ka is complex and everything he does involves a certain amount of intensity. Even when he gets himself passively involved he tends to find himself is some dangerous political web. As far as scenes go Snow is full of memorable moments, the theatre scene in the middle of the novel is quite epic and harrowing.

So why did I give the book three and a half stars? really because I found the translation to be sluggish and strangely enough it did not feel like a flowing novel again I'm sure if I read Snow in it's original language I would have gotten more out of it - stylistically speaking.

Still it is worth a read. (show less)