Simplest-shop.comonline shopping, the simple way |
Welcome | Help  |
| Search for |
|
Home > Books > Snow
This website will be shutdown on 2008-04-01.
|
 Add to shopping cart |
Snow 
| 60% Recommended by our customers. Publisher: Vintage Catalog: Book Release date: 2005-07-19 Media: Paperback Number of pages: 480 Ean: 9780375706868 Book Isbn: 0375706860  Tip: compare prices with similar booksAuthor:
|
|
| Top stores | Description | Price | Link to shop |
| amazon.com |
Availability: in 24 hours Current discount:31% off !!! |
$10.17 | |
| used | 199 used offers, as low as... | $2.73 | see more used offers |
| all new | 69 thirdParty new offers, as low as... | $3.89 | see more ThirdParty new offers |
| collectible | 5 collectible offers, as low as... | $14.95 | see more collectible new offers |
| Professional Review: |
|
Dread, yearning, identity, intrigue, the lethal chemistry between secular doubt and Islamic fanaticism–these are the elements that Orhan Pamuk anneals in this masterful, disquieting novel. An exiled poet named Ka returns to Turkey and travels to the forlorn city of Kars. His ostensible purpose is to report on a wave of suicides among religious girls forbidden to wear their head-scarves. But Ka is also drawn by his memories of the radiant Ipek, now recently divorced. Amid blanketing snowfall and universal suspicion, Ka finds himself pursued by figures ranging from Ipek’s ex-husband to a charismatic terrorist. A lost gift returns with ecstatic suddenness. A theatrical evening climaxes in a massacre. And finding god may be the prelude to losing everything else. Touching, slyly comic, and humming with cerebral suspense, Snow is of immense relevance to our present moment. |
| User Reviews: |
 Written on January 4, 2008 Summary: Complex novel made me feel stupid I read "Snow" from beginning to end with the disconcerting feeling that I was missing the point. This is a difficult book, one that I appreciate more now that I have had some time to read criticism of it as well as several news stories about the ongoing debate over Islam and head scarves in Turkey. I believe my sense of being in over my head has much to do with my own cultural ignorance. Even though we Americans are aware of the problem of Islamic extremism, most of us do not understand how this issue, along with its seeming opposite -- a fervent, sometimes violent, secular nationalism -- permeate the day-to-day lives of people living in Turkey, where this story is set. Thus, I was never certain that farcical scenes in this book were really satire. This is all still falling into place for me and making more sense as I read news articles out of Turkey. I would have loved to read this book as part of a course or book group where I could have benefited from some discussion, but I am enjoying the process of illuminating its messages weeks after having finished it. Despite my thick-headedness, I did appreciate Pamuk's gorgeous prose, his fascinating characters and his strange city cut off from the rest of the world by snow.  Written on January 3, 2008 Summary: Snowed Turkey is a favorite place of mine so I was hoping for something insightful and relevant. This book is neither, AND it is boring. The main character was such a chamelion that he was not even needed. He served as an improbable witness to surreal events. You will not find any of the color of Turkish life in this book; none of the complexity of Turkish views and issues. You will be depressed. You will be left wondering where the story was supposed to go and to what purpose. Save your time and money and pass this one up. Written on December 31, 2007 Summary: complex and heartfelt I was intrigued by Pamuk's receipt of the Nobel Prize, and the range and virtuosity he displays in this novel certainly demonstrate his qualifications. SNOW also dramatizes in clever, original ways the crucial conflicts in contemporary Turkey, and it does so in what I thought were even-handed ways. Islamic extremists, Kurdish separatists, (supposedly Europeanized) intellectuals, and militarized bureaucrats and politicians--they all get satirized here, but most are also shown to be real human beings under their roles and poses, people who have individual histories and reasons for believing what they do. The major exception I found to this depth of humane characterization was the women, who seem to exist mostly for what they mean to men. Even the main character, who seems to disagree with traditional Islamic limitations on women, mostly sees them as noteworthy for their beauty, or lack thereof. That may just be because the protagonist is a lovelorn idealist, but for me, the author himself doesn't fill in enough depth in his women characters to escape a charge of sexism. Still, even though this edition is a translation, the writing flows beautifully, and although the story sometimes gets bogged down in speeches or repetitious debates, its mix of intense emotion, intricate structure, and intellectual analysis is impressive. Written on December 3, 2007 Summary: Drifts of Snow Snow was one of the books I picked up on a recent visit to my favorite bookstore, Tattered Book Cover, in Denver, Colorado. Something about that bookstore makes me want to read most every book on their shelves, and that is very many. I sank into one of Tattered's puffy armchairs and read a few sample pages of Snow, drawn by its blurry, snowy cover; drawn by a recent New York Times review; drawn by its non-westernized roots in Turkish writer Orhan Pamuk; drawn, too, by curiosity at this recent Nobel Prize winner for literature. The first few pages mesmerized me, the scene of a Turkish poet riding a bus through the snow capturing my imagination even as I left the bookstore, this and other novels in hand, into a 99 degree summer day. That's literary power. "The silence of snow, thought the man sitting just behind the bus driver. If this were the beginning of a poem, he would have called the thing he felt inside him the silence of snow..." Snow never stops falling throughout this lengthy novel, and indeed becomes a presence, a barometer of the human condition, and "Snow" is also the title of a poetry collection the Turkish poet, Ka, writes over its time span. A diagram of a snowflake is his diagram of his core self, with branches into imagination, reason and memory. As snow gathers over the events of the story, it becomes at times a blizzard, at other times a gentle white blanketing over a trampled earth. Ka is traveling to the city of Kars to write a report (like many poets, he also writes for a paper) about an epidemic of suicides among young Turkish women. As the force of westernization has entered the predominantly Muslim city, these young women have been "freed" to discard their head scarves. Their religious beliefs, however, are such that to bare their heads in public is more than they can bear--they would rather die. While investigating the suicides, Ka meets recently divorced Ipek, and he is instantly enthralled. The ensuing story is as much one of political rebellion as it is love story, complete with executions, betrayals, love found and love lost, and mysteries never quite solved. In reading this novel, I was struck by a paradox of what I enjoy in literature from overseas cultures. My own background is European, and so I have grown up on European literature, with its dense and intricate plotlines, stories with no particular rush to reach conclusion and no linear path in getting there, in contrast to the fast-paced western literature with spare plotlines, quick action, and neatly wrapped-up endings. Of course, there are exceptions, but when I am in the mood to sink deep into a multi-layered tome, I choose non-western literature, and when I want a quick tap-dance of literary skill, I choose American literature. Each has its own pleasures. Snow was no exception. I enjoyed this blizzard, even if at times I lost sight of the path for all the white stuff. Even the love story reminded me of the difference in the expression of love on either side of the ocean, with Ka's falling into something nearing a worshipful obsession, immersing himself whole into the object of his affection--while a westernized love story would be more geared toward seduction and conquest, less about the dance of courtship and romance. There is surrender to the heart with nothing left in reserve in non-western literature that fascinates me. Do or die. Love or leave. For this reason alone, I enjoy reading literature by a variety of international authors; each provides a view into a varied perspective and life sense. On any side of the ocean, however, the human heart breaks as it might anywhere, and for the same reasons, even as we read of Ka's devastation at learning his beloved has betrayed him with another--from this heartbreak is seeded a suspicion of a murder (did Ka or didn't he?). The scene of confrontation between Ka and Ipek is perhaps the novel's most moving: hearts are shattered even as they continue to find comfort in each other's arms, a fatal mix of love intoxicated with hatred, and finally released by the chill of apathy. Pamuk writes of the complexities of love in any culture as far more baffling than reason alone might explain, and each time as unique as a snowflake. Snow is not a quick read. Nor is it an easy one. Like Ka's love, it requires immersion and a certain degree of surrender. It is a skilled and often marvelous novel, even if I am not convinced it is worthy of the Nobel. I would say not. Yet it is worth the effort to move through this snowfall, if only for the occasional moment of sheer literary mastery.  Written on November 25, 2007 Summary: A novel about the critical dilemmas of modern Turkey In "Snow" the poet Ka returns to Turkey after more than a decade in Frankfurt, and journeys to Kars, far in the east. Among the things he hopes to find there is an old classmate and love, Ipek, now separated from her husband. He also plans to explore and report on a wave of suicides by girls there. It is snowing when Ka arrives, and the snow continues to fall, cutting off the town from the rest of the world. There is tension there: an upcoming mayoral election, the struggle between religion and secularism, a heavy-handed police presence. The conflict between Islam - and, for example, the right of girls to go to school wearing head-scarves - and the secular society the government has imposed causes the most problems. Ka is an outsider. He begins as a dutiful journalist, talking to a variety of town figures, trying to learn more about the suicides, but finds himself drawn into this larger conflict. Throughout the country, and especially in this region, it is no longer the Kurds that are perceived by the authorities as being the greatest threat, but the increasingly influential Islamists. Ka, respected as a poet but tainted as one who has presumably been polluted by Western thought and ways, is viewed with both suspicion and interest by both sides. The police are reluctant to rough him up - as they do the locals - because of his Istanbul and German connexions, while the Islamists see him as the enemy but warily accept that he might be able to help convey their message. Eventually, he is also used as a go-between by both sides. It is the desire to write a book about the poems written by Ka that leads the narrator - an alter-ego Orhan Pamuk, and long-time friend of Ka's - to tell this story. Snow is a book about the difficulties faced by a nation torn between tradition, religion, and modernization. Set in the farthest east of Turkey, the locals are certain that in Western eyes they're all considered as ignoramuses. Pamuk effectively portrays these difficulties, and the many ambiguities in contemporary Turkish life. The novel is expertly read by John Lee for Random House Audio. |
| Comparison map |
| Wondering how the book "Snow" relates to similar books? Find out at a glance here: |
| Price comparison |
 Snow |
 Istanbul: Memories and the City |
 My Name Is Red |
 The Inheritance of Loss |
 The Black Book |
 Suite Francaise |
| Our price | $10.17 | $10.85 | $10.17 | - | $10.17 | $10.17 |
| List price | $14.95 | $15.95 | $14.95 | $14.00 | $14.95 | $14.95 |
| Lowest used price | $2.73 | $6.38 | $4.06 | $4.00 | $4.15 | $1.99 |
| Lowest new price | $3.89 | $7.00 | $8.21 | $5.97 | $6.75 | $4.45 |
| Collectible price | $14.95 | - | $14.95 | $14.00 | $137.50 | $14.95 |
| Catalog | Book | Book | Book | Book | Book | Book |
| Release date | 2005-07-19 | 2006-07-11 | 2002-08-27 | 2006-08-29 | 2006-07-11 | 2007-04-10 |
| Media | Paperback | Paperback | Paperback | Paperback | Paperback | Paperback |
| Format | - | - | - | Bargain Price | - | - |
| Number of pages | 480 | 400 | 432 | 384 | 480 | 448 |
| Ean | 9780375706868 | 9781400033881 | 9780375706851 | - | 9781400078653 | 9781400096275 |
| Book Isbn | 0375706860 | 1400033888 | 0375706852 | - | 1400078652 | 1400096278 |
| Link to shop* (opens in a new window) | BUY IT NOW* | BUY IT NOW* | BUY IT NOW* | BUY IT NOW* | BUY IT NOW* | BUY IT NOW* |
| take one out? |
|
I am here: Home > Books > Snow
This website will be shutdown on 2008-04-01.
|
 E-mail this page |
|
About the Simplest Shop | Help | Term of Use | Privacy Policy
Home | Contact us | Bookmark us | get paid for writing |
|
Copyright Simplest-Shop.com 2004. All rights reserved |