Bilge KarasuCritiques

Gece'de anlatılan tek tek, bölük pörçük durumların, konumların, gerçek yaşamla somut ilişkisi sürekli seziliyor satır aralarında. Okurun yakın geçmişte tanığı olduğu birçok toplumsal, tarihsel, kültürel deneyden yankılar var metinde sözgelişi. Alışılmış tarihsel mantığın işleyişi bile sorguya çekiliyor. Ama bütün bu gerçek durumlardan soyut bir çıkarım olan yaşantı, insan umutlarıyla korkularının bütünleyici imgeleriyle dile getiriliyor.

I read Night in English, and perhaps I should read it in Turkish, too. Even in the English, the language of the book is certainly beautiful, arresting, and sometimes eerie. With that said, I did not "get it," I am afraid. I got that most of it was one big collection of symbols and all those other literary terms one can use... But what did it all mean in the end, I am not sure. It was a book I finished and said, "Yeah, I guess I should read it again. I have no idea what happened." It is exactly the opposite of what can happen with some books you read and you cannot describe them or what happened in plain words to someone else, but you somehow *understand* what happened. So, yeah, I'll have to read it again, maybe in Turkish this time.

Strange narrative about a traveller who grows embroiled into a conspiracy / human chess game, interspersed periodically with fables, metafictions and allegories. Sounds promising: the combo of "fantastic tales plus framing narrative" recalls Calvino, and the tales themselves are akin to Kafka's parables. But in the end, the book misfires more often than it connects, rendering these comparisons tragically superficial.