This was Şafak‬'s third novel, the last before she started writing in English. It's in a kind of Angela Carter/Salman Rushdie style, very 1990s, with parallel modern and historical storylines and a lot of fairy-tale/magic-realist elements. Şafak‬ explores the paradox that the apparently passive act of looking causes an irrevocable change in the thing looked at. Astonishingly, she manages to do this without ever mentioning either Heisenberg or Schrödinger (but the cat isn't quite so lucky...).

The narrative is lively, the settings are richly exotic, the fantasy elements are used carefully and purposefully, and this is obviously a book whose heart is in the right place, touching on a lot of worthwhile issues: colonialism, eating disorders, sexual abuse, objectification of women, etc. But, as with the other books of hers I've read, I came away with the feeling that Şafak‬ was pulling her punches a bit, not saying anything that really challenges the reader or takes us beyond a conventional enlightened-liberal worldview. She seems to be too nice to be an Angela Carter or a Margaret Atwood, somehow... ( )

Before starting to review this book, I'd like to ask a question? Do you look at people? Do you enjoy it? Do you like being looked at? Well, let me answer these questions for you. Yes, I look at people. Yes, sometimes I enjoy it, it's like exploring something new, looking at them, getting inside their heads, looks or shapes and deciphering their feelings and emotions. And no, I don't like it when people look at me in a certain way, as if there's something wrong with me, but if it's to admire my looks or whatever I'm doing, then yes, I like being looked at.

The story of The Gaze explores the inner feelings of people that enjoy looking at people who are somehow different from us, or that's what we tell ourselves to give our conscious an excuse to look. Think of getting inside an elevator with a huge/obese person, how would you feel?

"Those who en up next to me in a narrow elevator begin thinking with their eyes rather than with common sense"

Yes, we judge immediately without giving ourselves the time to slow down a bit and think. That's a huge problem, it's ruining our society in so many ways. We actually do it without noticing the deed itself.

"You have no idea that when you're playing with our appearance you're playing with our pride"

Meet F A T T Y who is in love with a dwarf but afraid to go outside fearing the eyes of the people, which will never leave them alone no matter what. So they decide to disguise themselves wearing makeup (dwarf) and a moustache (F A T T Y) in order to go outside and have fun. But are they really themselves?

The Gaze also explores the character of Memis who creates a circus of people and not animals, weird looking people to get those who are intrigued and curious to come and see his creatures/people. Memis is also different from the others, and what had caused him to be lonely and live in pain is the look of his eyes. So he thought of addressing the eyes of the people that he lacked.

Within the story itself, we have some entries of words from a dictionary, a different kind of dictionary. It's called Dictionary of The Gazes, that is put and written by the dwarf himself, the F A T T Y'S lover. He creates the dictionary based on incidents and movies. I loved the dictionary's entries and this one affected me deeply:

"Hallucinations: for thousands of years, people had been drinking infusions of mushrooms in order to see what they haven't seen. Later, they become frightened of what they could see."

I really loved this book, and everything should read it. Sometimes you get lost, but then you get back on track ( )