Why Turks don't like Orhan Pamuk (original) (raw)

Abstract: A foreign friend of mine has recently asked me the question and I am writing this essay as an attempt at an answer: Why is it so difficult to find a fan of Orhan Pamuk in Turkey? We have a veritable puzzle: The man is a Nobel laureate, considered worldwide as one of the major writers of his generation and, for that matter, he is a best-seller in the country in question. Yet, when you ask a literate Turk about Pamuk, the answer you are likely to hear is, “I gave up his book after fifty pages or so.” Who is buying all those books, and why don’t we like our only Nobel laureate?