Istanbul : memories of a city [Book review]

Abstract

Istanbul — Memories of a City is a memoir written by Istanbul-born novelist and 2006 literature Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk (b. 1952). First published in English in 2005 and translated by Maureen Freely, this autobiographical work follows on from Pamuk’s preceding novels, most of which are set in his native Istanbul, and narrates his childhood and early teenage years as an aspiring painter and architecture student during the early years of the Cold War era, in the 1950s and 1960s. The memoir is at once a passionate lyrical tribute to the late-Ottoman imperial metropole and a lament for Istanbul’s political and cultural degradation following the rise of the Turkish Republic, with its ensuing architectural and demographic ravages on a city that has historically stood as a literal and symbolic “bridge” between East and West, Asia and Europe.