Snow, Orhan Pamuk

Snow by Orhan Pamuk

Without exaggeration, the most novels I have read by a foreign author are Orham Pamuk's novels. In 2010, when I read his book "My Name is Red", I became more fascinated by his novels. The reason why I am fascinated by his writing is very simple. As a writer from a neighboring country, he knows Farhank and Iran's society much more closely than other foreign writers and speaks more impartially about it. He is also familiar with the political system and the so-called enlightened thoughts of Abran.
      As a prominent Turkish writer, Orhan Pamuk won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2006, and he deservedly received this award due to his unique storytelling that originates from the fabric of Turkish society and culture.
             In my opinion, the novel "Snow" is the most political novel by Orhan Pamuk, whose story takes place in 2002 in the city of Kars, Turkey, a city near Georgia and Armenia, and the poet and writer exiled to Germany returns to his country Turkey.
         "Ka" as a poet and journalist who is the main character of the novel "Snow" goes to a friend's recommendation to research and prepare a report about the increasing number of suicides among girls and young women who are prohibited from wearing headscarves in school, but in the story The reader realizes that "Ka" is looking for Ipak, his former classmate and his student love, who is separated from his wife "Blue". Also, "Ka" is looking for an opportunity to live in that environment, to regain his lost main passion, which is writing poetry.
                Ipak's ex-wife is an extreme Islamist, and "Ka" finds himself in a dilemma when faced with her and his like-minded people on the one hand and the seculars of his city on the other hand, and seeks to find a way to preserve his identity, beliefs and love for Ipak.
  In the political instability of Turkey at that time, the wave of religious extremism with the support of countries like Iran was castrated and challenged the rule of secularism, and the contradiction between tradition and modernity added to the identity crisis of the people.
      
     Symbols are very important in the novel. The snow, despite its beauty, has covered the ugly face of the city of Kars and Khafghan, and the scarf as a symbol of women's religion has been imprisoned. Narration on page 119 of the book
"As if the snow had thrown a veil over the hatred..."

"Ka" struggles with his learnings and beliefs in the face of Islamists and secularists.
"IPAC" wants to be freed from the shackles of Islamists and be a symbol of modern western women.
Students who are in a crisis between the two official educational models of schools that promote secular life and family education and environment that states salvation through religious beliefs and Sharia law.
"Kars" has sad and bewildered people who are trapped among the big and scary snow grains. Narration on page 146 of the book "The only people who can be happy in Kars are fools and villains."

  In this book, Orhan Pamuk presents the perspective of Turkey's socio-political tensions with his story-telling and points out the danger of the growth of religious extremism on the one hand and the humiliation of religion and ethnic minorities on the other hand. And finally, the tension between East and West, which has been clearly revealed in Turkey, should be expressed impartially and does not write biasedly about a particular group.
                  A few years ago, Khashayar Junidi from BBC Farsi had an interview with Orhan Pamuk, which is so informative and listenable that I put the link in the caption.

I would like to end this video with the eternal sentence from this book on page 298.
"The greatest deception of the last thousand years is this: mistaking poverty for stupidity."

"Just Mercy" by Bryan Stevenson

Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson

I should say thanks to my daughter for giving me this book as a gift. 

        Just Mercy is a book based on some true stories, that show readers the continuing injustices in the USA in general and especially about African-Americans. In his book, Bryan Stevenson refers to those who have been unjustly sentenced to the death penalty. He explains that the United States is one of the countries with the highest prison population, including the number of juvenile prisoners. Stevenson points to teenagers who committed murder in their teenage years and were sentenced to death and held in adult prison. I have learned a lot from this book, but two things were more important to me. 

        First, despite some amazing advances in clinical medicine over the past few decades, we have not made much progress in treating mental illnesses.

       Secondly, he explains very clearly that confronting wealth or the rich is not the right solution to alleviate a society's poverty. He believes that resolving legal inequalities in the economy and criminal laws are the most effective ways to eradicate poverty in society.

"Each of us is more than the worst thing we've ever done" (17). "My work with the poor and the incarcerated has persuaded me that the opposite of poverty is not wealth; the opposite of poverty is justice" (18). 

یادداشت هایی برای دخترم ، آی سودا

Review of "Just Mercy," by Bryan Stevenson - The New York Times

Just_Mercy Wikipedia

Note By Adel Esmaeilpour