The Bastard of Istanbul - Elif Shafak

   2007; 366 pages.  New Author? : Yes.  Genre : Turkish Literature; Historical Fiction.  Overall Rating : 9*/10.

 

    Say hello to Asya Kazanci.  She’s a Turk, lives in Istanbul, and is the daughter of Zeliha Kazanci, whom she calls “Auntie”.  She doesn’t know who her father is, nor does anyone else except Zeliha, who isn’t telling.

 

    Say hello to Armanoush Tchakhmakhchian.  She’s an Armenian-American who splits her time between Tucson, where her American mother, Rose, lives; and San Francisco, where her Armenian dad, Barsam, lives.  Rose and Barsam are divorced.

 

    The odds of Asya and Armanoush ever meeting are very slim, since neither one has ever visited, nor has any plans of visiting each other’s country.  And if somehow that happened, the odds of them — one a Turk, the other an Armenian — becoming friends are even slimmer.

 

    But since they’re the two main protagonists in The Bastard of Istanbul, I’m betting they'll somehow overcome those long odds.

 

What’s To Like...

    The book's title is explained early on and is brutally straightforward: if you’re a fatherless-child in Istanbul, you will be labeled a bastard.  Asya copes with this relatively well, but her family situation is still weird. The men in the Kazanci clan all die at an early age, mostly in their early 40s.  Thus Asya grows up among a group of "Aunties", including one who’s actually her mother.  Armanoush's family situation is also weird; she's surrounded by Aunties when she’s in San Francisco, and when she in Tucson, she's the typical rebellious teen, resenting both her mother and her stepfather, Mustafa, Rose’s second husband, and who’s a Turk, not an Armenian.

 

    With one exception, the eighteen chapters in the book all have a food, spice, or grain heading (Cinnamon, Garbanzo Beans, Wheat, Orange Peels, etc.), each of which somehow get worked into the chapter’s events.  The lone exception is the last chapter, which has a chemical title, Potassium Cyanide.  It would be a spoiler to reveal how that figures into the story.

 

    The story is set in two time periods: 2005 (the present) and 1915, and three places – Istanbul, San Francisco, and Tucson, with present-day Istanbul being the predominant one.  I chuckled at the climate description of Tucson (“the weather in Arizona is always nice, you know, nice and sunny”).  I live in Arizona, and can assure you that our “sunniness” is NOT nice when the daytime high temperatures are above 100°F, which is about the half the year.

 

    I thoroughly enjoyed getting a feel for daily life in Istanbul, including doing things such as: listening to Madonna and Johnny Cash on the radio, fishing from a bridge while holding an umbrella when it’s raining, taking ballet classes, smoking pot and wearing hippie skirts, going to tattoo parlors, and drinking milk from glass bottles or having a cherry-vanilla diet coke.  I also learned how to foresee my future via tarot cards and/or pouring lead, and protecting myself via evil-eye beads..

 

    The storyline held my interest, and Elif Shafak’s writing style delighted my vocabulary tastes in three different languages: Turkish, Armenian, and English, with a few examples given in the next section.  I learned about Milan Kundera and Mesrop Mashtots, the recipe for Ashure, and how funerals are different in Turkey compared to here.  I also liked the way Elif Shafak worked a “is it natural or supernatural?” aspect into the story, via a pair of djinni that are at Auntie Banu’s beck and call.

 

    The ending is good and features a twist or two to keep you on your toes.  Justice prevails, although it isn't meted out by heavenly agents.  The Bastard of Istanbul is a standalone novel without a sequel, although I for one would really like to know more about what comes next in life for Asya and Armanoush.  According to Wikipedia, the book was originally written in English, despite Elif Shafak being Turkish.  I’m in awe of anyone who can write a bestselling novel in their “second language”.

 

Kewlest New Word ...

Simit (n., Turkish) : a crispy sesame-seed coated bagel.

Others: Konak (n., Turkish); Dipsomaniac (n.); Mordant (adj.); Concomitantly (adv.), Bolshie (adj., British); Odar (n., Turkish); Oluevi (n., Turkish).

 

Ratings…
    Amazon:  4.2/5 based on 1,437 ratings and 359 reviews.

    Goodreads: 3.86/5 based on 44,393 ratings and 4,853 reviews

 

 

Excerpts...

    “What are you listening to?” Armanoush asked loudly.

    “Huh?” Asya shouted, “Johnny Cash!”

    “Oh, sure!  What are you reading?”

    “Irrational Man: A Study in Existential Philosophy,” the same loud, steady voice replied.

    “Isn’t that a bit irrational too?  How can you listen to music and concentrate on existential philosophy at the same time?”

    “They square perfectly,” Asya remarked.  “Johnny Cash and existential philosophy, they both probe the human soul to see what’s inside, and unhappy with their findings, they both leave it open!”  (loc.2858)

 

    “Look, the Armenians in the diaspora have no Turkish friends.  Their only acquaintance with the Turks is through the stories they heard from their grandparents or else from one another.  And those stories are so terribly heartbreaking.  But believe me, just like in every nation, in Turkey too there are good-hearted people and bad people.  It is as simple as that.  I have Turkish friends who are closer to me than my flesh-and-blood brother.  And then there is, of course” —he lifted his glass and signaled toward Auntie Zeliha — “this crazy love of mine.”  (loc. 3726)

 

Kindle Details…

    The Bastard of Istanbul sells for $9.99 at Amazon right now.   Elif Shafak offers nine other e-books in English, ranging in price from $9.45 to $13.99.  Eight of them are novels, the other one is a non-fiction book, titled Black Milk.

 

“The oppressor has no use for the past.  The oppressed has nothing but the past.”  (loc. 3810)

    I can't think of anything to gripe about in The Bastard of Istanbul, but I love reading both historical fiction in general and Turkish literature in particular.  But prospective readers should know that, although the cussing is light (just 12 swear words in the first 50% of the book!), a number of non-cozy themes are encountered, including rape, abortions, suicide, divorce, incest, and Armenian-Turkish relations.

 

    That last one may sound ticky-tacky, but it isn’t.  In the book’s “Acknowledgements” section, Elif Shafak writes:

 

    “Between the Turkish edition and the English edition of this novel in 2006, I was put on trial for “denigrating Turkishness” under Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code.  The charges that were brought against me were due to the words that some of the Armenian characters spoke in the novel: I could have been given up to a three-year prison sentence, but the charges were eventually dropped.”

 

    For the record, I thoroughly appreciated the amount of attention given to issue of Turkish-Armenian relations in The Bastard of Istanbul.  I was aware of its historical causes, but had no idea it was still such a divisive topic today.

 

    9 Stars.  I have one other novel by Elif Shafak on my Kindle, The Architect’s Apprentice.  I was worried that I’d find The Bastard of Istanbul too "romantic" for my reading tastes, but that turned out to not be the case.  I think I'll go look for more of her books at my local bookstores.