Some of my favourite reads 2006 #3

Of course one of the best books I’ve read this year is My Name is Red by Orhan Pamuk

After this novel East is not what it was before. Unrepeatable travel through the history of Islamic culture which I wasn't familiar with. Orhan Pamuk this time resurrects magical world of Orient with its colours, its art, esthetic, its secret spirit.
My Name is Red is story about art, love, happiness, life, death, sometimes discussion about essence of Islamic art and understanding world told through destinies of painters, miniaturists, illuminators and calligraphists from 16th century Constantinople (Istanbul).

Richness of language, abundance of images, associations, deep penetration into the essence of Islamic civilization and its touches with renaissance spirit, unique composition and structure confirm that Orhan Pamuk is one of the greatest writers 21st century.

Connection between past and present time are implicit in the colour. Red is colour of revenge and death but most of all, colour of passion, inspiration and art. Maybe, according to Pamuk, the name of universe is – RED.

I don’t know if that world of East and West, new and old, was so concise but in the same time so comprehensively described before this masterpiece:

...On the West they paint what they see and we [on the East], what we are looking at...