My Name is Red – Orhan Pamuk
Reading this is an experience one has to savour, like allowing the richest kind of Swiss chocolate to melt in your mouth, allowing the characters and the ambiance of 1590s Istanbul to overtake you. The writing at points is so excellently crafted that, at times I have to remind myself, were not something I had seen on television. The general theme that it conveys in regards to the "Clash of Civilisations" is something I found compelling and quite relatable in the post-9/11 world.
Though the novel is dense, posing some serious dilemmas and questions for the reader, which perhaps I felt more, being a Muslim and living in Pakistan. It requires the reader to not just read the book but to understand it as well. Its pace is quite slow, but it managed to keep my attention, but the experience is worth it.
And as a read, it is a tad bit unconventional for an English novel given the structure of the tale, at-least I found it so, as I believe it follows the traditional narrative structure found in Muslim cultures, of weaving stories within stories.
Though I still have 98 pages left.