Not an easy read - at times slow, at times too didactic, at times at bit scattered - but never-the-less a very interesting book for many reasons. Mostly due to Tanpınar's position as one of the first writers of the new Turkish Republic, and his position as a writer who crosses over between the old Ottoman (and Anatolian) culture and Western culture.
(Aside from all of this, the book is a wonderful portrait of Istanbul in its last days as an Imperial, sophisticated city with a culture and life all its own. A time when the Boğaz villages were true villages and people spoke of going into the city as a real trip. Both a visual portrait of how that city was, and also a social portrait of a certain lifestyle.)
From a stylistic perspective, the book shifts through several different ones. At times it read like Aldous Huxley's novels of ideas (Huxley is actually referenced in the novel), at times like a long interior monologue of impressions and sensations, at the end even like a kind of Magic Realism with a long scene where the main character, Mümtaz, interacts with his recently dead acquaintance. I wonder if this comes with the the rush to confront and absorb the West at the time of the collapse of Ottoman culture with its ties to the traditions of the East - almost a rabid desire to know and absorb this new Other.
Also, a social drama built around a love story, where you see the confrontation of old and new values imposed on the lovers by the various people in their social circle. A subtle confrontation, however, which does not divide along the lines of youth and age - witness Nuran's uncle, Tevfik, who is wholly supportive of their relationship. In fact, most of the objections come from their younger circle of friends.
Ihsan, Mümtaz's uncle, is the source of much of the novel of ideas passages, where Tanpınar, overtly explores the many social issues and shifts that must take place, or are in fact taking place, in order to build a new society with a new unifying vision or mythology. Interesting, as these shifts also form a major part of the plot line itself.
Another side of the book explores the feelings of nostalgia for a lost culture, with its lost heroes and figures of cultural importance. Also, for the very culture itself, especially Ottoman classical music, which plays an important part throughout the book. Many classical pieces and makams are referenced, from within a perspective of the subtle culture around these pieces and makams - it is possible to find some of the references on Youtube and Turkish music sites (Neyzen).
At one point Tanpınar points out the very "hüzün" condition of his generation and social class - they live within a culture whose supporting structure and political context has disappeared. They are essentially an orphaned culture, destined to disappear - as it largely has, except for the rather broad brush stroke version that remains, having lost much of its subtleties. In this, Tanpınar stands before his time in that, with the global expansion of Western culture, corporatism and Western consumerism, most of us now live in an orphaned or dying culture, or wholly within the post-national consumerist universe (not counting the cartoon versions of national culture so popular now with right wing nationalist political movements).
References:
Song in Mahur - Refik Talat Alpman?
Makams - key modes/moods in Ottoman music - Ferahfeza, Acemaşıran, Beyatı, Sultaniyegah, Nühüft, Mahur
Tab'i Mustafa Efendi - composer (nothin on Youtube - check Neyzen for his hicaz saz semaisi
Ismail Dede Efendi - composer
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