The Flea Palace
by Elif Shafak.
Notes provided by Cath Boury:
Perhaps I should have stopped after the second sentence stated ‘You’re talking nonsense’.
Truth as a horizontal line, nonsense a vertical one.
I lost the plot!
And yes it did go around in circles.
The story had no beginning nor a satisfactory end.
I did find this book clever. If I had time to read it all again, I might understand it.
As it was by the time I had waded through the history of Bonbon Palace, the occupants past, present and those to come and where they all interrelated, I had totally lost the point of the story.
Oh I’m sorry, was there a story?
On the positive note, the character portrayal is precise and wonderfully insightful.
I can totally understand the description of the way different people approach cleaning.
I can relate to the bullied child.
Twins do have a love hate relationship even if it’s based in a bizarre situation within Bonbon Palace’s only meeting place, their dysfunctional hairdresser.
The student with his dog evoked definite emotions.
They were all sad people.
However the characters I didn’t feel were developed was the narrator himself, his blue mistress and Aunty.
Unfortunately they were fundamental to the ‘plot’.
The narrator was not portrayed as a pleasant character so the author was probably justified in making him completely delusional obsessing about the ‘holy’ rubbish.
A louse was an appropriate choice.
In the fullness of time the clever circular references may become significant to me.
I haven’t visited Istanbul personally and I feel this was an insightful view of a city on the cusp of old and new as well as east and west.
From people who have visited it is a fascinating city.
The book does give a flavour of that city.
I have to ask was it too clever for its own good or just ‘lost in translation’?
Cath Boury 12.2.16
Webmaster's notes
Cath's notes are a good reflection of the club members' experience in attempting to read the book;
of the seven people that met, only Cath had managed to plough all the way through.
And hence we did not see any value in a star rating.
|
