book review: The bastard of istanbul by Elif Shafak
Just want to preface there WILL be spoilers so, dont read if you dont want spoilers.
Brief descripition: The book starts of with a women who goes into a hospital to get an abortion ultimately failing to do so in the process.
fast forwards to 20 years later where we meet Asya Kascanzi that lives in istanbul with her extended family. One day her mysterious american armenian cousin comes to visit her trying to find secerts of both their families pasts..
My Personal Thoughts: When i first saw the book i was skeptickal at first. I love drama fiction, esspeically when its to do with family drama. This book had alot of strong language and so many new words i had no clue meant. I liked the challenge of reading it; plus there were no spelling errors. I actually didnt have an underlying favorite charcter, i loved and hated each charcter throughout the story.
Ending was very bittersweet, I did not like the ending. It felt very sudden. In the end when theyy were talking about Asyas father and how they had mentioned Zahilia (her mother) had been r*ped i kind of as a thought said "oh maybe its her brother because she weirdly doesnt feel excited for his arrivel to istanbul and maybe her brother had r*ped her." Did i even for the slighest think i was right? NO, i didnt want to believe it was true and after finding out that disgusting truth i didnt know how to feel. Like I liked Mufasa but then we find out he r*ped Zahilia, HIS SISTER??? Yeah tottally caught me off gaurd, and it was mentioned in the last pages and i was just trying to finish the book and BOOM. And then HE DIES. OUT OF THE BLUE??? AND LIKE I FELT SO BAD FOR ROSE, HIS WIFE. Like she was finally goes out of the US and goes to this country and the MOMENT SHE STEPS IN THE COUNTRY, HER HUSBAND JUST DIES. I didnt really like rose during the book because she was really annoying and it became tedious to read her dialogue, but after she had asked her daughter in the end to translate whats going on because she didnt know that in islam after the person dies, they bury the corpse immediately and must've been such a shock for her.
One thing i wanted to touch in the book was the display of islam and religion through out the story. Me, i am a muslim since birth so whenever there is Islam mentioned in the book i get really nervous but i was plesantly suprised to see good repersentation. Maybe because the author is muslim so obviously that would make sense. its very apparent that the displays of islam is portrayed perfectly but the whole djinn thing with Aunt Banu really made it sort of intoreable to read in a way. But i will say, seeing that perspective was intersting esspeically how ive all my life never wanted to get into that side of the world and islam, for my saftey and others. So seeing it and the dangers it gives was a great warning and to show how even talking with djinn is bad.
There was a part in the story when they had Asya and Aramoush both discuss in the chat room about Armenian and Turkish Massacre in 1915. The whole chat room was talking with Asya and cursing her people for what happened and how her people are ignoorant and they dont want to face what had happened then. And Asya says this quote that even the author had pointed out as never said before. It was so true and exactly how i felt when reading this passage because i was getting frustrated at how these people were acting and just ranting at Asya for something that even she didnt even know until Aramoush had arrived.
"Tell me, what can i do as an ordinary Turk in this day and age do to ease your pain?"
Page 261, And wow. What a quote. And then following that. It was written by the wise man behind the screen, Baron Baghdassarian. He says:
"Turks have been in the habit of denying their wrongdoings, the Armenians have been in the habit of savoring the cocoon of victimhood."
Page 263, Beautifully sums up the wisdom behind this book that bring into light about the situation.
I really loved the maturity that Aramoush and Asya had gained throughout the story. Both learning and understanding each other and learning more about how to love their culture and their past by one another was just perfect and beautifully unified the story all together.
All in all, i think this story was good. I defenitly was glued to the book some days and then some times it would be 30 pages and then im doen for the day. Its story could have some working, esspeically that end with how abruptly we were thrown with all that information. Would i reccommend it? Yes, but only to a certian demographic of people. And dont ask what type of people, i dont know. Just you will know after you read it.
