Murray’s Reviews > A Mind at Peace > Status Update

"You know what would happen to me when I was a girl? I'd have the sensation that I'd suddenly left my body. It approximated floating in emptiness. And I knew very well that I'd left it. I was extremely cold. For some reason, however, I didn't want to rejoin it. I awoke in that agonizing state, my teeth chattering wildly. You know that when I die, you'll no longer be attracted to my body."

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This novel is pure poetry and color, over the top with emotion and deepest thought.

It begins in pain for Mümtaz when his relationship with Nuran shatters. The pain increases when she leaves to return to her ex and they remarry.

Then the novel returns to when they first met and how their friendship grew into love.

There is so much beauty there.

Yet even early on the pain lurks, ready to strike hard.

They’re always drinking raki in this novel! 🍇

Raki is a popular Turkish alcoholic beverage—and the country's national drink—made from twice-distilled grapes or raisins and flavored with aniseed. It is a strong, 40%–50% alcohol by volume (ABV) spirit that turns milky white when mixed with water, earning it the nickname "lion's milk" (aslan sütü)/Wiki

Mumtaz raised his head and came eye to eye with Nuran, looking at her serenely, with a glance that emanated from depths and withheld nothing.

It was a glance, as a poet he admired had written, that dressed one in garments shorn of sunlight and yearning. Like those fortress keys of yore that were given to a conqueror on a gold platter or velvet pillow, Nuran presented her entirety through grin and gaze.

A man wanders the streets of Istanbul singing Türkü …. Which is to say ….

Singing Türkü refers to the performance of traditional Turkish folk songs. Türkü are a deeply rooted form of music that reflect the emotions, history, and daily life of the Turkish people, often passed down orally through generations. 

Mümbatz is in anguish over his failed relationship with Nuran, a failure for which he accepts the blame, torturing himself with regret and remorse - “Bliss was a glass goblet lying in shards.” He wanders about Istanbul much as Bloom wanders about Dublin in Joyce’s Ulysses seeking resolution. The novel is a profound immersion in a culture different from any I’ve lived in, the writing intense yet meditative.

Mümtaz was no stranger to how Nuran made use of muteness, which gave her the bearing of an idol whose every line and curve had been culled and created through the visions of centuries; he was aware of the way she took refuge, by degrees, behind this forced smile and quiescent poise, and how from that coign of vantage, distressed and distraught, she peered out over the landscape and over their lives.

Strong poetic and reflective, even philosophical, writing. Contemplative.