The Girl from the Golden Horn

My friend Jen nominated a book I was unfamiliar with for our Istanbook feminist book club, and it became my biggest guilty pleasure read of the year. 

The Girl from the Golden Horn, by Kurban Said, is a novel relatively unknown to most. It had been published in the 1930s and translated from the German. Truly, there are about two reviews of it online. We didn't have to blow dust off our Kindles obviously to read it, but if this book is sitting in libraries somewhere, I suggest it isn't getting its due. That's a shame, as it has much cross-cultural discernment to share with today's reader.

Are there so many novels that feature young female Ottoman intellectuals? I haven't run across another. The protaganist in this book, despite living in Berlin as an exile from her failed Ottoman Empire, had kept her identity and way of thinking as an Eastern woman intact, no easy thing in decadent European society of Berlin and Austria. The book follows her as she pursues her destiny, with agency. 

   

Contemplating:

is this the exact perfect spot

on Istanbul's Golden Horn

to hold our book discussion

of Kurban Said's book,

The Girl from the Golden Horn?

I think it will do, what do you think?

Who had the best view of the Golden Horn

on book discussion day?

Us or the sailboat?

What a magnificent expat experience!

We felt lucky to experience the setting, 

each other's company,

and the book all together.

Just as it would take a unique writer to portray both Ottoman society and Vienesse society so intimately in this book, we felt unique as readers reading a book we felt would be lost on, for example, most American readers back home. 

Jen had been posted to Vienna before she was posted to Istanbul, so you can imagine all of the insight she brought to this discussion from both societies. We had a great exchange of ideas. With three women from the West, and two from the East, there was a perfect number for a fascinating discussion. And here I will stop in my description -- so you get the same joy from the book as I did, knowing nothing about what would happen as I read.

Where is the female movie director from the East who will bring the heroine Asiadeh Anbara's story to the big screen? It's so cinematic!

Americans, how well do you know your global neighbors?

Americans ladies

having lunch with legendary journalist

Suzy Hansen (second from right),

after her reading at PAWI,

the Professional American Women of Istanbul

This month I had the joy of interviewing legendary American journalist Suzy Hansen and reviewing her first book for Lale Magazine, the bimonthly-publication of the International Women of Istanbul. Suzy Hansen's book is called, 'Notes on a Foreign Country : An American Abroad in a Post-American World.'

American author James Baldwin asked, 'has American prosperity come at the expense of the American Negro?' Suzy Hansen, whose admiration and interest in James Baldwin inspired her to move to Turkey, extends the question. She asks, 'does American prosperity and identity come at the expense of the world?'

You can read my review here on pages 32-34 of the January/February issue. 'Notes on a Foreign Country: An American Abroad in a Post-American World' was chosen by the New York Times as one of the 100 Notable Books of 2017. Excerpts appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Guardian.

Thank you to editor Monisha Kar for the opportunity. Thanks also to Monica Fritz, of Monica Fritz Photography, for the photos used in the story.

A Month of Turkish Literature for Global Literature in Libraries

On a ferry between two continents

 is a great place to read

In the last two years, one of the most fun things I have done is get involved in the fledgling Global Literature in Libraries movement. Did you know that around 3% of what is published each year in English has been translated from another language? It astonished me to learn that English-language readers read so provincially (for comparison, in Turkey, 42-50% of everything that is published has been translated from another language).

What could the world be like if English-language readers read more globally? Would there be more empathy? Less fear? Would there be more collaboration on big global problems? Would there be more international business and international travel? It's fun to think about.

In August, I served as the Turkish Literature Month editor for the Global Literature in Libraries blog. See, I was still blogging! Just in a different place. It was so much fun working with over nineteen different contributers from around the world to showcase 50 different titles. Gosh, that was fun. Here's the summation post with links to all the blog posts about Turkish Literature. 

You can follow along and read around the world too by following @GlobalLitinLibs on Twitter

or 'Global Literature in Libraries Initiative' on Facebook.

"Midnight at the Pera Palace" with the Istanbul Global Minds Book Club

If ever there was a book that was a perfect match for my Istanbul "Global Minds Book Club" it is this one: "Midnight at the Pera Palace: The Birth of Modern Istanbul" by Georgetown International Relations and Government professor Charles King.

We selected it for our January read this month, because a reporter and photographer from Ankara, Turkey, were flying into Istanbul to do a photo shoot and cover story on our book club for Tempo Magazine.

We wanted to pick a book that Turkish readers of the magazine would also find interesting, so that we as a book club had done everything we could to help promote reading culture in Turkey.

Red carpet? Of course.

The dapper staff

immediately greets everyone

who walks in the door,

happy to help you make the most

of your visit

"Welcome,

to the Pera Palace

of Istanbul"

To make our day and the photo shoot extra special, we decided to meet at the glorious, historic Pera Palace itself. The Pera Palace is the hotel that was built by the creator of the luxury train line, the Orient Express, which used to transport glamorous passengers in style from Paris to Istanbul. Upon arriving in Istanbul, passengers would be hand-carried to the hotel from the Sirkeci train station, in a Turkish tahtırevan, or palanquin, as it is known in English.

Imagine seeing Istanbul

for the first time

through the windows of a

Turkish tahtırevan

The Pera Palace Hotel

boasts of the second-oldest elevator

in all of Europe,

installed in 1892,

only three years

after the elevator

in the Eiffel Tower.

It's still operational.

One special little nook

in the hotel

is the Patisserie de Pera

We didn't meet here,

but the little patisserie

is such a happy room

I can't resist

sharing photos of it.

 The colors!

The friendly workforce

know how to make

every visit fun,

and who doesn't fancy a

festive fascinator?

Spring flowers

abound in the lobby.

 What could be more dazzling

to a book club

than a spectacular library

between the lobby and the bar?

 Our group was meeting in

the Orient Bar

Who else has enjoyed

the Orient Bar

before we arrived

for our special day?

Atatürk,

the founder of the Turkish Republic,

Ernest Hemingway,

adventurer and famous macho man,

plus Agatha Christie,

bestselling mystery writer

 Giggling with friends

before everyone else arrives

Our second generation

club organizers,

Matt Howell

and Nilüfer Tufanoğlu

Our club member

Filiz Kavak,

made the day a delight

by arranging press coverage

and booking our spectacular setting

With triple our normal turnout

it was nice that the bar

had been set up

in small discussion groups

Bookish brain food!

The Global Minds Book Club

prides itself on being

 people from around the world,

discussing books

from around the world.

On this day,

with thirty people present,

we had five continents represented

and fourteen different countries.

It helped to have at least

one Turk at every table.

We had such a

riveting, spirited discussion.

Nationalities represented

in my group:

Turkish, Russian, Polish,

Netherlands, Venezuelan,

American, and Chinese.

What made "Midnight at the Pera Palace: the Modern History of Istanbul" such a fun read is that it was written by a yabancı (a foreigner to Turkey). All of the angst that would go into the description of one's own history wasn't there; it was the fantastic storytelling that remained.

I describe 'Midnight' as an expat history of expat and refugee Istanbul. The book felt so alive and relevant when I was reading about White Russians refugees in Istanbul during the 1920s while the ruble was crashing this month. The club loved reading about the musicians, diplomats, spies, feminists, and future statesmen who contributed in their way to the city Napoleon described as the capital of the world, if the world had one.

I found the central metaphor of why the book was called "Midnight at the Pera Palace" stunning. I won't spoil it by sharing it. Some of our members wanted more Pera Palace stories in the book, and one of our Turkish members said she was surprised that there were no historical surprises. The history in 'Midnight' of 20th-century Istanbul and Turkey was more-or-less as she had been taught. 

I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in Istanbul and Turkey. One of our members said "sequel, please!" Personally, I think this author needs a movie contract. The cinematography of this setting, this time, and this history would be irresistible.

Would you like to learn more about the Global Minds Book Club? I am so proud of our book club founder and inspiration, Clarence Lomot Nartey, of Ghana. It isn't easy to create a lasting legacy as an expat. Clarence did. Global Minds Book Club is now starting its fourth year. Clarence, you would have been deeply pleased with yesterday's success.

Here are some posts about past discussions:

Discussing Books with the Global Minds Book Club

Africa Day @ Global Minds Book Club

Want to find out how you can help promote reading culture in Turkey? Read this post:

#EnSonNeOkudun What are you reading lately?

Want to learn more about the Pera Palace Hotel, now owned by the Sheikh of Dubai? Check out the web site. Their memorable video actually does a great job of capturing what our day was like.

Want to know where 'Midnight' author, Charles King, goes to eat first when he comes to Istanbul? Culinary Backstreets blog has the lowdown.

Looking for another great book from this side of the world?

Here's three I recommend:

Understanding Iran: The Power of One Graphic Novel called 'Persepolis'

The Ottoman Empire from the other side as told in "The Bridge on the Drina" 

"The Restoration of Order: The Normalization of Czechoslovakia" by Milan Smecka

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Back in print from 100 years ago - Turkish and American women reflecting on their cross-cultural experience

I came across this marvelous book series "Cultures in Dialogue" the other day, and wished I could park myself down immediately to see what had changed for American female expats living and writing in Turkey 100 years ago, and what was the same.

Here's how the series publishers describe it:

Cultures in Dialogue returns to print sources by women writers from the East and West. Series One considers the exchanges between Ottoman, British, and American women from the 1880s to the 1940s. Their varied responses to dilemmas such as nationalism, female emancipation, race relations and modernization in the context of the stereotypes characteristic of Western harem literature reframe the historical tensions between Eastern and Western cultures, offering a nuanced understanding of their current manifestations.

Obviously, the Ottoman Empire is no more, so it would be impossible to see the Sultan at Yıldız Palace as Anna Bowman Dodd did.

Anna Bowman Dodd, the author pictured above, traveled throughout Istanbul and shared her impressions of household management, education, slavery, marriage, women's rights from a female travel writer's point-of-view.

The eternal conversation on cross-cultural female emancipation will still be occurring in some form 100 years from now. How interesting it would be to see the progress from 100 years back.

Even today, only 12% of Turkish women have been out of their country. How fun it would be to read Zeyneb Hanoum's impressions of Europe as she visited it at the turn of the last century or to read the memoirs of the famous feminist from the early Turkish Republic, Halide Edib.

So many books, so little time! Kudos to the publishers for bringing these historical voices back to the conversation.



You may also be interested in these posts:

#EnSonNeOkuyorsun What are you reading lately?

"My Little Library in Anatolia" by Kaya Genç

"The People Who Go"

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#EnSonNeOkudun What are you reading lately?

If one stays in a country long enough as an expat, it's easy to see places where one could contribute.

Turkey recently had its 90th anniversary and it got me to thinking about Turkish reading culture as Turkey approaches its centennial as a Republic. Reading culture here is still a flame in need of kindling, simply because of the incredibly interesting history of the Turkish language.

Turkey used to have an alphabet that looked like Arabic script. It was hard to read because it wasn't consistent, and it contained many loan words from Arabic, Persian, and French. Often court language and the language in the hinterlands wasn't the same.

Atatürk reformed the Turkish language by adopting the Latin alphabet. Think about what a gigantic change that was for Turkish people to absorb! And that was just one of the reforms he was undertaking at the time. When the Republic was formed, only 10% of the population was literate (it was an empire, after all).

I often tell my friends Atatürk and his generation changed the language so people could learn to read, the next generation did exactly that, and now the third generation's job is to learn to love to read.

I meet Turkish "reading role models" everywhere. As a librarian, I nurture, support, and help create reading communities. I thought that Turkey and the Turkish language needed a Twitter hash tag like the English-language one that celebrates reading culture called #Fridayreads. To use a Turkish hash tag that suggested #Fridayreads had religious connotations, so after another false start I finally settled on #EnSonNeOkudun.

I know people will be enthusiastic about something they just read and share it with this hashtag 24/7. But, because Friday is one of the heaviest volume days on Twitter, our beginning community of readers will concentrate their reading celebration all on one day, Friday, every week. Someone looking for a good read for the weekend is sure to find one. Weekly rituals become just that, rituals!

I hope to create conversations about books, blogs, magazine and newspaper articles and help readers discover reading culture and just plain help people find great things to read. People tweeting using this hashtag won't be only using Turkish because there's a sizeable population of Turks reading in multiple languages. Plus, there's a whole expat community in Turkey who also wants to get in on the fun. They'll be tweeting in their native languages.

One of my very favorite things about the idea is that it brings people together, rather than polarizes them. Turkish folks could use some of that right now.

I have messaged friends and my tweeps I've never even met "Can you help me launch #ensonneokudun? Let's celebrate Turkish reading culture - tweet your read each Friday in Turkish or English. Thank you."

The response has been so touching. People say things like, "What can I do to help? Thanks for asking me to participate. I will ask my friends to do it too." Truly, it makes me tear up. I think the phrase "what can I do to help?" maybe even more of a set of magic words than please and thank you.  It's fun to build something together with people.

So I ask you, Turks and the Turkophile community: #EnSonNeOkudun? What are you reading lately?

"The Wall: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain" by Peter Sis

Yesterday I read a children's picture book that took me right back to the nine months I spent in Prague, Czech Republic.

Peter Sis, a Czechoslovak immigrant to America in the 1980s, wrote about what it was like to be born at the start of the Communist regime and grow up in a totalitarian system.

When I lived in Prague, I had listened with extraordinary intent to Czech friends who had gone through this history. I loved hearing their experiences, their wisdom from what they had been through, and learning from them how people and families cope with a dystopian reality.

Peter Sis has compressed his own history and his nations' history into this graphical history that can be read in less than an hour. He bore witness! He warned! It's as if he is handing the reader at home the conversations we expats got to have in Prague with our Czech friends about what it was like.

I can't recommend the book enough. It would make a wonderful book to read together as a family for an intergenerational discussion about freedom.

This book has been widely acclaimed both as a Caldecott Honor book for distinguished illustration (the author's wonderful drawings help tell the story), and as the winner of the Siebert award for the most distinguished informational title in America, for children, in the year it was published.

Here is a short interview with the author.

From "The Wall: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain"

“When my American family goes to visit my Czech family in the colorful city of Prague, it is hard to convince them it was ever a dark place full of fear, suspicion, and lies. I find it difficult to explain my childhood; it’s hard to put it into words, and since I have always drawn everything, I have tried to draw my life— before America—for them.”                 —Peter Sis

You may be interested in these other reads:

The Restoration of Order: The Normalization of Czechoslovakia" by Milan Simecka

How We Survived Communism and Even Laughed by Slavenka Drakulic

In Prague, You Can Enjoy Reading "Café Europa" at the Café Europa

WWII was worse for Central Europe than even our histories and memories tell us

Heda Kovaly, Czech Who Wrote of Totalitarianism, Is Dead at 91  

Understanding Iran: The Power of One Graphic Novel named "Persepolis"


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An Afternoon of Art and Beauty at the Borusan Contemporary, Part Three

After enjoying a beautiful meal in the Borusan Contemporary museum café, and going up to the 10th floor to see the beautiful view of the Bosphorus from the very top turret in Istanbul's haunted mansion, it was time to explore the art in Turkey's very first office art museum.

This was 1/4 of a Jim Dine painting

with four similar panels.

The color was fantastic.

Every office was full of the most spectacular

coffee table art books.

I could lose myself for hours

just in the books.

These binoculars were in the corner office

so I assume the office belonged to the chairman.

Below, his minimalistic desk.

Someone correct me, if I have this misidentified.

 Color of all hues

uplifted my spirit.

Do they do the same to you?

 

I thought the collection focus

of color repetition

was brilliant.

 The beautiful salon or living room

off of the corner office

had a whimsical, jazzy artwork on the ceiling.

An endearing personal touch.

How could kids resist

even the beauty of this elevator shaft?

What memories this place would create

in the minds of the staff's children.

 

One of the most fun videos in the collection

was in the stairwell.

It showed the furniture and dishes

of a home living room

sliding back and forth on the floor

as a house

was slowly rocked back and forth.

 

I could imagine a child

standing in front of it for hours

and giggling nonstop at the fun of it.

 

To access videos from the collection, click here.

"Eyeballs" inspired by George Orwell.

 Love it!

One of the few Istanbul-specific photography pieces.

The Hagia Sophia in snow.

The wishing tree
Staff and the public
left their wishes.

I didn't even notice the white "profile"

when I saw this neon art up close.

It was only when I got home and

saw this photo taken from across the room

that I saw it was more than abstract.

 "21 Books"

by a Korean artist

 The quality of building materials

was an unending delight.

I marveled at the precise heft of this door.

Love this blue.

How children must want to run their hands

continually over this piece

just to explore the symmetry, color, and sound of it.

All this art makes one feel like a child!

 We waved goodbye to the museum guides
through the "haunted" grillwork.

Perili Köşk at dusk.
"Goodbye Haunted Mansion!
You were an absolute delight."

Imagine opening up your work office to random people every weekend. I found this to be a very generous act by Borusan Holding Co.

Thank you for sharing your gorgeous art with the public. To the folks at Borusan Contemporary, I say, "your generosity is yet another example of why Turkish hospitality is the best in the world."

You might also enjoy:

An Afternoon of Art and Beauty at the Borusan Contemporary, Part One

An Afternoon of Art and Beauty at the Borusan Contemporary, Part Two

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"My Little Library in Anatolia" by Kaya Genç

Kaya Genç

I found this first-person narrative by Kaya Genç of his memories when he did his Turkish military service as a librarian to be absolutely delightful. I can't resist sharing it. Thanks to @carpetblogger for passing it along. You can read it here.


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