The Bastard of Istanbul
The Bastard of Istanbul
Review by Nouritza Matossian
FT
September 8 2007 01:43
The Bastard of Istanbul
By Elif Shafak
Viking Press £16.99, 360 pages
FT bookshop price: £13.59
At last a contemporary novel tackles the greatest taboo in modern
Turkey: official denial of the 1915 Armenian genocide ` the 20th
century's first holocaust ` and its legacy.
Elif Shafak spent her childhood abroad, free from the Turkish school
force-feeding of nationalist history that robbed generations of a
balanced perspective. Years later, teaching in Arizona, she and other
Turkish intellectuals became involved in a new civil-rights movement
which put recognition of the genocide at its centre.
A prolific author in a magic realist genre, in The Bastard of Istanbul
Shafak offers a social saga about two families, one in Istanbul and the
other in Arizona as they discover shocking truths about themselves.
They expose the rifts and lies of an establishment in denial of the
country's multi-ethnic past.
Shafak wrote the book in an optimistic era when the government courted
candidature to the European Union and many of the estimated two million
grandchildren of Armenians who were orphaned, abducted and converted to
Islam `came out'.
For smashing old taboos, 60 writers and publishers received death
threats and charges of `insulting Turkishness' ` most prominently Nobel
Laureate Orhan Pamuk, and later Shafak. Both were acquitted. Turkey
closed ranks around its darlings. But for Armenians, as ever, there was
no salvation. Outspoken liberal Armenian editor, Hrant Dink, was thrown
to the wolves. Shafak's novel was conceived before his assassination in
January this year.
This makes Shafak's voice all the more remarkable. For Turkish readers
she provides vital missing historical background ` although
discrimination against present-day Armenians in Turkey is not
portrayed. `Being a bastard is less about having no father than having
no past...' says Asya, the `bastard' of the title. She shares her lack
of past with the author, who grew up without her father, and with
Turkey, whose history has been falsified.
Asya's cursed family is all female, except for the favoured brother who
skipped it to America and got entangled with an Armenian family
mirroring the Turkish one. When his stepdaughter Armanoush unexpectedly
visits Istanbul, the two girls unearth much common heritage as well as
divergences.
Hidden historical events are revealed, notably the assassination of the
Armenian intelligentsia on April 24, 1915, which heralded the Ottoman
government's mass extermination of at least one and a half million.
Armanoush speaks out. Outworn denialist arguments ricochet, exploding
in a cafe-fight: `It was a time of war.' `Turks suffered too.' The most
touching passages are based on first-hand survivor accounts ` for
example, that of Grandmother Shushan, who abandons her Muslim child in
Turkey to join her family in San Francisco.
Satirical and gutsy, Shafak brings her unique spark of humorous parody
to all who wish to understand the modern Turkish psyche, or gain
insight into the political and ethical turmoil on Europe's threshold.
Nouritza Matossian is author of `Black Angel: A Life of Arshile Gorky'
(Chatto and Windus).
Review by Nouritza Matossian
FT
September 8 2007 01:43
The Bastard of Istanbul
By Elif Shafak
Viking Press £16.99, 360 pages
FT bookshop price: £13.59
At last a contemporary novel tackles the greatest taboo in modern
Turkey: official denial of the 1915 Armenian genocide ` the 20th
century's first holocaust ` and its legacy.
Elif Shafak spent her childhood abroad, free from the Turkish school
force-feeding of nationalist history that robbed generations of a
balanced perspective. Years later, teaching in Arizona, she and other
Turkish intellectuals became involved in a new civil-rights movement
which put recognition of the genocide at its centre.
A prolific author in a magic realist genre, in The Bastard of Istanbul
Shafak offers a social saga about two families, one in Istanbul and the
other in Arizona as they discover shocking truths about themselves.
They expose the rifts and lies of an establishment in denial of the
country's multi-ethnic past.
Shafak wrote the book in an optimistic era when the government courted
candidature to the European Union and many of the estimated two million
grandchildren of Armenians who were orphaned, abducted and converted to
Islam `came out'.
For smashing old taboos, 60 writers and publishers received death
threats and charges of `insulting Turkishness' ` most prominently Nobel
Laureate Orhan Pamuk, and later Shafak. Both were acquitted. Turkey
closed ranks around its darlings. But for Armenians, as ever, there was
no salvation. Outspoken liberal Armenian editor, Hrant Dink, was thrown
to the wolves. Shafak's novel was conceived before his assassination in
January this year.
This makes Shafak's voice all the more remarkable. For Turkish readers
she provides vital missing historical background ` although
discrimination against present-day Armenians in Turkey is not
portrayed. `Being a bastard is less about having no father than having
no past...' says Asya, the `bastard' of the title. She shares her lack
of past with the author, who grew up without her father, and with
Turkey, whose history has been falsified.
Asya's cursed family is all female, except for the favoured brother who
skipped it to America and got entangled with an Armenian family
mirroring the Turkish one. When his stepdaughter Armanoush unexpectedly
visits Istanbul, the two girls unearth much common heritage as well as
divergences.
Hidden historical events are revealed, notably the assassination of the
Armenian intelligentsia on April 24, 1915, which heralded the Ottoman
government's mass extermination of at least one and a half million.
Armanoush speaks out. Outworn denialist arguments ricochet, exploding
in a cafe-fight: `It was a time of war.' `Turks suffered too.' The most
touching passages are based on first-hand survivor accounts ` for
example, that of Grandmother Shushan, who abandons her Muslim child in
Turkey to join her family in San Francisco.
Satirical and gutsy, Shafak brings her unique spark of humorous parody
to all who wish to understand the modern Turkish psyche, or gain
insight into the political and ethical turmoil on Europe's threshold.
Nouritza Matossian is author of `Black Angel: A Life of Arshile Gorky'
(Chatto and Windus).
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