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The Idle Years by
Orhan Kemal
Translated by Cengiz Lugal
Review from Beeston Library:
I enjoyed the background of 1920s Turkey but felt the book
lacked depth and the narration was disjointed in places. The
ending was inconclusive and the story raises many unanswered
questions - e.g. who was Master Izzet and why does he
disappear? The narrator stopped being lovable about half way
through and I grew increasingly irritated by his passive
attitude, his inability to tell the truth and his tendency
to take the easy way out in every dilemma. He reminded me of
Pinocchio, he is never reconciled with his father and never
really grows up!
I don't think Kemal deserves the comparison with Dickens on
the back cover of the book - he lacks the scope, the moral
dimension and the depth of character portrayal - though to
be fair, I have only read these two novels by him.
S. Beharall
Excellent read - easy, full of life, revealing of Turkey in
interwar period
Peter Holland
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