Memed, My Hawk, and related topics...

                  Memed, My Hawk was a very different sort of book for me. I still cannot decide whether I liked or disliked it, but “like” is a vague term.  I enjoyed part of it, while I did not always enjoy the long descriptions.  But it did introduce some new concepts about Turkey that I had not known before.  Some of these new concepts were the notion of the Aghas, the peasants that were (basically) his slaves, the brigands, and the disconnected Turkish countryside.

                  In the beginning of the story, I could not tell if Memed was going to turn out to be a “good” character, or sort of a “bad hero,” if there is such a thing.  The translation was a little rough for me, and many of the sentences seemed disconnected, which also disconnected the relationships and conversations of the characters.  The characters’ words seemed harsher to each other than they were meant to be, even the words of characters with close relationships.  The ending of the story was somewhat happy, which took me by surprise.

                  What redeemed the book for me was to hear Dr. Mirzeler speak about the countryside and different villages that were the setting of the novel.  It was so neat to hear his own stories from childhood, and how they compared with the stories of Memed’s childhood.  It was also sad to hear that he did not want to go back because many of the beautiful places that he remembers are gone, or at least are not public property anymore.

                  It was amazing to hear Dr Mirzeler’s story that he shared near the end of class yesterday.  Did anyone else think, “Wow, I don’t know how I could ever get through something as terrible as that”?  I was amazed to hear his courage, and am so glad that it all worked out well for his family.