A few weeks ago I went through my monthly book binge.
The school secretary, a Turk named Ipek, had asked me if I was teaching any Turkish writers in my literature classes. I have spent the years since my first visit to Turkey reading Turkish writers, most notably Nobel laureate, Orhan Pamuk. But I remain ignorant of the breadth of Turkish literature.
Ipek set me aright. She wrote down ten authors I needed to check out. I immediately went home, hoping to find them translated into English.
It took some work--so did finding English titles in a Turkish bookstore. Finally someone mentioned a store with English books on Konak Pier, and I went the next Sunday to check it out. The English titles they had were mostly classics--Frankenstein, Kafka, stuff like that. I found two books by Turkish writers: a history of the Ottomans and Orhan Kemal's My Father's House. Kemal had been one of the writers on Ipek's list.
The book begins as a novel--another man telling his story to the writer, similar to what Nikos Kazandzakis did in Zorba the Greek, although Kazandzakis maintained the separation between the teller and the narrator. Understanding Kemal's life span is key to understanding the book.
Kemal was born a year after the founding of the Turkish Republic, so his was not a life shaped by war (Turkey stayed out of World War II). It was shaped however by the complicated politics of the early republic, which was ruled by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk as a dictatorship until his death in the mid-30s, and since has seen republican rule interrupted periodically by military coups.
The key event in My Father's House is the uprooting of the family. Early in the book they move to Ankara, where the Father is a politician. Things change abruptly, and the father departs for exile, soon to be followed by Kemal, his brother, Niyazi, mother, and younger sisters.
The conflict at the center of the book is Kemal vs his tyrannical father. Kemal cares little for school and plays hooky to play football with friends. His father punishes him--there is also a scene of abuse toward's Kemal's mother. But Kemal's independence grows, and the discipline abates as he stands up to his mother more and more.
I wish Kemal had devoted more time to his mother. We learn early that she draws criticism from relatives for her close friendship with servants and lower class neighbors. As we watch Kemal's life play out, and as we assess his writing, his warmth for working people really shines through. In this he reminds me of one of my favorite writers, John Steinbeck, or John Dos Passos, both of whom were contemporaries of Kemal.
The poverty of the family's exile in Beirut is vividly wrought. With their father's health in shambles, Niyazi and Kemal must hustle to bring in money, whether it be by fishing on the beach to scrounging for odd jobs--as asylum seekers, they are not legally allowed to work. These parts of the book reminded me of another contemporary, George Orwell's Down and Out in Paris and London.
The book doesn't get bogged down in the poverty, though. Kemal is a teenager by now, girl-crazy, impetuous, a real boy. At 17 he announces that he will return to Turkey alone. He will live with his grandmother back in Adana and, he hopes, will finish school.
The scenes back in Adana are tender, as we get to know Kemal's mates there. As Kemal arrives in Adana, "as soon as I got off the train I kissed the ground. My homeland's soil, warmed by the bright June sun." Kemal's deep love of his homeland and its people carry this book onward toward its conclusion.
In The Idle Years Kemal bounces from job to job, trying to find a path in life. One of the funniest scenes is when he decides to join a road work crew. Energized by the physical labor, he throws himself into the shoveling, ignoring the advice of a co-worker to slow the pace. Having never worked before, he neglects to bring a lunch or a canteen of water. By early afternoon, his body is so tied up in knots, he cannot move. He is fired.
This second book is a story of awakenings--to political ideas about labor and freedom, to responsibility, and to love. Like the first book, it is told with tenderness and with honesty.
It's a fascinating, endearing look at Turkey and at Turks. I look forward to reading more of Kemal.
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