Rating: 
Summary: Another masterpiece by Pamuk
Review: An incredible story.Very rich in ideas.It certainly has a unique way of looking at the world and certainly Turkey.I think this is the most clever work of Pamuk.
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting Journey
Review: As a quote from Joseph Cambell says: "We must be willing to get rid of the life we've planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us." The concept of Pamuk's book is indeed refreshing, and he has quite a talent of making people feel uncomfortable. Makes one come up with alot of What-ifs, alot of questions about Life, and readers will find it hard not to identify to some extent with the protagonist and question our own reactions to his situation, and THE BOOK that changes his life. This novel takes alot of re-reading and thinking (but not too much) to get at the truth -- but perhaps truth is what we make of it, truth is what directly speaks to each individual. Pamuk's writing style is rather reminiscent of Yashar Kemal at some parts and he is definitely a writer who contributes significantly to Turkish literature, dealing with the dilemmas and issues that a Turk has to face in a modern nation trying to find its place, but also trying to seek answers for humanity in general. Perplexing at parts when the many spheres of fantasy and reality merge, but the effort is worth it.
Rating: 
Summary: Started well but then got very dull
Review: As a voracious reader of literature myself, I could initially identify with the idea that reading a book could change your life. But the main character in this book just seemed so overwhelmingly lost and in general, the book felt like the author was on pot or something when he wrote it. I held out, however, (it was a birthday gift from my little sister after all) and I finished the book so I have to say that after pages and pages of dull narrative the ending was relatively interesting and almost cool. But still, I wouldn't have missed anything if I hadn't read this book and I don't know if I want to give this author another chance. I'm all for searching for the things that will give one's life a deeper and truer meaning, but this book is just boring, even if it is set in one of my most favourite countries in the world.
Rating:
Summary: Haunting
Review: I can't say I liked this book when I first began it. But I quickly became almost possessed by the story, and now, almost two years after I first read it, I am still haunted by Pamuk's words and imagery. It does require many of the same reading techniques as poetry, which can make it harder to access. I don't quite understand how others find The New Life an overwhelmingly depressing book. To me, it moved through some of the most depressing and random events of life (exemplified by the bus crashes, the relentless destruction and reinvention of the past in the name of progress, etc.) and found the hope within it. Beauty, which can be terrifying and overwhelming at times, is often devalued in our society and exchanged for the pretty and the safe. I found The New Life to be a beautiful book -frightening,overwhelming, but in the end, magical.
Rating:
Summary: The Edge of Existence
Review: I have read few books that made me know with certainty the inevitability of my rereading them. I thought this as I read "War and Peace." And who can blame me? I haven't reread it yet; I am saving it for old age . . .or something.
I have read Anna Karenina four times and think I am beginning to "get it". That isn't to say I didn't get "it" before, it's just that some written works are too rich, too deep to be tossed off in a literature-as-fast-food sort of vein. They require the rumination of years.
Friends, I ACHED after reading this story; I HURT, I felt DISTURBED by reading it and by NOT reading it; MOVED, excited and overwhelmed. Did I say MOVED?
That is what art does. This book is an art form.
If you don't like strong sentiment . . . if reading yourself to the wary thin edge of existence is not your sport, then I can't recommend this book. Ah, but if you like to read powerful, clever, strong AND philosophical literature (may I add mystical, symbolic and metaphorical to the list?), if you want the literary equivalent of a mind-altering experience, something akin to, say -- a train wreck, a head-on collision . . .THE LOVE OF YOUR LIFE . . . if you want to be immobilized in your seat, to look up and find that you by-passed your customary stop, passed up a good meal waiting at home, perhaps even your own fate, the New Life is transformative; it is precisely for you.
The New Life is on my list of inevitable re-reads. I will reread it so I can ride those colliding buses in the Turkish hinterlands again realizing, via the agency of this book, that I am still (somehow) throbbingly alive. Mr. Pamuk shows us how slim volume becomes unequivocal masterpiece.
The New Life expounds its powerful and now famous first sentence. Read it and be awed.
Rating:
Summary: A Maze
Review: I have read this book because of my final paper. Before, as a Turk reader, I did not like Orhan Pamuk because his novels and his words were so difficult to understand the main subject.However this novel is different even though it is a different perspective and continiuty of hs other novels. When you read carefully, you find a maze.For example,when writer reached to a town named Viranbað to looking for Mehmet,you can underline that Viranbað passed in the novel at the begining when writer tells about his memories. Most of clues is like this in the novel and the most surprising thing is at the end. If you read carefully, you can see that the writer, Mehmet, Dr. Narin and Uncle Rýfký are the same person.Also, most of the people think that the hero of the novel died at the end but donot forget that if he died, he could not write the book. On the other hand, novel is criticizing the Turkey. For example, the accidents-the rate is really high now in Turkey- or the congresses which are done for solving problems(in novel the problem is the West problem of Turkey.Some people want to keep culture and so refuse the new.)become for creating problems. There are no solutions just talking about problems. It is like crying wall.Consequently, this novel also underlines the cultural problems of Turkey invisibly.It is a successful novel. I congratulate Orhan Pamuk.
Rating:
Summary: A book about a book
Review: I never heard of the author before I bought this book, I was browsing through the shelves of a bookstore in the literature section one day when I saw this book. I opened it and read the first sentence
"I read a book one day and my whole life was changed" I found myself drawn to it and read quickly through the first pages, I knew then that I must buy this book, and I wasn't disappointed one bit. The fact that it was written by a contemporary Turkish writer encouraged me even more since I never read literature written by Turkish writers. The story is so powerful, intriguing, and mysterious. It takes you into a journey seeking the truth, a journey looking for the meaning of life passing through the streets and cities of turkey. A truth that you might never find. The ending is so powerful, as powerful as the beginning, it has compensated for some moments of disappointment that I had reading through the story, disappointment of only wanting to know the truth sooner. It eventually turned out to be a book about a book. When reading this novel I felt the same feelings I had when I read "Gabriel Garcia Marquez". I cannot explain it in words, but very few books have effected me the same way this book has.
Rating:
Summary: a breathing book
Review: The New Life - this book feels less of a book and more of a live thing. It seems to reach beyond the boundaries of the page to spill out into your life - very much like the book within the book. The New Life is partly about a book, one that inspires its readers to abandon their lives in quest of a New Life. We never learn what this revolutionary book holds within its pages - but we witness people turning their lives upside down, chasing after an unknown goal, traveling to distant locales, traveling in circles, just moving until they find the thing they are sure they'll recognize when they see it. Could the book be a religious doctrine? The Koran? The Bible? A new message from a new prophet? We never know for sure. Is it the doctrine of the West imposing itself on the East - causing people to abandon their personal culture for something seemingly without substance? These questions are not surely answered, and that is part of the magic. The youthful protagonist leaps into the quest partly inspired by a young woman who read the book too. His adventures riding buses throughout Turkey, witnessing accidents, searching for the woman, finding her, searching for an elusive angel, and encountering a cult of people who treasure products of individuality rather than of Western corporate franchises pull the reader forward into a world torn between utopia and dystopia. Ultimately, one's interior world and one's relationship to love seems to be the only sure island to stand upon. Pamuk is wonderful at illuminating quiet hauntings within our souls.
Rating:
Summary: The book inside the book is your story
Review: This book presents brilliantly nostalgic snapshots of Turkey while weaving them together into an elusive and mysterious quest for identity. The book inside the book has been carefully crafted to become a placeholder for any of the invisible forces that shape our lives such as commercialism, dogma, religion, family obligation or idealism. This book is not an easy read. It requires you to let go of traditional concepts of time, space and story-telling. The post-modernist style is a perfect match for the subject at hand as it deeply resonates with our internal swirl of dreams, fears and races against time. Overall "The New Life" has a thematic universality in that one can relate to it as an east meets west experience as well as a reflection of the western world's very contemporary search for meaning and purpose in life.
Rating:
Summary: The book inside the book is your story
Review: This book presents brilliantly nostalgic snapshots of Turkey while weaving them together into an elusive and mysterious quest for identity. The book inside the book has been carefully crafted to become a placeholder for any of the invisible forces that shape our lives such as commercialism, dogma, religion, family obligation or idealism. This book is not an easy read. It requires you to let go of traditional concepts of time, space and story-telling. The post-modernist style is a perfect match for the subject at hand as it deeply resonates with our internal swirl of dreams, fears and races against time. Overall "The New Life" has a thematic universality in that one can relate to it as an east meets west experience as well as a reflection of the western world's very contemporary search for meaning and purpose in life.
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