Portrait of a Turkish Family

Rating:
Summary: Evocative, but incomplete
Review: As the other reviewers say, this is a very good book to read before travelling to Turkey. It evokes Turkey as it was in the first part of the 20th century and, in some ways, remains. There are many memorable scenes such as the five-year-old Orga going to the Turkish bath with his grandmother, his circumcision ceremony, and his mother's decision go against the mores of the time by removing her veil.

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It would also have been nice if Orga had more fully discussed Turkish society and the events of the day. For example, he describes life at military school and an angry confrontation with the Armenian students at the school. He comments that "the hatred between the Turks and Armenians is notorious," relates an incident illustrating that hatred and leaves it at that. He never attempts to analyze the roots of that hatred nor does he mention the massacre of the Armenians that had recently occurred. Despite this, the book is a success. It is one of the few books of its kind that was written by a Turk for an English-reading audience. Because of his wife's assistance (Orga's knowledge of English was limited when he wrote the book), it is a well-written and often moving book, especially in its final pages. It is a good read and, for the reader interested in Turkey, complements a book like Turkey Unveiled: A History of Modern Turkey.


Rating:
Summary: Turkey in a book
Review: I read this book in Istanbul and it was fabulous. Orga's prose is beautiful (even if his spoken english was limited at the time), and reads more fluidly than most novels. A reader interested in Turkey and the Turks can do no better.

Rating:
Summary: Turkey in a book
Review: I read this book in Istanbul and it was fabulous. Orga's prose is beautiful (even if his spoken english was limited at the time), and reads more fluidly than most novels. A reader interested in Turkey and the Turks can do no better.

Rating:
Summary: A beautiful book
Review: I was talked into buying this book by the owner of a book shop in the Sultan Ahmet, the old part of Istanbul. The back page had a guarantee that if I didn't like it, I could get my money back. What could I lose?

As it turns out, I couldn't put the book down. The way in which Mr. Orga's powerful use of words created visuals of old Istanbul and relevant cities was brilliant. The story became very three-dimensional right at the outset.

The account of Mr. Orga's family's survival during heart-wrenching times is inspiring; while the pain and suffering are so well conveyed, there is nothing gruesome about the book. The delicate way in which thoughts and events are described invokes the visuals and emotions the reader requires to feel the gravity of the situations; however, there is still a beauty of the human spirit that belies it all.

This is a story I would recommend to any reader who enjoys feeling a story, rather than just reading it; to readers whose inner world is affected, even if just a little bit, by experiencing a well-presented story.

Rating:
Summary: This book is quite amazing! - A little gem!
Review: In the age of postmodern attempts to describe what "real" families are like Orga offers a compelling look at the life of a Turkish family (hence the title I guess)during the period between 1912 and 1940. This is an autobiography, the writer who is not a native English speker wrote the book in English - I give it 4.5 stars only because I find the language to be somewhat lacking, at the same time the subject matter is simply breath-taking

The author who was born into a prosperous family describes his family descent into poverty during WWI and their struggle to survive after the war. the book also offers a glimpse at the transition in Turkey's culture in the aftermath of WWI and Kemalist revolution.

The book is very moving and the descriptions of the authors family are real the problems that people in the book are facing are also real offering a welcome respite from the made-up troubles of the families in current literature that strive to appear real.

Rating:
Summary: A powerful true story of endurance and adaptation
Review: Portrait Of A Turkish Family is the true and biographical story of a Turkish family's effort to persevere through incredible and disastrous wartime hardships by Irfan Orega, a son of that family. World War I brought poverty and desperation to the formerly affluent Orega family, and small triumphs over something as small as a silver candlestick became crucial pieces of hope for the family's survival. A powerful true story of endurance and adaptation, Portrait Of A Turkish Family is an extraordinary biographical testament and very highly recommended reading.

Rating:
Summary: The glory that was Istanbul
Review: This is a delightful and deeply moving family saga spannining the years between 1910 and 1940 in Istanbul. It is kind of an autobiography, memoirs narrated from the eldest son of a once powerful Turkish bourgeois family. It stresses the tension of the transition from the Ottoman regime to that of the modern democracy invented by Kemal Ataturk. It is like a lament for the loss of the old order, not of the Ottoman one, because the author is a solid democrat, but of the old serenity as conceived by the bourgeois classes before 1918. The reader may enjoy some moments of excellent style in the traditional narrative literary form. The old Istanbul comes out as from an Edwardian scrap book. A non-Turkish reader will learn a lot for the clashes and the turmoil deep in the Turkish soul during and after the Great War. This is a masterpiece of low-key traditional literature, a piece of work that gives emphasis on the richness of sentiments. A must.

Rating:
Summary: Read this book in Turkey
Review: This is an excelent book to read while visiting Istambul,it is an Autobiography of a family during the last days of the Sultanate, the first world war and the after the war years. But is also the story of a family that was first rich and then totaly poor, a family destroyed by the war and a mother that has to be strong enough to keep alive with three kids and a mother in law without knowing even how to work but they learn how to survive. This is a book beutifully written and you will enyoy reading it during a visit to Turkey or afterwards so you can actually feel each description given by the author.

Rating:
Summary: The intimate life of a forgotten era.....
Review: What beautiful writing! Very emotional as only real life can be.Having grown up with this old style of writing and speaking, it is refreshing to see it, somehow Irfan Orga makes it seem as you are there.Please don't miss this opportunity to read this book. A true journey into Turkey, during her most trying times, it stirs the soul.