'A book is not its plot': Orhan Pamuk on new novel A Strangeness in My Mind

Speaking in Brooklyn on Wednesday night, the Nobel Laureate explains why he wanted to explore the ‘epic’ life of a street yogurt vendor in latest book

After one of Orhan Pamuk’s students berated him for spoiling the ending of Anna Karenina, he made a new rule: read the book’s summary on Wikipedia before coming to seminar, because “a book is not its plot.”

There was a time in the history of literature when the story was more important than the details, the Nobel Laureate and Columbia University professor told an audience on Wednesday at the Brooklyn public library as part of an author series arranged by Community Books and Congregation Beth Elohim. But in his own writing, Pamuk said: “It’s not the character and the story that come first, it’s the little details – the novelist wants to go in some direction and creates the character to take you to that direction.”

Continue reading...