cbr17bingo Black
A collection of stories from an unusual author, a Turkish writer who lived from 1934 to 1977. Some of them are fables, some are mystical, and a few are more realistic. For me, some resonated, and some were impenetrable. And a few had a sly sense of humor.
Like Not Yes Not No, which cracked me up. A young man gets a job answering letters to a paper asking for personal advice (think Dear Abby). M.C. writes in to state he has written a love letter to a young lady, but she will not give him an answer, as the title describes. The columnist tries to be very diplomatic about it, but it escalates and M.C. continues to write back, demanding some sort of answer. It isn’t long before the columnist starts losing all patience with his persistent correspondent.
I’m not looking for your advice or ideas or thoughts about what I wrote, just does this girl have a heart or not (NOT. NOT.) does she love me or not? (SHE DOES NOT.) What should I do about all of this? (NOTHING.) Tell me what to do sir. (Even if I did, would you do it?)
Otherwise the stories ran a gambit between some I liked, such as Railway Storytellers: A Dream (Storytellers have their huts along a railway platform and will come out to tell you a story before you depart, but there aren’t as many trains these days, or storytellers too for that matter) and then there is Waiting for the Fear, in which a paranoid guy just goes off for page after page. No thanks.
I don’t think I’ve ever read anything by a Turkish writer before, and it struck me rather the way many Argentinian writers do – almost European, but with its own special flavor.