Escaping to Istanbul

We all seem to have our "escape" genres - the books we turn to when we just want to lose ourselves in a story. For some it's sci-fi, or fantasy, or romance, or horror. For me it's thrillers - not murder mysteries so much as international espionage, set in places I either know well, or have never been, often with some sort of historical interest. (No, in case you're wondering, I've never read anything by Gérard de Villiers, perhaps I should!)

I like to listen to audio books while I'm walking, or riding the metro, or exercising on the boring elliptical in the basement. My most recent was Istanbul Passage by Joseph Kanon, a story of spies, counter-spies, politics and personal relationships, set in Istanbul at the end of WWII. The title refers to the passage of boatloads of Jews, released from concentration camps in Eastern Europe, through Istanbul on their way to Palestine. Both money and information change hands, in this case putting American, British, Russian, Romanian, and Turkish interests on a collision course.

Contributing to this book's appeal for me was Jeffrey Mays' mesmerizing reading performance, which brought the characters and their dialogue to life in a way I simply wouldn't have appreciated as much if reading a printed copy. I thought his subtle command of accents, and sensitive portrayal of both male and female characters, was a tour-de-force.

Joseph Kanon tells a good story, and even if some of the plot is predictable, the characters are well-written, believable, and multidimensional. One of the major highlights of the book is its setting, with the city of Istanbul and the Bosphorus evocatively described by someone who obviously knows and loves them well. (Readers of this blog already know my affection for Orhan Pamuk, who has written some pretty suspenseful novels himself, but I've always had a desire to go to Istanbul, and this book increased that yearning.)

Kanon is sometimes compared to Graham Greene, and I can see why; this book is not merely a thriller, but an exploration of complicated moral issues in a way that Greene, I think, would have appreciated. The relationship between a man and three women - the protagonist's wife, confined to a mental institution; the prostitute he visits on Thursday afternoons; and the wife of a high-level American consul -- is set inside the larger story of espionage, itself complicated by personal relationships between various characters who have to balance their allegiance to particular causes with actual friendships. Nothing is black-and-white in this place where the fall of the Ottoman empire is a recent, stinging memory, but international politics and power still collide.

Some days after finishing the book, I found myself troubled by the fact that books like this hinge on the consequences of atrocities, especially, here, a particularly horrible massacre that occured in a Romanian concentration camp. There's a learning aspect, for sure; I've always felt that novels and films had tremendous power to educate and to influence, as well as to misinform and manipulate our emotions and opinions. And yet, I didn't think about that very much as I was listening to the story; I was detached from the actual events. It's another moral issue, isn't it - the use of war, genocide, and violence, as well as more individual and personal crimes, to entertain, and to profit? I find this the most problematic in movies, but I never really thought about it in terms of fiction, especially literary fiction. But as in Graham Greene, the subtlety of Kanon's presentation of moral questions and gray areas suggests to me that he may have thought about it himself. I think it would be a mistake to read Istanbul Passage as a story only, without considering the questions it raises: how people use each other; the limits of friendship; the cost of betrayal; the way ordinary people become pawns of those with greater power, forced to make decisions they never would have made; and the stories we tell ourselves afterward, to make it all go down more easily.

 

 

Comments

[Ned S.]

I was in Istanbul in October. It's a deceptive place- much of it is quite ordinary not particularly exotic at all on the surface but the longer I stayed, the more unfamiliar it became. I've travelled a lot in my lifetime but Istanbul remains inscrutable. I expected it to be a bit like Italy but it's not at all.In fact, it's not like anywhere else I know.

I like your blog- free flowing and wonderfully eclectic. I'll be back/

[Beth]

Thanks so much, Ned! Do come back, I'm very glad to hear you were here, and to read your impressions of this city that's always seemed enigmatic to me at a distance. I'm actually glad to know it doesn't lose that quality.

[Roderick Robinson]

Ross Thomas, frequently confused with Ross McDonald, and therefore almost unknown even in America where he was born and worked. Now dead these last two decades and thus ashes blowing in the wind.

I come on to Cassandra Pages and drop studied hints about Joyce, Proust and Musil but at home, in the secrecy of my own bath-tub, I am a fraud. Yet again I've just finished re-reading RT's almost-complete oeuvre (about twelve books) as I rest from more taxing authors. A quote, probably from the NYT, on the front of one says it all: "Ross Thomas never writes the same book twice." and I am seized by the fact that there are four other titles I do not own though I may have read. A trawl through ABE reveals all four at second-hand book shops in Tennessee, Idaho, etc, which means a long wait and extortionate p/p costs but I don't care. I need comfort in my bath-tub. The titles provide a clue: Twilight At Mac's Place, The Fools In This Town Are On Our Side, Out On The Rim.

What are they about? The grubby side of US politics, scams in the Phillipines, delicate corruption in small towns.

But if I cannot tempt you (and I shouldn't really try since I suppose RT qualifies as a guilty admission in some respects) let me recommend Alfred Brendel's two books of essays now combined into Alfred Brendel on Music: Collected Essays. Proof if any were needed that serious classical pianists of his stature are not over-paid for what they do. That three pages may be devoted to one caesura in one LvB sonata and that testing his theories about its authenticity at the keyboard can take months if not a professional lifetime. Thorough? I guess you could say so. But witty with it.

[Beth]

Dear Roderick, on the contrary, I can be tempted! I don't know anything about Ross Thomas but will investigate, on your recommendation. The Brendel books are on my list, a ways down, but definitely in the plan-to-read category, since I do play the piano and admire him greatly. In-between services today (Wm Byrd, Mass for Five Voices in the a.m., a "big sing" Victorian Magnificat and Nunc by Lang in the afternoon, sandwiched between two modern settings of the Prayer of the Venerable Bede, all this for Candlemas, during which processional I managed not to set my hair on fire) I went to the Bibliotheque nationale and took out the following three books, which will probably amuse you: John Banville, "The Sea," Thomas Mann, "The Beloved Returns," and "Midnight in Paris," by Alan Furst. My current audiobook is "The Life of Pi," and in progress on the nightstand are Robert Graves, "The White Goddess,"(that one will take a while) and Ryszard Kapuściński's "Imperium. You can guess which ones will make it into the bathtub.

[Earl]

Good review Beth! Also liked your poplars! A note re Istanbul—the city is anything but ordinary or inscrutable. The delicious, perfumed air from the sea, and the warm, open, unspoiled Turks make this city a truly exotic delight!

[Sheemu]

hi i guess i can help to you.i live in istanbul but i've been Antalya so many times.firstly you can visit both of the ceitis in 8-9 days.and if you book the tickets earlier, it'll be very cheap.i think it's the best choice travelling both of them.cause both of them have unique places to visit. in Istanbul you can see lots of historical places, museums and especially you can see the gorgeous bosphorus.and there are so many beautiful cafes and restaurant near the sea.but there is one thing that you should know is you should be careful while you visit the historical places because the location is not so safe and there are so many tourist right there and they can try to rob.actually like everywhere.but you can be relax when you're at the seaside.it's really safe. well in Antalya, you have see lots of excellent beaches and also you can see some different places like Dim River,the intersting one Dim Cave, waterfalls(Dfcden,Manavgat,Kurşunlu) and you're right Antalya's really really touristy.and there is a website you can search to where to visit and get more information. i hope i could help you.if you have more questions, you can ask me.