The Bastard of Istanbul, Elif Shafak. Viking, $24.95 (368p) ISBN 978-0-670-03834-3, 1/22/2007
In
her second novel written in English (The Saint of Incipient Insanities was
the first), Turkish novelist Shafak tackles Turkish national identity and
the Armenian "question" in her signature style. In a novel that overflows
with a kitchen sink's worth of zany characters, women are front and center:
Asya Kazanci, an angst-ridden 19-year-old Istanbulite is the bastard of the
title; her beautiful, rebellious mother, Zeliha (who intended to have an
abortion), has raised Asya among three generations of complicated and
colorful female relations (including religious clairvoyant Auntie Banu and
bar-brawl widow, Auntie Cevriye). The Kazanci men either die young or take a
permanent hike like Mustafa, Zeliha's beloved brother who immigrated to
America years ago. Mustafa's Armenian-American stepdaughter, Armanoush, who
grew up on her family's stories of the 1915 genocide, shows up in Istanbul
looking for her roots and for vindication from her new Turkish family. The
Kazanci women lament Armanoush's family's suffering, but have no sense of
Turkish responsibility for it; Asya's boho cohorts insist there was no
genocide at all. As the debate escalates, Mustafa arrives in Istanbul, and a
long-hidden secret connecting the histories of the two families is revealed.
Shafak was charged with "public denigration of Turkishness" when the novel
was published in Turkey earlier this year (the charges were later dropped).
She incorporates a political taboo into an entertaining and insightful
ensemble novel, one that posits the universality of family, culture and
coincidence. (Jan. 22)