The Saint of Incipient Insanities by Elif Şafak

Monday, May 16, 2005

Book Review

* ELMIRA BAYRASLI - TDN Guest Writer

  Turkey s greatest novelist may not be Orhan Pamuk. In reviewing her first English novel last year, The Economist lauded Elif Şafak as "well set to challenge Mr. Pamuk as Turkey s foremost contemporary novelist." If her debut English novel, “The Saint of Incipient Insanities” is any indicator, she has proven worthy.

  Harkening to Vladmir Nabokov s complex world of Sebastian Knight in the quest to understand identity, award-winning Şafak takes us on a bold and entertaining journey to explore this topic -- those questions that have become the main fodder for today s talk shows: life, love, happiness and self-identity -- in her latest book. And how we nod in acknowledgement and chuckle along.

  Set in Boston, it is the tale of Ömer Özsipahioğlu, a chain smoking, caffeine-addicted Ph.D. student from Istanbul whose obsession for measuring life out through his i-Pod diverts him from his political science studies at Boston University into matrimony with Gail, a bisexual American vegan with her own compulsion for chocolate and bananas, tying silver spoons in her hair, and suicide. They are enveloped in that thing called "life," trying to fit in, find acceptance, largely with themselves, as much as each other.

  Şafak s choice of using character rather than plot to drive her story exemplifies her literary savvy and seriousness. Literature is not a process but a destination, and there is no question that Şafak knows where she wants to take the reader. She gives us a series of hilarious adventures through Ömer and Gail, and other colorful and quirky characters in supporting roles such as Abed, a pious Moroccan who disapproves of Ömer s dalliances and drinking, and Piyu, a Spaniard who is otherwise distracted by his bulimic Mexican-American girlfriend Allegre and her cadre of tias (aunts) to pass judgment on any situation.

  Like most of the characters in The Saint, Şafak is a foreigner, not only to America where she is a professor at the University of Arizona, but to her native Turkey, having grown up most of her life in Western Europe. So she is innately in sync to notion of names, nationality, and racism -- elements that are tied together under "identity," which she believes "sets barricades among humanity, dividing us into different flocks and sub-flocks."

  At times her probe into this theme is distracting because at heart her book is not a heavy-handed look at the "old country" vs. "pop culture" MTV-America. Unlike other immigrant writers, Şafak is not exploring cultures and duality -- just as she makes a point not to define herself as either a "Turkish" or an "English"-speaking writer. Hers is a quest in search of who we are, regardless of our accents and the glaring reality that there are no boundaries or simple answers.

  Şafak dissects this topic through humorous banter on the not-so-light subjects of religion, politics and sex, drawing on both trenchant philosophical scholarship and ubiquitous pop culture. (Her ear for alternative and Indy tunes is eminently hip.) Her setting is always the kitchen table, where she feeds the reader a motley of culinary delights, making this waft of topics digestible. In one scene Şafak explores the notion of heaven and hell as Abed is "preparing one of his family size sunny Sunday breakfasts," when Gail asks him about the "notion of hell in Islam," to which Abed bemuses, "What s wrong with paradise, isn t it interesting enough for you?"

  What we come to realize through these kitchen scenes is that these vibrant and complex characters are not burdened with "foreignness" but rather are inflicted with a sense of alienation and insecurity, in the same way we all are. And despite their many idiosyncratic mishaps, fears and anxieties, they push ahead, knowing full well that life was "fundamentally unpredictable." So essentially, “The Saint of Incipient Insanities” is a story about us, told tongue-in-cheek by a writer who is brave, imaginative, visionary and poetic. This debut confirms Elif Şafak s place in Turkey and among the stars of the literary world, and divines more affecting works to come.

  * Elmira Bayrasli, spokesperson and director of press and public information, OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina 

http://www.turkishdailynews.com.tr/article.php?enewsid=13311