Book Review: Other Colors: Essays and a Story by Orhan Pamuk - Page 2

For fiction writers, reading these essays, observing the great care and passion Pamuk puts into his story-telling, helps us understand what it means to be a writer.

As I sit at my table, for days, months, years, slowly adding words to empty pages, I feel as if I were bringing into being that other person inside me, in the same way that one might build a bridge or a dome, stone by stone. As we hold words in our hands, like stones, sensing the ways in which each is connected to the others, looking at them sometimes from afar, sometimes from very close, caressing them with our fingers and the tips of our pens, weighing them, moving them around, year in and year out, patiently and hopefully, we create new worlds.

When this 400 page book of essays reaches the end, we are not disappointed. Pamuk was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, and Other Colors concludes with the text of his Nobel Lecture delivered in Stockholm. How fitting to mark the end of this collection with his speech, entitled: "My Father's Suitcase." In it, Pamuk reflects on what it means to be a writer and he works his craft to an impeccable level of skill, captivating us with the mysteries encased in his father's lifetime of notebooks left at his feet.

"I am now going to speak of the meaning of that weight: that weight is what a person creates when he shuts himself up in a room and sits down at a table or retires to a corner to express his thoughts – that is, the weight of literature."

Article Author: Helen Gallagher

Helen Gallagher reviews non-fiction books and shares insights when attending author and publishing events on Chicago's North Shore. She is a national speaker on technology, writing and publishing. She's a member of American Society of Journalists & …

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