Novel investigation

The Naive and the Sentimental Novelist; Orhan Pamuk; Penguin books; Price: Rs. 450; Pages 190 Right through the 20th century, several eminent writers including Jose Ortega Y. Gasset (1925), Walter Benjamin (1930), and in the latter half of the 20th century, Gore Vidal and Roland Barthes predicted the death of novel writing as a literary art form. In the 1970s the once very popular writer Tom Wolfe (Bonfire of the Vanities) predicted that œnew journalism would displace the novel. But these predictions have proved untrue. According to book trade sources, novels haven™t lost their narrative power and appeal, and outsell non-fiction by a factor of at least 5:1. Turkish writer Orhan Pamuk who was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 2006, condenses 35 years of experience as a novelist into this slim volume that™s part autobiography, part literary criticism. A lecture series transformed into essays, it™s a learned discourse which deeply scrutinises the form, structure and purpose of great novels which he says become œsecond lives for readers. To this end, he delves into the minutiae of literary techniques, cross-referencing iconic novels and works of literary criticism by British, Russian, French, German, Turkish and Spanish writers and scholars, not to mention the ancient Greeks and a sprinkling of writers from a few other nationalities thrown in for good measure. Quite obviously Pamuk is extraordinarily well-read. Two grand recurring metaphors ” one comparing a novel to a museum in which the language and idioms as well as customs of a time, place and community are preserved; and the other comparing the litterateur who paints in words to a painter of landscapes ” are employed to expound his theories. Structurally, the book is divided into six chapters, topped by an epilogue. Though this work is short by the standards of literary criticism, it is no less effective for that. Indeed, its succinct and crisply edited text is a real pleasure to read. The title is misleading, for it uses the English word ˜sentimental™ as a translation of sentimentalisch, a German word used by poet, historian and playwright Friedrich Schiller (1759-1805) to describe novelists who analyse their own work constantly as they write, as opposed to the ˜naive™ novelists who write by pure instinct. Clearly Pamuk™s allegiance is to the sentimental school, though he does express a touch of envy for the blithe creativity of the na¯ve novelist. The compendium begins with the author exploring the fascinating duality of a writer immersing himself in a fictional world while being simultaneously aware that it™s make-believe. However, Pamuk goes further, analysing this intriguing paradox from the point of view of the writer. He examines the commonplace phenomenon of readers often blurring the distinction between the writer of a novel and the protagonist, of how accomplished authors draw from a store of personal experiences and empathy, to portray emotions and events in words that seem authentic to the reader, and how a skillful sentimental novelist uses this awareness to draw in his audience. Pamuk also…