Scale and Selma Nalbantoğlu belong to the middle class of Turkish society. Many years after the birth of her two sons resentment and Hakan they get in the eighties again unexpectedly young. Nazperi (short: Peri) they call the girl. The child grows up in a quarter of the Asian side of Istanbul as well-protected father daughter, the need of nothing. But she is not happy. Because her parents’ home is a war zone, on which two rival, opinionated, opposing partner throw down the gauntlet every day.
Gern sitting Peri at Mensurs side to his stories, revolutionary songs and Anatolian ballads about broken hearts and unrequited love listen. The father had traveled as a marine engineer far, what has made him a secular, liberal Democrats and sharpened his gaze to his country. In almost every room of the apartment a portrait looks of Kemal Ataturk from ornate picture frame on the family down, and even a drinking cup decorated with signature and a striking quote from the founder of the modern Republic of Turkey: “The civilized world is ahead of us, there remains for us no choice as to catch up with her.
” Mensur, holds “Without him it would go with us, as in Iran, never! Forget” his daughter frequently reminded. That he seeks to numb his gloom dwindling over Ataturk importance dreary prospects of politics and the machinations of politicians with alcohol, Allah will not smokes an otherwise good man who does not play, not chasing the women certainly look.
Mother Selma shares the views of her husband but by no means. Recently she has joined a religiously motivated anti-male circle, dressed entirely in black, leaving only her face is free to see men refused her hand in greeting or farewell. Even a vacancy just seat on the bus she would never take if earlier man has been sitting on it. Overnight, she has all the products that could be treated with porcine gelatin, banished from the budget, including shoes from abroad. Instead of toothpaste a Miswakzweig used now.
The obedient Peri is torn between the conflicting messages of their parents. With her mother she prays to Allah in secret and wears without a murmur socks from goat wool and sandals instead of shoes fashionable as her classmates. The strange behavior, and they scoff at Peri.
Peris oldest and dearest brother displeasure committed to left-liberal politics, his example is Karl Marx. When he was arrested after a raid, is sentenced to several years in prison and is suffering there humiliation and torture that tensions are still in the home. Under recriminations – father had “planted in displeasure head the seeds of wickedness,” Mother had followed the promised by fanatical preachers “smell of paradise”, rather than paying attention to the real development of her son – drifts the family further and further apart.
Peri infested states excessive anxiety during which her a mysterious, menacing creatures, the genie appears. To expel the demon, Selma tried a Hodja, but the exorcism can not do anything. Peri had recited the first Koran Sure, the genie would never have come across it. In future, the mother should take better care of their child, because it had a “penchant for the dark”.
Peri is desperate and helpless. Terrible nightmares they pursue, she hides in the closet. In their conflict can not be more, as her mother had taught her to turn to Allah. How can he do this to innocent people like her brother so terrible things? How can he be both near and unattainable? “God is a maze … a puzzle that never fit together the parts apparently.” You must realign their relationship with God. Quite turn away from him, to ignore him as father has told her there is no solution for them: they will proceed to argue with God. “By solved puzzles, it would make sense of the absurdity of reason in the madness order into chaos and perhaps get lucky.”
So, the search moves to God with all the questions that which there is no answer, a thread through Peris life. In Mansur’s request – “only education can save us” – goes Peri to study in Oxford. There she is admitted to an exclusive philosophical and theological seminary with a few selected participants of different faiths, which organizes the charismatic Professor Azur. Its aim is to “promote empathy … understanding and wisdom, sophos , in connection with the presentation of God ‘”. It involves a variety of answers to the toughest questions of our time. “In short, confusing and confused ….”
Here is learning Peri Shirin and Mona, with whom she soon enters into a residential community. A chance encounter – or, as Peri appears in retrospect, part of a controlled experiment by Professor Azur? Because Azur is convinced that God works combining teaching students. Making people who do not fit together in a room together, can contribute their different conceptions of God for mutual improvement. And the three Muslim girlfriends – “the sinner, the believer and Confused” – vary considerably in their style, biography and lifestyle. The existential experiment ends after misinterpreted feelings and psychological injuries in a scandal with far-reaching consequences. Answers not found for their search for God, His love, His justice and their own way Peri. The cosmopolitan Professor Azur and its controversial seminar they leave behind as “Tangled”.
The three female figures, the Turkish author Elif Shafak has created a mirror image of the torn Turkish society of our day. Involved in an ever again pushed the framework act of sophisticated discourse on the philosophical and religious themes forms the real focus of the novel.
In 2016 Peri lives with three children and husband in Istanbul. Here the story begins with an entertaining, smug state description of fifteen million inhabitants, the seemingly descends into chaos. With Peris family, we gain insight into the luxury villas of the bestsituierten climber circles, where women appraise each other by outward appearances and the conservative men each other their new national consciousness insure. Democracy European model lead with its petty debates about nothing and was wrong right from their equality in concept, as “uneducated” with right to vote could burn down in the end “the house” like a baby, which one matches pressed into his hand. How much more suitable for the Islamic world and especially the big Turkey but was a “managed democracy” under the guidance of a wise, “strong leader”. It was no longer “the sick man of Europe”, but “fear us Europe.
"The Smell Of Paradise" By Elif Shafak. (2019, Nov 18). Retrieved from https://paperap.com/the-smell-of-paradise-by-elif-shafak-my-review/