This Turkish novella is about longing, desire, and the shameful waste of a life by closing oneself off from the world. I enjoyed it very much, and whizzed through it in just a few days. There are no chapters, and subsequently no ideal place to put it down, which led to some intese reading sessions. I'd never heard of Sabahattin Ali before, and he only wrote two other novels, both of which are meant to be more politicial, and so probably not to my taste. The scholar who wrote the intro to my edition claims that this is likely Sabahattin's attept at writing something in the Romantic style, and less likely to be censored. He was imprisoned for his other writings against the Turkish state, and eventually assassinated whilst trying to flee to Bulgaria.
The main character in the novel is Raif Bey, a tediously shy and passive translator at a lumber firm who is belittled by his employer and family. The unnamed narrator of the story becomes intrigued by his unwaveringly dull colleague and attempts to draw him out, believing that nobody can truly be that closed off or dead behind the eyes. His suspicions pay off when he comes in possession of Raif's journal on his deathbed. The journal's tale is the bulk of the novella, and tells of how a young Raif moved to Germany after the collapse of the Ottoman empire to try and learn a trade in luxury soap. He meets Maria Puden at a seedy cabaret bar, after first becoming fixated on her self portrait at an art gallery. What follows is a typically trope-ridden romance where Raif is strung along by the manic pixie dream girl against a Bohemian backdrop, having his soul awakened, only for things to inevitably end in tragedy.
It's a hauntingly sad story, likely autobiographical, and it struck a deep chord with me about wasted opportunity. Whilst the story itself isn't particularly original, I really appreciated the way it was written, as Raif fluctuates between bitterness, hope, resignation and eventually complete emotional apathy. I've seen other reviewers on Goodreads comparing Raif to an incel, which seems a little unfair considering just how much the character tries to withdraw from society and not inflict his thoughts onto others, arguably the opposite of what an incel does. Apparently this book has had a recent surge in popularity due to Tiktok.
Rating: 4/5
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