Like Proust has given Paris an identity or Joyce to London, Pamuk has become the torchbearer of modern Turkey and all that it represents.
The black book, one of the earliest novel of Pamuk, is a metaphysical, post modern mystery and thriller riddled with questions that has no answers.
The story revolves around the search for a detective story loving girl Ruya who disappears without any trace. Her husband Galip tries to find her. He searches for clues. He starts to investigate many people. Celal, a famous columnist and Ruya’s uncle disappeared too. After looking for a certain time Galip starts to mimic Ruya’s uncle’s identity. He goes to different places and discover different clues. In the process he showed the real condition, people’s aspirations and lives in background. After a certain time you will begin to understand that this background has became the real story somehow.
This is not a conventional thriller book. The book follows very little of the search but the process which the characters go through.
The main theme of this book is perhaps identity. Turkey, a country which tried to westernize since Ataturk’s era neither became western nor Ottoman. The fight between the radical right and left has transformed Turkey in various ways. Pamuk through his novels like Snow, Black book, Istanbul a memoir tried to show these after effects. He has blended metaphysics, mystery, postmodern narratives in a masterful way that this book has become a cult classic for his readers.