Customer Reviews (4)

In reference to other reviewers
The reviewer from above who talks of three classic Turkish stories clearly read the Turkish book "Three Anatolian Legends" WHICH IS NOT THE SAME as the English "Anatolian Tales". This book "Anatolian Tales" is a compilation of short stories written by Yasar Kemal in his earlier years. In total it is 7 different stories, the stories take place in the very recent past. "Three Anatolian Legends" is Yesar Kemal's re-telling of 3 very famous Turkish folklore. Unfortunately "Three Anatolian Legends" has not been translated into English.

After having read "Anatolian Tales" I have to say it is not the best work of Yashar Kemal's that has been translated, but not bad at all.

Anatolian Tales
This collection of short stories seems to vividly capture the essence of life in rural Turkey.It is a dog's life, often times brutal and tragic.Yet, each tale has a veiled moral that reflects the good nature of the people.

I am living in Turkey at the moment and I see things that seem so unjust, so inhumane on a daily basis.And yet, I personally experience such warmth and goodness from most people.This book helped me to see deeper into what is goes on around me.I think I now understand why most people have a can't do attitude.

One of my Turkish friends put it as gently as she could, that Kemal is considered a Communist.The lady who recommended the book said her maid, who is a Kurd, was thrilled to see she was reading it.

Anatolian Tales
Yasar Kemal is one of the best Turkish novel writers. Perhaps he is the most known writer around Europe as a Turkish writer.Anatolian Tales is Yasar Kemal's one of the best books. In this book there are three storieswhich are written in an interesting way.These three stories passes aroundthe main land of Turkey in Anatolia. They are tales. There are somewritings explaining the tradition in the time of Ottoman Empire inAnatolia. I think this book is a "must read" for Turkish peopleand all others who areinterested in beautiful lands of Anatolia...

Anatolian Tales
Yasar Kemal is one of the best Turkish novel writers. Perhaps he is the most known writer around Europe as a Turkish writer.Anatolian Tales is Yasar Kemal's one of the best books. In this book there are three storieswhich are written in an interesting way.These three stories passes aroundthe main land of Turkey in Anatolia. They are tales. There are somewritings explaining the tradition in the time of Ottoman Empire inAnatolia. I think this book is a "must read" for Turkish peopleand all others who areinterested in beautiful lands of Anatolia... ... Read more

Product Description
Ismail Agha, a Kurd, treats the Turkish orphan Salman as his son and heir, the apple of his eye, until his wife gives him a son of his own. Then the green-eyed serpent jealousy enters the household and nobody's life is safe. Yet when the knives are drawn, none of the village gossips have correctly predicted who will be the victim. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

Not bad but not good either

I bought this book after travelling to Turkey several years ago and being told by everyone I met that Yashar Kemal was 'The greatest living Turkish writer' Believe me he isn't. The book is well written but is overshadowed by Yashar Kemal's own political agenda (leftist)that totaly misrepresents South Eastern Turkish culture.Kemal just gives us the usual nonsense to pander to the Western audience, Sunni sword weilding fanatics, Kurds and Armenians skipping and dancing together in perfect harmony yawn!

If you are looking for a book that represents Turkish culture then this isn't it, there are far better Turkish writers that Yashar kemal but unfortunately there works have not been translated.
(Ahmed Hamdi, Necip Fazil the list is endless)

By the way, if you do buy this book you will not need to buy any other or you will find as I have that pretty much all of Yashar Kemals novels are exactly the same.

Boys, Bandits, and Bestiality---a Brilliant Epic
Bubbling up, welling into the world from deep inside, this heady mixture of myth, legend, and Turkish folktale comes, not from tradition but from the fertile imagination of Yashar Kemal.As in his other books, the reader enters a world of flashing, flying colors, repeated images and metaphors, coppery mists, blood-dripping trees, violence, love, and jealousy.Lightning zigzags through the clouds ever more threateningly, the wind carries the scents of the mountain, bitter plants, thyme, pennyroyal, rocks, and eartth, boys dig for kingfishers, men shoot and devour herds of gazelles and spend years of their lives fighting with endless wastes full of thorny trees.Nothing is minimalist about Kemal.Perhaps we could call him a "maximalist"; he creates the maximum amount of atmosphere.

The depth of Kemal's characters comes obliquely, through the thick tissue of mythological repetition and slow transformation.Perhaps the weaving of a Turkish kilim, or traditional carpet, would not be a bad metaphor for how the story proceeds.The filips, the changes of direction and mood, are not found in dialogue between characters so much as in passages of gossip among unnamed villagers.SALMAN THE SOLITARY, while similar in style to the other Kemal novels I've read, seems less coherent, though fascinating nonetheless.Several stories are wound together like separate colors of a carpet.Young boys, with childish perceptions of events and childish appreciation of natural beauty, feature as always.Then, there is the story of the Kurdish Ismail Agha, his flight from war and massacre, and rebirth as a Cukurova landlord---the Cukurova being the nearly-mythological land where Kemal himself was born.Third, there is the legend of Halil Zalimoglu, a village youth from the mountains who labors for a rapacious Cukurova landlord for seven years, denying himself everything to save money.In the end, the landlord refuses to pay him.Zalimoglu's revenge follows.And fourth, in the title role, as it were, is the story of Salman, an abandoned green-eyed waif left to die by the roadside, saved by Ismail Agha during his refugee flight, and brought up in his household.Salman grows up a loner, a strangeling, obsessed with power and position.He is jealous of everyone, especially Ismail Agha's real son.He shoots eagles.The interplay of all these stories forms SALMAN THE SOLITARY which, as I said, at times seems to lack coherence.

The Turkish world of Kemal's books differs considerably from the Turkey we see from the outside world.Perhaps Kemal's Turkey is a continuation on the printed page of the Ottoman Turkey that was an incredible melange of peoples, languages, tribes, and cities, a vibrant civilization that produced a great culture.Such a civilization, based on an imperial system, could not easily be turned into a nation state.For political and administrative reasons, then, Turkey re-invented itself as a monolingual, mono-ethnic state.How far the two images---one in fiction, one in newspapers and history books---have reconciled, I don't know.Perhaps Kemal's image bears elements of wishful thinking, perhaps not.In any case, this novel, like his others, presents a colorful, violent world where men wrest their lives in struggles with the land and each other, a novel well worth reading, a novel that opens worlds undreamt of in quiet New England towns by the sea.

Classic Yasar Kemal
A good story told vividly, old world setting, unusual people, customs and surroundings.His writing is like a bright painting.Even though translation, which done by no other than Y. Kemal's recently departed dear Thilda who did almost all of his translations, inevitably costs some of the luster of the language and depth of expression, it is still haunting. The setting is his beloved Cukurova. People, a mosaic of the Anatolia he dreams, Turcomans, Kurds, Arabs, Armenians, Circassians, and all who have called it home, their customs, rituals, and fears and conflicts parade in the book. What may not be too obvious to someone not familiar is that, he draws a picture of the landscape that is about a century old almost.Early days of the Republic, institutions and culture in transition, melting pot of the Empire slowly in reverse, turmoils and tragedies of World War I still quite fresh.A theme that comes up quite often in Kemal's books, and gets a little old.He seems to have been stuck in a certain time period. The book is pleasant to read.His style of mixing time slices and simple, non-analytic prose relying more on painting of scenes and people is quite powerful.Some of those scenes tend to be rather violent and uncut, remiscent of the "Koylu" writers movement that was so popular in Turkey in the 50s and 60s. Like many of his works, this book also reflects the rich texture and traditions of Anatolia.Y. Kemal is certainly one of the greatest story tellers of our time.Recommended read.

A Very Rare Success
Superb story.Kemal's style is poetic .He is definitely one of the greatest writers of all times

just imagine...
just imagine you are almost dead. someone finds you and flames the hopesin you to be a part of a family. here in this story, salman is the littleboy found by Ismail -a father of a family escaping from russian soldiers inthe eastern part of turkey-. Salman sees Ismail as his new father figure,and by the time Ismail's wife gives birth to a new child, Salman's love toIsmail turns to hatred that will lead to destruction... Yasar Kemal, notonly known well in his home country -Turkey-, a writer who has lots ofbooks translated into so many languages. One you will never regret to know. ... Read more

Product Description
Set in the mountains of Anatolia, this story of love, pursuit and vengeance recounts the efforts of Memed, a poor orphan, to obtain justice against a tyrant, even if it means taking to banditry to achieve his ends. The author also wrote "The Wind from the Plain" and "To Crush the Serpent". ... Read more

Customer Reviews (31)

Memed, My Hawk
Besides a universal mystery story that draws you in and makes you reluctant to put it down, it gives an intimate view into the everyday workings of the rural Turkish Culture.The title, which has rich meaning in that culture but is not well understood by or inherently attractive to Westerners, should be translated into English words that will indicate the excitement inside for readers regardless of their cultural origin.

Ince Memed
Kemal provides the reader with a window into life and constant struggle for justice in feudal Anatolia through Memed. The novel is written beautifully by Yashar Kemal's lyrical style and mastery of the Turkish language (translated seamlessly into English). Recommended for lovers of fine literature.

Cinemagraphic
Thanx to the reviewer who identified the film version with/by Peter Ustinov (but an absurd British Hollywoodization). Yes, Memed reads like a script for a film by Sergei Eisenstein--but a very, very good book, as has been vigorously noted, in a poetic yet naturalistic style redolent of East European writers. It is a tribute to the forebearance of Turkey's ruling elites that the book not only was allowed publication in 1955 (during the cold war), but also was allowed critical acclaim. So vigorous a denunciation of a country's large landowners could not have been published in England or the U.S.A. in the 1950s (in 19c English lit., the bad guys are almost always the noisy working class; in this regard, read David Lodge's Nice Work). Yes, Orhan Pamul, Turkey's Nobel lauriate and a fellow Istanbulite, presents a different style and milieu, that of the sophisticated, urban intelligensia in witty and philosophical and naughty interplay.

"There are no fields, no vineyards, no gardens. Only thistles."
It does not surprise me that this book, written in 1953 and translated into English in 1961, was made into a movie in 1984, starring Peter Ustinov, who also directed it. Its author, Yashar Kemal, was born in southern Anatolia and at the age of 5, witnessed the brutal murder of his father. His family lived in the shadow of the great and beautiful Taurus Mountains, which is the setting of this tale. It's clear the author knows his landscape well, and the characters that appear in this work were inspired by real bandits who inhabited those mountains and whom he knew as a child and young man.

"Memed, My Hawk" is cinematic and filled with extremes of emotion, a true action-packed adventure story that sometimes resembles a wild Western and at other times seems biblical in its descriptive power. True oppressors of the people, the landlords or "aghas," take on the profile of evil dictators as they steal the people's crops and land and relentlessly brutalizehelpless villagers. The land is the most treasured object there is. In this oppressive atmosphere, there is one who will not allow himself to be oppressed. And although he takes on heroic proportions in his grim struggle for justice, Memed is also compassionate and human. The author takes great pains to ensure that Memed is a real human being and not just a stock character, and he succeeds brilliantly.

Violent vengeful emotions and tribalism play big roles in this book. Villagers silently express themselves and support their heroes by banding tightly together and cursing their enemies. Evil acts are never forgotten. And vindication is what drives these characters forward every day. This book is a classic, a heavy dose of Turkish adventure, beauty, and cruelty. Although I was sometimes jarred by what must have been a rushed translation, I found myself thoroughly engrossed in this work. I recommend it as a quick read and as a way to achieving insight into oppressed peoples and their longing for liberation.

An Eastern Western
This is a shoot-up in the old Zane Grey style......lots of swash and buckle. The setting may be the rugged outback of Anatolia in the 1920's but the plot is pure horse-opera. Scarcely worth the time of day for a grownup, alas.

John Truman NYC ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A classic from Yasar Kemal
I shortly call the book as Murder in Blacksmith's I have read the book in Turkish. I don't know if it has been translated.This book is the first part of a story called "Akcasazim Agalari". It's a very nice anda long novel. This novel passes in Anatolia like Yasar Kemal's othernovels. I think it is a very good book except some boring conversations.But they are not much important.I really like the way that Yasar Kemalwrites because he can explain a human's emotions and senses very good. Hereally cares about that in his books. ... Read more

Product Description
A violent chance encounter in a small Turkish fishing village results in a murder, for which Fisherman Selim is unfairly blamed. This tale of violence and obsession has been written by one of Turkey's leading contemporary novelists, the recipient of the Varlik Prize for "Memed, My Hawk". ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Kid Killer Meets Mythic Man in Marmara
Zeynel kicks open the café door and murders Ihsan in the first paragraph of Kemal's novel.Fisher Selim forces him to drop the gun and spits in his face, but doesn't turn him in.The contrast between these two is set up, then, on the very first page and lasts throughout the book.Zeynel becomes a wanted fugitive, fleeing endlessly around Istanbul, trying to stay one step ahead of the cops.The newspapers blow him up into Turkey's most wanted criminal, turn him into an all-powerful monster, lay each latest crime at his door.Selim dreams, fishes, mournslost loves for both woman and dolphin, mostly does little, but helps his fellow man. In this book, Kemal is not so much a writer as a mythmaker.If THE SEA-CROSSED SAILOR is not mythology, I'll eat my hat.It's modern mythology, though, with the forces of good being those who fight against rapacious capitalism and for the environment---for those who love dolphins, justice, and gardens, against those former drug and gun runners who knock down beautiful old houses and trees and put up nine story blocks of flats,. How many times does the sun stop at the horizon, rose-purple, rose-purple clouds floating about it, staining the water purple,while airplanes glided like golden bullets through the sun, flashing rose-purple in and out of the clouds ?Fisher Selim is a strong, wise hero who confronts evil in several forms, overcomes it, and is transformed.Kemal's writing is color, images piled on top of each other like eggplants, carrots, peppers, leeks, and cauliflowers in the Istanbul bazaar.The novel is packed chock-full of emotion---violence, sex, love, hate, anger, friendship, loyalty--- action, whether running from the cops or fishing or shooting down the guilty and innocent---dreams and visions.You will not find the placid ponds of suburbia here.Yashar Kemal may not be the philosopher that Orhan Pamuk is, but his Istanbul is far more lively than Pamuk's.It is not a middle-class, intellectual Istanbul in a dark suit.It is a city riven between super-rich and dirt-poor.It is the smell of rotten garbage floating in the Golden Horn and it is grilled fish dripping out of a hunk of bread onto your pants.The author's sympathy is always with the poor, the millions who toil and live in the jerry-built slums, whose homes are often knocked down by the city.Sait Faik, in his collection of stories "Dot on the Map" produced pale efforts in the same direction, in the same landscape, but Kemal's novel is the "complete submarine sandwich"-juicy, full of interesting bits, and extremely satisfying.Like the Brazilian author, Jorge Amado, Kemal brings a whole world alive in his novels, a world not much known to outsiders. ... Read more

Product Description
There is an ancient Turkish tradition that promises the person who frees a small bird a place in paradise. Three boys set up a business of catching birds to enable people to free them, but city people are now sceptical and tragedy lies in wait for the boys. The author also wrote "Memed, My Hawk". ... Read more