Morning Offerings from the Literary World

Two of my favorite writers were featured in the New York Times last week: Orhan Pamuk and Haruki Murakami. And they weren’t obituaries. They are both alive and well and producing wonderful images of their experience.

I am giving you pieces of these articles because the New York Times often limits viewing of the entire articles unless you are a subscriber.  However I wanted to give you a taste via these quotes.

From The New York Times article on Orhan Pamuk:

“Six years ago, the Turkish author and Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk received the plot summary of a planned television adaptation of one of his most celebrated novels, "The Museum of Innocence." As he flipped through its pages, he was horrified.

The production company had taken liberties far beyond what Mr. Pamuk considered reasonable in condensing for the screen his 500-page-plus tale of obsessive love in Istanbul in the 1970s and '80s, adding plot twists that he felt egregiously diverted his narrative.

So he struck back, suing the producer to reclaim the rights to his story.
"I had nightmares during that period, paying a lot of money by my standards to the California lawyer and worrying about, what if they shoot it the way they wrote it?" Mr. Pamuk said, speaking in his book-lined office on the top floor of the apartment building that his family built in Istanbul and where he grew up.”

I will be watching for the February 13th release of Museum of Innocence on Netflix and hope you will give it a look as well. Pamuk finally worked hand and hand with the Turkish producer of the film to ensure the story portrayed the Istanbul he knew without embellishments. It took 4 years but apparently is well worthwhile. 
My interest in Pamuk came from my sister who lived in Turkey during the same period and her close friend went to school with him. When he was awarded the Nobel prize she called to tell me of it. His many novels include the celebrated mystery of manuscript illustrators of the Ottoman period called Red, Snow, an intriguing story of politics and daily life in the eastern Anatolia region of Kars, and Istanbul, which paints the picture of his childhood and family life.  Of course there are so many more!

From Murakami article in the New York Times:
"I don't have any plan, I'm just writing, and while I'm writing, strange things happen very naturally, very automatically," Murakami said during an interview in New York in December.
"Every time I write fiction, I go into another world — maybe you can call it subconsciousness — and anything can happen in that world," he continued. "I see so many things there, then I come back to this real world and I write it down."
Murakami doesn't regard himself as a masterly prose stylist or a brilliant storyteller. In his telling, his one unique skill is his ability to travel between worlds and report back.”
Murakami’s novels have fascinated me ever since I read my first of his novels, The Windup Bird Chronicle, and was blown away. Here Murakami passes from one reality to another in his telling. Since then I have read at least 10 more including the marvelous Killing Commendatore and Kafka on the Shore. I am always tantalized by his style and magical adventures. 
A great fan of jazz—in fact in his 20’s he had a jazz bar in Tokyo—his writing is peppered with references that invite you into the experience. His culinary accounts also bring one into everyday life in Tokyo.

At 77 he is still writing and loving it. There are several new books I am anxious to read including one to be released in the fall, Abandoning a Cat, which apparently takes on his relationship with his father. Because of this article I have discovered many titles I must explore.

The beat goes on and I am pleased to be able to report to you these pleasant surprises from our international artistic community inspiring us even in these otherwise dark times.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/12/world/europe/orhan-pamuk-istanbul-turkey-museum-of-innocence.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/08/books/haruki-murakami-profile.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share