greeny reviewed Three Daughters of Eve by Elif Shafak
Review of 'Three Daughters of Eve' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
tl;dr: Worth a read.
In this novel we join Peri, a wife and mother living in Istanbul joining an upper class diner party. The book is about three different stages in her life: Childhood, time at university in Oxford and her present life.
Istanbul and its development from the 80s to now is a major ingredient of this book.
We visit a city which represents like few other the clash of cultures and believes, right on the edge between Europe and Asia. This city has gone through a wide range of different phases and is inhabited by a mix of people with very different views.
Sadly, the Istanbul in the 80s where opposition members or people with different views where imprisoned and tortured, reminded me of the current regime and his treatment of journalists and others. Turkey capital, so near to becoming a part of Europe, prosper, but still suffering …
tl;dr: Worth a read.
In this novel we join Peri, a wife and mother living in Istanbul joining an upper class diner party. The book is about three different stages in her life: Childhood, time at university in Oxford and her present life.
Istanbul and its development from the 80s to now is a major ingredient of this book.
We visit a city which represents like few other the clash of cultures and believes, right on the edge between Europe and Asia. This city has gone through a wide range of different phases and is inhabited by a mix of people with very different views.
Sadly, the Istanbul in the 80s where opposition members or people with different views where imprisoned and tortured, reminded me of the current regime and his treatment of journalists and others. Turkey capital, so near to becoming a part of Europe, prosper, but still suffering from the 9/11 aftermath terrorism and a wide gap between the rich and poor.
The main story is about Peri and her struggle to find herself and making inner peace. Throughout her life she is more than once in middle of two opposite positions where she comes into the unfortunate role of a mediator. Be it her parents or her student friends, always between something, mostly conservative and liberal Islam, taking no position rather than offending some. The same is true to her relationship to God. Somewhere between believing and condemnation.
In Oxford she meets a professor where she finally is be able to come closer to an answer about
God and the nature of it. The insight that God is more than extreme positions and arguments of (a)-thestic disciples. In debates with Professor Azur many interesting philosophical views and arguments about that topic are exchanged, which I quite enjoyed.
One of them that stuck with me the most was that categories of people, like jewish, gay whatever, are just products of our imagination. People are way more complex than that. While an absolutist tries to reduce the complexity of person to a singularity, our goal should be to "multiple everyone into a hundred belonging, a thousand beating hearts". From simplicity to complexity not the other way around.
During reading I expected to learn more about the two other girls she met at Oxford, which didn't really happen - a missed opportunity from my point of view. As well as showing more how 9/11
impacted the live of Muslims in the west. Only Mona has a small talk about this, which I found quite odd.
What I found a bit dazzling as well is, that the younger Peri in Oxford and the one in the present are really different. How did it come that she lived a modern live of her mother, something she had rejected ever since. Did this just come from this therapy in the end, which acted like a 'Deus ex Machina'. Moreover the connection to her husband was not illuminated at all. Who is he, why are they together? The story of her elder brother is left untouched as well, he just disappeared and is only a side note. There were a few loose threads in the book that it almost felt a bit incomplete and finished to early which in the end I found a bit dissapointing.
