Pamuk: Magnificent as always. This is a particularly special novel about the weaving, winding city of Istanbul and its social, political and individual characteristics. Every unique soul is developed to the point of existence. Even the sprawling places that Pamuk has invented live through his writing. And the duality of events and circumstances in the protagonists life, both mundane and unusual, are told in the balancing and unbalancing of the boza scales he balances across his back. A beautiful novel that reads like a painting.