The New Life

Orhan Damuk

Noblel Laureate. Awesome book, extremely engaging, unique, fast moving and funny. Starts with a teenage Turkish boy reading a specific book. It transforms his life, launches him on some rather cult-like devotion to the text, and also propells him on a road trip across Turkey. A lot of fast-faced ssatire and engaging encounters depicting modern life ensue. The characterization is pitch perfect, and carries with a lot of energy and inherent interest. The plot was engaging, at the edge of incoherent, but ultimately felt strong. Very little complaint here, and I enjoyed it in a way that makes it difficult to really pick apart or analyze extensively.

Better than: Detective Story by Imre Kertesz
Worse than: Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell