My Name Is Red by Orhan Pamuk and Erdağ M. Göknar

My Name Is Red (Turkish: Benim Adım Kırmızı) is a 1998 Turkish novel by writer Orhan Pamuk translated into English by Erdağ Göknar in 2001. The novel, concerning miniaturists in the Ottoman Empire of 1591, established Pamuk's international reputation and contributed to his Nobel Prize.

This book is a murder mystery with a side of romance. What was most interesting to me about this book was the way art was created in 16th century Istanbul. Apparently they drew the same pictures over and over, in exactly the same way; to deviate or experiment was dangerous and potentially blasphemy. The structure of the book made it difficult to follow the thread of the story, although this definitely kept me guessing to the end of the story.

I enjoyed the first few hundred pages, then for some reason my interest waned halfway through the book. I skimmed the rest and jumped to the final pages to see who the heck the murderer was. I knew beforehand that it was not a traditional whodunit. I realised it was more philosophical in nature, exploring art and its place in Islam and the nature of love and all that. I knew what I was going to read and I enjoyed what I was reading but it just wasn't enjoyable enough.

My rule of thumb is, if a book cannot keep my attention away from other books in my “to-read” pile, then it's not worth the time to finish it. My Name Is Red is such a book. I'm sure it deserved the Nobel prize for Literature in 2006 but it didn't keep my interest all the way to the end, so to me it's just a two-star book.