BOOK
8/24/09
4:37 PM
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Books Literary lions
Books
Kadir Aydemir gives budding young writers a chance with his one-man publishing company, YÜP. Maria Eliadesfinds out more. Think September is just for leaving traveling behind and hitting textbooks? Think again. Yitik Ülke Publications, an alternative publishing house in Istanbul, guides readers through Bozcaada and life meditations in their newest fall offerings. Bozcaada Öyküleri (Bozcaada Stories) is a collection of 34 short stories created by writers who have either lived on or written about the island. The collection is a sequel to Cunda Öyküleri (Cunda Stories), a similarly themed short story gathering about Cunda, an island off the coast of Ayval›k. Like Cunda Öyküleri, Bozcaada Öyküleri frames the island and its experiences so the reader leaves his or her desk to live with the island's characters. Denemleri (Essays) by Mehmet Erikli will be released on September 18th. In Erikli's first full collection of essays, the writer's philosophic approach tackles subjects in a theoretical labyrinth. The promising essayist is a university student in Istanbul. What makes these books so novel is not only the breath they provide to the reader but their embodiment of the vision of Kadir Aydemir, the editor and one-man production team of YÜP. “My goal was to publish first writers,” Aydemir says, “because it's very difficult to find them a publishing house. That was my goal: to give them an opportunity to be published. And that's what I do. I try to be novel and to really break the standard.” Aydemir has published 29 new writers since he began his one-man press in 2006. He finds manuscripts through his knowledge of the literary scene garnered from his start as a writer at twenty years old along with the time he spent creating his own literary journal, Baflka, writing for other journals and in creating
and managing his website, Yitik Ülke (Missing Country, yitikulke.com) in 1999. Aydemir established his literary site at a time when the Internet was new in Turkey. His press's writers are therefore known to be up on the happenings of literary culture, despite the difficulties he says are inherent to a writer living in Istanbul. “Istanbul is a very cosmopolitan city,” Aydemir says. “Hence, it's very tiresome. One would believe that literature is for people who have time. Istanbul unfortunately, doesn't give
My goal was to give first time writers the opportunity to be published- I try to be novel and really break the standard.
54 Time Out Istanbul September 2009
Kadir Aydemir you this time because there are a lot of problems associated with the city, like homelessness, public transport and healthcare. All these problems altogether take a toll on daily life and you don't do the thinking in all this time that you associate with being a literary person.” One of his writers, the budding Bar›fl Behramo¤lu, author of Su Gibi (Like Water), says that to find time for writing, one must deal with the city's challenges but must overall write with emotional honesty. “When you write, you think about something and you try to do the best. That's what I'm doing. That's why I'm not writing a book every year. It takes time. I want something honest and I'm trying to avoid the mathematics [of writing]. It's too easy to make a puzzle for me and it's funny, at the same time, if you give me a subject, I can (easily) write four or five pages for you. I can write you a story about it. It's what we did in high school or in journalism. When you write an article, it's easy. But when you do fiction, it has to be more honest.” The process is inherently more difficult, but as Behramo¤lu notes and as YÜP's aesthetics of powerful writing prove, the fruits of genuine art are worth the toil necessary for great reading and writing. Bozcaada Öyküleri and Denemleri are both available at Pandora Books and other bookstores throughout Istanbul this month.
DEATH AND CANDY IN ISTANBUL Sometimes life gets its way with you, despite all efforts to avoid it, as the mourning protagonist of The Gigolo Murder discovers at the novel's start. The third novel in Mehmet Murat Somer's ‘Hop-Çiki-Yaya’ series takes the reader on a romp through Istanbul's multiplicities. The characters are as glittering and varied as Somer's version of the city itself, while the infamous nightlife, Bosphorus yal›s and Befliktafl roads are the perfect backdrop for the protagonist’s flights throughout the city. Because this novel is a crime-mysterytransgendered-fiction hybrid, the reader enjoys both a fast-paced plot along with a well-balanced emotional counterplot. The ultimate downfall of this novel is that Somer simply leaves too much of the decoding up to the reader, who is left without the proper tools to do so. As the reader struggles to keep up, the detective investigates the murder of driver Volkan Sar›do#an, while his infatuation for lawyer Haluk Perkedem grows stronger everyday. At times the reader will find the plot jerky and rather than suspenseful, mostly confusing. While The Gigolo Murder leaves the reader feeling unsatisfied by the conclusion, or lack thereof, ardent fans of the series will not be disappointed by the pacing, physicality or dialogue. The Gigolo Murder by Mehmet Murat Somer will be released by Penguin (US) on September 29th.