Engagement by Ciler Ilhan

Engagement by Ciler Ilhan

Turkish short stories

Original title – Nişan Evi

Translator – Kenneth Dakan

Source – Review copy

I had promised to review this the other day when I reviewed another book set in the same area of Turkey. That is the southeast part of Turkey, which is mainly Kurdish, and this looks at the village life there. This book deals with an actual event, and that is the massacre that occurred in a village, The Bilge village massacre. This is the second book I reviewed by the Turkish / Dutch writer Ciler Ilhan. The earlier book Exile was also published by Istros, and it hit me hard when I read it as it follows those hours in a village that all that live there call Our village.

Maral had forgotten all about the eau de cologne even though her mother had reminded her two days previously: You can’t hold out a bottle of warm cologne for guests. It’s bought beforehand, kept in the fridge and splashed cold onto cupped palms.’ What a bad start to the day! Surely no good will come of it.

And so, it fell on Halil to get the scent, since Maral and her favorite aunt, never-married Nasibe (in this place, an unmarried woman is an old maid, a spinster or stuck-at-home-so let us say, instead, that Maral and her favorite aunt, the Spinster Nasibe were supposed to go door-to-door to invite guests over for the evening. Maral had her work cut out for her. You see, Nasibe only has one good arm; the left one was stunted and useless. The village had more than its fair share of crazies and cripples. City people came once to do research:

If you people keep marrying each other, a woman in thick-rimmed glasses said, ‘nothing will ever change.’

The opening and the hunt for some Cologne

I had called this a set of short stories, but it may be more of an interlinking novel with the stories following various people in the village as they go through their everyday lives. That evening, Leyle is sent to find some cologne; she is a bride-to-be heading to the next town after her sister Maral had forgotten the eau de cologne a couple of days earlier as they prepare for the forthcoming wedding. Meanwhile, Maral is tasked with reminding all those in the village of the engagement ceremony due to happen that evening. But we have a feeling as the day goes on. Then we have the other town and a history of feuds and actual marriages between the two villages. This latest marriage may have been the final straw, so as the day goes on, the feeling you get as you view what is happening through these short stories and other characters appear Halil is a survivor, having had a close call with death as a kid, will he get through tonight ?. The book turns up the dark feeling, and the story is told bit by bit the history of these villages in a world where one wrong move can lead to dire consequences of death when those that live in these villages have guns!

When Osman popped up like a poisonous mushroom that morning, Halil pursed his full lips. He was peeved.

‘Good morning, he said. ‘Where are you gentlemen off to?’ Hollow-cheeked Osman roared with laughter. As did the guy next to him. The pair of them, in matching pinstripe trousers, mafia-style, were simultaneously bent double and slapping their knees. Halil’s face clouded over. He took a step toward jug-eared Osman and plucked up the courage to grab him by the shoulders, give him a friendly shake and ask what was so funny; but he missed. The guy’s shoulders were like the rest of him, a constantly moving target.

What are you doing here, shithead?’ someone said, and it was Osman again. He lifted his eyebrow, all thoughtful like, when Halil explained about the cologne, and added, ‘Get whatever damn thing you need and then get the hell back to your village.

Other Village was bigger than Our Village, and drier.

The other village her is a sense of the tension and under lying hatred there

I said the image of the book I read last week of dead bodies in a river. This tale is of those villages themselves and why it is so hard for Turkey to control a place where there is such a history of blood feuds and where the villages are isolated from the world they live in is because But the power of this book is it alludes to the event all the way through. It darkens as it goes on. It leads you to the event, but in a folk tale-like way, we see those 16 hours before this engagement party as the bride-to-be hunts cologne, part of the tradition her sister and others plan to go for that evening. Still, as we do, we see what has led to this evening and the constant talk of how their village is our village. It simmers and captures a world where feuds have lasted down family lines over the decades and even centuries. I said I thought she had a powerful voice in my review of Exiles 9 years ago, which still rings true. This writer captures events, feelings, and horror so well in her short stories, and this builds as it goes on. Have you read her or have a favourite Turkish writer?