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Jump to navigationJump to searchThe Janissary Tree by Jason Goodwin (view source)
Revision as of 10:16, 11 May 2018
, 10:16, 11 May 2018no edit summary
{{infoboxsortinfobox1
|title=The Janissary Tree
|sort=Janissary Tree
|buy=Maybe
|borrow=Maybe
|pages=352
|publisher=Faber and Faber
|date=June 2007
|isbn=978-0571229246
|amazonukcover=<amazonuk>0571229247</amazonuk>|amazonusaznuk=0571229247|aznus=<amazonus>0374178607</amazonus>
}}
Istanbul, 1836, is a place more akin to a fantasy novel. Such is the throbbing, sprawling city of two million inhabitants (the largest in the world at that time), such is its unique setting astride the gap between Europe and Asia, and such is the instinct for tradition.
The setting of the harem is provided for its obvious salacious character, but the book both tries to deny the exotic sensuality, and at the same time rely on it. It can't have it both ways. A eunuch for hero should not be inviting chaste sex scenes, but we get them, unfortunately.
When I do turn to historical fiction I need it to prove this was a story put down into a historical setting that needed the story, and vice versa. Even better would be the sense, as in Patrick Suskind's [[''Perfume]] '' for instance, that this was the ideal combination of author and story, where you can't imagine anyone more appropriate to research and tell the tale.
The research here is evidently fine, but the tale is not. Like the hero, there should really be a bit more to it.
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{{amazonUStext|amazon=0374178607}}
{{commenthead}}
|name=Aylin Orbasli
|verb=said
|comment= I would like to know why the author so persistently gets all the Turkish spellings wrong? Eskesehir for Eskisehir, seraskier for serasker, Kislar for Kizlar etc. Kizlar of course means girls, so the Kizlar Agha dominates the harem, and in the correct form should be referred to as the Agha and not the Kizlar, or kislar as Goodwin insists. It is also interesting to note how all the Turkish characters have surnames, considering surnames were only introduced in the 1920s following the Republic. An important historic detail that really shouldn't have been missed by an author also claiming to write books on the history of the region.
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