Memed, My Hawk by Yasar Kemal is included on the 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read list, in the Family and Self Section - 8 out of 10

 

Memed, My Hawk by Yasar Kemal is included on the 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read list, in the Family and Self Section

 

8 out of 10

 

Memed, My Hawk aka Ince Memed is impressive, very good, albeit not satisfying enough for a five star rating from this pretentious reader – by the way, one of the shortest, good jokes I know is from Fawlty Towers https://realini.blogspot.com/2017/11/waldorf-salad-by-john-cleese.html and it is: ‘pretentious, moi?’

 

For my (bad) taste, it is too long, but then this is the problem with these reviews, blown out of the pen of amateurs, with different moods, unprofessional attitudes, you do not get to the value of the book, you just have some impressions, subjective, flawed takes on what are often magnum opera, supposedly, in this case as well

I am wondering if it has to do with my bias against Erdogan – if they elect such a disgusting fellow, then Turks must be amorous of his defects, obviously such a stupid interpretation, I mean my perspective on this is foolish – and then some other incident could also affect the unconscious, this Turk told me to shut up, at the sauna

 

Now for Memed, we meet him when he is just a child, working as a serf for a monster (sort of Erdogan) called Abdi Aga, and he had had enough beatings, trauma, assaults, overwork that he is running from the abuser, and he arrives in a village nearby, where he is shelter by ‘uncle’ Suleyman and his wife and family, for a while

They are not related, but this kind man almost adopts the poor child, and keeps him, feeds and shelters the stranger, who will be the goat herder, warning him to stay away from the vicinity of his home village, since he would be taken away and tortured, if discovered by that awful, loathsome Abdi Aga, the nemesis in this story

 

However, worried about his mother, left in the village, Memed comes close to his place, and somebody who knows him speaks about the worry of the mother, she was desperate when he did not return at home, she went to the local despot to ask for him, and this gangster promised he will break every bone in that small body

So, when news arrive that he is nearby, the ‘slave owner’ goes to Suleyman to demand the return of what he sees as his property, and uses foul language ‘how could you shelter this boy, who belongs to me’ words to that effect, and he takes the poor child back, and then he takes an abominable revenge on the family…

 

This tyrant takes the crops from the villagers, he leaves them a third, and then he owns the rest, but it is different for Memed, as punishment for his running away, abandoning the forced labor, the boy was made to cultivate this hard earth, with thistles everywhere, that are such a pain for him, with oxen, under terrible circumstances

 

Abdi Aga will leave them only a quarter from the crop, so that they will slowly starve, and when the community is queuing at his gate, once they have finished the food, he gives loans, some produce, to keep them alive (he needs serfs to work the fields) but warns them ‘you give nothing to Memed, if you do, I will take you down’

Memed survives somehow, but his life is miserable, it hurts to read about that destitution, until you see a glimmer of hope, love is in the air, Hatce is a girl from the village that Memed loves, and she feels the same for him, so maybe we have one of those situations where everything is horrible, but they have each other

 

The test with the winners of the lottery, for over one million dollars https://realini.blogspot.com/2014/02/the-happiness-advantage-by-shawn-achor.html they looked at what happens when one wins this, overnight, and they are happier after this windfall, but it takes only a few months

After that we have what is called Hedonic Adaptation, we get used with the money, the material things, and it is recommended that we spend on experiences, travel, not on clothes, cars, albeit we could not say that one is better off homeless, no, the limit was at some sixty thousand dollars in Alabama, and twice that in San Francisco

 

Only that was some ten years ago or so, today, with inflation, the mark must have jumped, the point is still valid, a comfortable life, that is an income that offers access to food, books, and the basics of life today is needed, once you have that, increases in fortune do not translate in big shifts in happiness reported

Let me get back to Memed, and the idea that with that girl, he could have been happy, if there were together, only the same heinous Aga has a nephew, and he wants Hatce for him, so they pressure the family, to have them married, against the girl’s will, and so they have to elope, the two young lovers, flee the village

 

They run in a pouring rain, they get some precarious shelter, she has to take the clothes off, or else die of cold, and thus they make love, and Lame Ali, a famous tracker, will see the signs on the earth, and inform Abdi Aga about this coitus, and the confrontation is bloody, spoiler alert, Memed kills the nephew, but only wounds the big beast

The poor boy, now a young man, is forced to become an outlaw, he sends his lover back to the village, thinking the Aga is dead, but the latter is farming Hatce, making villagers lie and say she was the one who killed the nephew…this reminded me of the superb https://realini.blogspot.com/2015/11/true-history-of-kelly-gang-by-peter.html True History of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey, and Ali and Nino

https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2024/01/ali-and-nino-by-said-kurban-regarded-as.html

 

Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/unique-in-world.html?q=unique+in+the+world – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se

 

 There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know

 

As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/realini-in-newsweek-participant-in.html

 

Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works

 

‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’

 

‚Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus’

 

“From Monty Python - The Meaning of Life...Well, it's nothing very special...Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.”