Elif Shafak
Ten Minutes, Thirty-Eight Seconds in this Strange World by Elif Shafak opens with the death of Tequila Leila, a prostitute in Istanbul. She has been murdered and her body thrown into a dumpster. Exploring the notion that the human mind remains active for several minutes after physical death, Shafak takes us into the mind of Leila during the liminal phase between death but not quite death. She records the minutes and seconds from the time of Leila’s death until her brain finally shuts down. Leila’s story unfolds against the backdrop of a time of civil strife in Turkey with historical events incorporated into the storyline.
Part 1 consists of Leila’s recollections of pivotal moments in her life. Each flashback is triggered by smell and taste. She recalls her early childhood; her family; her experience with repeated sexual assaults, beginning when she was just a child; running away from home; her life in Istanbul; her time as a prostitute; her marriage; and her murder. Interspersed throughout her recollections are brief back stories of her five close friends, all of whom are misfits living on the fringes of society. Part 2 consists of Leila’s friends retrieving her body from the Cemetery of the Companionless to give her a proper burial. And Part 3, only several pages long, consists of Leila’s taste of freedom as her corpse is released into the sea.
Part 1, the longest and strongest part of the novel, immerses the reader in the sights, sounds, smells, and ambience of Istanbul. Bustling with life, inhabited by an ethnically and racially diverse population, Istanbul radiates energy. It is riddled with contradictions, celebrating difference on the one hand, demonizing it on the other. Leila’s narrative exposes the seamy side of Istanbul, an ominous place where danger can lurk behind every corner, especially for a woman. Leila’s five friends are introduced through short, hasty sketches of information. Unfortunately, these do not allow for character development, so the five never emerge as well-rounded, authentic characters. Instead, they are reduced to caricatures.
This failing becomes even more pronounced in Part 2 where Leila’s friends retrieve her body from the cemetery. The dialogue sounds stiff and unnatural. The language lapses into clichés; the action verges on slapstick. The flashbacks of their conversations or incidents with Leila give the appearance of afterthoughts, of being haphazardly inserted. And Part 3, in which Leila’s soul finds freedom in the sea, is maudlin.
A book with an interesting premise and strong start disappoints when it fizzles out into mawkish, melodramatic farce.