Features
- Cover Type: Paperback with 192 pages
- Published by: No Exit; Limited edition September 1, 2005
- Written in: English
- ISBN 10 Number: 1842431501
- ISBN 13 Number: 978-1842431504
-
Book Dimensions:
7.6 x 5 x 0.6 inches
- Weighs: 5.6 ounces
From Publishers Weekly
Like many a translated European crime novel, this American edition comes with overblown references to Chandler and Hammett and is replete with idiosyncratic prose stylings that, whether deliberate or artifacts of the translation from the German, serve to perplex rather than illuminate. Ahmed Hamul was a Turkish laborer stabbed to death in Frankfurt and suspected by his family of being a heroin dealer. Kemal Kayankaya is the shamus, born in Turkey but raised in Germany, hired by the victim's wife to find the truth about the killing. Arjouni leads his readers through the dark center of early-'80s Frankfurt with its strippers, hookers and ersatz Americana in the shape of fried chicken and cheeseburgers. The language, while briskly utilized, is often stretched (a refrigerator resembles a pack of cigarettes beside the large body of a barmaid) and every genre cliche about the hard-drinking, smart-mouthed gumshoe is shamelessly overemployed. Frankfurt might as well be Pittsburgh, and Kayankaya a TV creation.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Library Journal
This entertaining, fast-paced mystery features private investigator Kemal Kayankaya, a German citizen of Turkish origin. Ahmed Hamul is murdered in Frankfurt's red light district. His wife wants to know why, so she hires Kayankaya. During his investigation, we glimpse the discrimination faced by foreigners in today's Germany. Though born in Turkey, Kayankaya was adopted by a German couple, is largely unfamiliar with Turkish life and customs, and speaks only German. Nevertheless, by virtue of his name and appearance, he comes into his share of abuse. He doesn't seem to benefit from his experience, however, forever sowing what he reaps. He thinks of two Oriental men, for example, as "slit-eyed Minoltas" and refers to an overweight lady as "Madam Hulk." Something is no doubt lost in the translation, but the spirit is presumably the same. This enjoyable book exposes Americans to a slice of German culture they might not otherwise see. For public libraries that buy fiction in translation.
- Peggie Partello, Keene State Coll., N.H.Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Reader Reviews
This review is from: Happy Birthday, Turk! (Hardcover)
There are any number of private eye novelists around, and I'm one of those people who are always looking for something different. This book, a first novel about a man of Turkish descent who works in Frankfurt, Germany, as a private eye, is definitely different. It comes with the usual trappings of a detective novel, but it's a good story nontheless. Kemal Kayankaya is Turkish by birth but was raised by Germans, and has little left of his heritage. He works in Frankfurt as a private eye, and is very stereotypical: he drinks too much, fools around with prostitutes, cracks wise when he would be wise to be serious, and is doggedly determined to solve his case. In the current installment, a Turkish man has been murdered and his wife thinks the police have no interest in solving the crime because of his race. Kayankaya dives into the case face first, getting into fistfights, having a car chase him, and getting teargassed, in between pistol-whipping various suspects. This is a good book: I would recommend it. It *does* have the dated feel that a lot of European stuff has in contrast to American movies and television. You always think they're looking to Chandler rather than Robert B. Parker for their inspiration. Everything's *very* hardboiled. That being said, this is a fun book.
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