10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World
Ratings25
Average rating4.1
15
Ratings25
Average rating4.1
'In the first minute following her death, Tequila Leila's consciousness began to ebb, slowly and steadily, like a tide receding from the shore. Her brain cells, having run out of blood, were now completely deprived of oxygen. But they did not shut down. Not right away . . . ' Our brains stay active for ten minutes after our heart stops beating. For Tequila Leila, each minute brings with it a new memory- growing up with her father and his two wives in a grand old house in a quiet Turkish town; watching the women gossip and wax their legs while the men went to mosque; sneaking cigarettes and Western magazines on her way home from school; running away to Istanbul to escape an unwelcome marriage; falling in love with a student who seeks shelter from a riot in the brothel where she works. Most importantly, each memory reminds Leila of the five friends she met along the way - the friends who are now desperately trying to find her.
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I had never heard of Elif Shafak until this book popped up in my recommendations and now I'm a little irked that it took so long for her work to come to my attention because that was some seriously good writing and I already want more of it.
The characters were fantastic, the story was at times stunningly beautiful and at other times heart breaking. It's listed as being historical fiction with literary fiction as a subgenre but I think this one might appeal more to the literary fiction peeps.
“...in the desert of life, the fool travels alone and the wise by caravan.”
As I'm reading about the title after the fact, evidently it's based on the scientific idea that a person's brain waves have been found to be active up to 10 minutes and 38 seconds past a person's death. The first part of this book embraces that idea as we get to know “Tequila” Leila, a Turkish brothel worker experiencing her last few minutes through flashbacks of her life. We learn about her family, her early years, and other formative events that led her to Istanbul and the brothel she worked at before her unfortunate end. We also learn about five very close friends she makes along the way, and also learn their backstories that led them to Leila. The second part of the book focuses on these five friends and how they come to terms(?) with the death of their friend.
This book was cruising for a solid four star review in the first part. I fell in love with the imagery presented to us by the author, and was incredibly invested in learning more about Leila and who she was. Her story was a sad one, but I loved how strong she seemed in the face of everything that happened to her. Then we hit the second part, and suddenly the tone of the book shifts abruptly to something more macabre humor as the friends undertake this crazy scheme to honor their dead friend. I appreciate the look at Leila's close friends and how they come to terms with her death, but I felt like the story that this introspection was hung on fell off the rails hard.
So, in summary, great start, weirdly absurd end that I felt was tonally off from the rest of the book.
My first Elf Shafak book. Easy read and powerful story.
However more importantly, it takes place in the complex city, Istanbul, where I was born. And reading about Istanbul, its different parts and uniqueness I know very well was very nostalgic and enjoyable in a deep way.
I had this very strong feeling of knowing what she was talking about.
I like the friendship story too.
I couldn't but the book down up till the point where 10 mins and 38 secs ended. After that I found it extremely hard to finish. It seemed like the story was dragging. The final scene did not make sense and gave the feeling like the author, in wanting to end on a good note but also wanting to finish the story, rushed the ending. I would still recommend it. It's a deeply emotional book and beautiful in a lot of places.
