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To read Pamuk is to delve deep inside many serious things, to sway between fact and fiction, to gain insight and feel more prudent just like a scholar. After reading 'My Name Is Red' one of the brilliant novels by this hardheaded intellectual, I felt exactly the same, witty and wise. The novel takes you to an exotic tour of the realm of art and discusses many important facts of the Islamic Literature. While reading the novel, you will have the feeling of being shifted to sixteenth century Istanbul, Exploring the Ottoman society, its way of life and witnessing its cultural past.

Basically a murder mystery, yet 'My Name Is Red' has however surpasses the conventional limits of the kind. The novel is an excellent blending of fact and fiction. The narratives of all the chapters are long philosophical discussions on the nature of art, the essence of 'Style', relationship between God and the artist, and profound psychological analysis of human emotions of Love, Guilt and Sin.

Pamuk has used wonderful theatrical style in the novel and dexterously presented the story through a series of dramatic monologues. Each character has unraveled different stories to form the conceivable scenarios tangled with confusion and ambiguity. Every character has been given voice, even the picture of a Tree, a Dog, a Horse and a gold coin to put forward opinions, which has made the story more interesting and appealing.

The story is set in the Ottoman Istanbul and the year is 1591. Ulema and the Ottoman traditionalists are agitating against the art of painting, especially in the 'European Style'. Traditionally the whole concept of representational art is regarded with great suspicion in Islam. It is given in the glorious Koran that 'creator' is one of the traits of God. It is Allah who is creative. It is He who brings that which is not into existence. He gives life to the lifeless. No one ought to compete with Him. The painters who claim to be as creative as Him are committing greatest of sins.

The main characters of the story belong to the Sultan's workshop. The artists of this workshop have passed their lifetime listening to stories in coffeehouses and studying the work of the great Islamic masters whose illustrations embellish the Persian mythology. They have spent years illuminating old stories with new pictures by following the methods of the old masters and operating on the strict guidelines set by imams who interpret the Koran as tolerating visual art only as an extension of writing.

Now a group of miniaturists have been hired by the master Enishte Effendi to work on a secret manuscript in the ' European Style' who has been commended by the Sultan. One of these miniaturists has been killed mysteriously and dumped in a well. Meanwhile, Black, the hero of the story has returned back to his native land Istanbul after an absence of twelve years. He has been summoned back by his master and maternal Uncle Enishte Effendi. All these years Black had been traveling into far-flung areas of Persia and working as a secretary in the service of the pashas. During these years he was also trying to visualize the vision of his beloved, Shekure, the daughter of Enishte Effendi with whom he fell in love desperately twelve years ago but her hand his Enishte had denied him.

Shekure is ravishingly beautiful yet devious woman and a mother of two young sons, Shevket and Orhan. After his arrival, Black learnt that Shekure has been recently widowed. He also discovered that one of his Enishte's illustrators has been murdered secretively. In his meeting with Enishte, Black has been told that the Sultan has commanded Enishte to complete a special illustrated book. “Our Sultan, refuge of the World, wanted to demonstrate that in the thousandth year of the Muslim calendar He and His state could utilize the styles of the Franks as well as the Franks themselves". So Enishte has been asked to conquer the west by imitating its culture.

But in the eyes of Nusrat Hoja (a cleric at the Bayazid Mosque) and his fundamentalist followers, imitating west will be blasphemy against Allah, against the East. During his meeting with Enishte, Black also met Shekure's youngest son and soon a feeling of restlessness has aroused in him to meet his beloved.

Pamuk has given a deep human touch to the love story of Black and Shekure. Initially Black's frantic love for Shekure seems to be extravagantly romantic at the surface but as the story progresses, it gradually becomes heart rendering and endearing. Then a second murder has been committed and the victim is Enishte Effendi- the mastermind of the secret manuscript. Soon after her father's death, Shekure get married to Black to protect herself and her sons from her ill-fated husband's brother Hasan, who has also fallen in love with her.

Now it has been fallen on Black to find out the murderer who is loitering among other artists. Undoubtedly the murderer is one of the artists who have driven insane by the implications of painting 'like the Venetians'. Black's quest with master Osman to discover the culprit takes the reader through long discussions on philosophies about the true nature of art and real meaning of Style.

The Sultan has granted only three days to Black to find out some clues, which could help in finding out the murderer's identity. Black and master Osman have been taken to the dark room of the treasury to find out some clues of the murderer. The illustrations of the various books on cultural history in the dark room of treasury inside which Black with master Osman were searching clues to identify the murderer is quiet substantial and gripping. The narratives of detection and desire have been magnificently amalgamated to form the rest of the plot. On one hand Pamuk's description of ravishing Shekure quickens the heart and on other hand, his perplexing clues to the identity of the murderer quicken the mind.

Sometimes conversation on various issues between the characters has made the tempo and sometimes expeditions into myth and history has pushed the story forward.

Orhan Pamuk is indisputably one of the greatest writers of Turkey and this masterpiece by him is also undeniably strikingly beautiful, observant and amusing.