SOURCE: Simons, Char. “The Deadly Art of Portraits.” Christian Science Monitor 93, no. 222 (11 October 2001): 19-20.

In the following review, Simons comments on Pamuk's skilled portrayal of Islamic society in My Name Is Red, noting its particularly relevance after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States.

“There are moments in all our lives when we realize, even as we experience them, that we are living through events we will never forget, even long afterward.”

These words from the bestselling Turkish novel My Name Is Red, by Orhan Pamuk, ring as true in the aftermath of Sept. 11 as in the year 1591, in which the novel is set.

While My Name Is Red has a many-layered plot—including a murder mystery and a love story—its thematic value is threefold: to provide a glimpse into an Islamic society, to understand the global tensions that exist when one empire waxes while another...