"Snow" by Orhan Pamuk

p.52> "It's because we failed to find happiness in poetry that we find ourselves longing for the shadow of politics."

p.60> "What brings me close to God is the silence of snow."

p.61> The idea of a solitary westernized individual whose faith in God is private is threatening to you. An atheist who belongs to a community is far easier for you to trust than a solitary man who believes in God. For you, a solitary man is far more wretched and sinful than a nonbeliever."

p.86> "Like a snowflake, he would fall as he was meant to fall; he would devote himself heart & soul to the melancholy course on which his life was set."

p.87> "Much later, when he thought about how he'd written this poem, he had a vision of a snowflake; this snowflake, he decided, was his life writ small; the poem that had unlocked the meaning of his life....determined by the hidden symmetries this book is seeking to unveil."

p.111> "The sight of snow made her think how beautiful and short life is and how, in spite of all their enmities, people have so very much in common measured against eternity and the greatness of creation, the world in which they lived was narrow. That's why snow drew people together. It was as if snow cas a veil over hatreds, greed and wrath and made everyone feel close to one another."

p. 142> "To become a n atheist, then, you must first become a Westerner."

p.172> "...this would never measure up as a real revolution until all the radio and television stations in the city were broadcasting celebratory folk songs."

p.228> "Can the West endure any democracy achieved by enemies who in no way resemble them?"

note> snow is a veil...suicides are committed by girls forced to remove the veil....Turgut Bey stays in hotel to hide from the truth of his city

p.261> drawing of 6 pointed star, each point with a name: memory, reason, imagination, memory, reason imagination

note> 1) secularism v. extremist fundamentalism 2) How can one ever understand those who have suffered more deeply? 3)women avoid suicide to avoid punishment