ISTANBUL –“It was the happiest moment of my life; I didn’t know it,” the protagonist Kemal says in the opening line of the novel The Museum of Innocence.
Listen to the author read this review:
The Museum of Innocence was designed as a physical companion to Orhan Pamuk’s book by the same title, with each section representing a chapter.
Objects such as photographs, jewelry, letters, and traditional Turkish items brought the story – which is also a new series on Netflix – to life in a tangible way.
At the entrance, there’s a wall of cigarettes – each one representing a trace of emotion, a memory frozen in time. Seeing them arranged so carefully made me realize how small habits can evolve into rituals, especially when someone is coping with overwhelming emotions like love, longing and loss.
Visiting the museum was not just like entering an exhibition space; it felt like walking inside Füsun’s home, stepping directly into her life and memories.
Everything begins to change when Kemal, the main character, enters the Şanzelize Boutique to buy his girlfriend Sibel a handbag.
This moment is the first step in the butterfly effect. There, he meets Füsun, a distant relative who lives a completely different life.
Kemal quickly becomes involved with Füsun despite soon becoming engaged to Sibel. Their meetings, initially justified as harmless, become a routine.
At this point, Kemal still believes he can maintain both worlds: Sibel’s stability and Füsun’s excitement.
At the engagement party, while Kemal is celebrating his future with Sibel, he is dreaming about Füsun. Shortly after, Füsun disappears from his life. This absence sparked Kemal’s feelings.
The loss intensifies his desire, and from that moment on, his life begins to revolve around finding her again.
At first, Sibel was not aware of the situation. She tries to understand and tolerate Kemal’s behavior, believing it to be a temporary phase.
But as Kemal becomes more distant and emotionally unavailable, it becomes clear that his connection to Füsun is not something he can control.
Eventually, Sibel recognizes that she is no longer truly part of his life and decides to leave him, accepting the backlash that she will face from society.
Years later, when Kemal reunites with Füsun, the situation has changed again. Füsun is now married, and their relationship takes on a different form. Kemal becomes a constant presence in her life, visiting her and her family regularly.
At this stage, the dynamic shifts: instead of a secret affair, their connection becomes prolonged and complicated. Kemal continues to invest his time, emotions and even financial support, while Füsun maintains a certain distance.
Why Füsun but not Sibel? Kemal explained Sibel’s’ going all the way’ with him before marriage as love and trust, while he described Füsun doing the same as courage and modernity.
Füsun did it without wanting anything in return.
On the other hand, Kemal was only focusing on the love that he had for her, rather than focusing on her. As he himself admits, instead of trying to understand her dreams, he was only dreaming about her.
The final turning point comes when Kemal and Füsun decide to build a future together.
After years of separation and missed opportunities, they finally move toward the possibility of marriage. But even this moment is fragile. During their journey, Füsun insists on driving while drunk, and the story ends in tragedy with a fatal accident.
This sudden ending reinforces the unpredictability of life after everything that has happened – their future is destroyed in an instant.
There were just the objects left behind.
As the author wrote, “The power of objects depends not only on the memories accumulated within them, but also on the whims of our imagination and our ability to remember.”
Sena Naz Ekşi is a Reporter with Youth Journalism International.
