Why this book:  This book had been repeatedly suggested by my friend Janar for our literature reading group. We had read Elliot Ackerman’s Waiting for Eden last year, and we were finally ready to select this book as well.  Glad we did.

Summary in 3 sentences: The story takes place in Istanbul in the last decade – between 2013 and 2016, and involves a female American expat married to a wealthy Turkish real estate developer, a male American photographer who has an affair with her, a female member of the US Consulate, and a Turkish avant garde art curator for museums.  The novel revolves around the relationships of these four very different people within the context of Turkish politics, American political influences on the Istanbul economy, and in the background but playing a significant role, the Gezi park demonstrations and riots that have had a profound effect on Turkish culture and politics – akin to Tiananmen square in China or George Floyd  in the US.  Character, values, principle vs expediency, Turkish and US cultural values in contrast – these all are key themes in this interesting novel set in a part of the world I know little about.

My Impressions: Very well done.  I wasn’t sure what to expect, and the book is full of surprises, and is very well written.  The characters are real, believable, and multi-dimensional, and I could relate to all of them.  Ackerman’s writing is simple and straightforward – his style has been called Hemingway-esque – and for each scene and setting he created a picture I could see and feel.  I listened to the book on audio and though it was well done, I wish that I had read it.   A good friend loaned me her copy after I’d finished listening to it, and after visually reading portions of it, I found reading it a more satisfying experience. 

The story takes place in Turkey in the 2nd decade of the 21st century, and the story is built around incidents related to a major anti-government protest in Gezi park in Istanbul by progressives protesting a wide variety of regressive and short-sighted government actions.  The police brutally repressed the demonstration, which led to a greater chasm between the progressives and Erdogan, and was truly a major incident in Turkey, the impact of which is still felt in Turkey today.  The story of the Gezi park demonstrations and their aftermath can be read about here.   There really was a lady in a red dress who became a symbol for the over-reaction of the police to the peaceful protests, which you can read about here.  The black and white in the title refers to a separate theme in the book – that people and events are influenced by being in tension with their opposites – in values, perspectives, life styles. We understand A best by seeing it in contrast with not-A.   The idea reminds me a bit of Hegel’s dialectic – a thesis in tension with an anti-thesis which results in a synthesis which becomes something new altogether – and becomes a new thesis, which generates its own antithesis. 

But the Gezi Park demonstration and riots are not what the story is about  – but it does provide the setting.  Red Dress in Black and White is about Peter an American photographer,  Catherine an American woman married to Murat a wealthy Turkish real estate magnate, Deniz, an avant-garde museum director, and Kristin a woman ostensibly serving as a Cultural Affairs liaison at the US Consulate, but clearly primarily working in an intelligence collection role, though “CIA” is not mentioned.  It is about how their lives become entangled and upended

Though for each of these characters their professional lives play a role, the story evolves as a character study of each of them, as they are confronted with challenges and dilemmas, usually of their own making, and all of it within the cultural landscape of modern Istanbul. 

There are many surprises in this novel – as it twists and turns, but most impressive to me in reading  it was Ackerman’s descriptions of the scenes and how he developed his characters with the dilemmas they faced and the sometimes reckless decisions they made.  This is no simple good-guys vs bad-guys novel; the characters are real, complex and each compelling in their own way.  I could relate to and had sympathy for each, though each also had their clear flaws and were in large part responsible for the dilemmas they found themselves negotiating.

Catherine is unhappy in her marriage with Murat and initiates an affair with Peter who allows it all to happen, and as it continues over time, it gets more complicated when Catherine decides she wants to leave Murat, return to the States with her and Murat’s adopted son – and she wants Peter to accompany her.  Catherine short sightedly believes this will solve all her problems – Peter isn’t enamored of the idea for a number of reasons.  Murat, Peter, and Catherine all find that their lives are connected through Kristin and Deniz in surprising ways. And in coming to understand these connections, we are introduced to some of the dirty underbelly of how the arts are promoted, how real estate deals are made, how the US influences events and people overseas, and how people react under pressure, in difficult situations of their own making.  It is a very well done character study of very different people making decisions that have impact well beyond themselves. 

Another key character in this book who, though in the background for much of the novel, is truly a lynchpin to all of what happens in the story:  Murat’s and Catherine’s adopted son William. He is a victim to the dysfunctional marriage of Murat and Catherine, as well as to Murat’s insecurity in his job leaving Murat little time or energy to give William the attention he deserves.  Questions of Willam’s biological parents take center stage later in the story as as Catherine seeks to escape with him to the US, and the parentage questions yield some surprises that involve and impact all the other characters in the book.  William himself evolves in the book from a nice but timid young boy into a promising young man.  One of the most creative and clever aspects of this novel is how Ackerman develops this theme from a side show to center stage in his story.

This is a story of people and their challenges and how they deal with the other characters.  In the background however, are the unstated sub-themes to the story: The Gezi park demonstrations, police corruption and brutality, progressives pushing for more justice, corruption and influence peddling in the real estate market, the US Embassy subtly injecting itself into various spheres of Istanbul life to maneuver events in ways that might benefit the United Staes, and the complexities of marriage and parental love. 

I enjoyed this book and recommend it to others and to other reading groups. Some in our group didn’t care for it – didn’t care for the characters, wanted more attention to culture and history of Istanbul. Others in our group loved it and gave it solid 9s on a scale of 1-10.  I enjoyed it, learned from it, found the discussion of it energizing and fascinating. I really liked the writing, it caused me to think and I gave it an 8.5.