Madonna in a Fur Coat

Every person can find something a little bit of themselves and a little bit of their surroundings in Raif Efendi. He is full of feelings that are problematic, shy, dull in his inner world but waiting to be discovered. The power that changes his colorless personality is love. He discovers the Raif Efendi inside him with the seduction of a woman. This hidden character that he has never known, that he has never known until that day, that has remained inside him for years, shakes the character he knows with the enthusiastic feelings of love.

Is it the hunger for such a love that keeps this interest in Madonna in a Fur Coat so alive? Or is it the kind of love that Maria Puder wants to believe in insincere feelings that appeals to today's women who are tired of less insincere relationships? Or is it a desire created in women's emotions by feeling how Maria Puder's desire to trust the truth beneath her seemingly relaxed and indifferent attitude will bring her closer to Raif Efendi in time?

Madonna in a Fur Coat has a suspenseful and curiously immersive story of getting out of the monotony of life and being caught up in surprising enthusiasms. The places where life flows, the narrations and descriptions of the characters about the places, their feelings, and their thoughts do not require the reader to chase after dreams that are not very well known today. There is no need to portray a knight from the 17th century, an Eastern sage from 1,000 years ago, or lives and styles that do not belong to today in Sabahattin Âlî's clear language that makes you want to read more as you read.

A work is read and may attract the attention of a wide audience not because it does not make one dream too much about the past, but on the contrary, because it makes one dream too much. However, there is no doubt that a novel written more than 70 years ago that can appeal to today's daily life also has an appeal.

In the narrative, there is a pleasure in the awakening of curiosity. Curiosity is being dragged along, following, the desire to reach the end as soon as possible, wanting to run, showing patience. We know from our human experiences that curiosity intensified by emotions intensifies interest. The late-arriving, intriguing love of Madonna in a Fur Coat with Raif Efendi raises interest to its peak.

The novel was written in 1943. Most of it takes place in Berlin. Ankara and Harran are also included. Raif Efendi's 2-year Germany adventure left its mark on every day for 10 years until his death.

The novel takes place in a period when Germany was in a state of economic devastation. The story of a notebook hidden in a drawer and the love story of the colorless and melancholic Raif Efendi, who discovers himself, remains hidden inside him.

My indispensable little notebooks, which have reached a number that could fill a library shelf. My notes in which no one knows everything written in them. My feelings and thoughts written in angry, cheerful, libertine, cranky, very happy or completely different moods... The point of the book that made me think the most was what my family members who would read it after me would think.

This article came to my mind when I wondered why Madonna in a Fur Coat is still a bestseller despite being written in 1943. In a world where there are so many corrupt, despicable events and people, Madonna in a Fur Coat always shines on the shelves.

What I write is my feelings and thoughts. It is subjective. Each reader's own experience is a different adventure with each work. The power of literature is hidden in the transformation of those personal adventures into social perception. You produce a work, you die. People can hold you in high regard for decades. This is the power of the writer that gives literature its power.

Note: I wrote the above article on February 26th and on February 28th, Turkish literature lost a great plane tree of literature. When I re-read the last paragraph after Yaşar Kemal's death, I realized that I had unknowingly written a farewell to a writer who gave strength to literature. I wish that many more powerful writers who give strength to literature will emerge...

26.02.2015