About “Pickup Point” by Asli Bezen

One of Turkey’s most acclaimed translators for literary fiction in English, Aslı Biçen has won many admirers for its translations by Dickens, Falkner, Dorrell, Rushdie, Fowles, Steinbeck, Naipaul, and Barth, to name a few. In between these efforts, she wrote three novels of her own. Snapping Point is her second point, and just as it’s tough to pinpoint which author she translated as a unique inspiration, so it’s very hard to fit this stunning text comfortably into any one literary genre. Snapping Point is political thriller, love story, comic opera part, and partial commentary on post-coup Turkey, all condensed into a more elegant, smart, and minimalist style. The novel is magical realism on steroids, with an additional earthquake cast. Instead, it’s very close to being an unintended avatar of Brexit / COVID-19 as well. In other words, there is a lot for thoughtful readers to deconstruct, but it is presented magically, at an attractive pace, with a real sense of the life of its characters.

Located in the fictional little coastal town of Andalıç, with occasional trips to Istanbul and elsewhere, the narrative is divided into two parts: before and after the earthquake. Before the earthquake, 38-year-old shopkeeper Jamal returned to town after searching for his father “for the last time,” the man still missing 20 years later. Later that day, Jamal discovers that his father is dead and will be buried that afternoon. Later in the day, Jamal finds out that his father had a second family, including a half-sister, Jamila. The pace is not slowing down. Later that same week, Jamal becomes engaged to his girlfriend and school neighbor Sahila. Suhaila left Al-Andalus to enroll in university, and after graduation, she was doing very well. She did not explain her return home. For his part, Jamal has never reached university or traveled much outside of Andalusia.

It may take a very clever algorithm to describe the narrative arc, but the darker hints arrive in the form of local chatter. This is a small town, full of cramped outlooks, conservative attitudes, inquisitive neighbors, petty corruption, fictitious local officials, confused teens, and bossy friends. Another omen is the “new nursing home” the brood on top of the hill above, which dominates the city for reasons that become apparent later. Meanwhile, the lucky couple remembers their school days, their plans, and the challenge of conquering conservative local traditions. Then, with a little warning, the local newspaper publishes a revelation about the mayor’s corruption, the publisher is attacked, and people start getting hurt.

Then comes the earthquake:

Birds were the first creatures to escape from the booming wave, foreshadowing a strange future, flocking, screaming, oblivious to the darkness. Then, the dogs howling in a faint fear caused the cats’ eyes to dilate, their heads raised, and their backs arched. The horror and pain, which seeped into the ground and gathered there for a century, disturbed the familiar, bent on getting rid of it. The faces of the dead sought resurrection as glass trembled over their framed pictures hanging on the walls from a mild fever. The windows, display cases, and glasses in cabinets indulged in low noel like a taut wire, in a frequency beyond the human hearing range. Water shuddered too, in concentric rings in cups on bedside tables, in jugs on tables, and in buckets in bathrooms, and slept on the shores of Andalusia. Early risers discovered strange-colored lighting that cut through the darkness of the sky.

The remainder of this chapter reads like a prose poem, reads a master chapter in showing no telling, and ends with the sentence: “Andalıç continued to drift in the middle of the stegan sea, a scoop of dark black ice cream in the conical flames with light.” After the earthquake, the city, always socially isolated, became an island in the literal sense of the word, distancing itself from mainland Turkey, heading to who knows where to.

What happens next is Sami’s contemplation of the collective delusion. Life goes on as if nothing had happened. City residents assume help will come and that their elected officials are doing their best to resolve the situation. It’s funny and frustrating at the same time. City dwellers are clinging to normality and desperately want to believe the elected officials, who tell them that help will arrive “soon”. This continues “soon” for a very long time. Water is rationed and food becomes scarce, but residents are prevented from leaving the island to seek help. A beauty store is closed and he is sick as Sahila defies local conventions calling for unmarried couples to take care of him.

As townspeople struggle to survive, elected officials strive to help themselves. The mayor engages bully teens to keep order. A curfew. Small nationalism prevails. Old and sick people start to die. The townspeople were ordered to attend Friday prayers, where they would receive instructions. In one of many episodes of dark comedy, the men are instructed to collect surplus rocks and soil and throw them into the sea, to prevent the island from sinking. Even this flagrant waste of time and energy fails to awaken the city dwellers to the fact that their freedom is being robbed of them. Jamal and Sahila, their indefinitely postponed wedding, talk about their younger lives, and their memories gradually shift from vague memories of their shared school days to the town’s current political situation. The similarities with Turkey’s modern history have not been explicitly clarified, but this is not necessary.

In fact, the narration never turns into hustle. Beichen’s dazzling prose, beautifully captured in Faiza Howell’s translation, evokes everyday moments amid global crisis with unrestrained accuracy and precision:

The morning stretches over the sea, holding its breath. The stillness, like peace, in the absence of the storm, invites everyone to take to the streets. Walk in the autumn sun, listen to one’s footsteps rustling through the fallen leaves; Listen to the little whispers of things moving on their own after the frenzied wind chorus. Inner peace is lifted through the buzz of flies that rotate around open windows to let the sun in.

However, despite the fine poetry, it is not difficult to read between the lines: “The Whole Island is in the Sea” is an allegory intended for Turkish readers in the Erdogan era, but it works in other contexts as well. I don’t want to comment on the similarities between Snapping Point and the contemporary US or Canada, but it doesn’t take a genius to be surprised at how close to the book’s envisioning status the UK in early 2021. Instead, we had a real earthquake, we had one metaphorical: the Brexit shock From the European Union, followed by a series of COVID-19 lockdowns. There is the same petty nationalism, the same ineffective curfews and social restrictions. My favorite comparison, however, is our version of “Friday prayer” that is broadcast on television every Friday afternoon, led by Prime Minister Boris Johnson. (Or worse, by Matt Hancock, UK Comedian Health Minister). Next to by Union Jack, the men were chatting about what was supposed to be getting better. Meanwhile, the government’s “test and trace” strategy has failed so disastrously that Britain, in April, had the highest number of COVID-related deaths in Europe.

Andalusia – like Turkey itself – is not a happy place, but it is a home, and life goes on: lovers love, bullies are called, lies are revealed, quarrels end. In the end, the islanders realized that the new regime was “hollow from below,” and that they were rebelling. The author does not tell us what will happen next; Readers are not given a happy ending finale, which remains tastefully mysterious. What remains is the wonderful writing and the happy feeling that whatever political trick may occur, it will falter and fall under the weight of its own arrogance. In its humble manner, Snapping Point’s mysterious conclusion is an affirmation of ideals, human values, and rational thought.

For English language readers, Aslı Biçen is a very happy find. Once started, Snapping Point is hard to put down. Easily one of the most complex, laughable, captivating and beautifully written political thriller films you’ve ever read. I plan to read it again next week, after Friday prayers.

¤

Michael Tate is the founder of Gantar Publishing.

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