The heroine’s socioeconomic position and much of her character were determined by real estate.

June 6, 2012 6:25 AM

For his 2008 novel The Museum of Innocence, about a man who obsessively collects objects associated with his beloved and eventually creates a museum of those objects in his beloved's old house, Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk has built a museum in a house in Istanbul containing the objects mentioned in the novel, including a half-eaten ice cream cone (made of plastic) and 4,213 cigarette stubs, complete with lipstick and ice cream stains. Elif Batuman reports on how the museum, which opened in April, came to be.
posted by Cash4Lead (5 comments total)

As captured in song by Daniel Johnston
posted by bgribble at 6:51 AM on June 6, 2012 [1 favorite]

NYT article on the museum, with accompanying slideshow.
posted by Halloween Jack at 10:37 AM on June 6, 2012 [1 favorite]

Apparently, it costs more to go if you're not Turkish (scroll down just a bit)
posted by deadbilly at 1:05 PM on June 6, 2012 [1 favorite]

Elif Batuman is my favourite essayist these days.
posted by ovvl at 3:43 PM on June 6, 2012 [1 favorite]

ovvl,

Do you read her surreal twitter feed?
posted by lukemeister at 7:23 PM on June 6, 2012