The Flea Palace Paperback – May 1, 2016

This is Elif Shafak's second book I've started, (I'm not letting myself finish off The Bastard of Istanbul TOO quickly) and I loved it. It started off a LITTLE slow, but then it picked up and I finished it in a day. Well worth it.

I really wish I could read this book in the original language. The lines and large phrases of thought are incredibly broad stroked and give a wonderful third dimension to the flow of the book. But there is a problem - the language (and perhaps the author would chide me on the use of the word here) is often grammatical stilted. Can someone get this woman a better translator? A jewel of a thinker and a brilliant intellect.

An interesting cultural snapshot, but a bit lacking in plot. By the time the seemingly irrelevant details make sense, you've forgotten you heard them, as the cast of characters is large and varied and the story switches between them with every chapter. Lovely prose, but not my favorite Shafak novel. (Impossible to beat The 40 Rules of Love)

excellent book, the ones that are neatly from Elif Shafak- It is interesting the way in which the writer has structured the book , with the beginning idea of ideas as lines , it ends in same line.The garbage is the connector , and we -readers- come across the inhabitants of the Bonbon Palace through different chapters and situations. It is possible to gather that the inhabitants in some way are like the building , they are very special in their idiosyncrasy and psychology. As reader we know some pieces of information because we have the knowledge of a previous chapter and some words connect people and situations.I really recommend to read this book if we are following Elif Shafak- It is easy to read and not easy to put aside !!!

I have not enjoyed a novel this much in years. It was not the mystery of the novel but the beauty of the writing and the finely drawn, fascinating characters and atmosphere that kept me hooked. I was so sad to see it end!If I could, I would take off a half a point for some errors in usage that the editors should have picked up ("raised" for "razed"), which distracted me from time to time.

a very good read.

I normally love her books but this is the first one which I thought unnecessarily long and drawn out which came across as a tad boring. It was like she emptied her thoughts about different character types and Istanbul into the form of a book.I'm quite surprised as it seemed so different from her other books.

If you like to spend days reading about garbage and roaches, this might be the book for you.