Metin Kaçan
| Metin Kaçan | |
|---|---|
| Born |
15 November 1961 Kayseri |
| Died | 6 January 2013 (aged 51) Istanbul |
| Occupation | Writer |
| Nationality | Turkish |
| Notable works | Ağır Roman |
Metin Kaçan (15 November 1961 – 6 January 2013) was a Turkish author, who is best known for his novel Ağır Roman (Cholera Street), which was translated into German (Kaçan 2003), and a movie (Ağır Roman), directed by Mustafa Altıoklar (1999), was based on it.
Besides Ağır Roman, Kaçan is also the author of novel Fındık Sekiz, a collection of short stories, "A ship to the Islands" (Adalara Vapur, Kaçan 2002), and a book written in a mixed style between prose and poetry, entitled "The Tiger at Withdrawal" (Harman Kaplan, Kaçan 1999).
Much of Kaçan's writings deals with life in Istanbul, in particular its poor quarter Dolapdere (not far from Taksim Square). To Dolapdere, he sarcastically gave the name "Cholera" (Kolera in Turkish) in Ağır Roman, thereby recalling both its shabbiness and the fact that the great Polish poet Adam Mickiewicz died there from the cholera in 1855. Mickiewicz Museum at Dolapdere, still open to visitors today, figures in "Ağır Roman". The title of this novel plays ingeniously with the polysemy of the Turkish word Roman, which means both "" and "novel". Also, together with the adjective ağır, which means "heavy" or "slow" in Turkish, Roman is the designation for a special kind of street music, played by some of the novel's protagonists.
Ağır Roman tells the tragic story of a young hero, who grows up in Cholera quarter but finally fails and commits suicide. His failure parallels the failure of the quarter itself, whose ancient structures as well as its multi-ethnic and multi-religious composition disintegrate.
Fındık Sekiz tells a story about two cars, that appear sometimes as personified figures, and that take the semi-autobiographical protagonist Meto on a mystical journey. At the same time, Meto's conflict with a woman, who manages to have him thrown into prison through fraudulent statements, is related, which might reflect some of Kaçan's own experiences.
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