The Mosquito Bite Author by Barış Bıçakçı

    The Mosquito Bite Author (2011) is the 7th novel by the acclaimed Turkish author Barış Bıçakçı. The novel follows the daily life of the aspiring author Cemil in the months after he submits his novel manuscript to a publisher in Istanbul. Living in an anonymous apartment complex in the outskirts of Ankara, Cemil spends his days going on walks, cooking for his wife, repairing leaks in his neighbor’s bathroom, and having elaborate imaginary conversations in his head with his potential editor about the meaning of life and art. Uncertain of whether his manuscript will be accepted or not, Cemil wavers between thoughtful meditations on the the origin of the universe and the trajectory of political literature in Turkey, to panic over his own worth as a writer and incredulity towards the objects that make up his quiet world in the Ankara suburbs.

The novel follows in the great tradition of the Turkish Oblomov novel by committing the author’s full range of literary and comedic talents to following who at first seems to be an undeserving protagonist. Like Yusuf Atılgan’s Aylak Adam (The Idle Man, 1959), and Oğuz Atay’s Tutunamayanlar (the Disconnected, 1972), The Mosquito Bite Author relishes in the mundane and the self-absorbed. Cemil stares wistfully at jars of jam, yells at soccer matches, and mopes around the apartment waiting for his wife Nazlı to get home. He has written a novel manuscript, but as we wait along with Cemil to hear word from the publisher, we aren’t sure whether or not it will end up justifying all the attention we’ve given him. If it’s a work of genius, then all of Cemil’s aphorisms and insights will prove to have been profound and poetic. If the novel is not accepted, then we will have spent 150 pages following yet another failed writer characters we so often get from authors who “don’t have the emotional depth needed to write normal characters” as Cemil himself notes. This self-aware literary framing is not lost on Bıçakçı, and the author gives so many knowing winks about his own writing that we lose track of how many levels of irony we’ve descended through. One particularly important wink is that made towards the problem of the vain male artist. Bıçakçı’s male characters are subtle parodies, apprehensive idealists whose inane romanticism gets called out by the very women whom they expected would endure their idolatry in silence. Throughout the novel, Cemil’s artistic project isn’t undermined by deep existential questions, but by the sexist entitlement lying at its premise.  

For a novel without a plot, the story is still captivating in its loving attention to the texture of daily life. The mundane only seems so to those living it. Each trivial detail and random memory from Cemil’s life are actually pieces to a fascinating portrait of contemporary life in Turkey. A few chapters tell the story of the construction of his nondescript apartment bloc back in the 1980s, and we a treated to a fascinating and understated account of urbanization and the overwhelming influence of the construction sector on Turkish politics. Remembering his college days, Cemil unwittingly dramatizes the awkward process of student depoliticization in the years after Turkey’s harsh post-coup crackdown. When he takes the bus to do errands, we get to sit in traffic and look at the absurd built landscape which defines the real lived experience of most Turks.  Just like his predecessors Atay and Atılgan, Bıçakçı uses the breathing room provided by his Oblomov-like character to create just enough distance for the political and the historical to be able to come into focus.

Barış Bıçakçı is one of the most popular and talented Turkish authors writing today, but none of his works have yet been translated to any other language.  The Mosquito Bite Author in particular exhibits his ability to write characters who are sad, funny, and real, and would make an excellent introduction for international readers to his work. For all of the current talk of Turkey’s political woes and economic difficulties, Bıçakçı offers a reminder that the country’s artists still have their emotional depth and sense of humor.