MixedWorld Literature TodayAdorned with notions of the uncanny, The Red-Haired Woman is fearless in its reading of canonical texts like Oedipus Rex and Rostam and Sohrab and in tackling the question of patricide and paternal filicide ... The entwined stories of fathers and sons take unexpected turns and proceed like the epics that have long shaped Cem’s life ... Pamuk’s readers will no doubt recognize the presence of his past works in this novel ... haunting and unprecedented novel. Pamuk’s mischievousness and playfulness are at a minimum, perhaps nonexistent ... In his shortest novel to date, Pamuk leaves the reader with questions about his choices in storytelling and his late style. For instance, the changing of the book title from The Well to The Red-Haired Woman means giving up a perfectly Freudian metaphor that captures the subtle threads in the book.
