THE PEACE MACHINE by Özgür Mumcu – Review

I received this book for free from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

The Peace Machine by Özgür Mumcu
Published by Pushkin Press on May 31 2018
Pages: 221
Format: ARC
Source: Publisher
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The nitty-gritty: An interesting premise but a confusing execution, The Peace Machine just wasn’t my kind of story.

My friends, I cannot remember the last time I gave a book two stars, and unfortunately, that is the rating I’ve decided upon for this book. The Peace Machine is presented as “A gripping tale in the tradition of Jules Verne and Alexandre Dumas” but I found that comparison to be very thin. What I thought was going to be a steampunk, science fiction-like tale about a machine that will force humanity into world peace turned out to be a rambling and disjointed story about a group of (frankly) unlikable characters who are caught up in the midst of a country on the brink of war.

And because I had trouble making sense of the plot, I’m not even going to do a recap, as I’m afraid it will make little sense to others. Let’s just say that I did not get the story I was expecting and leave it at that. The machine that will supposedly change history is barely mentioned at all. Most of the story revolves around several key figures who are tempted by the idea of the machine and engage in a series of disconnected events which eventually lead to the machine in action in the very last chapter of the book. But getting there was a struggle for me and I nearly put the book down for good several times. The only reason I pushed through was the low page count and the fact that I had promised the publisher a review.

Whenever I read a book that isn’t working for me, I head to Goodreads to see what other readers think of it. That way I can gauge whether I’m in the ballpark as far as my opinion goes, or whether I’m completely off base and just don’t “get” what the author is trying to do. (Apologies for the baseball metaphors!) But in this case—and I invite you to click on the Goodreads link and see for yourself—the only reviews I found were in Turkish (I’m assuming because the author is Turkish). This is the first time I’ve ever had that problem. Not only could I NOT commiserate with the other reviewers who gave this two stars, but I had no idea why they rated this book that way. My review might actually be the first English review on Goodreads, but I’m not sure I want that distinction!

The idea behind the peace machine is an interesting one, and I did appreciate that its simplicity made sense for the book’s time period, set in 1914. About a third of the way into the story, we’re given an explanation about how the machine might work. A man named Sahir explains to our main character Celal that electronic vibrations induce a feeling of calm, not unlike the feeling from ingesting opium. Sahir is determined to create a machine that will affect people worldwide—a ridiculously ambitious idea if you ask me—and he asks Celal to help him achieve his dream. But the road to the creation of the machine is rocky. A large cast of characters come together in various ways, and most of them have violent tendencies. For some reason a circus plays a big part in Sahir’s ultimate goal, and I couldn’t even tell you why at this point. There is a circus in this story, and terrible things happen in that circus, none of which made this book any more likable. Each event in the story seemed completely disconnected from the others, and making my brain string a series of somewhat interesting ideas into a cohesive tale was nearly impossible for me.

Strangely, there are elements of magical realism scattered throughout the story, and I perked up after the first one (one of the characters makes an origami crane and the crane comes to life!), thinking this was going to be interesting after all. But these episodes were so random that they ended up confusing me even more.

Mumcu is famous in Turkey for being a radical, outspoken journalist and free speech activist, and I believe this novel is his way of putting his strong beliefs into a fictional setting. The story focuses on the philosophies of warfare, which is a topic I have no interest in whatsoever, unfortunately. Which leads me to believe that my opinions are only surface-based and do not take into account the subtleties of war. Perhaps a reader who enjoys philosophical debates would pick up on the hidden nuances in this story, but for me, I was simply bored. Had the plot and characters been more engaging, I’m certain I would have more appreciation for Mumcu’s ideas. But for now, I’m admitting that this story just wasn’t for me.

Thanks to the publisher for supplying a review copy.