I have made some progress with My Name is Red! When I was feeling confused, I took some notes, as if I were reading for school...or to figure out what is going on in the book. It helped a lot! I did figure out that a lot of men are named "Effendi." I suppose if we googled some of these Islamic or Turkish terms, we'd find out more...I suspect "Effendi" means "Mr." If anyone wants to find some of the terms that keep appearing and making the story foreign-seeming, please do and post them here.

There are a lot of flashbacks in the chapters, but it always comes back to the present. I think it becomes evident fairly early who has been murdered, and the voices in the various chapters refer to this person, which is a way of tying everyone together.

We CAN read this and enjoy it! There are foreign terms and foreign customs, but there is a story...or perhaps more than one story....