Hidden Cards

Of all the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s many visitors, Mr. PA is perhaps the most assiduous; indeed (if Pamuk is counting accurately) this is the seventeenth time he has wandered those halls. And there he stays until, shortly before 9 pm, the guards announce the end of the museum’s extended hours. On each visit, Mr. PA lingers before certain paintings. One such canvas is Cézanne’s The Card Players. There are three players, unspeaking; their gazes do not meet. Each player has a little secret (the cards in their hand), and is careful not to let it be seen by the others. A fourth figure stands watching the players and their cards. Mr. PA has read extensively about Cézanne and he dissects the canvas through a succession of questions (items of curiosity that any reader of FMR – surely possessed of an interest in art – will share); no doubt those readers will have other questions of their own, about Mr. PA. Who is he, really? What spurs his interest in museums and paintings? In this instalment, Orhan Pamuk reveals a few little details about the character he has created; more details will surface in those that follow.