Reşat Nuri Güntekin
Cherry Tree Branches
Original Title : Kızılcık Dalları
Novel
Nadide Hanım is waiting at Pendik Station to meet her daughter who is due to arrive on the train from Bolu when she a villager from Adapazarı, Gülsüm and her brother Ismail. They were trying to find out how to get to Göztepe. Some time after Nadide Hanım has taken her daughter and her fiance to live in their mansion, they realise that the people who have lit a fire and established a camp close by are the same people who were at the station. Late at night the fiance Feridun invites them up to the mansion to eat. Nadide Hanım ends up adopting Gülsüm. After this has been agreed, the villager goes on his way. Feridun uses his conncetions to have Ismail placed in an Edirne orphanage.
Gülsüm is now one of the orphans of the mansion and like the other chidren is registered in school. When she fails to make any headway, Nadide Hanım arranges for her granson Bülent to be her tutor. Gülsüm sometimes steals small amounts of Nadide Hanım's money or sometimes clothes to send to her brother
One day she is caught and is beaten with a cherry tree branch. Later,one day when Gülsüm is back to her chirpy self, Bülent's wet-nurse tells her that her brother is dead. Gülsüm in time forgets all about him. She spends seven years at the mansion. Later she begins a new life and experiences many different events. Nadide Hanım moves to Ankara and out enjoying herself at a night club, she climbs up onto the stage and shocks everyone by joining a singing chorus. What's come over her and what's happened to Gülsüm.
Selected Reviews
Reşat Nuri, Cherrytree Branches is a patiently assembled collection of details that charts the hell of being an orphan, inhumanity and, the savagery of the host, all painted in an unforgettable manner. Fethi Naci, Cumhuriyet Kitap
His novels generally depict the problems of Anatolia and various socıal questions. The novel Cherrytree Branches is an example. The novel descibes a mansion, symbolizing a ,rich Paşa's family. The novel examines the relationships of individual members of the family with the foreman, nanny, servant, cook and adopted orphans. Doç. Dr. Olcay Önertoy, Cumhuriyet Dönemi Türk Roman ve Öyküsü, T. İş Kültür Ya.
In Cherrytree Branches the events that befall an adopted orphan are described in a story book fashion. The desire for a happy family life is described in a rch literary manner. In a masterful manner the writer describes how on the death of a young mother, the nanny is forced to care for the chidren remembering her own suffering. The writer with this novel examines the lonliness and hopelessness of an orphaned girl. www.turkkitap.de
Reşat Nuri frequently focused on teachers who were considered heroes of Turkish society. These characters fought against difficulties and remained firm but at the same time were endearing and humanistic. Ahmet Kabaklı
