Spoiler Alert! - Museum of Innocence

 Can a person waste their life and still consider it a good life?

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I have never felt as disturbed after watching a series or reading a novel as I felt after The Museum of Innocence. Despite that being a romance fiction story.
I have to say it's the brilliance of Mr. Orhan Pamuk. He wrote the novel greatly, with a lot of respect towards the character, and most importantly, the reader.

There was never a real conclusion. Even the ending, which was supposed to be a conclusion, left me feeling really unsettled for weeks.

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Back to the initial question,
it was just beyond me looking at how Kemal behaved his whole life.
So, what if a person can be deeply destructive, waste huge parts of their life, and still sincerely consider it a life well-lived?
Kemal's way of thinking really had me questioning about my belief system. Like, I genuinely thought only a life well-lived would make someone feel genuinely content.
And it's not even about money or power.
It's about being loved, respected, and basically just not meddling with people's lives.

Being born and raised in a hyper-privileged environment, Kemal was indeed a very few people who can afford to spend their adulthood leaving their job and circling Europe thinking about what to do with all of his lover's stuffs.
Let alone buying an entire house with all its belongings, turning it into a museum.
In the name of love, he said.

It drove me crazy how he kept justifying every damage he caused in the name of love.
He had a great engagement with amazing lady, family to fall back to, business creating lots of money with little care,
all of that he left behind for a girl whose dream he kept on shattering because of nonsense jealousy..
Oh to be rich and having a pass to ruin people's lives just because he can.

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And what left we unsettled were:

• How the existence of Fusun gradually faded, leaving her as nothing but a collection of objects that Kemal worshipped. She was never really portrayed as someone who was loved. Her dreams were wasted, none of it ever came remotely true. She was always caged in the name of love by everyone around her.
• How Fusun's family always seemed so happy welcoming Kemal for years, slowly wishing their daughter got divorced. Leading Kemal to believe it for years, without ever making that come true. But you can see by how they speak, how they did it with no evil intention.
• How it took years for Fusun to actually got divorced. Despite Kemal saying that she was in love with him too. Was it a game for her family? Was she just using Kemal's generosity?
• How genuine and in-love Kemal looked the whole time, while singlehandedly ruining people's lives. Honestly, from Sibel, Fusun, and Kemal's family's perspectives, the story would be about betrayal and not romance.
• How Kemal kept saying all the affairs and separation were the happiest moment of his life! Knowing so well he was out of his mind the whole time. What is happiness, really?

Honestly, since this was supposed to be a love story, I kept waiting until I can see Fusun as a person whose life was celebrated.
But it never came.
It was just another tragedy after tragedy, despite how deep Kemal claimed his love to Fusun to be.
Personally, I just think it's insane how a hyper-privileged man could have a pass to ruining people's lives.

But what is even crazier is the fact that I can also see his sincerity.
How he kept on going, thinking that seeking solace in Fusun's belongings is the ultimate manifestation of love. I could see how genuine all of those feelings actually were.

He was just a guy in love, trying give the world to Fusun with the only way that he knows.

By being a psychopath.