Review of The Four Humors by Mina Seckin

*The Four Humors* by Mina Seçkin (2021). Published by Catapult.

If you’re new here, and stumbled upon this blog through the mythical powers of the Internet, welcome! I know a lot of visitors to my website are people who randomly come upon this website through search engines like Google, but I also do have a lot of visitors who come back. Regardless: my name is Ashley, and I started this blog in order to keep track of everything I’m coming across in the world.

This blog post is interesting to me because lately, I’ve been struggling to get in my reading time. I was working for the longest time as a freelancer and contractor, but recently pivoted to an 8-5 job where I’m in an office. It’s not hybrid, so I’m always at home trying to put the puzzle pieces together of how I’ll get my reading done. I also continue working on this blog when I’m not at work, so the Instagram reels I’m fed about a 5-9 feel too real right now.

I’m not reading as much as I used to, but I’m happy that I can fit in time to read these books. If I was not reading and writing still, then I might actually go a little insane. Life isn’t about our corporate jobs, so if you forget about what fills your cup, then you might find yourself becoming more depressed.

So I’ve been trying to find creative ways to read, that’s for sure. I also recently went to Turkey, and right before I left I started falling into the Turkish and Turk diaspora literature whole. When I want to understand a region and its people more, I try to read books and watch movies from the area so I can see what’s up historically and culturally there.

The Four Humors is a book I’ve been meaning to read for a while, and now seemed like the perfect time. Even after my trip I now want to dig deeper into Turkish perspectives on recent history and diaspora, and this seemed like such a good premise for the diaspora aspect of things. I also finished it fairly quickly as I found it to be an easier read.

Let’s get into the review! I don’t want to ramble too much in the intro.

A Turkish American returns to Turkey after her father’s death and tries to understand her new reality—and health problems.

Our main character in this book is Sibel, a Turkish American twenty-year-old who’s going through a major life change: not only has her father passed recently, but she also needs to study for her MCAT exam. She heads to Istanbul to see her family and spend the summer there, and her boyfriend joins her for the journey.

That ends up creating some friction later, because while she’s in Istanbul and dealing with her grandmother and everything going on in her life personally, Sibel is also starting to deal with some health issues. She thinks she has a chronic health problem, and as she learns more about the human body throughout her life and studies, she’s starting to self-diagnose.

She also starts having an obsession with the four humors theory of medicine. This is something that’s not really seen in modern medicine, as around the seventeenth century the four humors began to fall out of popularity in favor of the beginning of modern medicine. Sibel, however, is really into this.

It also doesn’t help that her boyfriend is getting really into learning about Turkish culture and the region. He even picks up some words here and there, which is cute to see. Under normal circumstances this would all been great, but Sibel is dealing with so many personal problems that it starts to grit her nerves and feelings in a way that isn’t productive.

All of this has a backdrop of general Turkish history and what pushed her family to leave Turkey, despite their deep roots in the region. If you know nothing about Turkish history and what’s happened since the nation asserted its new beginnings after the Ottoman Empire, as well as the political violence, then I suggest reading up a little bit on it before or after this novel in order to understand the current sociopolitical situation in the area.

A lot of the story focuses on Sibel’s family and their history though, so if you’re looking for something that focuses more on general Turkish history, this is not the novel for you.

This is more of how people are shaped by current events and what forces people to leave everything they know behind in order to try for a better life, as well as the void it creates in other’s lives. There is discussion about power dynamics for sure, which is really interesting as someone dipping my toes in this for the first time.

There’s also the self-discovery aspect, as Sibel’s health problems are stemming from other issues and stressors in her life. With some fun description of Istanbul and Turkey to boot, this is a fairly rich novel throughout its pages.

Overall Thoughts

I enjoyed reading this novel, but I would say I didn’t love it. I could really sympathize with the main character and her plight, especially when it comes to fixating on something in order to try and make sense of the a different world than the one she knew, as well as how she felt in-between cultures and countries at times.

The writing itself was also excellent throughout the novel—I mentioned before that Istanbul is the main setting of this novel, and as someone who was literally just there, I lived for those little descriptions of the city. It’s such a vibrant and ancient place. It’s chaotic, but definitely left such a deep impression in my heart and I want to go abck.

I think I didn’t love this though because of superficial reasons. It might be the guidance of the four humors to understand a deeply troubling time (and country), but I just didn’t click entirely with Sibel as a character. This is such a complicated situation depicting very complex and interwoven politics, emotions, and stories, and it’s really hard to pull this off. Did this novel do it entirely for me? I say it had a solid footing of doing so.

I definitely recommend checking it out from your local library or purchasing at an indie bookstore if you’re interested in the story, characters, or the overall premise. I did not regret reading this at all!

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