Fiction or Reality?

I just finished reading my first book by Orhan Pamuk, "The Museum of Innocence"(Masumiyet Müzesi). I was told by many people that it was not the best idea to read this book to get an overall idea about Orhan Pamuk. I realized what they meant after the first few pages, but it was a gift and I nonetheless went on reading the book.
I must say it was difficult for me to make it through the general content of the book, but once I stared to concentrate more on the formal aspect on how it was written, I had an easier time reading it.
The content is very heavy, not in the sense that you might not be able to understand it, ohh no you will, but in the middle or even earlier depending on your endurance of sense, you will start questioning our main character Kemal.
Kemal comes from a wealthy family in Istanbul, living in the wealthy district of Nisantasi. He is engaged to the wealthy, beautiful and worthy girl Sibel, whom studied in Sorbonne, Paris. Kemal studied in the US.
Since the Istanbul society was not so big in those times, it had room for a lot of gossip, some real and some exaggerated. One day he and his fiance walk down the street of Nisantasi, where Sibel sees a bag in the display window of a boutique. She likes it and mentions it to Kemal. Kemal who wants to make his fiance happy, decides to go and buy the bag the next day. Funny how little things in life can lead us to different paths. In this boutique he meets his long distance family relative, Füsun, who is in her teenage years about to prepare for university. She turned out to be this beautiful, enchanting young girl, whom Kemal falls in love with instantly. After some time they decide that it would be wise, if Kemal would help Füsun to prepare for her University acceptance exams, since she is not very good in math. They start meeting at an apartment of Kemals family which is used as some kind of storage, and went further then they were suppose to. Not thinking much of it they fall in love, or start to become obsessed with each other, at least Kemal does. It all goes well for three months until the engagement of Kemal comes along. Füsun and her family were also invited to the engagement, but this was also the last time Kemal saw her, at least he thought it was. After searching the streets of Nisantasi for her, he takes up all his courage and goes to her families apartment. Füsun is not there but her mother is and she tells him the story of how Füsun ran out of her university exam crying. Her father took her some place else. A few days later Kemal walks down the street where Füsuns apartment is, to see that it is empty. The family moved. All Kemal can think about is Füsun and he searches all Istanbul for her, at least he tries. His fiance meanwhile did not know what was going on with Kemal, but is very accepting and tries to help him, even after he tells her, what happened between him and Füsun. But help only goes as far as one wants it, and it seemed that Kemal was not willing to let go of Füsun, nor ever will be. After a summer together in Sibels families summer house, she decides to break off the engagement. After that all went different than Kemal might have hoped for. His father passed away, Füsuns family did not turn up for the funeral, he did receive a letter from Füsun after a while only to find out that she has been married to a poor young scriptwriter and finds out that he is called over in order to finance the movie they were planing to shoot. ( A human with some common sense would stop chasing shadows from here on, but not Kemal) Hoping that someday Füsun and her husband Feridun would get a divorce, he decides that this is the only way to stay close to Füsun and builds a production company called Limon. Sadly they do not mange to make a star out of Füsun, though that is the dream she longed for. Jealousy of kissing other actors and nude scenes make them both, Kemal and her husband shiver away from that thought. Kemal ends up going to dinner at Füsuns families house for 9 years. He is not only embarrassed in his society by a cruel yet half-true article in a newspaper, but he also finds himself neglecting the business of his father. After Füsuns father dies, the divorce of Füsun and Feridun follows. Suddenly it feels like it all comes to place and those once young lovers where about to end up together. But Pamuk would never let something like that happen, this would be to romantic and cheesy. They go different ways in the same direction. She goes on to another world and he ends up in his misery only left with little objects he took with him from Füsuns apartment every time he went there for dinner and stored them in the apartment they had their best moments years ago. He starts traveling the world and goes to all kinds of museums, with the hope of opening a museum with Füsuns things in it one day. He wants to show the world what they had and wants to prove his friends and family wrong, who accused him of having wasted his life.
This is a long but yet brief re-narration of the book. And there are many other things that appear. But I do believe it is important to say that you don't read this novel for its content, but for how it is written. It is amazing how you at first think this is a real story, that it is really told by Kemal, since the book is written in the form of the first person narrator. But at the end you get confused. Kemal needs someone who will be able to write the story about him and Füsun and decides that Orhan Pamuk, who's family and himself were mentioned earlier in the book as well, was the right person for it. The last chapter changes from first person narrator to a regular narration style and sometimes switches to Pamuk who ends up becoming the first person narrator. This makes you think two things,one that this novel is based on a true story or two is it all fiction and Pamuk is trying to confuse us. Did a Kemal come and ask Pamuk to write this story in order to promote the museum he build at the end of his life, or is this all a tactic by Pamuk to confuse the reader, after such clear narration throughout the whole book?
It was really hard for me to understand the psychology of Kemal and even more at the end Füsun's. And this not understanding drove me crazy most of the time during the novel, I kept saying to myself Kemal get over her and go on with your life, it can't be that you can't do it. And Füsun drove me crazy because though she knows how much this man loves her, she still acted as if it were not possible to understand and always acted indifferent towards him. When she finally had the chance to be with him, she gave him the fold of not having achieved her dream of becoming an actress, which makes you think, woman you can't have everything you want in life, at least you came to the point where you can have the man you want (or did she not want him?).  Eventually a stupid stubborn behavior of hers made this also come to an end for her.
This might have sounded negative, but I did not mean it that way. After reading the last chapter I ended up liking this book very much. If not for the context more so for the writing. Pamuk has a talent for describing events, people and feelings. It is interesting to see throughout the book which aspects he wrote a chapter about, one of my favorite's is the "Sometimes" (Bazen) chapter. As the name of the chapter says it's about sometimes. Sometimes they did that sometimes this and sometimes...this is how the chapter goes and I don't think any other author could have pulled this of as good as Pamuk. As for reality or fiction I ended up deciding that it was fiction, but certainly real sounding fiction.
Kemal says to Pamuk at the very end of the book that there is one think he wants the reader to know, which is that he lead a very happy life. Now I believe that this is based on peoples point-of-view. For me he did not, except at the moments he created for himself, but then again who would want to admit, that he did not lead a happy life?