“Don’t expect me to believe in God unless he suffers as much as I do.” The View of Time begins with such defiance towards God. Not only with its editing but also with the philosophical dimension added to the themes, it is a novel belonging to the mastery period of Mehmet Eroğlu “who chooses to be the painter of human panoramas nobody sees or notices.” In his seventh novel, Mehmet Eroğlu tells us about Turkey and people of Turkey between 1988 and 2002, and the war which cost thousands of lives in the southeast, the corrupt practices, briberies and plunders, those waiting to die, the sufferings along with a tragic love story. He presents all these from the viewpoint of Barış Utkan, who seeks the divineness he couldn’t find in his life in literature, making spiritual journeys in the past, the present and the future, worshipping the idol he carved out of the remorse he gained in the war – never to be worn out in time - in which he killed seven people.

Some say The View of Time has existential elements whereas others think there are more philosophical elements in it. But it is considered as Mehmet Eroğlu’s best novel by the majority of critics. The novel includes almost independent chapters dedicated to the subjects of God and writing and one of the most significant and striking things about it is the way it opposes war – in a way that has no illustration in Turkish Literature.

“Our consideration of a drama with no elements of love stays indifferent resembles the way we find a woman who has never fallen in love…” When Elif, a wealthy woman viewing her existence on the edge of life, reads these lines written by Barış Utkan, she realizes that she’s never fallen in love. On one side is Elif, the beautiful woman with “big looks” who thinks she’s wasted her life away, and on the other side is Barış Utkan who says, “While fighting in a battle, one first loses his mother,” and is after a woman to give him back the compassion he lost on the mountains. It’s inevitable that, the acquaintance is ripened into love: Elif will purify Barış (who used his unique being as an eraser and had his soul cursed with the dead people in war) of his sins; meanwhile, Barış will be Elif’s guide. However, this encounter leads Elif to a political immigrant just back from exile and Barış to poverty much bigger and wider than everything he has been a part of until that day. Thus, this love story turns into a tragic illusion with three people whose destinies don’t intersect, and with no couple forming out of it.

There’s no question about the main theme of The View of Time is being love. This is a novel of intense affection that brings out and emphasizes the notion of tenderness – the mother of all our virtues - that’s been left breathless which actually does exist in the essence of humanity, though is covered up by thick walls in dark labyrinths.