Customer Reviews

Life With a View: A Turkish Quest

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If you liked "Italian Neighbors", "Dinner with Persephone", "Under the Tuscan Sun", or "Eat, Pray, Love" you will adore this book.
"Life with a view" disproves Yeat's claim that the artist must choose between perfection of the life or of the work. Toni Sepeda has perfected both--the rich experiences of her quest for the sublime in everyday life are described in exquisite detail in her work. Each perfectly chosen word illustrates the glory of a life filled to the brim with celebrations of every meal, every task, and every view.
Descriptions of the wealth of wildflowers, the dragon rock, and the glittering sea carry the reader away to a land of enchantment. We fall in love with the characters we meet along the way--Osman, Ali, Mehmet, and Adnan (not to mention Rumi, Odysseus, and Xenophon), We cheer each triumph and sigh with resignation when Allah's will prevents an easy victory.
The quotations that start each section and chapter are perfect gems, and the pen and ink illustrations are absolutely gorgeous. With each page the reader is reminded that the glory of life is in the journey, not the destination. We close the book at the end feeling richer for having joined the author on her quest.

This is not the type of book I normally read, however it was wonderful. Toni Sepeda writes about her trials of building a house in a foreign country. Her telling is insightful and often humorous. The differences in customs between Turkey, America and her regular home of Venice are strikingly clear. Her quest to build a home with a view helped me to rethink my own life and to look for my own view to appreciate.

I was fortunate to live in Italy the last 4 years and have the author as teacher and mentor. Taking art history and appreciation classes with her in Aviano and Venice was definitely one of the main highlights. She and her partner, Craig, who is featured in the book, are both wonderful teachers and mentors. During the summer they head to the coast of Turkey and experience all the magic and wonder of travel, as well as frustration and disbelief. This is a wonderful culmination of discovery, partnership and beautiful experiences of building a home and living in a foreign land.

An intellectually thoughtful and visually stimulating armchair journey. This is a vicarious adventure for those of us who do not have the nerve to travel to "off the map" places, much less to attempt to live, or -some ancient gods forbid, try to build a house there. The book does however encourage me to take a few small steps away from my comfort zone, and that effect alone is worth the reading of it. I read it in a long weekend sitting because I became engrossed in the tale and could not wait to find out what perils were next met and conquered. I will now reread it to better savor the rich descriptions, clever asides, and to immerse myself in the "situations" (and experience the joys when they are resolved). I already feel like I know many of the characters. Certainly I feel close enough to Toni and Craig to think of them as friends; a bit eccentric perhaps but living a life I envy!

There are times when a reader chooses a book to disconnect from boring realities and mundane day-to-day activities. Other times we choose a book because we find the overall topic interesting, or because a friend has recommended it. There are even times when we simply close our eyes and take whatever our daring fingers end up picking from a shelf. Our reasons for choosing vary, and often times we don't even have a concrete idea of why we purchased one book over another. "Life with a View" does not need a reason--it chooses us. It takes us away to the Black Sea, to the small virgin coves, and noisy Istanbul. Toni's book does not force us into the magic of Turkey; we fall for it, page after page. Describing this couple's quest, which is not theirs alone, we find ourselves in a world of chaos, yet order; we can see the streets, smell the sea, hear the prayer calls. We can taste the exotic yet simple meals. We are taken in and out, page by page, from the west and into Islam. We feel alive, and the mundane, page by page, goes away. Thank you Toni!

Having read Sepeda's book on Venice I ordered this one. And wow, I am not even sure how to describe it. The book details Sepeda 10 year journey to build a house on the Black Sea with her partner Craig -- but that description doesn't do it justice. Problems arise everywhere: language, culture, weather... but yet everytime the result is managed to come by with the author learning more about Turks and they about the crazy "yabanci" (foreigners) trying to build a house on the sea. Yet the book is not critical, more a tale of "lost-in-translation" that ultimately adds up to a wonderful experience for everyone involved. Workers eating dinner with the pair, A Turk seemingly coming to rescue just when everything seems lost, tales of Instanbul interspersed throughout. It's a great story, and makes me want to start traveling in a more adventurous very soon.

As someone who's well familiar with Turkey and speaks both Turkish and English, I found Toni's account of building her dream house on the Black Sea to be amusing, anxiety provoking and always engrossing. It's hard to put the book down. It was like watching "Mr. Blandings Builds his Dreamhouse...in Anatolia" By turns I was chuckling and then bracing myself for what I knew would be yet another misunderstanding regarding the quest for life with a view. Toni's assessment of Turks is accurate (albeit from Western eyes) and loving at the same time. She doesn't hold back in her critical analysis of both she and her partner Craig, as well as the cast of characters that surrounded her life in Turkey. Thank you Toni for an account of life in my country of ancestry, in a language that can be shared with my children and non-Turkish husband.