Customer Reviews

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As a foreign living in Turkey I can say that this book is one of the most boring ones dealing with Turkey. The writer makes a few mistakes in the book, he claims, for example, that Kurdish language is banned in Turkey. The book seems to be written in 1993. Kurdish wasn't banned then anymore. Yes, Kurdish language has been banned, but not during this decade and it is not banned anymore. In Istanbul Kurdish language study books are being sold at bookstores and one can hear Kurdish being spoken every day. For me, this was very surprising, totally the opposite what Western media says. Anyhow, the book also made a few stupid generalisations about Turkish women. The book was fairly naive and shows that the writer has a very scarce knowledge on any Meditarrenean culture. I must admit that I do not think that it reflects the reality of Turkey at all. It is totally from another planet than the Turkey I live in.

I have never been to Turkey, i may never go either. But, i found this book in my new home and decided to read it. I had no expectations. And it turned out to be a nice read. It's the kind of book you pick up and read when youre hitting the sack, or just lying around the house.

The author brings you through several different parts of Turkey and gives you a glimpse of what the culture is like. It is a very personal account of his trip through the country, and i always find things like that pretty interesting.

I recommend it, if you can find it for free, hidden away in a house youve just moved into.

Lawlor did a lot of research, and he writes well, but sometimes I found myself cringing at his behavior among the Turks, at his seeming lack of empathy, and at the snap judgments he occasionally makes about his host country and its people. I also got the impression that he did not spend all that much time there, not enough time to merit the authority to write a whole book. Still, some of the scrapes he gets himself into are edifying and funny. I sense that he means no ill will, and that the harshness I perceived was unintentional. Overall, for a more sensitive, richly researched portrait of Turkey today and yesterday, I recommend Mary Lee Settle's "Turkish Reflections."

This is a very personal account of the author's travels around the different regions of Turkey. I think his introspections are interesting. And, he does make places like Ankara, Ephesus and Bodrum more intriguing without over-selling them. For an outsider, I think this book does very well in showing what one might encounter when travelling in Turkey. Although, it should not be deemed as a general description of how Turkey is really like. I like the tidbits of politics and history incorporated into the chapters. It made me learn some things about the country.