Amazon.com: The Towers of Trebizond (9780002218047): Rose Macaulay: Books

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26 Reviews

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(2)
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4.3 out of 5 stars (26 customer reviews)

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55 of 57 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of my favorites!, March 18, 2004

By

Hoodlum (Frederick, MD USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Towers of Trebizond (New York Review Books Classics) (Paperback)

An important book: this is Macaulay's last novel and one in which she reveals more of her own life, usually kept very private and guarded. Like the narrator, Macaulay carried on an affair with a married man for many years. At the time she wrote this book, she had returned to the Church of England; she herself, like Laurie (the narrator) in the novel, is inclined to the Catholic expression of that tradition. This book is a wonder: part travelogue, part comedy, it is also, remarkably, a serious commentary on faith and doubt. It deals with the difficulties, both moral and intellectual, entailed in being a Christian in today's modern world, with both church and society being what they are. This book, then, will both entertain you and make you think. For students of the English theologian Austin Farrer, I'd say that Laurie's situation in this book is an effective representation of what Farrer means by "initial faith": attracted but still divided, not ready to give full commitment to what the church stands for.

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32 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Magical, funny, learned, expansive, unique, December 15, 2003

By

Jay Dickson (Portland, OR) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE) (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

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This review is from: The Towers of Trebizond (New York Review Books Classics) (Paperback)

Rose Macaulay's TOWERS OF TREBIZOND is unlike any other novel ever written. Basically a kind of travelogue of the narrator's travels through the Levant with her eccentric Aunt Dot, the smug Anglican Reverend Chantry-Pigg, and Aunt Dot's crazy camel (an important character in its own right), the novel comes to encompass much more: a meditation on East and West, a study of the contrasts between diffeerent forms of religion, and a very searching analysis of the need for religion in human experience. It's the kind of book you don't want to end, and even when it becomes somewhat wild and unbelievably allegorical (such as when the narrator trains an ape she acquires in Turkey to drive a car late in the work) you stay with it. It's the kind of book you can dip in again and again throughout your life: it works as well in bits and epigrams as it does as a sustained narrative.

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25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Return of an old favorite, July 7, 2004

By

Frank J. Konopka (Shamokin, PA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE) (REAL NAME)

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This review is from: The Towers of Trebizond (New York Review Books Classics) (Paperback)

It's always good to see an old favorite returned to print after many years. This always helps a new generation of readers to enjoy some writing that interested their previous generation. This book is touted as a very funny work, but I didn't think that it was all that humorous, at least to my mind. That isn't to say that I didn't enjoy the book, because I did, very much. The characters were well-drawn, and the travelogue portion of the work was first-rate. I thought of the book as more of a meditation on religion and its meaning to various people in the story, and I just loved the word pictures that the author painted on almost every page! Humor is in the mind of the beholder, and some of the book was indeed humorous; not in a laugh out loud vein, but rather in a quiet chuckling way. The work shows its age a bit, being almost 50 years old, but that doesn't make any diference in the story line. This is a good book to read, whatever your reason, and I highly recommend it.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars The novel as travelogue
You know how it is with some trips. You start out enchanted, you marvel at each wonder, you move on to the next. Every day sparkles. Read more

Published 9 months ago by Bruce Watson

5.0 out of 5 stars A study in love and Anglicanism
On the surface, this is a story of a visit to both dark and darling Eastern countries with many whimisical happenings. Read more

Published 10 months ago by Abby Visore

4.0 out of 5 stars Have camel, will travel
Not having read or heard about THE TOWERS OF TREBIZOND before, I was confused when I began, as to whether this was a novel or a travel book. Read more

Published 12 months ago by Robert S. Newman

5.0 out of 5 stars British eccentricity and wit pay off in this charming and funny travel adventure
Set in the 1950s, THE TOWERS OF TREBIZOND by Rose Macaulay assembles a "nosebleed" high Anglican churchman, a liberated female Turkish physician, dotty old Aunt Dot the intrepid... Read more

Published 16 months ago by Allen Smalling

2.0 out of 5 stars Quirky, Largely Unsatisfactory Period Piece
This quirky little novel is something of a period piece, written by a female British author in the 1950s. Read more

Published 18 months ago by Steven M. Anthony

3.0 out of 5 stars The Towers are Tipping
After reading reviews by folks who gave 5 stars and nearly gushed with enthusiasm over The Towers I was prepared to be overwhelmed. Alas, dear reader, I was underwhelmed. Read more

Published on August 3, 2009 by Leslie Readit

2.0 out of 5 stars Moby Dick in the desert
This is a friend's favorite book, and I tucked into it out of respect for her judgment. She's not the only one -- it seems that many people treasure The Towers. Read more

Published on July 23, 2009 by DavLibris

4.0 out of 5 stars A pleasure to read
The Towers of Trebizond begins with "'Take my camel, dear,' said my Aunt Dot, as she climbed down from this animal on her return from High Mass. Read more

Published on April 24, 2009 by Delaney

5.0 out of 5 stars Not just another "Turkey book"
Before Americans had their Disneyland, the British had the Levant. During the middle decades of the last century, tourists and students--along with would-be missionaries, spies,... Read more

Published on May 24, 2008 by D. Cloyce Smith

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great--And Very Different--Read
*MILD SPOILERS*

This is a sneaky book. It starts off one way--as a comic recount of eccentric, genteelly arrogant Brits (the narrator's Aunt and a high-church Anglican... Read more

Published on September 30, 2007 by Gulliver Foyle

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Inside This Book (learn more)
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First Sentence:
"TAKE MY camel, dear," said my aunt Dot, as she climbed down from this animal on her return from High Mass. Read the first page

Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
minor policeman, steerage deck, head policeman, caf� garden, other camels

Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Father Chantry-Pigg, Black Sea, Church of England, Christian Church, Father Hugh, Billy Graham, Father Pigg, Roman Catholics, British Embassy, Hagia Sophia, Seventh-Day Adventists, Ten Thousand, Foreign Office, Boz Tepe, Children of Israel, Greek Church, The Mixture, Van Damm, Alexandria Troas, All Souls Portland Place, Dead Sea, Evliya Efendi, High Mass, Kemal Atat�rk, Middle Ages

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