GETTING TO KNOW TURKEY

by Fanny Davis ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 12, 1972

Rewritten and newly illustrated but no more inviting than the 1957 original, this travelogue of Turkey simply spreads itself too thin to achieve any real impact. Addressed annoyingly in the second person (""In Istanbul you might stay at the handsome Hilton Hotel"") there's a quickie tour of the country, a page on games, one on food, one on music, and so on until every aspect of Turkish life has been mentioned and none illuminated. Despite simple vocabulary and the fact that the history sections (both ancient and modern) have been slightly expanded, it will be a rare child who can get more than a smattering of chronology from the few cramped pages -- one sentence on Barbarossa who ""turned the Mediterranean into a Turkish Sea"" and a few paragraphs on the Janissaries ""originally part of a conscription of Christian boys"" who later ""when they were mad. . . overturned their big iron soup kettles. Sometimes they dethroned the Sultan and terrorized Istanbul."" If an encyclopedic survey of Turkey is really needed at this level, this will serve, but it might be more rewarding to wait a few years and begin with Emil Lengyel's Turkey (1970).

Pub Date: Jan. 12, 1972

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Coward, McCann & Geoghegan

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1972

Categories: NONFICTION