TURKISH ODYSSEY

"Turkish Odyssey: A Traveller's Guide to Turkey and Turkish
Culture" by Serif Yenen (1998. Order from Serif Yenen, PK 14
Acibadem, 81020 Istanbul, Turkey; fax +90 (216) 3266456, or
e-mail yenen@turkishodyssey.com - $29.50, 560 pgs.).

The desirability of Turkey as a travel destination for
English-speaking travelers has resulted in almost a dozen
guidebooks to Turkey in print. All tell the would-be traveler
how to get there, where to eat and to stay and what to see, plus
additional and usually condensed background information. All of
them have two drawbacks: not one of them is written by a Turk;
all are by Americans, Australians, Brits, etc. Not one tells the
traveler what makes Turkey and the Turks so interesting: Turkish
culture.

Serif Yenen's "Turkish Odyssey" fills that gap. Yenen is a
professional, licensed tourist guide who has drawn on his own
knowledge and that of his guide friends for answers to the
questions the visitor to Turkey wants to know.

Yenen makes no attempt to tell the readers where to eat, but he
explains the six different types of restaurants. He does not
recommend hotels or tell how to get from here to there; he talks
about where the Turks themselves live and explains the
differences between sea ferries and sea buses.

He also describes some of the traditional habits of small
businessmen and explains enough about the making of carpets that
the reader has some guidelines for choice.

What is expected of the families of an about-to-be-engaged
couple? Are civic holidays celebrated differently from religious
holidays? Do farmers pray for rain in times of drought? Who is
the best-known folk hero of Turkey? The answers are here.

None of this varied information is presented in boresome depth
because, in planning the book, the author and publisher chose to
use a type size more common to novels than to guidebooks and to
leave a decent amount of space between the lines of type. He
uses tables, as well, to summarize. Further, color photographs
and maps, more than 300 of them, accompany and make colorful the
text.

"Turkish Odyssey" resembles the usual guides in its last 200
pages, in which Yenen discusses the six areas most commonly
visited by tourists. Where the usual guidebook describes every
place of possible interest, in this one Yenen limits his
descriptions to those sites that tour groups normally visit.

The independent traveler who wants to see everything will
therefore want to carry a normal guide in addition to "Turkish
Odyssey." Those who expect to be with a tour need bring only
Yenen's book, because its 560 pages contain information they may
not get in such detail from their guide.

The American book distribution system is often ineffective in
procuring books published overseas, especially those by small
publishers. If ordering a copy through your local bookstore,
give them all of the address info.

-PAULA M. STRAIN, Rockville, MD
INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL NEWS, January 1999 p.131

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