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Title: Poorly written and shallow.
Review: So poorly written I have trouble believing Kinzer was a NYT correspondent. The book is thin on interesting detail about modern day Turkey. It largely consists of a running, numbingly repetitive complaint by Kinzer about how the political & military elite don't allow true democracy in Turkey. True or not he has little more to say, and he delivers this message in the first pages... and in the conclusion to nearly every hectoring, preachy chapter. Compare this book to Kinzer's fellow correspondent, Elaine Sciolino's well-written recent book on Iran ("Persian Mirrors: The Elusive Face of Iran") -- I felt learned a great deal about modern life and politics in Iran; next to nothing about modern life or politics in Turkey. Skip it.
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