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| A Fez of the Heart: Travels around Turkey in Search of a Hat | 
 enlarge | Author: Jeremy Seal
Publisher: Harcourt
Category: Book
List Price: $16.00
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Avg. Customer Rating:  (30 reviews)
Sales Rank: 514745
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 337
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 7.8 x 5.3 x 1
ISBN: 0156003937
Dewey Decimal Number: 914.9610439
EAN: 9780156003933
ASIN: 0156003937
Publication Date: March 1996
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com Review
Upon the orders of Kemal Ataturk, the fez replaced the turban as Turkey's national headdress. Outlawed completely in 1925, the turban is viewed as a symbol of Turkish backwardness. While living and teaching in Turkey for several years, Jeremy Seals developed an obsession for the fez, a hat he believes has come to symbolize the soul of the country. Through interviews with villagers and historical essays, Seals chronicles his journey through Turkey, to areas both metropolitan and remote, to find the heart of the country as embodied by its national head gear.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 25 more reviews...
 Mixed feelings March 11, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I experienced a variety of emotions while reading this surprising book. My original enthusiasm and amusement soon gave way to startled dismay. For the first time in 13 years, I even felt fleeting doubts about the wisdom of having settled and raised my family here in Turkey. Now, however, as I go through the final mental digestion of this book, I realize that I was foolish to have taken the author's sophistic arguments so seriously.
"A Fez of the Heart" is written in the first person, yet readers are told next to nothing about its author, Jeremy Seal. After a time I found myself wondering why I should take him seriously at all. Could the author have calculated that by neglecting to discuss his credentials his credibility may actually increase? He is not a historian or a sociologist; but then again one certainly doesn't need a humanities PhD to write a travel book.
That said, this is not a book in the same deliciously hedonistic vein as "A Year in Provence." "A Fez of the Heart" is presumably serious travel history and satirical political commentary. Provocatively aggressive and deliciously politically incorrect it may be; but this work is also disappointingly one-sided. Crucial issues such as Islamic fundamentalism, Kurdish separatism, the semantics of Armenian mass murder and the status of the republic's modern Ataturk-born sociological and ideological paradoxes are genuinely important to the author, and he has made his own first step toward dealing with them. The sad fact is that, carried away by what he perceives as his irrefutable righteousness, Seal only weakens his positions by failing to anticipate and rebut obvious counterarguments. He supports his claims with the near-sighted research typical of one whose obstinacy prevents him from seeing more than one side of an issue.
As if that weren't enough, the author ultimately loses even more credibility through his chronic abuse of satire. He writes well and wittily, using a rowdy humor as the pretext behind which he presents his important and interesting topical agenda. But though he spares no one, not even himself, he too often sidesteps the substance of well-stated irony and goes for really cheap laughs. That's not to say that a serious book can't be funny or a funny book effective; but here is a belittling attempt to portray the complexly multicultural citizens of Turkey as mere tragi-comically de-fezzed simpletons. This is a grave mistake. In light of his criticisms and ridicule, Seal's occasional tone of sympathetic condescension is, at best, confusing.
Seal's book begs many questions and accuses the modern Turkish state of serious social, political, cultural and humanitarian infractions. That's fine. But because he neglects to offer a well-rounded and - most importantly - geo-politically contextual account of the country's fascinating history and political affairs, the author fails to validate his own arguments. Essentially he says, "This is what I think, and people who agree with me think I'm right." Seal becomes mired in specious rhetorical impotence and ultimately falls short of convincing anyone of anything - even himself, as he limpingly pursues his admittedly unifying fez-search theme to the very end. Though it could have been so much more, "A Fez of the Heart" unfortunately reads like a travel hit-and-run.Heather Ozaltun/Izmir, 2008
An outsider's view February 28, 2007
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
I read through the reviews of this book, and must agree that some historical interpretations (and even some facts) appear to be misguided. That doesn't mean that it is not an enjoyable book.
A fez of the heart wasn't meant to be a history book, it is about the travels of an educated outsider expressing his views about turkey. As a turk, I had to laugh out loud at some of the mistakes he makes in his travels and how he misinterprets (or over analyzes) some of the things he encounters.
What I found to be a redeeming quality of the book is the style it is written in. The framework of the fez makes the whole thing funny and worth a quick read.
Warrior Pistachio February 4, 2007
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
In this book Mr. Seal carries on the time-honored tradition of British travel writing by depicting the natives as primitive but hospitable and sometimes friendly monkeys. We read on the back cover of the book that Mr. Seal is fluent in Turkish. This is surprising, given his translation of the name of the city of Gaziantep as "Warrior Pistachio" (see the map on the first few pages). I guess his confusion, if there is any, arises from the type of pistachio sold in markets as "Pistachio from Antep". Also, the name of the city of Menemen is translated as "Omelet", but this is as if one translates the name of the city of Vienna as "Schnitzel". I would be interested in reading Mr. Seal's deep analysis of origin of names of perhaps, Liverpool and Arsenal. All I can say is, Mr. Seal, please first grow up and then write another travel book.
 A Fez of the Heart November 12, 2006
This book really gives the reader the feel of modern Turkey written in a very readable format. Having just been in Turkey in April, this book increased my insight into this fascinating country.
 misleading May 24, 2006
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
Brits are much more tolerable when they are making fun of themselves. When I finished reading this book, I felt that the author's main objective was to make fun of Turkish people. The book is full of manipulated historical references and mistranslations. Either J. Seal doesn't know Turkish as much as he claims or he deliberately mistranslated words just to be funny. "Menemen" doesn't mean "Omelet" and "Antep" does not mean "Pistachio".
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