Rating: 
Summary: A Return to Turkey After 30 Years
Review: A close friend let me read his copy of Scotch and Holy Water after he recently showed me an outstanding travelogue he had produced on some of the many ancient wonders of Turkey. As a member of NATO in the Air Force, I had made a number of trips to that country in the early 70s on military inspection trips. His video work and this wonderful book brought back many enjoyable memories. I plan to buy a copy and send to my daughter for her upcoming tour to Turkey.
Rating:
Summary: A Return to Turkey After 30 Years
Review: A close friend let me read his copy of Scotch and Holy Water after he recently showed me an outstanding travelogue he had produced on some of the many ancient wonders of Turkey. As a member of NATO in the Air Force, I had made a number of trips to that country in the early 70s on military inspection trips. His video work and this wonderful book brought back many enjoyable memories. I plan to buy a copy and send to my daughter for her upcoming tour to Turkey.
Rating: 
Summary: A must read for anyone in Turkey
Review: A must read for anyone who has lived or is living in Turkey. I laughed the whole way through and could relate to almost everything, even though it's 30 years later. The author captures the uniqueness, frustrations, and wonders of living in Turkey.
Rating:
Summary: It's All True
Review: For perspective, I was 2 years old when John D met me and 12 years old the last time I saw him. As for the book, it's all true, and couldn't have been better said. I recall my father (Art) and mother (Mim) coming back from the evening excusions John D. and the others would go on and how the laughing never stopped. Like other readers comment, it all needs to be put in perspective. I recently loaned the book to an associate who just returned from Izmir...the book has yet to be returned. They're making another trip and have commented toward the value the book has offered in understanding the people and places. Like the many of us who endured there for over 10 years, as the book prefaces the subject, you begin to understand the people, like the people and land, and never want to leave...yearning periodically to consider a return trip.I recommend the reading of this book...it's well worth the time...it'll make you laugh..consider, the literal interpretations that can only exist...
Rating:
Summary: It's All True
Review: For perspective, I was 2 years old when John D met me and 12 years old the last time I saw him. As for the book, it's all true, and couldn't have been better said. I recall my father (Art) and mother (Mim) coming back from the evening excusions John D. and the others would go on and how the laughing never stopped. Like other readers comment, it all needs to be put in perspective. I recently loaned the book to an associate who just returned from Izmir...the book has yet to be returned. They're making another trip and have commented toward the value the book has offered in understanding the people and places. Like the many of us who endured there for over 10 years, as the book prefaces the subject, you begin to understand the people, like the people and land, and never want to leave...yearning periodically to consider a return trip. I recommend the reading of this book...it's well worth the time...it'll make you laugh..consider, the literal interpretations that can only exist...
Rating:
Summary: Just Great!
Review: I am half american half turkish airforce military brat. I can vouch that the attitudes and ways in the book in the time it was written and even in general today are the turkish people.
It is a great way to understand the culture. I first read this book after finding it my fathers library when I was 18. I read it as almost his own stories from his stationing there earlier on.
Rating:
Summary: Just Great!
Review: I am half american half turkish airforce military brat. I can vouch that the attitudes and ways in the book in the time it was written and even in general today are the turkish people.
It is a great way to understand the culture. I first read this book after finding it my fathers library when I was 18. I read it as almost his own stories from his stationing there earlier on.
Rating:
Summary: What a wonderful, wonderful book!
Review: I first came across Scotch and Holy Water when I was a student in Alanya, Turkey, in 1994, and fell in love both with the country and the book. Unfortunately, the book belonged to someone else in the program, and I was never able to find a copy in the States until now. The stories inside are some of the funniest and warmest portrayls of a people you'll ever see, and Tumpane's wry (and self-deprecating) style of writing and living comes through on every page. If you have any interest in Turkey, read this book.
Rating:
Summary: Humorous, sensitive, accurate portrayal of 1950-60s Turkey
Review: I found myself in Adana, Turkey in November, 1979, as a US Air Force lieutenant with the 614th Tactical Fighter Squadron. As the recent emigrant of an Illinois farm town of about 1000 people, my total out-of-country experience had consisted of two weeks in Canada, and about three weeks in Spain, enroute to Turkey.
We happened to arrive in Turkey just as the Iranians were seizing U.S. hostages in Tehran, Iran, putting the final stake through the heart of Jimmy Carter's presidency. Our squadron of old F-4D Phantom IIs, worn out over the jungles of Viet Nam, were the closest U.S. forces to the crisis. For a month, we sat on varying degrees of alert. During that month, I fell in love with Turkey, a country I then knew of chiefly through the then-recent movie "Midnight Express."
As luck would have it, I was able to visit Turkey many more times through the 1980s. Each time, I found the Turkish people to be more interesting, more hospitable and generous, and more complex. The country was and is a contrast in opposites, wealth vs. poverty, technology vs. ignorance, secularism vs. religious conservatism, and a liberal democracy sprouting out from underneath an ever-vigilant, and occasionally repressive, army. No matter whom I met, the Turkish had a more definable national character than any North American or European people I had ever met or would meet. They always were generous to those who showed the slightest interest in their culture, their language, or their rich history.
John Tumpne's book, "Scotch and Holy Water" is a cult classic among Americans who have met Turkish people and culture, and have liked both. The book consists of a series of vignettes from the author's personal experiences as a contractor for the U.S. Air Force in Turkey during the 1950s and early 1960s. Having been dragged there by an older, more successful brother, the parallels of the author with Mark Twain (and the book's with "Roughing It" or "The Innocents Abroad") are always present, although in a more modern context. Tumpane has a very clear and concise writing style, although not nearly so severe as Hemingway's, yet conveys much more "presence" and an almost poetic description of day-to-day life in modern Turkey, which dwarfs any James Michener novel. Tumpane often resembles a 20th-Century Clemens in his narrative of the ordinary, giving insights typical of "Following the Equator."
If you would like to understand daily life in modern Turkey, or the life of American expatriates in out-of-the-way countries, or just escape and have a lot of good laughs along the way, "Scotch and Holy Water" is a great read.
Thomas Clar
Rating:
Summary: A must -read for all those who ever lived or visited Turkey
Review: I originally picked up this book when I was stationed at Izmir AB, Turkey (92-94). It was so amazing how I could relate to this book and see how life in Turkey has NOT changed over the years. It was alot of fun to read. I have since lent this book to a former neighbor whom never returned it and I desparately want to read it again so I can reminice on my "Turkey Days"
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