I tried to like this book. I tried to get into it. It makes sense for the story to wander a might, as the river does quite famously. But this was pointless and I stopped reading. This is mainly suitable for readers who are already familiar with the area, at least in concept if not through actually visiting. There are maps at the beginning of a few chapters, but they are black and white and not very informative-- not all the places discussed in the chapters are listed, but places are listed which aren't discussed. It's difficult to refer back to the map to actually find what you're reading about.

The author talks about how he has written about Turkey for his career, but doesn't really establish his credentials-- has he lived there? what research has he done? why is his history with the area important? He seems to assume the reader already knows who he is.

Approaching a quarter of the way through the content (not counting the endnotes, etc.), the author hadn't even gotten into the river yet; he was still wandering around various springs in the area. We were going no where even as fast as the Meander.