Brendan Shanahan

Brendan Shanahan, an Australian journalist, moved to Surfers Paradise for 6 months in order to source stories of the wild and wonderful for a new book. Although he doesn't get the story he is after, the story behind the story is well worth the read. He covers migration, the porn industry, shady developers, and the plight of the down and out seeking a better life in the surf and sand. It's a combination of very funny and sometimes sad anecdotes making for an entertaining read. As a former Queenslander, I found Shanahan's expose of life in Surfers Paradise to be alarmingly accurate. Sure, it's not a total picture, but this is how I remember it.… (meer)

“Istanbul was sad but never grim,” Brendan Shanahan writes in In Turkey I am Beautiful. This is the general sentiment of his travelogue around Turkey. While he spends a lot of his time hanging around with his friends who run a carpet store in Istanbul, he does make it out to the eastern cities. He tours the usual spots—Istanbul, Antioch, Adana—but we also get urban vistas of concrete near the Soviet border, quaint villages in the Turkish countryside, dalliances with lawlessness on the Armenian border, and a serious look at the customs and traditions of the Turkish people. He reports on the struggle within most Turkish people of whether Turkey is a part of Europe or Asia. Geographically (and for the Dewey), it’s in Europe, but many Turks don’t feel European. He writes with the usual cynicism of a well-seasoned, Western travel writer, but his personal relationships with the people he tells us about round out Shanahan’s humanity and the tone of the book.

As a military dependent, our family was stationed in Turkey in the mid-1990’s and this book helped bring back a lot of memories, especially his description of Adana (the nearest big city to the air base). I remember hearing a lot about the Kurdish struggle and the growth of the PKK (a group that protests, sometimes violently, against the current government in order to further Kurdish communist aims). Being a foodie at heart, though, I found his descriptions of local delights as well as the tea to be the most evocative. If you haven’t been to Turkey, this book is a really good place to start learning about the politics and the people. If you have, then this one should work as a pleasant reminder of days past. A poignant and enjoyable book.… (meer)

What to say about this book. Firstly I read it in sections, which is something I rarely do. I guess one could conclude that it didnt hold my attention to get through it one hit, but thats not true. This book is more than a travel diary, its a warts and all account of one man's travels. I found myself laughing and cringing at all the right moments. My sensitivities were challenged greatly by the stories from South Africa. I was a little disappointed in how Las Vegas was covered, but hey its Shanahan's story not mine. If you like reading about real places and REAL people this is your book.… (meer)