Beth Helms

This book took me right back to Ankara, a city I love!
I felt as if I knew the neighborhoods that were being described; I could taste the food (oh, the variety and delights of Turkish food!); I could almost smell the city again.
While I lived in Turkey far more recently than the setting of the book, the people of Turkey (and, to some extent, the reactions of Americans living there "officially") haven't really changed that much. The author beautifully evoked the city and the frustrations and pleasures of living there.
Other reviewers have described the plot, so I won't recap it - but I do want to encourage you to read this book for a sense of this complex and dynamic country and, even more, for a very satisfying and well-written story about relationships, particularly between mothers and daughters.… (mere)

This was my first received early reviewer book. I liked the book, very much, even though it was not the book I expected when I made my selection. I visited Ankara Turkey in 2005 and hoped to renew pleasant memories, but Dervishes, though set in Ankara, Turkey, could easily have been set in any one or another of the places mentioned within the book, Olson Loop, Redouble Beach, Frankfurt, with minimal changes.

This is most importantly a story about women, wives and daughters, a story about women living the mid 1970's when the norms of woman's place in society were being shoved on many sides by rising feminism. This is why I like this book so much, I was there, Beth Helm was too, and did an especially good job of detailing the everyday life of living in this time period.… (mere)

I approached this book with a little bit of hesitation. I had read the summary in which it states the central location for the book was in Turkey. I do not know much about Turkish culture, so I wasn’t sure if I would grasp the entire concept of the book. (A silly reader worry, I know.)

The truth is, if for nothing else other than the sheer beauty of the writing, I loved this book. Helms is a talented writer who has produced a fine work of literary fiction. There is a deeply intriguing and haunting storyline that weaves (or spins) its way through the book between Grace (the mother) and Canada (the daughter). The use of Turkey as a backdrop to this story is pitch perfect and serves to make the feeling of isolation more real and tangible.

I highly recommend this book. There is great care behind the craft of this text, and I greatly appreciated the experience.… (mere)