What do you think?
Rate this book
Erdogan Pizza
Erdogan Pizza is a one-of-a-kind travel memoir that records 'The War Nerd' John Dolan's comic odyssey around the world between 2014 and 2020. In spite of anemia, food poisoning, and attempted assassination-by-delivery scooter, he brings his readers unforgettable accounts of the Greek economic crisis, the uneasy peace of modern Belfast, and the pitiful state of Albanian buses.
338 pages, Paperback
Published December 20, 2023
9 people are currently reading
279 people want to read
About the author
John Dolan
12 books37 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
See also: Gary Brecher.
See also: Gary Brecher.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
January 4, 2024
Whether you're an elder statesmen of War Nerd from the eXile days, or a relative newcomer to the scene via the RWN podcast, John's writing is always a delight. The book is a collection of RWN newsletters/dispatches sent to subscribers of the podcast, covering John's travels, trials, and tribulations with a remarkable pathos.
As cohost Mark Ames so eloquently describes, this is an anti-travel book. Forget the Michelin star restaurants, the mojitos on a boat, or the interminable banality of a Friedman type conversation with a local cabbie, this book is the morning-after of travelling. The 10 hour bus rides through the Balkan highlands where the absence of a restroom is only alleviated by the presence of a very loud chatty old man whose laugh provides the soundtrack to accompany the whole night's travails. The pursuit of McDonalds for a reliable, predictable, cheap meal in a strange land. The fear of being correctly identified as a foreigner among locals.
Yet, this book also reveals John in his finest War Nerd mindset. Cabbie conversations are one thing, but it takes the War Nerd, a man utterly terrified of being so much as looked at by other people, to provide the sort of sharp observation of said people purified of any romance or sentiment. Whether it is a loathsome boss or a group of youth ritualistically posturing in a plaza, John looks at people the way they are, not the way they should be or hope to be. Which is not to say this book is cynical, it is not. There is yet pathos and sympathy that comes from a clear head without any pretensions.
I audibly laughed at bars reading this book. I got sad. I got angry. If you're a nerd of the war persuasion, this book is for you. Inflict and endure.
As cohost Mark Ames so eloquently describes, this is an anti-travel book. Forget the Michelin star restaurants, the mojitos on a boat, or the interminable banality of a Friedman type conversation with a local cabbie, this book is the morning-after of travelling. The 10 hour bus rides through the Balkan highlands where the absence of a restroom is only alleviated by the presence of a very loud chatty old man whose laugh provides the soundtrack to accompany the whole night's travails. The pursuit of McDonalds for a reliable, predictable, cheap meal in a strange land. The fear of being correctly identified as a foreigner among locals.
Yet, this book also reveals John in his finest War Nerd mindset. Cabbie conversations are one thing, but it takes the War Nerd, a man utterly terrified of being so much as looked at by other people, to provide the sort of sharp observation of said people purified of any romance or sentiment. Whether it is a loathsome boss or a group of youth ritualistically posturing in a plaza, John looks at people the way they are, not the way they should be or hope to be. Which is not to say this book is cynical, it is not. There is yet pathos and sympathy that comes from a clear head without any pretensions.
I audibly laughed at bars reading this book. I got sad. I got angry. If you're a nerd of the war persuasion, this book is for you. Inflict and endure.
December 17, 2023
As a long time Radio War Nerd fan I was so excited for this book and it has met every expectation. I highly recommend this very anyone looking for intelligent but not pretentious travel writing and a good laugh.
I've read alot of travel Memoirs. This one stands out because it really portrays some of the unglamorous reality of travel. As well as the beauty in finding so much to learn about and ponder while staring at the mundane during your travels.
I've travelled a fairbit as well and I had to laugh at Dolan riding a bus through the countryside of some insignificant Balkan landscape and trying to analyze the socio-economic situation based off some houses and crops. I really relate to this haha.
I look forward to the next war nerd dispatch. I hope we get a volume on Dolans writing on Ethiopia because I loved his newsletters on those.
I've read alot of travel Memoirs. This one stands out because it really portrays some of the unglamorous reality of travel. As well as the beauty in finding so much to learn about and ponder while staring at the mundane during your travels.
I've travelled a fairbit as well and I had to laugh at Dolan riding a bus through the countryside of some insignificant Balkan landscape and trying to analyze the socio-economic situation based off some houses and crops. I really relate to this haha.
I look forward to the next war nerd dispatch. I hope we get a volume on Dolans writing on Ethiopia because I loved his newsletters on those.
January 9, 2024
Descubrí al War Nerd hace unos veinte años, allá cuando los neocons, apoyados por toda la prensa respetable y por la leal oposición, estaban preparando la invasión de Irak. Publicaba una columna en una extraña publicación, The Exile, escrita por unos americanos que vivían en Rusia y que terminó cuando les echaron a todos tras meterse con quien no debían. Era una columna maravillosa, en la que un personaje asquerosamente militarista cantaba las verdades del barquero, una perspectiva diferente (y mucho más acertada) que la basura regurgitada por la prensa.
Pasó el tiempo y se acabó desvelando su identidad, lo cual le causó no pocos problemas, como cuenta en los primeros capítulos de este libro, una colección de columnas escritas a partir de 2015, más o menos cuando Dolan y su amigo Mark Ames lanzaron el podcast War Nerd, al cual me suscribí sin dudarlo. La mayor parte de estas columnas se enviaron por correo a los suscriptores, por lo que ya las había leído, pero nunca viene mal releerlas y ver cómo sus análisis de la política internacional suelen ser confirmados por los hechos. En realidad no es tan difícil, basta con no hacer el esfuerzo de engañarse a sí mismo para luego cobrar de quienes ganan con este estado de cosas.
Otra cosa que me hace recomendar este librillo es lo bien escrito que está: cumple lo de “enseñar divirtiendo” a rajatabla.
Nota:
Como Goodreads pertenece a Amazon y Jeff Bezos ya es bastante rico para que además contribuya con mis patéticas reseñas a su aparato promocional, he creado una cuenta en Bookwyrm, donde soy mictter@bookwyrm.social
Durante un tiempo actualizaré ambas cuentas, hasta que llegue el momento de borrar la de Goodreads.
Pasó el tiempo y se acabó desvelando su identidad, lo cual le causó no pocos problemas, como cuenta en los primeros capítulos de este libro, una colección de columnas escritas a partir de 2015, más o menos cuando Dolan y su amigo Mark Ames lanzaron el podcast War Nerd, al cual me suscribí sin dudarlo. La mayor parte de estas columnas se enviaron por correo a los suscriptores, por lo que ya las había leído, pero nunca viene mal releerlas y ver cómo sus análisis de la política internacional suelen ser confirmados por los hechos. En realidad no es tan difícil, basta con no hacer el esfuerzo de engañarse a sí mismo para luego cobrar de quienes ganan con este estado de cosas.
Otra cosa que me hace recomendar este librillo es lo bien escrito que está: cumple lo de “enseñar divirtiendo” a rajatabla.
Nota:
Como Goodreads pertenece a Amazon y Jeff Bezos ya es bastante rico para que además contribuya con mis patéticas reseñas a su aparato promocional, he creado una cuenta en Bookwyrm, donde soy mictter@bookwyrm.social
Durante un tiempo actualizaré ambas cuentas, hasta que llegue el momento de borrar la de Goodreads.
January 8, 2025
While some parts will interest more than others, Dolan always kills it
January 11, 2024
I will read basically anything John Dolan writes and indeed have already read big sections of this book because it's a compilation of his newsletters. But I still enjoyed it and was happy to get the new content as well as review some of the old. As an "anti-travel" book, it gets to both show off the varied places Dolan has visited and unique aspects of their culture/history while also reveling in mocking a standard touristy account of jet-setting across the globe, often by focusing on how terrible it is to take a bus over the mountains at night while having GI issues.
There are some jagged edges where the newletter format and the memoir format run up against each other. Some recapping that's normal for a serialized newletter feels odd when flipping a single page from one chapter to the next. But overall, it's still a fun read and an entertaining mix of travel accounts and dives into pertinent history, usually of the colonial/imperials pasts that hang over much of the globe but are often less-commented-on. Certainly a must-read for any fan of the Radio War Nerd podcast and a good introduction to the overall content/tone for those not already in the loop (though with some "in the weeds" details that may go over the heads of the uninitiated).
There are some jagged edges where the newletter format and the memoir format run up against each other. Some recapping that's normal for a serialized newletter feels odd when flipping a single page from one chapter to the next. But overall, it's still a fun read and an entertaining mix of travel accounts and dives into pertinent history, usually of the colonial/imperials pasts that hang over much of the globe but are often less-commented-on. Certainly a must-read for any fan of the Radio War Nerd podcast and a good introduction to the overall content/tone for those not already in the loop (though with some "in the weeds" details that may go over the heads of the uninitiated).
January 23, 2024
I vaguely remember reading some of the dispatches in this collection when they came out at the time but I wasn't good at keeping up with them so I'm glad to see that John Dolan is going to make them into a series. It's said that he added new material to bind the stories together and I guess the bits about the Radio War Nerd podcast are part of it. I enjoy reading Dolan's essays on war and history so I recommend this to anyone interested in an unsentimental look at these kinds of things.
February 5, 2024
This book, as well as "dispatches" are by far and away, the best travel books I've ever read. John's first hand descriptions and the context he lays around those descriptions explain historical accounts and the current results based on those accounts in a way that is absolutely fascinating. I highly recommend this book to everyone who can read.
May 5, 2024
I’ve read several of Dolan’s books, and have been a fairly consistent listener of RWN since 2021, and I think this collection/travelogue exemplifies his sort of comedy that seems deceptively common. He’s a very nihilistic writer, somewhat Dawkins esque in his views, to some extent, though sympathetic to general leftist causes, not necessarily name brand Marxism but more so a vague anti imperialism, combined with a strong secularism. This collection of old newsletters and new mediations though offers some of his best humor and insight on both his own travels and the history of the sites he visits. As this book has been advertised, it’s an “anti travelogue,” there’s little discussion of interaction with locals- and when there is, John’s misanthropic side tends to shine through, a sort of indifferent sadism settles over the writing when he returns to the Anglosphere. The itinerary is another appeal of the book, like some drunken Indiana jones map montage as he hops between locales as disparate as East Timor, Phnom Penh, Skopje, Asunción, Portland and Belfast. Every section offers some new interesting nougat of information or (un)delightful tale. There are some authorial choices that I disagree with- but I also understand the need to not compromise on vision, and oftentimes they’re explained as well.
November 21, 2025
Almost alone among reviewers here, I did not come to John Dolan through the Radio War Nerd podcast, but through this book, which was recommended to me through various linked algorithms, presumably after my enjoyment of books by Vincent Bevins, Adam Hochschild and Vladislav M. Zubok. After Erdogan Pizza, I am a confirmed fan. As somebody who loves to read about those bits of the globe that get short shrift in most official Anglo accounts, I was delighted to learn about Dolan's misadventures in Dili, Skopje, Bitola, the beachside town of Leptokarya, Durrës, Puglia, propoganda exhibits in Budapest and Lisbon, Phnom Penh, Niš, Corfu's old fort in winter, Asunción, Belfast's suburbs, Groomsport and a few more areas and historic sites where Dolan and his wife appear to be the only American visitors. Despite Dolan's regular violent illnesses, social anxieties, a bout of drug withdrawal, his professional interest in disastrous local wars and genocides, and poverty (by travel author standards) -- all leading to his bone-deep skepticism about most human projects -- the book is very funny and strangely hopeful in places. He eats at McDonald's and in cheap Chinese restaurants everywhere and looks for the siderooms of forgotten art at military museums. His descriptions of local functionaries are vivid and merciless and he does not spare himself either.
He is equally good, if unsympathetic when the weather and circumstances are bad, on settings.
I liked Budapest more than Dolan does, as I like Wallace Stevens ("snotty") and the Talking Heads ("that rotten art band") a lot more and, say, 70s sci-fi less, but I can't deny that's a good description. And I'm one of those flabby civilians and likely just the sort of Anglo elite Dolan travels to avoid.
One warning: the book is produced by Caltrops Press, LLC, an indie publisher with political and military history focus. Not only is there no apparent editing of the repetition and transitions in this collection of newsletters, there are tons of mistakes: words and sometimes syllables split between two lines without a hyphen, spellcheck misses like "put" for "out", frequent punctuation errors and at least two full paragraphs repeated on one page. There are dozens of photos in the book, but they are grainy black-and-white and 1 inch square -- often Dolan describes in his text the colourful room-sized painting or scene pictured, but the image in the book might as well be of his McDonald's lunch for all you can make out. But if you can make it through these frustrations, the book is highly recommended.
The coffee houses were full of men drinking the hard stuff, little cups of pure coffee grounds. They were men-only zones, you could tell. But nobody objected when we went in. We were obviously tourists, profitable idiots. It's good to be as tourist as possible in feuding countries, and with my American potato face we'd never be taken for locals. I look like the kid from the Far Side cartoons grown old, and those faces only grow in the USA.
He is equally good, if unsympathetic when the weather and circumstances are bad, on settings.
The darkness, the weird heat, the disapproving statutes, all make Budapest a grimmer place than we remembered. The statues are the worst. I'd swear they didn't look this angry and defeated last time we were here. They're fed up, just about ready to clank off their podiums and start giving tourists the bronze backhand. There's a hussar up on the hilltop, near the History Museum, that actually glares at us flabby civilians as we trundle past. He's feeling the tip of his saber with one thumb, and you can tell that he'd love an excuse to try the edge on some fat neck.
It's one of those places they call "full of history," which means, roughly, "doomed". Hungary is half the size it was a century ago, with less than half the population. If you're young and can speak English, you leave. People say London is the second-biggest Hungarian city in the world now. What's left are the statues, too big and grim for this shrunken city, and old people walking little dogs.
I liked Budapest more than Dolan does, as I like Wallace Stevens ("snotty") and the Talking Heads ("that rotten art band") a lot more and, say, 70s sci-fi less, but I can't deny that's a good description. And I'm one of those flabby civilians and likely just the sort of Anglo elite Dolan travels to avoid.
One warning: the book is produced by Caltrops Press, LLC, an indie publisher with political and military history focus. Not only is there no apparent editing of the repetition and transitions in this collection of newsletters, there are tons of mistakes: words and sometimes syllables split between two lines without a hyphen, spellcheck misses like "put" for "out", frequent punctuation errors and at least two full paragraphs repeated on one page. There are dozens of photos in the book, but they are grainy black-and-white and 1 inch square -- often Dolan describes in his text the colourful room-sized painting or scene pictured, but the image in the book might as well be of his McDonald's lunch for all you can make out. But if you can make it through these frustrations, the book is highly recommended.
February 27, 2025
I've been familiar with Dolan first through the circuit of left-wing podcasts and then through Radio War Nerd itself. From the podcast, I knew that he found himself globetrotting, but I didn't realize the extent of this before reading the book. It bills itself as an "anti-travel book," but in this cynicism typical of Dolan's work, there is a sense of hard-won truth in the reportage of the places he and his wife find themselves.
The standout element of the book is the tone that permeates throughout along with the almost conversational form moving from historical anecdote to historical anecdote that the book takes, especially after the first third or so of the book. It reminds me of a long and winding conversation I would have with a friend who studies a different field of history than I do. Going from period to period, war to war, sometimes even within the same paragraph.
If I had one complaint, it would be due to the nature of the book being a collection of edited dispatches and newsletters, it can sometimes feel a bit disjointed. (although to be entirely honest, it is much less disjointed than I had expected) Occasionally, the tense is a little confusing, especially when writing on topics that have developed in the 8 years since the first dispatch of the book was written. Where this problem is most evident is the ending, which seemed to come out of nowhere with no afterward or conclusion. I read this book on a Kindle and didn't know the book was over until I suddenly found myself face to face with a Thanks for reading page.
The standout element of the book is the tone that permeates throughout along with the almost conversational form moving from historical anecdote to historical anecdote that the book takes, especially after the first third or so of the book. It reminds me of a long and winding conversation I would have with a friend who studies a different field of history than I do. Going from period to period, war to war, sometimes even within the same paragraph.
If I had one complaint, it would be due to the nature of the book being a collection of edited dispatches and newsletters, it can sometimes feel a bit disjointed. (although to be entirely honest, it is much less disjointed than I had expected) Occasionally, the tense is a little confusing, especially when writing on topics that have developed in the 8 years since the first dispatch of the book was written. Where this problem is most evident is the ending, which seemed to come out of nowhere with no afterward or conclusion. I read this book on a Kindle and didn't know the book was over until I suddenly found myself face to face with a Thanks for reading page.
January 1, 2025
Judging by the endless chronicles of woe in these "anti-travel memoirs", John Dolan, AKA Gary Brecher, AKA the War Nerd, has to be one of the most luckless travelers of all time, ranking right up there with Odysseus, Candide, and the Flying Dutchman. If I follow his tragedy-prone peregrinations correctly, he passes through (deep breath) East Timor, Turkey, Macedonia, Albania, Italy, Greece, Hungary, Italy again, Cambodia, Serbia, Corfu, Albania again (but sadly not Quebec), Italy again, NYC, Portugal, Argentina, Paraguay (with offscreen trips to Peru, New York, Italy yet again, and Sri Lanka), Thailand, Japan, Portland Oregon, Northern Ireland, and finally Ireland. Each of these chapters, which are mainly amended and extended versions of the Radio War Nerd newsletters, are the uniquely War Nerd mix you've come to expect: highly literate and opinionated military history, on-the-street reporting, free-floating flaneurism, and hilariously caustic 1-star reviews of humanity at large. However, this book is a lot more personal than the original 2008 War Nerd book was; whether it's the advances of age or simply being unburdened by the need to pretend to be someone else, the shift from desk-bound opinion writing to in-person excursions means we get to witness healthy servings of misery as he endures nightmarish bus trips, sadistic bureaucracy, unsettling local personages, crippling social anxiety, and drug withdrawal. The things he does for his fellow war nerds!
June 1, 2024
Dolan's work rarely fails to charm, and this book is charming too. He's erudite, opinionated, and yet modest; he is also a sympathetic figure, commonly coming off second best in contretemps with heads of university departments, minor Kurdish dignitaries, Russian disco attendees, surly border policemen, uppity airport clerks, and so on. It all makes for engrossing and sometimes illuminating reading.
He is also, not to put too fine a point on it, an unreconstructed bogtrotter. By birth and inclination a sectarian, he is often tempted to rabbit on about the "Rah", or Ulster, or his Jesuit uncles, or Bobby Sands, or whatever other tiresome bit of nationalist paddywhackery. He reserves what venom he's got for "the Empire", by which he really means England. This side of his writing comes across as if every pub bore in Boston - or Dublin's northside, for a similar downmarket audience - got together and wrote down every insult they could remember about Britain, somewhat handicapped by the fact that none of them did high school history past ninth grade.
But read on, anyway, and enjoy. Every writer's allowed his little fixations. Dolan's is "the Empire", and it's not the shabbiest bugbear in literature.
He is also, not to put too fine a point on it, an unreconstructed bogtrotter. By birth and inclination a sectarian, he is often tempted to rabbit on about the "Rah", or Ulster, or his Jesuit uncles, or Bobby Sands, or whatever other tiresome bit of nationalist paddywhackery. He reserves what venom he's got for "the Empire", by which he really means England. This side of his writing comes across as if every pub bore in Boston - or Dublin's northside, for a similar downmarket audience - got together and wrote down every insult they could remember about Britain, somewhat handicapped by the fact that none of them did high school history past ninth grade.
But read on, anyway, and enjoy. Every writer's allowed his little fixations. Dolan's is "the Empire", and it's not the shabbiest bugbear in literature.
September 26, 2024
Absolutely fantastic travelogue (of a sort) by the War Nerd. I’d forgotten how much I love the way he can turn a phrase (referring to Khmer Rouge as “this bunch of beavis and butthead assholes from the countryside”). Dolan recounts the savage histories of the places he visits with the scorn and bite required to tell them honestly. The chapter on Paraguay was something completely new to me and I’m assembling a reading list thanks to this. Truth be told, this is one of those books that makes you want to assemble a mountain of new books to just figure out what Dolan might be talking about.
February 28, 2024
There's plenty of history and geopolitics for the War Nerd fans, but the real delight of this book is in following long-suffering podcast host John Dolan as he traipse across the last frontiers of the affordable world. A picaresque, anti-travel memoir, an antidote to FOMO-inducing, pixel perfect Instagram fantasies.
March 12, 2024
I've been a loyal Radio War Nerd listener since about 2020 so even though I'm pretty familiar with John Dolan's work, it was nice to go back and read some of his older travel stories that I missed. For those not acquainted with Dolan, aka the War Nerd, aka Gary Brecher, but interested in less than enthusiastic stories of International travel and war nerdery, this is a great read. Dolan's prose is impressive, but readable. His perspective on military history is incredibly unique. I'm so glad I discovered the podcast while confined to my tiny Brooklyn apartment during the early days of the global pandemic.
February 15, 2024
Dolan is very funny, and the travel antics mixed with war history vignettes tied in to the same geographical locales makes for an interesting format. Lacks an arc, but that is to be expected from a collection of newsletters from a particular period of time.
May 13, 2024
no joke the best travel book I've ever read
July 20, 2024
Knew it was gonna be good from the Quaker line in the intro. Such a great voice, such a great read. Tore through this one
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews