Book Review: The Kite Runner

The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini on amazon.com

Reader Rating: 10/10

Salaam! Have just finished yet another incredibly moving and insightful novel on Afghanistan and its history and culture and peoples: The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini. BTW--I got this book as a new hard cover on amazon.com's "New & Used" for about $10 with shipping; there's one listed now for $7.57 + shipping on amazon.com and at abebooks.com there is a paperback version listed for $5.51 + shipping.

This is another book born out of the real-life experience of an Afghan who grew up in the "good old days" under the rule of King Zahir Shar, prior to the first coup staged by the king's cousin Daud in 1973, which in turn led to the communist take-over, the Soviet occupation, the years of bitter internecine mujahedin civil war, and the rise & fall of the Taliban. The story evolves out of the deep, yet tragic, relationship between a young privileged Pashtun boy growing up in Kabul and the son of his father's Hazara servant. The sad history of rival ethnic relations between the Pashtun and Hazara is painstakingly evident, though I believe the novel ultimately attempts to break down the wall of separation (& discrimination) that has existed for so long between these two groups. There is a glimmer of hope by the novel's end, though the agonizing events up to that point have given little reason to expect it.

Kite flying and fighting and "running" (chasing and capturing other kites whose strings have been cut) are one of the factors at the heart of the deep bonds the two boys develop; these activities are also at the heart of the resulting tragic developments in their relationship. Story reading/telling, a father's influence on his son, and a rather "cowardly" search for some sort of redemption are another factors at play in the main character's life--and along the way there are some wonderful insights into the complexities of Afghan family and social life.

This is a story of sin, loss, deception and redemption told in a genuine voice that stirs the soul at very deep levels. A skillfully told first story from a writer whom I trust we will hear much more from in the near future.

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The Kite Runner
By Khaled Hosseini
Riverhead, $24.95
368 pages, ISBN 1573222453

The unforgettable, heartbreaking story of the unlikely friendship between a wealthy boy and the son of his father’s servant, The Kite Runner is a beautifully crafted novel set in a country in the process of being destroyed. It is about the power of reading, the price of betrayal, and the possibility of redemption. And it is also about the power of fathers over sons -- their love, their sacrifices, their lies.

The first Afghan novel to be written in English, The Kite Runner tells a sweeping story of family, love, and friendship against a backdrop of history that has not been told in fiction before, bringing to mind the large canvasses of the Russian writers of the nineteenth century. But just as it is old-fashioned in its narration, it is contemporary in its subject -- the devastating history of Afghanistan over the past thirty years. As emotionally gripping as it is tender, The Kite Runner is an unusual and powerful debut.

Read Chapter One

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"Here’s a real find: a striking debut from an Afghan now living in the US. His passionate story of betrayal and redemption is framed by Afghanistan’s tragic recent past . . . Rather than settle for a coming-of-age or travails-of-immigrants story, Hosseini has folded them both into this searing spectacle of hard-won personal salvation. All this, and a rich slice of Afghan culture too: irresistible."
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An Afghan hounded by his past
Khaled Hosseini's shattering debut work, The Kite Runner, is the first novel to fictionalise the Afghan culture for a Western readership
Amelia Hill
Sunday September 7, 2003
The Observer

In this, apparently the first Afghan novel to be written in English, two motherless boys who learn to crawl and walk side by side, are destined to destroy each other across the gulf of their tribal difference in a country of dried mulberries, sour oranges, rich pomegranates and honey.

It's a Shakespearean beginning to an epic tale that spans lives lived across two continents amid political upheavals, where dreams wilt before they bud and where a search for a child finally makes a coward into a man. The Kite Runner is the shattering first novel by Khaled Hosseini, an Afghan doctor who received political asylum in 1980 as civil conflict devastated his homeland.

Whatever the truth of the claim to be the first English-language Afghan novel, Hosseini is certainly the first Afghan novelist to fictionalise his culture for a Western readership, melding the personal struggle of ordinary people into the terrible historical sweep of a devastated country in a rich and soul-searching narrative.

Over the last three decades, Afghanistan has been ceaselessly battered by Communist rule, Soviet occupation, the Mujahideen and a democracy that became a rule of terror. It is a history that can intimidate and exhaust an outsider's attempts to understand, but Hosseini extrudes it simply and quietly into an intimate account of love, honour, guilt, fear and redemption that needs no dry history book or atlas to grip and absorb.

Amir is a privileged member of the dominant Pashtun tribe growing up in affluent Kabul in the Seventies. Hassan is his devoted servant and a member of the oppressed Hazara tribe whose first word was the name of his boy-master. The book focuses on the friendship between the two children and the cruel and shameful sacrifice the rich boy makes of his humble, adoring alter ego to buy the love of his own distant father. 'I ran because I was a coward,' Amir realises, as he bolts from the scene that severs his friendship with Hassan, shatters his childhood and haunts him for the rest of his life. 'I actually aspired to cowardice.'

The book charts Amir's attempts to flee culpability for this act of betrayal, seeking asylum from his hellish homeland in California and a new life buried deep in black velvet portraits of Elvis. Amir's story is simultaneously devastating and inspiring. His world is a patchwork of the beautiful and horrific, and the book a sharp, unforgettable taste of the trauma and tumult experienced by Afghanis as their country buckled.

The Kite Runner is about the price of peace, both personal and political, and what we knowingly destroy in our hope of achieving that, be it friends, democracy or ourselves.

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"If you're not standing on the Edge,
you're taking up too much room."
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Book Review: An Unexpected Light

An Unexpected Light on amazon.com

Reader Rating: 10/10

Salaams! An excellent book written with an elegance of prose seldom found in "travel" literature. Being his first, and as far as I can tell, his only book, this a remarkable feat for a young writer. A real joy to read. When will this guy write again?

"...I see first the light that I have seen nowhere else and which consumes in a single leap the impurity of distance so completely as to reveal the speck of a man two miles away; I see the profile of a mountain twenty miles away...I see three fantastic summits like spears with white tips rearing up to twenty thousand feet behind us, and down by the water's edge where the valley broadens, forests of small trees glowing gold and ginger in the winter sun with delicate pointed leaves and crimson berries the colour of a country girl's lips."

It is filled with engaging writing that pushes past surface description, interacting with and analyzing personal, historical, geographical, and cultural issues. Elliot is constantly pushing out to the edge and is transparent about his anxieties, fears, and growing confidence as he becomes a "veteran" through hardened experiences.

The book ranges far and wide across geographical and historical Afghanistan; Elliot weaves a rich tapestry of various local and expat characters (including some interesting comments on some of the M's he encounters!) on his various trips through some of the most inhospitable corners of the country. Here's one snippet that stuck out to me which relates very much to our own work and need for going deep in language/culture and building relationships:

"And I was staring not just because his face [a local commander] was utterly unlike the faces I knew from home but because I felt all of a sudden that if I were to attach myself to him, apprentice-like, and follow him to his home and enter into his life and language and hardships and battles and pleasures, I might learn something substantial about the country and its culture and all that was hidden from the casual onlooker I really felt myself to be, able only to observe what was most superficial."

Lots of gems--too many to recount here. You'll have to read it yourself--which I highly recommend you do! I'll leave you with one such gem:

"Not because the East is mystic or inscrutable, but because it reveals its secrets at a pace which the Western visitor is so seldom prepared to embrace: you need time."

Product Details:
• Paperback: 473 pages
• Publisher: Picador USA (October, 2001)
• ISBN: 0312288468

First Sentence:
So much has happened in that part of the world where our paths first crossed that it's hard not to think of our time there, and of the time in which it was contained, as an island, now submerged. Read the first page

Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
An account of a trip through war-torn and poverty-stricken Afghanistan, this remarkable book could have been titled "An Unexpected Beauty." Elliot, who first traveled to the country as a 19-year-old enthusiast of the mujahedin, has no illusions about the inherent shortcomings of travel writing ("a semi-fictional collection of descriptions that affirm the prejudices of the day"). He also dismisses the journalistic method, which relies on a single bombed-out street in Kabul to monolithically represent an entire nation. So it is not without some self-deprecation that he offers his own strange and improbable adventures in the country's lawless stretches and perilous mountain passes. "I had in mind a quietly epic sort of journey," he explains. "I had given up on earlier and more ambitious schemes and was prepared to make an ally of uncertainty, with which luck so often finds a partnership." Humorous, honest and wry, a devotee of Afghanistan's culture, Elliot strives to debunk the myth of "the inscrutability of the East" and paint, in careful detail, a portrait of a deeply spiritual people. For a first-time author, his literary talents are exceptional. His sonorous prose moves forward with the purposeful grace of a river; it reads like a text unearthed from an ancient land. (Feb.) Forecast: Already lauded in England, this book announces the arrival of a major travel writer. It should capture the hearts of armchair travelers who long for the grace, wit and irreverence of an era long gone.

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"If you're not standing on the Edge,
you're taking up too much room."
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Book Review: The Weight of Glory

The Weight of Glory on amazon.com


Reader Rating = ********* (9/10)
Date: December 13, 2004 4:19:19 PM GMT+04:00

Salaams! Recently finished another of C. S. Lewis' books, The Weight of Glory and Other Addresses (Revised & Expanded Edition, with a good Introduction by Walter Hooper, who worked with Lewis not long before he passed on). Some wonderful stuff in here on lots of different topics. Here's a quote from each of the chapters to whet your appetite:

1. "The Weight of Glory:"
"There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilisations--these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit--immortal horrors or everlasting splendours. This does not mean that we are to be perpetually solemn. We must play. But our merriment must be of that kind (and it is, in fact, the merriest kind) which exists between people who have, from the outset, taken each other seriously--to flippancy, no superiority, no presumption."
2. "Learning in War-Time:"
"I think it important to try to see the present calamity in a true perspective. The war creates no absolutely new situation; it simply aggravates the permanent human situation so that we can no longer ignore it. Human life has always been lived on the edge of a precipice. Human culture has always had to exist under the shadow of something infinitely more important than itself. If men had postponed the search for knowledge and beauty until they were secure, the search would have never begun. We are mistaken when we compare war with 'normal life.' Life has never been normal."
3. "Why I am not a Pacifist:"
"All that we fear from all the kinds of adversity, severally, is collected together in the life of a soldier on active service. Like sickness, it threatens pain and death. Like poverty it threatens ill lodging, cold, heat, thirst, and hunger. Like slavery, it threatens toil, humiliation, injustice, and arbitrary rule. Like exile, it separates you from all you love. Like the gallies, it imprisons you at close quarters with uncongenial companions...On the other side, though it may not be your fault, it is certainly a fact that Pacifism threatens you with almost nothing."
4. "Transposition:"
"'We know not what we shall be;' but we may be sure we shall be more, not less, than we were on earth. Our natural experiences (sensory, emotional, imaginative) are only like the drawing, like pencilled lines on flat paper. If they vanish in the risen life, they will vanish only as pencil lines vanish from the real landscape, not as a candle flame that is put out but as a candle flame which becomes invisible because someone has pulled up the blind, thrown open the shutters, and let in the blaze of the risen sun."
5. "Is Theology Poetry?:"
"The picture so often painted of Christians huddling together on an ever narrower strip of beach while the incoming tide of 'Science' mounts higher and higher corresponds to nothing in my own experience...Long before I believe Theology to be true I had already decided that the popular scientific picture at any rate was false...And once you accpeted Theism, you could not ignore the claims of Christ. And when you examined them it appeared to me that you could adopt no middle position. Either He was a lunatic, or God. And He was not a lunatic."
6. "The Inner Ring:"
"And if in your spare time you consort simply with the people you like, you will again find that you have come unawares to a real inside, that you are indeed snug and safe at the centre of something which, seen from without, would look exactly like an Inner Ring. But the difference is that its secrecy is accidental, and its exclusiveness a by-product, and no one was led thither by the lure of the esoteric, for it is only four or five people who like one another meeting to do things that they like. This is friendship. Aristotle placed it among the virtues. It causes perhaps half of all the happiness in the world, and no Inner Ringer can ever have it."
7. "Membership:"
"It was one of the Wesleys, I think, who said that the New Testament knows nothing of solitary religion. We are forbidden to neglect the assembling of ourselves together. Christianity is already institutional in the earliest of its documents. The Church is the Bride of Christ. We are members of one another. In our own age the idea that religion belongs to our private life--that it is, in fact, an occupation for the individual's hour of leisure--is at once paradoxical, dangerous, and natural...We live, in fact, in a world starved for solitude, silence, and privacy, and therefore starved for meditation and true friendship."
8. "On Forgiveness:"
"I find that when I think I am asking God to forgive me I am often in reality (unless I watch myself very carefully) asking Him to do something quite different. I am asking Him not to forgive me but to excuse me. But there is all the difference in the world between forgiving and excusing."
9. "A Slip of the Tongue:"
"This is my endlessly recurrent temptation: to go down to the Sea (I think St. John of the Cross called God a sea) and there neither dive nor swim nor float, but only dabble and splash, careful not to get out of my depth and holding on to the lifeline which connects me with my things temporal....Our temptation is to look eagerly for the minimum that will be accepted. We are in fact very like honest but reluctant taxpayers. We approve of an income tax in principle. We make our returns truthfully. But we dread a rise in the tax. We are very careful to pay no more than is necessary."

The Weight of Glory
by C. S. Lewis "If you asked twenty good men today what they thought the highest of the virtues, nineteen of them, would reply, Unselfishness..." (more)

Enlightening addresses, February 1, 2000
Reviewer: David T. Bennett (Kingston, OH United States) - See all my reviews
     
Lewis is at his best in this collection. As the preface mentions, the sermon "the Weight of Glory," deserves to be placed on the level of the Church Fathers' writings because of its elegance and insightfulness. In this sermon Lewis looks at the afterlife, which we get glimpses of while on earth. He makes some excellent observations, and I was left thinking, "Of course!" and "Why didn't I see that before?" One of the unqiue observations Lewis makes is that all humans are truly "immortals." Cultures and the earth are mortal, but your neighbor, children, etc, are all immortal, and we need to treat them as such. The other sermons are very good (though "The Weight of Glory" has to be the best). For instance "Is Theology Poetry?" examines a topic many of us probably have never thought of examining, i.e. is our theology poetry? The address "On forgiveness" separates forgiveness (which is totally undeserving) from excusing (which is where we did something wrong, but have some valid excuse) and goes from there. Overall the points Lewis makes are enlightening and useful to our everyday lives. These are some of the best sermons I have ever heard or read.

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"If you're not standing on the Edge,
you're taking up too much room."
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Book Review: Under A Sickle Moon: A Journey Through Afghanistan

Under A Sickle Moon: A Journey Through Afghanistan on amazon.com


Reader Rating = ******* (7/10)
Date: November 16, 2004 3:48:04 PM GMT+04:00

Salaams! Good insightful description of the author's incredible 1,500 miles journey in 1984 to far-flung parts of Afghanistan during the Soviet occupation. Hodson, a Brit, studied Farsi in university and could converse with the Mujaheddin he travels with and meets along the way. He also has interesting discussions with others in the local population--like the Nuristanis, who are "disdained" by the jihadi fighters for being lazy and having no interest in the war. Nonetheless, they end up making a good living off the thousands of Mujaheddin who traverse their villages to and from bases in Pakistan. A good, close-up portrait of the Afghan Mujaheddin and their fierce determination to face any/all odds in order to rid their country of the hated atheistic usurping power, back when there were no Stingers and they were heavily outgunned (mainly using old Lee Enfield WWII rifles). Hodson has some very interesting spiritual conversations/debates with various Mujaheddin over meagre meals and bowls of hot chai in/beside mosques, their most frequent overnight abode. He meets up with two other journalists and soon after narrowly escape a surprise Soviet offensive on the Panshir Valley--replete with Mi24 attack helicopters and MiGs on low-altitude bombing runs. Hodson and one of the journalists have malaria and/or hepatitis and yet, incredibly, in their weakened state, push hard night after night, over towering mountain passes, till finally reaching the Pakistani border.

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Book Description
In 1984 journalist Peregrine Hodson crossed the Pakistan border into Afghanistan with rebel mujahedin smuggling arms and ammunition, beginning a thousand-mile journey through the war-torn nation. Fluent in Farsi, he was able to observe the war with stunning intimacy and eloquently capture the essence of the Afghan people and their culture. As the travelers survived bombings by Soviet aircraft, an ambush by a rival faction, and becoming swept up in a major offensive, Hodson would come to gain a unique perspective on their hopes for peace and religious devotion. Bringing together travel writing, war reportage, and history, this is a richly rendered portrait of a complex people. "Gripping and moving ... [a] powerful account of a war that has often been described as 'forgotten.'" -- Gail Pool, The Christian Science Monitor "Will long remain the most vivid account of a strange and horrible wrong." -- Ahmed Rashid, The Independent (London) "Vivid and intriguing." -- Jonathan Kirsch, -- Los Angeles Times Book Review --This text refers to the Paperback edition

Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
In the spring of 1984, British journalist Hodson traveled 1500 miles in Afghanistan, walking, living and dodging Soviet attacks with mujahedin, the rebel fighters. In this well-written, vivid, poignant account, he paints a portrait of a struggle that seems to resemble the Vietnamese battle against U.S. forces 20 years ago. Soviet helicopters and jets dominate the skies and seem to have "free-fire" zones, but despite their high-tech edge, they have no effective control in the countryside. And the fighters Hodson met are instilled by a deep conviction in their cause. Typically one mujahed states, "If all the country is burnt, all the trees dead and all the rivers dry, we will still fight. Afghanistan is a battlefield in a war between God and Satan." Hodson's experiences are an adventure tale full of incongruities: he hikes through dangerous territory listening to Bob Dylan and Bach on his Walkman. He accompanies men bringing weapons into the country from Pakistan who then lose their munitions when they are ambushed by rival mujahedin. He loses most of his luggage fording a river and argues about religion with his hosts. Highly recommended.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Disguised as a native, British journalist Hodson traveled in 1984 in northeastern Afghanistan with some mujahedin resistance fighters. Although his account includes friendly camaraderie, beautiful landscapes, and interesting market towns, the gripping emphasis is on the hazards and hardships and the Islamic fervor that inspires the Afghans in their struggle against the Soviets. There are long grinding marches, the author's agonizing digestive problems and fevers, frequent danger in dodging... read more --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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"If you're not standing on the Edge,
you're taking up too much room."
=============================

Book Review: The Problem of Pain

The Problem of Pain on amazon.com


Reader Rating = ********** (8.5/10)
Date: November 11, 2004 4:50:17 PM GMT+04:00

Salaams! I'm working my way through some of C.S. Lewis' classics and have just finished up The Problem of Pain. I decided to read this little volume, as in our house church recently we have been studying through I & II Peter and have been challenged with what really makes up a theology of suffering. This is a deep and dense little book that covers a lot of ground in Lewis' typical non-traditional manner: divine omnipotence and goodness, human wickedness and the fall of man, human and animal pain, and the idea of heaven. While trying to answer the common question of why a loving God would allow suffering, Lewis directs the reader's focus to the character of God, as well as to the various meanings (and implications) of what we call pain or suffering. Bottom-line: God can take even that which is bad--and done with evil intent--and turn it to His higher purposes in our lives (both here and for the here-after). As he says:

"The problem of reconciling human suffering with the existence of a God who loves, is only insoluble so long as we attach a trivial meaning to the word 'love,' and look on things as if man were the centre of them. Man is not the centre. God does not exist for the sake of man. Man does not even exist for his own sake...To ask that God's love should be content with us as we are is to ask that God should cease to be God."

My favorite part of the book was actually the last chapter on "Heaven," and I will leave you with a quote from it for your own meditation:

"Are not all lifelong friendships born at the moment when at last you meet another human being who has some inkling (but faint and uncertain even in the best) of that something which you were born desiring, and which, beneath the flux of other desire and in all the momentary silences between the louder passions, night and day, year by year, from childhood to old age, you are looking for, watching for, listening for? You have never had it. All the things that have ever deeply possessed your soul have been but hints of it--tantalising glimpses, promises never quite fulfilled, echoes that died away just as they caught your ear...Your soul has a curious shape because it is a hollow made to fit a particular swelling in the infinite contours of the divine substance, or a key to unlock one of the doors in the house with many mansions."

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The Problem of Pain, the first of a series of popular works on Christian doctrine, was written in 1940, twenty years before his beloved wife, Joy Davidman, died of cancer in the third year of their short-lived marriage. In the book Lewis considers the problem of suffering from a purely theoretical standpoint. Years later, struck with a daunting grief of a mourning husband he will write another classic on pain, a masterpiece of introspection: A Grief Observed. It takes courage to live through suffering; and it takes honesty to observe it. C. S. Lewis had both.

The existence of suffering in a world created by a good and almighty God — "the problem of pain" — is a fundamental theological dilemma and perhaps the most serious objection to the Christian religion. The issue is serious enough already in Theism. Christianity aggravates the problem by insisting on Love as the essence of God; then, unexpectedly, it makes a half turn and points to the Mystery of suffering — to Jesus, "the tears of God."3 Lewis does not propose to penetrate the mystery. He is content enough with approaching pain as mere problem that demands a solution; he formulates it and goes about solving it. "If God were good, He would make His creatures perfectly happy, and if He were almighty He would be able to do what he wished. But the creatures are not happy. Therefore God lacks either goodness, or power, or both."4 With a characteristic conciseness and clarity Lewis sets the stage for the entire book in the first paragraph of Chapter 2. "The possibility of solving [the problem] depends on showing that the terms 'good' and 'almighty', and perhaps also the term 'happy', are equivocal: for it must be admitted from the outset that if the popular meanings attached to these words are the best, or the only possible, meaning, then the argument is unanswerable". In the remaining nine chapters, Lewis will develop this basic statement through an in-depth reflection on divine omnipotence, divine goodness, human condition, human and animal pain, and last, but not least, hell and heaven.

The main argument of The Problem of Pain is preceded by a presentation of an atheist objection to the existence of God based on the observable futility of the universe. The book starts on a personal note: "Not many years ago when I was an atheist … ". There follows a compelling picture of a universe filled with futility and chance, darkness and cold, misery and suffering; a spectacle of civilizations passing away, of human race scientifically condemned to a final doom and of a universe bound to die. Thus, "either there is no spirit behind the universe, or else a spirit indifferent to good and evil, or else an evil spirit". On the other hand, "if the universe is so bad, or even half so bad, how on earth did human beings ever come to attribute it to the activity of a wise and good Creator? […] The spectacle of the universe as revealed by experience can never have been ground for religion: it must always have been something in spite of which religion, acquired from a different source, was held". But, where should we look for the sources?
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A quick warning to those who have been pointed to this book but are not Christian: you are not the audience Lewis is speaking to. This book cannot be fully grasped in its original context without some degree of belief or acceptance of Christian doctrine. It is apologetics at its best, but cannot be considered in the "self-help" category like many contemporary titles are.

That said, this must be the finest treatise on the apparent contradiction between the existence of pain and the existence of a supposedly loving God that has been written.

Succint, well-organized, thorough, yet "The Problem of Pain" still reads like it was written by a human being rather than a scholar. Some chapters bring conviction. The chapter on Hell brings fear and dread, and respect for Him who can "destroy both body and soul in Hell". The chapter on Heaven, which Lewis admits is his own philosophical foray, no one else's -- brings hope and reassurance that Heaven is your true calling, your one True Home.

This is not light reading, at least not at first. This may not be a book to recommend to someone at the height of a crisis; Lewis taxes your attention and does not take any short cuts. A "Cliff Notes" version of this book would miss the point. Pain is one of the toughest theological problems a Christian can face, either in their lives or the life of another person they know -- and Lewis does not want you going in armed with half an argument or some "Precious Moments" sentiment.

From a non-Christian POV, I would be surprised if this book made much sense -- so many of the pillars are set on Christian theology, philosophy, and tradition. If you cannot (or will not) accept the possibility of the existence of Heaven, Hell, or God, this book will be just so much incomprehensible babble.

But, as I said, it is not written for that segment of the market. This book is best read by the thinking Christian who has reservations about aspects of Christianity that seem to gloss over, avoid, or ignore the issue of human suffering.
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"If you're not standing on the Edge,
you're taking up too much room."
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Book Review: The Bookseller of Kabul

The Bookseller of Kabul on amazon.com


Reader Rating = ******** (7.5-8.0/10)
Date: November 5, 2004 1:31:57 PM GMT+04:00

Salaams! Just finished up another book with some very good insights into Afghans/Afghanistan: The Bookseller of Kabul, by Norwegian journalist Åsne Seierstad. Reading Rating: 7.5-8.0/10

There are limitations to her portraits that should be taken into consideration, of course: she was only in Afghanistan for a total of 4 months and lived with this family for 3 months, she does not speak Dari/Farsi, and she is a young, blonde westerner/outsider (& journalist). As one reviewer mentions below, I sometimes questioned the author's descriptions of the character's internal thoughts, but this "documentary as novel" approach does make for a very readable writing style. Given these limitations, though, I think she does a fairly good job at giving one a "behind closed doors" peek at an urban (and fairly well-to-do) Afghan extended family. Would that we in our sub-region had many of these "life inside the local community" careful observers and recorders!

Some of the insights I appreciated: marriage arrangements, male/female relationships, the sadness/complications arising from multiple wives, father/son & employer/worker relationships, and the aspirations of the younger generation who can often feel overly controlled and claustrophobic. I think what's missing in the book is a better explanation for the cultural framework that guide and determine much of the way things are. Some of this can definitely be picked up by readers who already have an understanding of the cultural context. I'm afraid your average American/European, though, is just going to be encouraged to maintain his/her slanted, prejudiced, western-freedom-loving-everything-should-go-as-long-as-none-are-hurt, culturally-superior attitude. Women will be thought of as "enslaved," rather than seen as being protected and accorded respect/regard in the midst of an environment beset with dangerous pitfalls (with extremely damaging and life-long consequences) around every corner. Not that there aren't things that are in need of being transformed/redeemed...just like there are in our culture!

Good book that I recommend. But, be ready to see the darker and difficult side of life and culture...and for good balance (as the last reviewer below points out), to remember that there is also much to be admired and incorporated into our lives/culture from the family/community-minded Afghans.

A few different reviews below to tickle your reading senses (and I recommend "Books & Culture" if you haven't seen/read it yet):

------ from Christianity Today's "Books & Culture" ------
Books & Culture's Books of the Week: Remember Afghanistan?
By Albert Louis Zambone | posted 11/10/2003

The Bookseller of Kabul
By Asne Seirstad
Little, Brown
320 pp.; $19.95

In opinion pieces and editorials, it has become almost obligatory these days to say that Afghanistan has been forgotten by U.S. policymakers since their attention turned to Iraq. But recent events seem to indicate that Afghans are doing their best to enter the Western world. No, I don't mean that they are building new roads, opening up to the forces of globalization, and overcoming the last remnants of the Taliban. It's that they are learning the pleasures and benefits of litigation.

For her part, Seirstad seems to have delved deeper than her subjects liked. A journalist seemingly without fear, the blond Norwegian reporter was one of the brigade of media that invaded Kabul along with the forces of the Northern Alliance in November of 2001. There she met an urbane bookseller, Sultan Khan (as she re-names him in the interests of his privacy).

Seirstad was fascinated by a man who had been arrested three times by the Communist regime for selling banned books; whose bookstore had been repeatedly ransacked by the Taliban; who was passionately committed to Persian poetry, to Sufi mysticism, and to the preservation of the culture of Afghanistan. When she told him that she wished to write a book about him, he simply said "Thank you" and, in Seirstad's words "opened his family to me." She joined the Khan household and found herself living in a strange dual world of man and woman. While she slept with the women and heard their complaints and their dreams, she was also allowed to eat with the men and speak with them. Even in the family of a liberal Moslem like Sultan Khan, this was something that no Afghan woman was allowed to do.

It was Seirstad's juxtaposition of the "liberal" Khan, committed to selling the best in books and in preserving the culture of Afghanistan, and the "traditionalist" Khan that led to a lawsuit against her by "Khan" in the Norwegian courts. The bookseller claimed that he had been slandered; clearly the pseudonyms Seirstad employed in her narrative couldn't hide the identity of such a distinctive figure.

Seirstad describes in detail, for example, how Khan took a second wife when his first grew too old for him; it is a living example of polygamy that leaves a bitter taste in the mouth of the reader. (And, by the way, the best example I can imagine of why Jesus says to the crowds that Moses allowed divorce "because of your hard hearts.")

This story, among others, led to Khan's lawsuit, as well as many questions about the veracity of Seirstad's account, and the "correctness" of a Westerner "judging" non-Western traditions. These questions are undoubtedly helped along by what can only be described as Seirstad's Ultra New Journalist Style. She describes the innermost thoughts of her subjects, so that what purports to be a journalistic account often reads like a novel.

----- from amazon.com ------
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
After living for three months with the Kabul bookseller Sultan Khan in the spring of 2002, Norwegian journalist Seierstad penned this astounding portrait of a nation recovering from war, undergoing political flux and mired in misogyny and poverty. As a Westerner, she has the privilege of traveling between the worlds of men and women, and though the book is ostensibly a portrait of Khan, its real strength is the intimacy and brutal honesty with which it portrays the lives of Afghani living under fundamentalist Islam. Seierstad also expertly outlines Sultan's fight to preserve whatever he can of the literary life of the capital during its numerous decades of warfare (he stashed some 10,000 books in attics around town). Seierstad, though only 31, is a veteran war reporter and a skilled observer; as she hides behind her burqa, the men in the Sultan's family become so comfortable with her presence that she accompanies one of Sultan's sons on a religious pilgrimage and witnesses another buy sex from a beggar girl-then offer her to his brother. This is only one of many equally shocking stories Seierstad uncovers. In another, an adulteress is suffocated by her three brothers as ordered by their mother. Seierstad's visceral account is equally seductive and repulsive and resembles the work of Martha Gellhorn. An international bestseller, it will likely stand as one of the best books of reportage of Afghan life after the fall of the Taliban.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

---------- from salon.com -----------
The hypocrite of Kabul
Norwegian journalist Asne Seierstad parachuted into Afghanistan and told the West exactly what it wanted to hear about that nation's women. The truth, as usual, is more complicated.
- - - - - - - - - - - -
By Ann Marlowe

Nov. 17, 2003  |  There's only one country foreigners write more self-righteous, intellectually assured rubbish about than Afghanistan: ours. To any American who's been asked overseas whether we all -- depending on gender -- wear miniskirts or carry guns, the lurid colors and broad brushstrokes of most journalism about Afghanistan should look familiar. Afghan men, we've been reminded over and over, are savage warriors, jealous of their honor, harsh to their long-suffering women, fanatically religious. And Afghan women -- forced to wear the burqa and be virtual slaves to their husbands -- deserve our pity.

The reality, when I made two trips to Afghanistan in 2002 to teach English and buy supplies for schools, was otherwise. From schoolboys at play to university students, Cabinet ministers to legendary commanders, Afghans were quieter, gentler and more self-contained than Americans. One young man confided that to him and his friends in northern Afghanistan, Americans' body language and loud voices seemed exaggerated, like the gestures of stage actors.

It was hard to pity the women when I lived with an extended Uzbek Afghan family in Mazar-i-Sharif and Maimana for a couple of weeks. A withered 80-year-old widow sat bala, or at the head of the room, and she was the only person who smoked. The family's resources were lavished on a bright teenage daughter, who had her own room and computer and was preparing for her university entrance exam. And the men were tender with their children and treated their wives, sisters and mothers with dignity. I felt at home more quickly than I ever have in an American household, and the fondness and respect I saw between young and old and men and women gave me new yardsticks for my own life...

Book Review: West of Kabul, East of New York: An Afghan American Story

West of Kabul, East of New York: An Afghan American Story on amazon.com

Reader Rating = ********** (8.5/10)

Date: October 29, 2004 4:34:34 PM GMT+04:00

Salaams! Finished reading West of Kabul, East of New York: An Afghan American Story (Tamim Ansary) just before leaving for the RLT Mtg. This was an excellent read by a very insightful and competent writer; a master of prose pictures that "take you there." I recommend it heartily--I give it a 8.5/10 rating. I thought the first half of the book, as he remembers his first 16 years growing up in Afg, were classic; lots of very interesting insights regarding family/community life. His trip through parts of the Mslm world later as a young adult was also interesting--and he makes some very interesting comments regarding Islm and especially the fundamentalists.

Check out some of the reviews/comments below.

All for now--wes

---------------------------------------------------------------------
A passionate personal journey through two cultures in conflict.

Shortly after militant Islamic terrorists destroyed the World Trade Center, Tamim Ansary of San Francisco sent an e-mail to twenty friends, telling how the threatened U.S. reprisals against Afghanistan looked to him as an Afghan American. The message spread, and in a few days it had reached, and affected, millions of people-Afghans and Americans, soldiers and pacifists, conservative Christians and talk-show hosts; for the message, written in twenty minutes, was one Ansary had been writing all his life.

West of Kabul, East of New York is an urgent communiqué by an American with "an Afghan soul still inside me," who has lived in the very different worlds of Islam and the secular West. The son of an Afghan man and the first American woman to live as an Afghan, Ansary grew up in the intimate world of Afghan family life, one never seen by outsiders. No sooner had he emigrated to San Francisco than he was drawn into the community of Afghan expatriates sustained by the dream of returning to their country -and then drawn back to the Islamic world himself to discover the nascent phenomenon of militant religious fundamentalism.

Tamim Ansary has emerged as one of the most eloquent voices on the conflict between Islam and the West. His book is a deeply personal account of the struggle to reconcile two great civilizations and to find some point in the imagination where they might meet.
 
…a raw and poignant book…that captures a lost era, and one man’s decades-long mourning of it…
John Freeman, Christian Science Monitor

(Ansary) delivered us from text into context, from crisis into history, from isolation into geography, from a world shattered to one that, having lived through millennia of shatterings, stays mournfully round, and around. …
Richard Eder, New York Times

West of Kabul, East of New York is one of those rare pieces of journalism--Rebecca West’s dispatches from Nuremberg come to mind, and John Hersey’s Hiroshima—that don’t just record history but make it.
Roger Downey, Seattle Weekly

West of Kabul, East of New … belongs to the broader library in which are considered the big questions about the price of progress in this perhaps too modern world.
John Nichols, Capital Times

more press

West of Kabul, East of New York has been included in the following lists:
• Favorite Books of the 2002 by Amazon.com
• Best Books of 2002 by Christian Science Monitor
• Best Adult Books for High School Students, by The School Library Journal
• Recommended picks for the week of April 4, 2003 by the New York Times
• Favorite Book Picks for 2002 by Written Voices (Online Book Review)
• Recommended Readings Archives Queens Borough Public Library
• Best Books of the Year by the San Jose Mercury
 
Online reviews and/or conversations with Tamim can be found at
DesiJournal
Washington Post.com
Pat Holt’s Uncensored
Book Loons
Book Review Café (http://www.bookreviewcafe.com/westofkabul.html)

Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Any carping about this being an instant book should be quelled when readers actually encounter Ansary's considered prose prose he himself contrasts to the e-mailed commentary he fired off on September 12 that found its way to millions of readers around the world (including FSG editorial). The e-mail, printed here in an appendix, included such comments as "When you think `Taliban,' think `Nazis.' When you think `Bin Laden,' think `Hitler.' And when you think `the people of Afghanistan,' think `the Jews in the concentration camps.' " Ansary, the son of a Pashtun Afghan father and Finnish-American mother, lived as a Muslim outside of Kabul until the early '60s, when he left on scholarship to attend an American high school, eventually going on to college and becoming an educational writer ("if you have children, they have probably read or used some product I have edited or written") with a family of his own in San Francisco. This book chronicles, with calm insight and honesty, Ansary's feelings at all points: his childhood spent within his "clan" ("our group self was just as real as our individual selves, perhaps more so"), a narrative of his often fascinating 1980 trip ("Looking for Islam") throughout the Muslim world that makes up the bulk of the book, and dissections of the differing paths taken by his sister, brother and himself. While Ansary's political insights can be detached or perhaps purposefully aloof his descriptions of having lived in and identified alternately with the West and the Islamic world are utterly compelling. --

Book Review: Hardcore Troubadour: The Life and Near Death of Steve Earle

The Hardcore Troubadour: The Life and Near Death of Steve Earle on amazon.com


Date: October 16, 2004 4:13:35 PM GMT+04:00

Salaams! Just finished a book that was a quick and interesting read, though if you don't have a clue who Steve Earle is, then it would mean nothin' to ya! The book is called Hardcore Troubadour: The Life and Near Death of Steve Earle, St. John.

If you haven't ever heard any Steve Earle music, too bad. He's a genuine classic who busted onto the Nashville country music scene back in 1986 with an edgy album called "Guitar Town." He went on to win a Grammy Award for the Best New Country Artist category for that year. Since then he has ventured boldly into rock, blues and bluegrass. He would be one of the pioneers of a rather new musical genre now known as alt-country (country with an edge--an attitude!). Rough, rough life, with many wasted relationships and dark years, ending in a 1-1/2 yr stint in prison. Following his release from prison, he has been clean and has had arguably his most productive and creative period. He's still quite a radical for Nashville (part of his Texas roots!) and is quite politically outspoken. His music is timeless and rich in its crisp stories and characters; he is a songwriter's songwriter, par excellence. His music, in my opinion, ranks way up there with some other greats, artists like Bob Dylan, The Band, Johnny Cash, Lyle Lovett, John Hiatt, Lucinda Williams, Emmylou Harris, Buddy & Julie Miller, and CSN&Y (whaaaattt!!...you've never heard of some of these classic troubadours??). Steve has also recently published a collection of short stories called Doghouse Roses.

Book Review: The Great Divorce & Don't Waste Your Life

The Great Divorce at amazon.comDon't Waste Your Life at amazon.com

From: silkroadinaa@hotmail.com
Subject: Two Book Reviews
Date: October 11, 2004 11:27:47 AM GMT+04:00

Salaams! Have read two excellent books lately. I'll write a bit about them and then will include info from amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com below:

The Great Divorce, C.S. Lewis: I read this book a loooong time ago, and felt it needed a re-read (as most Lewis books should be). Man, glad I did. Enjoyed Lewis' allegorical bus trip from hell (a lonely, nondescript grey kind of place where everyone move further away from each other because they're always fighting with each other over piddly things) and tour of heaven...well, more like the approaches to heaven. Yeah, see the good review below about some of the theological controversy Lewis stirs up, but know that Lewis--as usual--hits the nail on the head so clearly in showing why people are the ones who send themselves to hell...and wouldn't be comfortable in heaven even if they could get in. When you just can't "have it your way," or be "the king of the hill" and submit to the King of Kings...well, then you're not fit for heaven, where joy oozes out of every leaf and blade of grass and waterfall, singing praises to the Creator of it all.

Don't Waste Your Life, John Piper: This was an excellent and challenging read. It is all about what Piper calls the "single, all-embracing, all-transforming reason for being: a passion to enjoy and display God's supremacy in all things for the joy of all peoples." It is about why we should be living each day with a mind to Jesus' call for us to live life with a "wartime lifestyle" and "hazardous liberality." Lives that are lived with faith-filled risk and abandonment, as opposed to lives lived with an "avoidance ethic." BUT, this is serious stuff, and Piper begins the book, appropriately, with a warning:
"The path of God-exalting joy will cost you your life. Jesus said, 'Whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will save it.' In other words, it is better to lose your life than to waste it. If you live gladly to make others glad in God, your life will be hard, your risks will be high, and your joy will be full. This is not a book about how to avoid a wounded life, but how to avoid a wasted life. Some of you will die in the service of Christ. That will not be a tragedy. Treasuring life above Christ is a tragedy." The bottom-line is that we have been bought with a price--we are NOT our own--and we are to strive to glorify God in our body, whether by our life or by our death (see I Cor 6:19-20 & Phil 1:20-21).

The Great Divorce
by C. S. Lewis

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
The Great Divorce is C.S. Lewis's Divine Comedy: the narrator bears strong resemblance to Lewis (by way of Dante); his Virgil is the fantasy writer George MacDonald; and upon boarding a bus in a nondescript neighborhood, the narrator is taken to Heaven and Hell. The book's primary message is presented with almost oblique tidiness--"There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, 'Thy will be done,' and those to whom God says, in the end, 'Thy will be done.'" However, the narrator's descriptions of sin and temptation will hit quite close to home for many readers. Lewis has a genius for describing the intricacies of vanity and self-deception, and this book is tremendously persistent in forcing its reader to consider the ultimate consequences of everyday pettiness. --Michael Joseph Gross --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Synopsis
C. S. Lewis takes us on a profound journey through both heaven and hell in this engaging allegorical tale. Using his descriptive powers, Lewis introduces us to supernatural beings who will change the way we think about good and evil.

Book Description
C. S. Lewis takes us on a profound journey through both heaven and hell in this engaging allegorical tale. Using his extraordinary descriptive powers, Lewis introduces us to supernatural beings who will change the way we think about good and evil.

Reviewer:
Robert W. Moore (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews
THE GREAT DIVORCE is remarkable for being a book by C. S. Lewis that is as likely to be criticized by Christians as by non-Christians. While MERE CHRISTIANITY is an apology for traditional Christianity, THE PROBLEM OF PAIN an attempt to deal with problems in theodicy, and THE SCREWTAPE LETTERS a help for analyzing psychological dimensions of temptation, THE GREAT DIVORCE can best be described as speculative theology. This is not the only place where Lewis allows himself to speculate on matters theological. For instance, he elsewhere suggests that pets and other animals who have interacted with humans will go to heaven, while wild animals will not, because these animals have gained a personality through human contact. In this work, Lewis speculates about the nature of the afterlife.

Inevitably, Lewis's work will unfairly be compared to Dante, who like Lewis is granted a visit to the afterlife. It is unfair because Dante's DIVINE COMEDY is without debate one or the two or three greatest masterpieces in the history of world literature. THE GREAT DIVORCE is not even one of Lewis's best works. Still, as long as one does not force Lewis's work to compare favorably to Dante's work, the comparison is not uninstructive. Like Dante, Lewis finds a guide. While Dante is shown through Hell and Purgatory by Virgil and through heaven by Beatrice, Lewis's guide is the Scottish theologian and fantasy writer George MacDonald. This is not inappropriate for a couple of reasons. What Lewis is suggesting about heaven and hell in THE GREAT DIVORCE is not precisely orthodox, and MacDonald himself, while devoutly religious, was somewhat heterodox in his advocacy of universalism, i.e., the belief that all humans will be redeemed, and not only Christian believers.

In THE GREAT DIVORCE Lewis tries to take a midpoint between universalism and a traditional belief in eternal damnation in hell of unbelievers. Lewis is hardly the first to attempt this. Origen, the brilliant if eccentric father of the early church, among other things toyed with the idea that being sent to hell might not be a permanent state. Lewis attempts to preserve the notion of the punishment of sins, but shifts the agent of that punishment from God to the individual involved. Basically, people place themselves in hell and prevent themselves from ascending to heaven. All one need do is surrender one's will to God, and cease insisting on one's own conception of things. In a sense, the primary thing an individual can do to receive grace, even in the next world, is to humble oneself.

The great negative to Lewis's view is that it doesn't correspond terribly well with either the views of the New Testament or to traditional Church teaching. The great advantage is that it absolves God of any complicity in sending people to hell. A host of factors will determine whether one will find one or either of these views desirable. Like George MacDonald, I tend to be quite orthodox on most Christian doctrines, but somewhat heterodox on the issue of the damnation of the unsaved. I personally am quite drawn to Lewis's views on the afterlife, and while I concede that they don't mesh well with the Bible's teachings on hell, I believe they mesh well with the Bible's teachings on the loving nature of God. It solves some key issues at the heart of theodicy, or to paraphrase Milton, it justifies the ways of God to men.

Regardless of whether one agrees or disagrees with Lewis, this marvelous book raises some important theological questions. It also complicates the normal picture of Lewis as a staunch defender of traditionalism. We find in it that Lewis was also a bit of a theological rebel.
-----------------------

Don't Waste Your Life
John Piper
Product Details:
ISBN: 1581344988
Format: Paperback, 160pp
Pub. Date: June 2003
Publisher: Crossway Books
Barnes & Noble Sales Rank: 9,292
NEW FROM B&N
List Price: $12.99

Don't Waste Your Life

FROM THE PUBLISHER
It's easy to slip through life without taking any risks -- without making your life count. But life ought not be wasted. You don't need to know a lot of things to make a lasting difference in the world, but you do have to know the few, great, unchanging, and glorious things that matter and be willing to live and to die for them. John Piper's plea to a generation is, "Don't waste your life!" This book is a passionate call to make your life count for eternity. He acknowledges that there are risks for those who seek to make a lasting difference by faith, yet he believes that they are risks worth taking for the cause of the Gospel. Each book includes a DVD featuring Piper speaking on this topic. If you believe that to live is Christ and to die is gain, read this book, learn to live for Christ, and grab the opportunity to make your life matter!

CUSTOMER REVIEWS
A reviewer, September 26, 2003, 
Essential reading
John Piper hits the nail on the head! A must read for every christian actively seeking God.
Also recommended: The Purpose Driven Life; Rick Warren
Klondicia Marrietta Smith, Thrilled to be here, September 22, 2003, 
The best you can be
The title pretty much says it all. This is a book about being the best you can be.
Also recommended: Kenn Gividen's THE PRAYER OF HANNAH is excellent also.

Book Review: Winter in Kandahar

Winter in Kandahar on amazon.com



Date: September 20, 2004 11:24:20 PM GMT+04:00

Salaams! Just finished a book called Winter in Kandahar, written by an eye surgeon/scientists named Steven E. Wilson (2003). This was his first work of fiction; he is working on a new novel about Kurds.

There were a number of things in this historically-based novel that just wouldn't square with the realities of life in Afghanistan or Pakistan, but nonetheless, it developed into a pretty decent thriller that kept my attention to the end. Started out a bit slow and the writing was at times a bit uneven. Think of a "24" (Fox TV series) type situation where sometimes reality is stretched and manipulated a bit to make a nail-bitingly tense story. Also, most of this story takes place NOT in Afghanistan, but in Pakistan, Amsterdam, and the US. The novel does do a decent job of incorporating some historical personages & events--more as background for the story--mainly involving immediate post-9/11 events.

Here are some other reviews and comments below--all for now--wes

-------------------
Editorial Reviews

Bob Spear, Publisher and Chief Reviewer, Heartland Reviews, March, 2004
This is an excellent thriller! Focuses on CIA and US special operations. The surprise ending is both entertaining and poignant.

Publishers Marketing Association, May, 2004
This novel is a Benjamin Franklin Award Finalist for 2004 in the category Best New Voice in Fiction!

Book Description
AFGHANISTAN- the name conjures images of rugged mountains, ancient cities, hardened Mujaheddin, a country rife with regional rivalries, and the eternal struggle between Tajik and Pashtun. Afghanistan comes to life in this epic adventure of love, betrayal, and war. Young Tajik Ahmed Jan¹s heroic journey begins in the Northern Alliance stronghold near Taloqan just a month prior to 9/11. He is swept away by the chaos that soon engulfs the country before a chance discovery propels him to the forefront of the clash between civilizations. Pursued by both the CIA and al-Qaeda, he struggles to save his people from obliteration and find the true meaning of life in a land where all seems lost.

See all editorial reviews...
Spotlight Reviews (What's this?)
I loved Winter in Kandahar!, June 30, 2004
Reviewer: W. C Johnson "wcj140" (San Antonio, TX United States) - See all my reviews

I heard Wilson being interviewed on the Gerome Gavin Show on Voice of America several weeks ago. The host went on and on about how what a great book it was and compared it to the Da Vinci Code (I see Mr. Gavin left his own review earlier!). My book club decided to read it and I got a copy from my local book store a few days later. To make a long story short-this book was one of the best I've read in the past couple of years. The plot was great and I found myself reading way past my bedtime for several nights until I finished it. My bookclub meets next week, but already I've talked to several others in the club and almost everyone felt like I did about it. So I'm one of those who love this book.

Book Reviews from the Edge

From: silkroadinaa@hotmail.com
Subject: Book Review
Date: September 3, 2004 6:29:44 PM GMT+04:00

Salaams! Just finished up a good book that gives some detailed background on the current, on-going "War on Terrorism:"

Holy War, Inc.: Inside the Secret World of Osama bin Laden, by Peter L. Bergen

Very interesting reading and insights into how events leading up to and beyond 9/11 were shaped. Bergen, while working with CNN, is one of the few western reporters to conduct an interview with bin Laden (and inside Afghanistan). Covers events ranging from the Mujaheddin struggle against the Soviets, the US Embassy bombings in Kenya & Tanzania, the USS Cole bombing, and the more recent terrorism events of 9/11. This book--the results of four years of research & interviews around the world--was initially delivered to the publisher in Aug 2001 for a planned mid-2002 release, but the events of 9/11 moved up the publication date to a mid-fall 2001 release.

-------------------
Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
There's a lot of new information in this well-written examination by CNN's terrorism expert on the man believed to be behind the events of September 11, though some of its revelations have already been reported elsewhere in the media. What distinguishes this account is its depth: Bergen has long tracked the Islamic world the book opens with the account of his 1997 interview with bin Laden, the terrorist's first TV interview and it shows. He sheds light on several outstanding questions, arguing, among other things, that it's unlikely Iraq was involved in the September 11 attacks, and that it's a myth that the CIA directly funded and trained bin Laden during the war in Afghanistan in the 1980s. According to Bergen, the CIA gave its money to Pakistan and then let that country's intelligence agency decide what to do with it, which was to fund those they viewed as the most strictly Islamic groups among those opposing the Soviet Union. He also adds some details about bin Laden's rise from his wealthy childhood in Saudi Arabia to his current career, and the global spread of Al Qaeda's terrorizing tentacles. The information on what is known about September 11 added hurriedly after the original manuscript was completed, as Bergen admits gives the book a slightly jagged feel. But those looking for a balanced, comprehensive look at bin Laden and his crew as well as an answer to the now preeminent question "why do they hate us so much?" will do well to start here. (Nov. 13)Forecast: Given the piling up of books about bin Laden, etc., on bestseller lists, it's a foregone conclusion that this will join them, with first serial to Vanity Fair and selection by the major book clubs.
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

As CNN terrorism analyst Bergen avows, this journalistic study of Osama bin Laden and the al-Qaeda terrorist network was rushed to publication and thus lacks some editorial smoothness in its delivery. Nevertheless, this book offers a mature, balanced description of bin Laden's background; a concise summary of the organization of the al-Qaeda terrorist network as it has developed in the Middle East, Europe, and America; and a brief narrative of terrorist events through September 11. Bergen
... read more

Book Description

On September 11, 2001, the world in which we live was changed forever. The twin towers of the World Trade Center came crashing down, one side of the Pentagon burst into flame, and more than six thousand men, women, and children lost their lives in the most deadly terrorist attack on American soil. As shocking as it was, it had been long in the making: The assault was the most sophisticated and horrifying in a series of operations masterminded by Osama bin Laden and his Jihad group -- an organization that CNN's terrorism analyst Peter Bergen calls Holy War, Inc.

One of only a handful of Western journalists to have interviewed the world's most wanted man face to face, Peter Bergen has produced the definitive book on the Jihadist network that operates globally and in secrecy. In the course of four years of investigative reporting, he has interviewed scores of insiders -- from bin Laden associates and family members to Taliban leaders to CIA officials -- and traveled to Afghanistan, Yemen, Egypt, Pakistan, and the United Kingdom to learn the truth about bin Laden's al Queda organization and his mission.

Immense in scope and unnerving in its findings, Holy War, Inc. reveals:

How bin Laden lives, travels, and communicates with his "cells."
How his role in the crushing defeat of the Soviet Union in Afghanistan made him a hero to Muslims all over the world -- and equipped him to endure a long and bloody siege.
How the CIA ended up funding -- to the tune of three billion dollars -- radical, anti-American Afghan groups allied to bin Laden.
How the attacks that foreshadowed the destruction of the World Trade Center -- among them the bombings of the American embassies in Africa and the warship USS Cole in Yemen -- were planned and executed.
The dimensions of bin Laden's personal fortune, and why freezing his assets is both futile and nearly impossible.
The ideology of bin Laden's number two, the man who has influenced him most profoundly in his holy war -- the Egyptian Ayman al Zawahiri.
What we can expect from Islamist extremists in the future.

Above all, Peter Bergen helps us to see bin Laden's organization in a radically new light: as a veritable corporation that has exploited twenty-first-century communications and weapons technologies in the service of a medieval reading of the Koran and holy war. Holy War, Inc. is essential reading for anyone trying to understand tomorrow's terrorist threats and the militant Islamist movements that could determine the fate of governments -- and human lives -- the world over.

Both author and publisher will donate a portion of the proceeds from this book to United Way's September 11th Fund for the relief of victims of the World Trade Center attacks.

Review:
"Given the hysteria and half-truths surrounding bin Laden, Bergen steers a sensible course, sorting through competing stories....He also helps elucidate what so many Muslims find attractive about bin Laden...For readers who feel they are swimming in daily newspaper articles and television reports and want a single source that brings all the background together, this readable book works well. But since many other fine journalists are now going over the same ground and offering ever more complete versions of what was known in August, for those really interested in Al Qaeda, this is more of a place to start than end. The book contains one significant failing, in my view, and that is Bergen's analysis of why bin Laden is at war with the United States. Bergen takes issue with Samuel Huntington's widely cited thesis that there is a clash of civilizations between the West and Islam. He says bin Laden has a clear and specific political agenda--changing American policy in the Middle East. He opposes the presence of American troops in Saudi Arabia, the bombing of Iraq, support for Israel and for regimes, like those in Egypt and Saudi Arabia, that he considers apostates from Islam. Bin Laden has never, Bergen notes, railed against Coca-Cola or Madonna or homosexuals. But this seems a cramped, literal parsing of bin Laden's few public statements and, in the end, simplistic and unsatisfying. " New York Times Book Review, 11/18/2001* Ethan Bronner

Another review at: http://dir.salon.com/books/feature/2001/11/21/ceo/index.html

2 Book Reviews: Caravans & I'm a Stranger Here Myself: Notes on Returning to America After Twenty Years Away

Book Reviews from the Edge

From: silkroadinaa@hotmail.com
Subject: 2 Book Reviews
Date: August 23, 2004 8:47:43 PM GMT+04:00

Salaams! Haven't got that much read on this short summer STAS. Here are the 2 latest:

Caravans, by James Michener

I read this book many, many moons ago, but felt it needed a re-read after GregP mentioned how insightful it was on the real Afghan character (and how many people didn't like the characterization at all--i.e. they like a more cleaned up "noble savage" presentation). As one of the main Afghan characters (US educated) says about his people in general: "Never forget that marvelous peroration: 'the charm is not of long duration, and he finds that the Afghan is as cruel and crafty as he is independent."

Thoroughly enjoyed the re-read and did find it very insightful (despite some of the ridiculous things that only a western writer would include in such a setting!).

Editorial Reviews
Book Description
In this romantic adventure of wild Afghanistan, master storyteller James Michener mixes the allure of the past with the dangers of today. After an impetuous American girl, Ellen Jasper, marries a young Afghan engineer, her parents hear no word from her. Although she wants freedom to do as she wishes, not even she is sure what that means. In the meantime, she is as good as lost in that wild land, perhaps forever....
"An extraordinary novel....Brilliant."
THE NEW YORK TIMES

Spotlight Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
Early Michener, evolving style of history and romance, March 18, 2003
Reviewer:Denis Benchimol Minev (Manaus, Brazil) - See all my reviews

This is one of Michener's early books, when his style was still evolving. In it, we follow the sotry of an American woman who is lost in Afghanistan and the diplomat that seeks to find her.

I picked this book up after the US war on Afghanistan in order to try to better understand the history of the place without the more recent complications. It was a very good intorduction to the country and its people; we see the deep clash better the Kabul population, which is more "civilized" according to Western standards than the countryside, where the mullahs dominate. These happen to be the same mullahs that we get to see on CNN.

The story itself is told from the perspective of a westerner, so the striking nature of the local culture is highlighted. The mystical nature of caravans and local customs is dissected, which I found very interesting. Also there were many references to the country's history, enough to wet the appetite about reading further on Afghanistan, but not enough to make one knowledgeable about it.

Overall, it is clear this is an early Michener, and the author is evolving into the national novel model he adopts later on.
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I'm a Stranger Here Myself: Notes on Returning to America After Twenty Years Away, by Bill Bryson

I chose this book to help mitigate the reverse culture shock I was bound to experience coming back to the US after 2-1/2 yrs. It hit the spot and often had me absolutely in tears and rolling on the floor. Bryson is a colorful and incredibly funny writer, with a dry wit that is very deep and insightful at the same time.

Talk about the release of those pleasant and healthy endorphines! It was well worth the read and probably added several years onto my life, as laughter is some of the best life-lengthening medicine available.

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Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
In the world of contemporary travel writing, Bill Bryson, the bestselling author of A Walk in the Woods, often emerges as a major contender for King of Crankiness. Granted, he complains well and humorously, but between every line of his travel books you can almost hear the tinny echo: "I wanna go home, I miss my wife."

Happily, I'm a Stranger Here Myself unleashes a new Bryson, more contemplative and less likely to toss daggers. After two decades in England, he's relocated to Hanover, New Hampshire. In this collection (drawn from dispatches for London's Night & Day magazine), he's writing from home, in close proximity to wife and family. We find a happy marriage between humor and reflection as he assesses life both in New England and in the contemporary United States. With the telescopic perspective of one who's stepped out of the American mainstream and come back after 20 years, Bryson aptly holds the mirror up to U.S. culture, capturing its absurdities--such as hotlines for dental floss, the cult of the lawsuit, and strange American injuries such as those sustained from pillows and beds. "In the time it takes you to read this," he writes, "four of my fellow citizens will somehow manage to be wounded by their bedding."

The book also reflects the sweet side of small-town USA, with columns about post-office parties, dining at diners, and Thanksgiving--when the only goal is to "get your stomach into the approximate shape of a beach ball" and be grateful. And grateful we are that the previously peripatetic Bryson has returned to the U.S., turning his eye to this land--while living at home and near his wife. Under her benevolent influence, he entertains through thoughtful insights, not sarcastic stabs. --Melissa Rossi
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On The Road With Bob Dylan

From: silkroadinaa@hotmail.com
Subject: Book Review: On The Road With Bob Dylan
Date: June 14, 2005 8:23:15 PM GMT+04:00
Re: Book Review: On The Road With Bob Dylan

Reader Rating: 8/10

Salaams! Just finished up another Dylan book, though this one is more about his "Rolling Thunder Revue" Tour and cast members than about Bob. OK--yeah, I'm weird; enough said. But, the fact is that Bob is one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century--and will go down in history being remembered that way. Last thing--check out the info (better yet--the actual tunes!) on Dylan's Bootleg Series Volume 5 "Live in '75" double-CD. It's a classic and most precisely catches what it really meant to be "on the road with Bob Dylan!"

On the Road With Bob Dylan
by LARRY SLOMAN, KINKY FRIEDMAN (Introduction) "To begin at the beginning, you'd have to go back to the old folkie days of the Village or maybe just the set of Pat..." (more)

41 used & new available from $6.29
Edition: Paperback
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
When Dylan personally invited the fledgling author Sloman (Reefer Madness) to chronicle his Rolling Thunder Revue tour back in 1975, Sloman thought he had landed his dream gig, expecting all-night parties and intimate chats with the tour's supporting cast, which included Joan Baez, Joni Mitchell, Robbie Robertson and Allen Ginsberg. In fact, Sloman, who first published this memoir in 1978, found access to the stars very limited. After the first concert, Dylan's manager bounced him from the band's hotel. Yet he decided to do whatever it took to stay on tour, earning the nickname "Ratso," after the wily con man played by Dustin Hoffman in Midnight Cowboy. Sloman embraced the role: "I was Ratso, I realized, rolling with the punches, licking my wounds in auxiliary highway hotels, stuffing my frayed dreams into a tattered suitcase, limping along the highway in search of that warm sun that always follows the thunder." But by the end of the tour, Sloman is still stuck with inglorious duties like looking after Dylan's beagle puppy. A brisk and funny (if somewhat over-the-top) prose stylist, he records some interesting moments a sunrise ceremony led by an Indian chief, coincidentally named Rolling Thunder; an emotional encounter with Jack Kerouac's bartending brother-in-law Nicky in Lowell, Mass. but he never really gets close enough to Dylan to offer readers any insights. Ultimately, this book is about one fan's attempt to be accepted by his rock-and-roll heroes, and in Sloman's hands the project is as narcissistic as it sounds. Reading his memoir, one goes from rooting for the underdog to wishing he'd just go home. 16 pages of b&w photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Review
“An invaluable insider’s look at a legendary tour.” —Michael Musto,the Village Voice

“An all-access pass to hang with the greatest singer-songwriter of our time. On the Road with Bob Dylan remains a true gonzo rock journalism classic and a revealing study of music’s greatest genius/enigma.” —David Wild, contributing editor to Rolling Stone and host of Bravo’s Musicians

 See all Editorial Reviews
Product Details
• Paperback: 480 pages
• Publisher: Three Rivers Press; Rev edition (August 27, 2002)
• ISBN: 1400045967
• Average Customer Review:  based on 9 reviews. (Write a review)

======== NOW HEAR HOW IT REALLY SOUNDED!! =========
Bob Dylan Live 1975 (The Bootleg Series Volume 5)
Bob Dylan

Product Details
• Essential recordings: Bob Dylan
• Audio CD (November 26, 2002)
• Original Release Date: November 26, 2002
• Number of Discs: 2
• Label: Sony

Listen to Samples: Visit our audio help page for more information.
Disc: 1
1. Tonight I'll Be Staying Here With You
2. It Ain't Me, Babe
3. A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall
4. The Lonesome Death Of Hattie Carroll
5. Romance In Durango
See all 11 tracks on this disc

Disc: 2
1. It's All Over Now, Baby Blue
2. Love Minus Zero/No Limit
3. Tangled Up In Blue
4. The Water Is Wide
5. It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry
See all 11 tracks on this disc

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
One of the many oddities of Bob Dylan's long and unruly career has been the rather cursory recording treatment given his stint as ringleader of the Rolling Thunder Revue. It's a shortcoming that's rectified with the release of Live 1975. Prior to the appearance of this two-disc collection, Rolling Thunder's eclectic road show was chronicled only in the infrequently screened, Dylan-directed Renaldo & Clara film and the bafflingly brief and one-note 1976 live set, Hard Rain. In contrast to its predecessor, this set, culled from four appearances made in November and December of '75, captures the breadth and subtleties of Dylan's Rolling Thunder performances. "Tonight I'll Be Staying Here with You," formerly a coda from Nashville Skyline, is given a rather incongruous bite here, while "It Ain't Me, Babe" is colored brightly by multi-instrumentalist David Mansfield along with erstwhile David Bowie guitarist Mick Ronson, the sparkplug of the gratifyingly ragtag group that coalesced on short notice. Solo acoustic performances weave through caterwauling full-band treatments of songs old ("The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll) and new ("Hurricane" and four other selections from Desire, which wouldn't hit the racks until early '76). While the contributions of a number of caravan cohorts and guests are left out, Joan Baez shares the spotlight with Dylan on four numbers, most notably on the rarity "Mama, You Been on My Mind" and the traditional "The Water Is Wide." But despite its cavalcade trappings, it was Dylan's show, and this collection demonstrates finally just how close to his '60s peak the '70s Dylan was. --Steven Stolder
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