Book Review: Blue Like Jazz: Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality

Blue Like Jazz: Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality on amazon.com

Reader Rating: 9/10

Salaams! First heard about this book while up in Bamiyan (central Afg) this summer--from an old U Team member, AmyE--who said it was an "excellent" book--a "gotta read" book. Then heard about it from AndyB, who said that his son read it and pronounced it as something like "the best book" he's ever read. I started it at the beginning of a recent long trip from Dubai to the US and was finished by the time I'd landed in Boston. I found the book to be intriguing, captivating, deeply serious, engaging, provocative, refreshing, stimulating, thoughtful, real, hilarious (had to stop several times from busting a gut out loud & disturbing my sleeping co-passengers), and just simply well-written. This is a book I immediately gave to my oldest son Alex to read, as I knew it would meet him and speak to him in his current phase of life--which it did.

Reflect with me for a minute on the sub-title of the book: "Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality." These are the musings of a real pilgrim who has wandered far and wide in his journey and writes out of his real experiences with an uncommon honesty and sincerity. There are moles and spots and bumps and ditches along the way--it's not a nice straight and smooth road. There is no Christian lingo, no jargon, no nice pat phrases. These are observations on deeply spiritual topics and issues, but all expressed in untypical religious language, with uncanny vulnerability and a rarely-published realness. One of the few other Christian writers who is like this--and writes well--is Philip Yancey. This book evokes the sentiments expressed in the great U2 song, "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For." It's about an on-going search for something deeper, more meaningful, more real & sincere, more relevant, more impacting.

Miller makes a strong showing in this book as he seeks to "integrate and balance his experiences with relevant Christian truths. This makes Blue Like Jazz an unexpectedly entertaining and thought-provoking read," says reviewer Joseph Thouvenel on the Barclay Press website. Miller's insights in what Jesus calls us to as His disciples is refreshing. It is an engaging story of God's work in his life over a period of years, as he acknowledges areas of his life where he sorely needed grow/maturity--and then gives details on how God began whittling away, bringing life-impacting changes into his life. Miller also shares some good insights into how a true community of believers should work/look.

This is a book I look forward to reading again, more slowly, and reflecting on more.

Christianity Today, Week of August 4
Soul Language on Paper
Blue Like Jazz: Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality
Donald Miller
Thomas Nelson, 256 pages, $13.99
Reviewed by Cindy Crosby | posted 08/05/2003

Think of Donald Miller as a cleaned-up, Gen X Anne Lamott with testosterone, and this fresh memoir-like collection of essays as his version of Traveling Mercies. Miller (Prayer and the Art of Volkswagen Maintenance) shares his journey from a self-described "Bible salesman on steroids" to discovering the freedom of embracing a God bigger than he can quantify.

"The more I climb outside my pat answers, the more invigorating the view, the more my heart enters into worship," he writes.

Whether he's musing over his romantic foibles or detailing his frustrations with the church, his stories are permeated with gritty authenticity and humor. Miller poignantly recounts the challenges of sharing Christ with the mostly pagan students at Reed College in Portland, Oregon, where he is active in campus ministry. His disappointment with organized Christianity is balanced by his passion for Jesus. Miller eventually finds that Christian spirituality is like jazz music, "very hard to get on paper … a language of the soul. But it is no less real, no less meaningful, no less beautiful."

Although the book is drenched in pop culture references and clearly aimed at a Gen X audience, Miller's words will resonate with any believer who has ever grappled with the paradoxes of faith.
Copyright © 2003 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.
June 2003, Vol. 47, No. 7, Page 66

Blue Like Jazz: Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality (Paperback)
by Donald Miller "I ONCE LISTENED TO AN INDIAN ON TELEVISION say that God was in the wind and the water, and I wondered at how beautiful that..." (more)
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Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Miller (Prayer and the Art of Volkswagen Maintenance) is a young writer, speaker and campus ministry leader. An earnest evangelical who nearly lost his faith, he went on a spiritual journey, found some progressive politics and most importantly, discovered Jesus' relevance for everyday life. This book, in its own elliptical way, tells the tale of that journey. But the narrative is episodic rather than linear, Miller's style evocative rather than rational and his analysis personally revealing rather than profoundly insightful. As such, it offers a postmodern riff on the classic evangelical presentation of the Gospel, complete with a concluding call to commitment. Written as a series of short essays on vaguely theological topics (faith, grace, belief, confession, church), and disguised theological topics (magic, romance, shifts, money), it is at times plodding or simplistic (how to go to church and not get angry? "pray... and go to the church God shows you"), and sometimes falls into merely self-indulgent musing. But more often Miller is enjoyably clever, and his story is telling and beautiful, even poignant. (The story of the reverse confession booth is worth the price of the book.) The title is meant to be evocative, and the subtitle-"Non-Religious" thoughts about "Christian Spirituality"-indicates Miller's distrust of the institutional church and his desire to appeal to those experimenting with other flavors of spirituality.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Book Description

"I never liked jazz music because jazz music doesn't resolve. . . . I used to not like God because God didn't resolve. But that was before any of this happened." In Donald Miller's early years, he was vaguely familiar with a distant God. But when he came to know Jesus Christ, he pursued the Christian life with great zeal. Within a few years he had a successful ministry that ultimately left him feeling empty, burned out, and, once again, far away from God. In this intimate, soul-searching account, Miller describes his remarkable journey back to a culturally relevant, infinitely loving God.
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Product Details

* Paperback: 256 pages
* Publisher: Nelson Books (July 17, 2003)
* Language: English
* ISBN: 0785263705

73 of 107 people found the following review helpful:Loved it, Loved it, Loved it., June 25, 2003
Reviewer: N. Kiser "neville22" (Gull Lake, MI United States) - See all my reviews
It says something about a book that makes you want to read it till' you can't stay awake any more at night and when it's the first thing you think about when you wake up in the morning (to read more of it). "Blue Like Jazz," is such a book. I can't really compare it to any other book b/c I've never read anything quite like it. It's just a compilation of stories and thoughts told through the eyes of a truly honest and heartfelt man.

The thing that really hit me while reading the book was that of encouragement. Thank God there is at least several more people out there (Donald and many of his friends which I feel like I know and would love to hang out with) who are like me in their pursuit to be in love with Jesus. These past few months have been a shaping time for me and granted, I have my own stories to tell and maybe someday I can, but for now, I've never felt God speaking to me so often as I did while reading this book (besides when I read the Bible I suppose). But this time, the voice was so much more personal, more intimate, more real.

The hardest thing for me to think after reading this book was that not everybody gets it and not all Christians are there yet. Not to say that I am, but still, it's going to be tough to convey this message of Jesus' love to a world so enthralled in "economic love" (as Miller points out through a speaker he heard). My heart is stirring and I feel like I am just beginning to get this a little better now (Jesus' love).
Only one word can describe my experience in reading this book: Intoxicating. (and I've never even been drunk before:) Thank you, Don and please thank all your friends personally from me. My name's Neville. Like you said too, hope we can meet someday.

Book Review: The Iron Lance

The Iron Lance on amazon.com

Reader Rating: 8.5/10

This is a book I recently finished reading to my kids after dinners (don't ask HOW LONG it took me to do that!). The book is a work of historical fiction set during the time of the First Crusade in the late 11th century. A little info from Wikipedia:

> The First Crusade was launched in 1095 by Pope Urban II to regain control of the sacred city of Jerusalem and the Christian Holy Land from Muslims. What started as a minor call for aid quickly turned into a wholesale migration and conquest of territory outside of Europe. Both knights and peasants from many different nations of western Europe, with little central leadership, travelled over land and by sea towards Jerusalem and captured the city in July 1099, establishing the Kingdom of Jerusalem and the other Crusader states. Although these gains lasted for fewer than two hundred years, the Crusade was a major turning point in the expansion of Western power, and was the only crusade—in contrast to the many that followed—to achieve its stated goal.

Lawhead is a very good writer who weaves a believable story centered around a young boy, Murdo, who--due to unforeseen circumstances--ends up following his father and brothers to Jerusalem, where he witnesses first-hand the awful Crusader carnage ("victory"). Lawhead does a nice job of weaving a good bit of history and historical characters into the fictionalized tale. In many ways, it's a classical story of a young boy growing into manhood as he ventures out on his own into the big world beyond his small village. Along the way he meets some interesting and colorful characters, including three monks who have a big influence on his growth and maturity.

Not as good as Lawhead's Byzantium, highly recommended to everyone, but a good read nonetheless. I was a little disappointed in the ending, which just seemed to fizzle a bit. I also wish Lawhead had more fully utilized and completed the late 1800's "framing device" which does such a good job of beginning the book.

The Iron Lance (The Celtic Crusades, Book 1) (Paperback)
by Stephen R. Lawhead "My name is of no importance..." (more)
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Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
Most of Stephen Lawhead's popular historical fantasies are part of one or another of his sagas, trilogies, or cycles. For readers who enjoy big galloping yarns set in distant lands, and don't mind having their hands held by the author every step of the way, the first volume of his new Christian trilogy should hit the spot.

The framing device begins at the end of the nineteenth century, in Edinburgh, where Gordon Murray is about to be inducted into an ancient brotherhood whose secret rites involve a sacred relic: the iron lance of the title. The main narrative is set in eleventh century Orkney. When Pope Urban II calls for the retaking of Jerusalem from the infidel, the local lord, Ranulf, joins the Crusade with his elder sons, leaving behind young Murdo to oversee the family holdings. When the Church, through a nefarious scheme, confiscates the house and holdings, Murdo has no choice but to follow the Crusaders to the Holy Land and bring his father home to fix the whole mess.

Lawhead paints a vast and exotic canvas of medieval world politics, then peoples it with colorful characters--cunning Byzantine rulers, bluff Norman knights, gap-toothed, shaggy-brained Saxon peasants--who encounter visions and miracles, brutality and ambition, love and justice. At the end of the main narrative, Murdo gets what he wants but not in the ways expected. The framing narrative ends with hints that, as the world lurches towards a new millennium, Gordon Murray's Christian secret society is the world's only hope for survival, and the time nears for the brotherhood to reveal itself. --Luc Duplessis

From Publishers Weekly
This massive historical-fantasy novel about the First Crusade begins a family-saga trilogy recounting the story of a mysterious mystical order founded upon the discovery of the spear that pierced Christ's side as he hung on the cross. The narrative is framed as a series of visions by a Victorian Scots lawyer, who begins by seeing his ancestors leaving the Orkneys on the Crusade, except for the youngest brother, Murdo, who remains behind to watch the family holdings. When fraudulent clerics take those lands, Murdo attempts to rejoin his family. In describing the young man's journey to the Holy Land, Lawhead displays considerable historical scholarship, some talent for depicting picaresque adventures and verbiage in such excess that the emotional impact of the climax?the discovery of the lance?is diminished. Lawhead is known for his ability to combine Arthurian and Christian fantasy, as in his Pendragon Cycle, blending disparate elements into engaging if frequently overlong tales. But here the historian overwhelms the storyteller. The novel fails to meet Lawhead's usual standard, let alone that of other time-binding fantasies such as the novels of Diana Gabaldon. Agency, William Morris.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Details
* Paperback: 656 pages
* Publisher: Eos; Reprint edition (April, 2000)
* Language: English
* ISBN: 0061051098
* This is the 1st item in The Celtic Crusades Series.

Spotlight Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
Mythical and Masterful, August 22, 2000
Reviewer: Eric Wilson "suspense novelist" (Nashville, TN United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)
I picked this one up at the library and, sitting in the car, read the prologue...I was entranced. Lawhead's mythic history draws you in. Not only did his detailed landscape and time-period come to life in my mind, but the characters, in their reserved manner, became breathing people that you care and cheer for.

But this story isn't heavy on the cheers; it describes many heartaches and inhumanities. It peels back the horror of what the Crusaders did in the name of Christ and clearly shows the misdeeds of the Church. Yet, through the likeable monks of the Cele De, the main character comes to see another side of spirituality, eventually warming to the monks and their beliefs.

The story, primarily, follows young Murdo as he follows after his father and brothers toward the Holy Land. He needs their help to take back the land that's been stolen from them. Along the way, he witnesses the Crusaders' violent ways, he experiences mystical visions, and he finds himself brushing shoulders with the Holy Lance, the spear used to pierce Jesus's side at the scene of the Crucifixion. Now, the spear is a holy relic sought by many.

The transformations of Murdo from nonbeliever to believer, from boy to man, are credible. You'll find yourself holding your breath as he searches for the Holy Lance and attempts to escape those who wish to steal it for their own devices.

This story deals with large issues--the corruption of the church, the brutality of man, the secrecy of centuries-old societies in the British Isles--and it still manages to touch on smaller, more personal issues such as love, loyalty, and family.

Some may find the details overwhelming or laborious; I found myself closing the final page wishing for more.

Book Review: The Man Comes Around: The Spiritual Journey of Johnny Cash

The Man Comes Around: The Spiritual Journey of Johnny Cash on amazon.com

Reader Rating: 8/10

Salaams. Good book on the life of The Man in Black.

Not super detailed, but a good focus on his spiritual growth and battles and victories. A man who battled his demons for sure, but who knew the Lord and who sought to make Him known through the gifts he was given.

If you haven't listened to any of Johnny's final four recordings on the American Recordings label...well, then you're missing out.

All for now--wes

The Man Comes Around: The Spiritual Journey of Johnny Cash (Paperback)
by Dave Urbanski "THE 1930s: HAD NOT BEEN KIND to the once-mighty American farmer..." (more)
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Editorial Reviews
Dan Haseltine, September 2003
Foreword by Dan Haseltine, Lead Singer for Jars of Clay
"As you read this book, you will find a thread of redemption in the life of this man."

Book Description
Who Was Johnny Cash? Rock star? Country boy? Folk hero? Preacher? Poet? Drug addict? Rebel? Sinner? Saint? In truth, the Man in Black lived long enough and hard enough to embody all of the above-and much, much more. He was a musical legend, a one-of-a-kind communicator, an American icon-but you could never pigeonhole him or pin him down. You never completely knew him...or what he was going to do next.

Cash's faith in God was no different: "I'm still a Christian, as I have been all my life," he once said. "Beyond that I get complicated." Cash's faith wasn't smooth, slick, or sweet-it was grizzled, challenged, broken, and messy. Worlds away from perfect. But it was transparent ... and real. Always real. The Man Comes Around: The Spiritual Journey of Johnny Cash explores with vivid, narrative detail the wild ups and downs, the highs and lows, the ebbs and flows, that took place within this man's soul-from beginning to end. It's his spiritual chronicle. His sacred story-yet one that no doubt describes, in one way or another, where we've all been...and perhaps where we're all going.

Product Details
Paperback: 240 pages
Publisher: Relevant Books (November 3, 2003)
Language: English
ISBN: 0972927670

Book Review: Afghanistan, My Tears

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OR at

Abebooks.com

Reader Rating: 7/10

Salaams! Read this book a couple months ago. It is the personal story of David Leatherberry and his wife, Julie, who spent a number of years working among Afghans in both Afghanistan and Pakistan (from 1976 - 1981). Nothing really too exciting, though some interesting stories of building relationships with locals and sharing the Good News with them. In Pakistan both David & Julie worked with thousands of displaced Afghans who lived in the refugee camps near Peshawar.

In 1981 they went to Germany and continued work with the thousands of Afghan refugees who were flowing into that country each year (20,000 by then). Through a series of rather miraculous events, they were given room in a local technical college to hold ESL classes for Afghan refugees and were able to help many of them as they made their transition as refugees to various other countries. All along the way, they were able to share a lot of Truth with their Afghan friends and to see God work in their lives in various ways.

Afghanistan, my tears (Unknown Binding)
by David Leatherberry
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Product Details
Unknown Binding: 182 pages
Publisher: AMT (1996)
Language: English
ASIN: B0006QPMXI

Book Review: Imperial Hubris: Why The West Is Losing The War On Terror

Imperial Hubris: Why The West Is Losing The War On Terror on amazon.com


Reader Rating: 9/10

Salaams! Read this book this summer and was duly impressed with its deep analysis of the whole situation surrounding 9/11. The book includes analysis of both the build-up to 9/11 and its aftermath, with the take-down of the Taliban and the invasion of Iraq. Anonymous' analysis (BTW--he has now come out in the open and the latest edition of the book has his name on it: Michael Scheuer).

The book's central thesis is that the everything the US does--and the way it views people and events abroad--is "heavily clouded" with a an arrogance and self-centeredness that he calls "imperial hubris." Hubris = pride/arrogance. He suggests that this perspective has developed since the end of WWII, when the US began "interpreting the so it makes sense to us," and is not necessarily aligned with reality.

He believes that our entrance into and involvement presently in both Afghanistan and Iraq are "half-hearted" and represent an on-going habit of the US fighting "half-started" and "half-finished" wars. The pertinent example from Afghanistan is how the US again used "proxy" warriors--the Northern Alliance fighters--to half-heartedly engage the major retreating Taliban/al-Qaeda forces, allowing them to slip over the mountainous border into Pakistan, where they regroup to fight on another day. He derides the US military and intelligence agencies for not reviewing "the checkables," which due to our involvement in Afghanistan for 2 decades now, had a mountain of information to be mined and learned from.

I do believe that at times the author is a bit too dramatic and critical, almost seeing that no good has been done or can come out of the operations worldwide against al-Qaeda and our involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq. I have a more positive outlook on what has been accomplished in Afghanistan based on my first-hand interactions with local Afghans and things I have seen on multiple trips across the country. That said, there are still things about what the US government & military does that are quite disturbing to me.

Here are some interesting quotes from the book, along with what the author lists as some fatal "Seven Pillars of Truth about Afghanistan:”

Quotes from Imperial Hubris: Why The West Is Losing The War On Terror, by Anonymous.

“One of the greatest dangers for Americans in deciding how to confront the Islamic threat lies in continuing to believe—at the urging of senior U.S. leaders—that Muslims hate and attack us for what we are and think, rather than for what we do.” (pg. 8)

“The focused and lethal threat posed to the U.S. national security arises not from Muslims being offended by what America is, but rather from their plausible perception that the thing they most love and value—God, Islam, their brethren, and Muslim lands—are being attacked by America. What we as a nation do, then, is the key causal factor in our confrontation with Islam. It is, I believe, the Muslim perception that the things they love are being intentionally destroyed by American that engenders Islamist hatred toward the United States, and that simultaneously motivates a few to act alone and attack U.S. interests; a great many more to join organizations like al Qaeda and its allies; and massive numbers to support those organizations’ defensive military actions with prayers, donations, blind eyes, or logistical assistance.” (pgs. 9-10)

“When entering on duty as an intelligence officer two decades and more ago, one of my first supervisors often said the key to framing and solving intelligence problems was to first ‘do the checkables.’ The checkables were those parts of a problem that were knowable, the things on which there were classified archival records, pertinent and available human experience, current human assets to consult, or even the results of media and academic research—the latter then, as now, generally underused because of the false assumption that information is not useful unless classified. This supervisor’s recipe was to exploit to exhaustion the ‘checkables’ to learn the problem’s history and context, determine precisely what we already knew, establish a range of things we knew little or nothing about, and thereby, identify the information we needed to acquire before acting to resolve the problem.” (pgs. 21-22)

“Checkables: success rides on how fully they are retrieved, reviewed, and absorbed.” (pg. 32)

From a study of the Soviet General Staff study on the Soviet war in Afghanistan:

“When the highest political leaders of the USSR sent its forces into war, they did not consider historic, religious, and national peculiarities of Afghanistan. After the entry these peculiarities proved the most important factors as they foreordained the long and very difficult nature of the armed conflict. Now it is completely clear that it was an impetuous decision to send Soviet forces into this land.” [goes on to mainly cite Afghan’s history of centuries of warfare between various warring groups, and their hatred of unbelieving/infidel armed invaders] {pg. 32)

Author’s list of the fatal “Seven Pillars of Truth about Afghanistan”—Seven Checkables—that were ignored in the U.S. response after 9/11:

Pillar 1: Minorities can rule in Kabul, but not for long:
“The Pushtuns, who have ruled Afghanistan for 250 years,” explained Pakistan’s former chief of army staff, General Mirza Aslam Beg, “have been pushed into a corner and are brooding over the [mis]treatment of fellowPashtuns” by the Karzai regime.”

Pillar 2: The Afghans who matter are Muslim tribal xenophobes:
“They are as powerful as they were twenty years ago; Islam, in fact, is far stronger and more conservative.”

Pillar 3: Afghans cannot be bought:
“Afghans will always take your money, but afterwards they will do what you want only if they were going to do it anyway.”

Pillar 4: Strong governments in Kabul cause war:
“Even when ruled by a monarchy—until 1973—the central government was weak. The king was greatly respected as an individual, but, in terms of direct rule, his government’s power did not extend much beyond Kabul.—thus Karzai’s current moniker, ‘the mayor of Kabul.’”

Pillar 5: An international cockpit not insular backwater:
“While each of Afghanistan’s neighbors publicly speak of a desire and support for a united, stable Afghanistan, one of them share the same definition of unity and stability, and none will tolerate a stable Afghanistan unless it protects their interests.”

Pillar 6: Pakistan must have Islamist, Pashtun-dominated Afghan regime:
“While doing what it can to appear helpful to the United States and rhetorically support of the ATA [Afghan Transitional Authority], Pakistan’s national survival depend on reinstalling a Taleban-like regime in Kabul and avoiding actions that would trigger warfare—civil war, really—between the Pakistan’s well-armed Pashtun tribes and the Pakistani military.”

Pillar 7: There will be an Islamist regime in Kabul:
“To state the obvious, Afghanistan is a country of truly conservative Islamic temperament…[a]nd the trend is toward an ever more conservative brand of Islam…As seen from an Afghan-centric perspective, the Afghan Islamists have twice been denied the fruit of their military victories; they are certain to try for them again…The reestablishment of an Islamic regime in Kabul is as close to an inevitability as exists.”

Again, a very good/interesting read that makes one think about what we (the US) have done in the past, what we are doing, and where we are heading.

All for now--wes
---------------------------------
Imperial Hubris: Why The West Is Losing The War On Terror (Paperback)
by Michael Scheuer
First Sentence:
In America's confrontation with Osama bin Laden, al Qaeda, their allies, and the Islamic world, there lies a startlingly clear example of how loving something intensely can stimulate an equally intense and purposeful hatred of things by which it is threatened.
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Hardcover
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Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
The war on terror has created near unanimity on many points, at least within the American press and political leadership. One essential point of agreement: al Qaeda specifically and radical Islamism in general are stirred by a hatred of modernity. Or as President George W. Bush has articulated repeatedly, they hate freedom. Nonsense, responds the nameless author of this work and 2003's Through Our Enemies' Eyes (the senior U.S. intelligence official's identity became an open secret by publication date). Indeed, he grimly and methodically discards common wisdom throughout this scathing and compelling take on counterterrorism. Imperial Hubris is not a book that will cheer Americans, regardless of their perspectives on the post-9/11 environment. We are, the author notes, losing the war on terror. Hawks will squirm as the author heaps contempt on U.S. missions in Afghanistan (too little, too late) and Iraq ("a sham causing more instability than it prevents"), but opponents of Bush administration policies may blanch at Anonymous' suggestion that what's needed is for the West to "proceed with relentless, brutal, and, yes, blood-soaked offensive military actions until we have annihilated the Islamists who threaten us." Quoting the at-all-cost likes of William Tecumseh Sherman and Curtis Lemay on one hand and contending that unrelenting military measures be accompanied by concessions to the ideology of the militants on the other are unlikely to curry widespread support from either side of the divide. And how will readers conditioned to references to Osama bin Laden as a deranged gangster or simple-minded fanatic with deep pockets digest the respect accorded "the most popular anti-American leader in the world today"? Imperial Hubris clearly wasn't written to win friends, though the author believes it's essential that his words influence people at the top. Whether it will is debatable, but that this blunt, forceful, urgently argued polemic recharges the discussion is a foregone conclusion. --Steven Stolder--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Publishers Weekly
It's unclear how, in an age when even office workers must sign confidentiality agreements, an alleged CIA Middle Eastern specialist has gotten permission to publish a sprawling, erudite book on the origins and present state of the "war on terror." His main point is that Arab antagonism to the West (and even non-fundamentalist Arab regimes' winking at terrorism) has its root in real grievances that have gone unaddressed by U.S. measures. The actions of the Saudis, and their U.S. supporters, come in for some hard criticism, as does the elevation of Northern Alliance warlords to de facto governors of Afghanistan. The author makes some challenging remarks regarding Israel ("Surely there can be no other historical example of a faraway, theocracy-in-all-but-name of only six million people that ultimately controls the extent and even the occurrence of an important portion of political discourse and national security debate in a country of 270-plus million people that prides itself on religious toleration, separation of church and state, and freedom of speech") while playing down the extent to which the Taliban itself was a corrupt theocratic regime. But his annotated compendia of battles and skirmishes won and lost by the U.S. and al-Qaeda are gripping, and his engagement with his subject has made him a pundit-in-demand.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Details
Paperback: 332 pages
Publisher: Potomac Books (March 4, 2005)
Language: English
ISBN: 1574888625

Book Review: Imprisoned in Iran

Imprisoned in Iran on amazon.com


Book Review: Imprisoned in Iran

Reader Rating: 8/10

Salaams! Read this book back in September. My interest was piqued after going through the Security Training, deep in the wild woods of Idaho. I had heard snippets years ago about Dan and his imprisonment and was also interested in seeing what he had to say about it; e.g. how and why it happened, what were the repercussions, etc.

Very interesting read that gives you a frank and personal perspective into Dan and his fellow S. African traveler's imprisonment in the most notorious prison in Iran, the dreaded Evin Prison of Tehran. Dan was held, basically in solitary confinement, for nine weeks, accused of being a CIA spy. It was a very tough time, mostly mentally, as Dan began to think that he had been forgotten, abandoned, and might spend the rest of his life in a dark, dank, deserted cell. There are some good insights into the routines he did establish to keep himself occupied and hopeful, though there are also some very poignant points illustrating how the Enemy can bring defeat and discouragement to someone in that type of situation.

This incident also demonstrates the importance of something we were taught in Idaho TO DO if you are held by a government entity: continue to ask (demand), from the beginning, to see your government's representative (or a closely aligned country's rep). In Dan's case, this didn't really happen and most likely prolonged his case.

Imprisoned in Iran (International Adventure) (Paperback)
by Dan Baumann
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Editorial Reviews
Book Description
My name is Dan Baumann and I have recently finished my book entitled Imprisoned in Iran. In 1997, a friend and me, while on a short trip to Iran were taken into custody. I spent 9 weeks in prison in the most infamous prison in Tehran, "Evin Prison". I was kept in solitary confinement, beaton, and constantly interegated. I received two unofficial death sentences, one for being a CIA spy and one for being a Christian witness. The story tells in detail how we went to Iran, how we were arrested, and how we were miraculously released. The story is written in an easy to read adventure narrative. It tells very honestly both the good and bad momments. Throughout the book it honors God as being the reason for going into Iran and the one behind keeping us alive in prison and eventually helping us get released.

About the Author
Born in Santa Monica, CA. Grew up in Manhattan Beach, CA. got a BS degree from Wheaton College in Il. I worked for 6 years in Kabul, Afghanistan as an Adminstrator of an Hospital. I also worked for 2 years in India, and 1 in Turkmenistan in Christian service. The last 3 years I have worked as a teacher in a Christian mission organization in Youth With a Mission in Trinadad, CO. Currently I travel and speak in school and churches promoting my book.
Product Details
Paperback: 191 pages
Publisher: YWAM Publishing (November, 2000)
Language: English
ISBN: 1576581802

Book Review: Monsoon

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Book Review: Monsoon

Reader Rating: 9/10

Excellent swashbuckling book that MarkPf recommended and loaned to me. The story takes place at the dawn of the 17th Century and follows an English family (father & 3 sons) and their involvement in the burgeoning ocean-going trade of the British East India Company. It involves some powerful and crafty Muslim pirates who prey on East India Company vessels and cargo and sailors, as well as various characters from several kingdoms along the eastern African coast and on the Arabian Peninsula.

This book is similar in some ways to a previous book I read and reviewed (from a TimL recommendation) called The Sword and the Scimitar. It also has similarities with the recent movie "Master and Commander," starring Russell Crowe. If you like tales of sailing/ships, pirates, sword fighting, intrigue and betrayal, insights into Islamic cultures, portrayals of deep and long-lasting friendships & family relationships, and a couple of good old-fashioned love stories to boot, then you'll enjoy this book.

This book kept my rapt attention the whole way through and just ended too soon--after some 800+ pages! One criticism is that it seemed to end prematurely, given the complexities of the plot and the depths to which the author went to fill out the characters over many years. The good news is that this book is one of a whole series on several generations of the Courtney Family. I've bought them all and am looking forward to reading the others.

Monsoon (A Courtney Family Adventure) (Paperback)
by Wilbur Smith "The three boys came up through the gill behind the chapel, so that they were hidden from the big house and the stables..." (more)
228 used & new available from $0.07

Absolutely Awesome!, May 10, 2005
Reviewer:
Kara J. Jorges "Avid Reader" (Minneapolis) - See all my reviews
  
This book was not only a gripping story unfolding among rich characters, it is also a wonderful depiction of the 17th Century. Smith is obviously knowledgeable about tall ships and the sailing of them, as well as being able to draw vivid pictures of people, places, and cultures of the time. From the drawing rooms and dirty alleys of London and the dandies and doxies who people them to newly captured slaves on the Fever Coast, devout muslims at prayer, bedoins entering a friendly camp, sadistic eunuchs, and small children, he brings the Old World to life. I was there on the deck of the Seraph as she sailed south from London, there in the caravan that wound across the desert; I felt real fear for Tom and Dorian when they took reckless chances and confronted the enemy. I turned a wry lip at the incompetent surgeon who wiped his instruments on his sleeve, yet was well-trusted by everyone, because that was all the farther medicine had gone in the 1600's. Some of our most-loved characters suffer and die, and the tragedy touches the other characters deeply, yet they shrug off their emotions quickly enough and get on with life, not batting an eye when someone suddenly dies. These and other little touches are what take us not only into visual splendor but actually transport us back in time, complete with vibrations, sounds, and smells. Most of all, we feel the slow, inexorable passage of time as we move at the pace of an era that had no electricity, communication, or combustion engines. The pace of the story varies from time to time in such a way that no particular sequence drags along or goes too quickly. Though a long, engrossing read, I dreaded turning the last page of this epic masterpiece.

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
South Africa's master storyteller Wilbur Smith has been writing his exotic historical sagas for so long that he's in danger of being taken for granted and typecast as an author of adventure stories for and about overgrown boys. But there's a lot more to Smith's books than mere blood, thunder, swash, and buckle. He might not be as thoughtful or as philosophical as Patrick O'Brian, but his stories have a wider geographical and chronological range and lots more action.

Monsoon is the latest chronicle in Smith's Courteney series. In it, Hal Courteney is sent by the East India Trading Company to attack Arab pirates who are harassing trade off the East African coast. He takes three of his four sons, but one of them absconds to Bombay and another is taken prisoner by the Arabs. Although the mission is an eventual success, Hal himself is seriously injured and returns to England. His son Tom becomes the real hero of the story, gallantly rescuing his captured brother from the infidel.

Like his heroes, Smith's prose pulls no punches: "Aboli swung the axe in a wide, flashing arc. It took the man full in the side of his neck, severing it cleanly. His head toppled forward and rolled down his chest, while his trunk stood erect before it slumped to the deck. The air escaped from his lungs in a whistling blast of frothy blood from the open windpipe." It may not be pretty, but it certainly grabs your attention. --Dick Adler--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Publishers Weekly
Tenth in the swashbuckling saga of the bold and adventuresome Courtneys, this epic sequel to Birds of Prey finds Sir Hal Courtney and his sons up to their bloody sword arms in piracy, intrigue, treachery and civil war in late 17th and early 18th century East Africa and Arabia. Once again the veteran author creates a masterful tale of action and suspense set on the high seas, arid deserts and steaming jungles. Wealthy English landowner Sir Hal earned his fortune as a sea captain with the East India Company. To protect his overseas investments, he becomes a privateer to combat Arab pirates attacking company ships from bases in Zanzibar and Madagascar. Accompanied by three of his four sons, Sir Hal embarks on a desperate voyage that will bring either glory and treasure or ruin. Sir Hal is a skilled leader and a good father, but his sons are a mixed lot, bitter rivals in love and war. William, the eldest son, left in charge of the English estate, is a greedy blackguard and a brutal poltroon. Tom is a fearless leader while his twin brother, Guy, is a bitter and vengeful schemer. Young Dorian, captured by the Arabs and raised as a Muslim, is resourceful and cunning. Sir Hals voyage brings the Courtney family both wealth and catastrophe. One son is murdered, another becomes a fugitive, a third an abusive betrayer and the fourth is abandoned and forlorn. Clever plot twists and lavish historical detail attend the siblings adventures as they battle pirates, slavers, assassins, their own government and each other. A smooth blend of adventure and romance, the novel is an atmospheric trip through the fierce mysteries of the Dark Continent and the Arabian seas.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews
Product Details
Paperback: 822 pages
Publisher: St. Martin's Paperbacks (April 15, 2000)
ISBN: 0312971540
Average Customer Review: based on 90 reviews

Book Review: Touching The Void

Touching The Void on amazon.com [also check out the DVD movie!]

Book Review: Touching The Void

Reader Rating: 9/10

Salaams! Recently read the book of an excellent docu-drama Chris & I saw while on STAS last summer: Touching The Void, by Joe Simpson. One of the most incredible survival stories--ever!--it chronicles a climb made in the mid-1980's on a difficult 22,000 ft. Peruvian Andes' mountain by Simpson and his climbing partner, Simon Yates.

What would you do if your partner broke his leg & heel at over 19,000 feet on a perilous, wind-swept mountain, with a terrible snow storm quickly gathering intensity? What would you do if your climbing partner, whom you've been lowering thousands of feet by a rope belayed around you, was dangling over a precipice hundreds of feet below you, threatening to pull you down the mountain with him? What would you do if you fell over a hundred feet into a deep crevasse and your climbing partner, who was sure you had perished, left you and returned to base camp?

As one reviewer states below, therein lies the tale, and enough to make anyone believe in miracles.

Touching the Void: The True Story of One Man's Miraculous Survival
by Joe Simpson
171 used & new available from $2.04
Edition: Paperback

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
Concise and yet packed with detail, Touching the Void, Joe Simpson's harrowing account of near-death in the Peruvian Andes, is a compact tour de force that wrestles with issues of bravery, friendship, physical endurance, the code of the mountains, and the will to live. Simpson dedicates the book to his climbing partner, Simon Yates, and to "those friends who have gone to the mountains and have not returned." What is it that compels certain individuals to willingly seek out the most inhospitable climate on earth? To risk their lives in an attempt to leave footprints where few or none have gone before? Simpson's vivid narrative of a dangerous climbing expedition will convince even the most die-hard couch potato that such pursuits fall within the realm of the sane. As the author struggles ever higher, readers learn of the mountain's awesome power, the beautiful--and sometimes deadly--sheets of blue glacial ice, and the accomplishment of a successful ascent. And then catastrophe: the second half of Touching the Void sees Simpson at his darkest moment. With a smashed, useless leg, he and his partner must struggle down a near-vertical face--and that's only the beginning of their troubles.--This text refers to the Paperback edition.
New York Newsday
"Told with lyrical quality and stunning immediacy, Touching the Void transcends its genre and becomes accessible to readers who have never had any desire to climb a glacier."--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews
Product Details
• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Perennial Currents; Revised edition (January, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0060730552
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.3 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.9 ounces. (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: based on 120 reviews. (Write a review)

EXTREME ADVENTURE IN THE PERUVIAN ANDES, July 30, 2000
Reviewer:
Lawyeraau (Balmoral Castle) - See all my reviews

An amazing tale of courage, fortitude, and a desire to live, despite dire circumstances. The author, Joe Simpson and his climbing partner, Simon Yates, ascend a perilous section of the Peruvian Andes. Near the summit, tragedy strikes when Joe, up over 19,000 feet, falls and hits a slope at the base of a cliff, breaking his right leg, rupturing his right knee, and shattering his right heel. Beneath him is a seemingly endless fall to the bottom. Simon reaches him but knows that the chances for Joe to get off the mountain are virtually non-existent. Yet, they fashion a daring plan to to do just that.

For the next few hours, through a snow storm, they work in tandem, and manage a risky, yet effective way of trying to lower Joe down the mountain. About three thousand feet down, Joe who is still roped to Simon, drops off an edge, and finds himself now free hanging in space six feet away from an ice wall, unable to reach it with his axe. The edge is over hung about fifteen feet above him. The dark outline of a crevasse lies about a hundred feet directly below him.

Joe couln't get up, and Simon couldn't get down. In fact, Joe's weight began to pull Simon off the mountain. So, Simon was finally forced to do the only thing he could do under the circumstances. He cut the rope, believing that he was consigning his friend to certain death. Therein lies the tale.

What happens next is sure to make one believe in miracles.
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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 Sword and the Scimitar

The Sword and the Scimitar on amazon.com


Book Review: The Sword and the Scimitar

Reader Rating: 9/10

Salaams! Just finished up an EXCELLENT book called The Sword and the Scimitar, by David Ball. This is a book that Tim & Darlene both read and highly recommended; they were "spot on" with their assessment. My edition (bought in Istanbul) was over 750 pages long and the book was over all too soon! Note that this book has two different titles: the UK version is The Sword and the Scimitar, the US version (see bottom of review) is entitled Ironfire: A Novel of the Knights of Malta and the Last Battle of the Crusades.

The characters in this book, spanning some 15+ years, are exquisitely drawn and emerge with a depth that is very rare, as they go through various changes due to their difficult circumstances. It bears some similarities to another good book, Byzantium, by Stephen Lawhead, which is set approximately 500 years earlier,

The setting is the mid-16th century and its several locales mainly in the Mediterranean Sea (though one character is from Paris): the island of Malta, the port of Algiers, and the Topkapi Palace of Suleiman the Magnificent in Constantinople. The context is the ascendency of the Ottoman Empire and its constant struggle with the former Christian Crusaders, specifically the Knights of the Order of St. John who are headquartered on Malta--the climax of the book takes place at the rather infamous Seige of Malta when the Ottomans attempt to oust the Knights of St. John. Muslim and Christian slave traders abound, Jews are hunted down and are often forced to convert to Christianity, as in a similar way Christians are taken into the service of Suleiman and slowly converted into Muslims. This story gives painful insights into what a cruel, cruel, harsh world it was at that time, and how far those who were called "Christians" and "Defenders of the Faith" had fallen.

The story is gripping and keeps the reader in suspension as to the outcome of the various conflicts in the characters' lives. Highly recommended.

The Sword and the Scimitar
David Ball
39 Used & New from £2.75
Edition: Paperback
Paperback 624 pages (August 5, 2004)
Publisher: Arrow
ISBN: 0099457954
Reviews
Synopsis
Nico and Maria, Maltese brother and sister, are separated when young Nico is abducted by Moorish slavers. Taken to Algiers to be the personal slave of a wealthy merchant, he becomes a pawn in household politics and sets out to escape. Extraordinary events lead him to the court of Suleiman the Magnificent, Sultan of the Ottomans. Maria, stranded in Malta with unsympathetic parents, makes her own plans to escape the island and find her brother. She joins a group of Jews - forced by their Christian rulers to renounce their faith - who continue their rituals clandestinely. French aristocrat Christien de Vries yearns to prove himself as a surgeon in the Order of St John, to which he was pledged as an infant but joined only as a result of a life-altering oath. These unforgettable characters find themselves caught up in the sweep of history as the Ottomans confront the Knights in the historic Siege of Malta, and the fate of Europe hangs in the balance.

About the Author
David Ball lives in the Rockies with his wife, Melinda, and children, Ben and Li. The Sword and the Scimitar is his second novel.

Customer Reviews
Pure Adventure, August 23, 2004
Reviewer: Mrs A Hood from Tranent, East Lothian United Kingdom
I absolutely adored this book and was very said when I had finished reading it as it had become my faithfull friend. The book is a real adventure story and spans three countries Algeria, France and Malta and features a set of characters from each country all of which become interlinked. Dont be put off by the physical size of the book its well worth persevering - I started reading it in hardback and went and bought a paperback version as it was easier to handle. The book has regular factual segments which reinforce the storyline and the individual characters of the book are all really well thought out. I would love to know if the author is planning a follow up to the book and if so I will be first in the queue to purchase it.

HERE'S THE U.S. VERSION INFO:
Ironfire : A Novel of the Knights of Malta and the Last Battle of the Crusades
by DAVID BALL "On the morning the slavers came, the children were looking for treasure..." (more)

62 used & new from $4.98
Edition: Hardcover
Editorial Reviews
From Booklist
Cultures clash and fates converge during the siege of Malta in 1565. Kidnapped by Algerian slavers as a young boy, Nico Borg holds out hope that the Order of the Knights of St. John, sworn to protect his native Malta from Muslim and Jewish infidels, will one day rescue him. When that does not happen, Nico becomes increasingly torn between his Christian roots and his Muslim lifestyle. After witnessing her brother's abduction, Maria Borg is more determined than ever to escape from a life of poverty and despair. Though pledged to the Knights of Saint John as an infant, Christien Luc de Vries longs to defy his father's wishes and ignore his distinguished pedigree as the son of a count. These three lives intersect as a furious battle is waged for Malta, a barren outpost prized for its strategic location as a crossroads between the East and the West. Ball brings the tail end of the Crusades to life in a substantial piece of historical fiction that sizzles with action, romance, and drama. Margaret Flanagan
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Product Details
• Hardcover: 688 pages
• Publisher: Delacorte Press (December 30, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0385336012
=============================
"If you're not standing on the Edge,
you're taking up too much room."
=============================

Book Review: The Hunt For Bin Laden

The Hunt For Bin Laden on amazon.com


Book Review: The Hunt For Bin Laden

Reader Rating: 8/10

Salaams! Getting behind on my book reviews!--I finished this one a couple weeks ago, while at the RLT Mtg. This book, by the author of the The Green Berets, Robin Moore, gives readers an inside view on the operations carried out by U.S. Special Forces following the 9/11 attacks. U.S. Special Forces--in the main Green Berets--were linking up on the ground in just over a month after 9/11 with Northern Alliance leaders ; a handful of "deep cover" CIA units who proceeded them. The book chronicles in good detail the missions and activities of a handful of 12-member A-Teams who linked up with various Northern Alliance leaders to quickly route the Taliban/Al-Qaeda forces who occupied 95% of Afghanistan. This was accomplished only by fighting an unconventional war--one in which the Green Berets were "responsible for wrapping up the first phase of the war in just six months."

How did they do it and how many ground forces did it take to accomplish this?
"Most people think it took 5.000 to 40,000 U.S. troops to free Kabul. They are vastly mistaken--fewer than 100 American soldiers were on the ground when Kabul fell. Not since Kublai Khan's Mandudai and the 300 Spartans had so few men fought so many. "

What was very interesting for me was to see the significant difference between the unconventional, specially-selected and trained (multi-skilled) Green Berets and the conventional forces that arrived later and bungled things big-time, for example, in Operation Ananconda (in the Tora Bora mountains). There is something to be said about using older, wiser, battle-proven and more experienced soldiers in small, committed teams that are empowered and released to do what they've been trained to do--and to get the job done!

There were times I was irritated with Moore's writing style, especially his copious use of special ops lingo, acronyms and slang. He really tries hard to come across as a "buddy-buddy' Green Beret, and seems overly enamored with his favorite subject (and the fact that he has known so much about them for so long!). Moore also flits back and forth at times, not following developments in a strictly chronological manner. There are also a few places where his lack of local, cultural understanding show through very obviously.

Overall, though, a pretty good read that I'd recommend.

The Hunt for Bin Laden
by ROBIN MOORE "just been inserted into northern Afghanistan, and the prey would be Osaka bin Laden and his terrorists. Once the twelve Green Berets touched down, Captain..." (more)
109 used & new from $1.38
Edition: Hardcover
Paperback
45 used & new from $0.83  

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
The first wave of U.S. Army Special Forces arrived in Afghanistan in mid-October, 2001; a few months later, they had routed the Taliban and taken control of the country. In fact, writes Robin Moore, "fewer than 100 American soldiers were on the ground when Kabul fell." The Hunt for Bin Laden is both a celebration of the Special Forces, "the most fearsome fighting unit the world has ever known," and a detailed account of how just a few hundred Green Berets, working alongside the Northern Alliance, were able to overcome nearly 100,000 entrenched al-Qaida and Taliban members and take control of Afghanistan in such a short time. Though Special Forces had participated in all of the small conflicts since World War II, the war in Afghanistan was the first time they were in charge of an entire operation. For these gung-ho soldiers, it was the moment they had been waiting for.

From the beginning, the operation was a blend of cutting-edge and 19th-century weaponry. The Northern Alliance soldiers, though brave and determined, were often outfitted with only rusted rifles and worn-out boots. In one particularly fascinating scene, Moore writes of the Northern Alliance cavalry leading a charge on horseback while American fighter jets roared overhead dropping laser-guided missiles with pinpoint accuracy on Taliban forces. The author of the military classic The Green Berets, Moore knows his subject intimately and his access to the troops on the ground is impressive. This makes the book incredibly detailed, but unquestionably subjective, so those interested in a political overview or an objective look at the policy behind the operation should look elsewhere. This is strictly a heroic portrayal of a military victory and the difficult search for Osama bin Laden, and at times Moore's writing sounds like copy out of Soldier of Fortune magazine. This bombast may not appeal to all readers, but his deep knowledge of Special Forces and his inside information makes this book a must read for those interested not only in this particular conflict but in how guerilla and unconventional warfare is executed. --Shawn Carkonen

Product Details
• Hardcover: 400 pages
• Publisher: Random House; 1st edition (March 4, 2003)
• ISBN: 0375508619
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.4 x 1.3 inches
=============================
"If you're not standing on the Edge,
you're taking up too much room."
=============================

Book Review: In Honour Bound

In Honour Bound on amazon.com

Book Review: In Honour Bound

Reader Rating: 6/10

Salaams! This "historical" novel, In Honour Bound, was a just-alright read. It falls into the category of one of those rather improbable espionage novels that might be slightly cloaked in historicity, but is mostly a dagger-daring flight into fantasy (you know, like those novels by writers like Robert Ludlum and Tom Clancy). This novel follows a British SAS captain who goes into Afghanistan with a stockpile of Redeye shoulder-fired missiles. His orders are to shoot down one of the dreaded Soviet Mi-24 gunships and return with its avionics/electronics for careful study. The captain goes in with very little Mujahideen support and locks horns with one of the local commanders over goals and tactics, which will negatively affect the inhabitants of the valley he oversees.

Not a bad read for pure entertainment, but lacking for any true helpful window into the situation in Afghanistan in the 1980's during the Soviet occupation.

In honour bound
by Gerald Seymour
Product Details
• Unknown Binding: 350 pages
• Publisher: Collins (1984)
• ISBN: 0002227649
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
One of Seymour's Best, December 16, 2001
Reviewer: A reader
A thoroughly enjoyable and intriguing read. With the current situation in Afghanistan, it also provides helpful insights regarding that country. Clearly one of Seymour's best books, and I have enjoyed all nine or ten of his books that I have read. I intend to finish the list, and I hope he keeps on writing.

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"If you're not standing on the Edge,
you're taking up too much room."
=============================

Book Review: The Fateful Pebble: Afghanistan’s Role In The Fall Of The Soviet Empire

Reader Rating: 7.5/10

The Fateful Pebble: Afghanistan’s Role In The Fall Of The Soviet Empire on amazon.com
OR check at
Abebooks.com


Book Review: The Fateful Pebble: Afghanistan’s Role In The Fall Of The Soviet Empire

Reader Rating: 7.5/10

Salaams! Getting behind on my book reviews here, as while I was sick with the flu bug recently I managed to work through a couple good books. The Fateful Pebble: Afghanistan’s Role In The Fall Of The Soviet Empire was written by Anthony Arnold and published in 1993. Arnold spent 2 years (1974 - 1976) working at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, monitoring Afghan-Soviet relations. He is VERY knowledgeable about both and has a real depth of understanding concerning the former Soviet Union's inner workings.

The book details the development of the Afghan Communist Party (PDPA = People's Democratic Party of Afg) and the various evolutions it went through after its initial establishment (Jan 1, 1965). This includes the significant differences between the two PDPA factions which emerged very early on, in fact predating the 1965 PDPA formation: the Parchamis ("Banner/Flag"), mainly urban, upper crust intellectuals wanting to move slower and to cloak their Marxist-Leninist ideology in a "democratic/progressive" cloak, and the Khalqis ("People/Masses"), mainly of rural descent, but brought up in urban boarding schools, who believed that only a militant, openly Marxist-Leninist group could bring about the radical changes needed in Afghan society.

Arnold's major concentration is on the internal factors at play in the Soviet Union's government over the period of their invasion and occupation of Afghanistan--leading to the fall Soviet Union in 1992. The three critical and intertwined pillars of support needed for the survival of the Soviet Union had proven ineffectual and weak: 1) the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (political), 2) the conventional military, and 3) the secret and all-knowing KGB. Arnold shows how each of these Soviet pillars was given a period of time during the Afghan invasion to bring about a solution, and how each one failed. He argues that this had a great effect on the Soviet Union's ability to continue to exist, an effect that went far beyond the events unfolding in Afghanistan. People in the Soviet Union finally began to see the truth behind the lies of their leaders, and to see their inability to stem the tide of change that swept them out the door and into the dustbin of history, following the aborted coup of Gorbachev in 1991.

The quote that the author prefaces the book with sums it up so well: "A dead tired man may stumble over a pebble and fall; but his weariness, rather than the pebble, is the cause." --George Stewart, Storm

------------------------
Fateful Pebble: Afghanistan's Role in the Fall of the Soviet Empire
by Anthony Arnold (Author), Jr. Theodore L. Eliot (Foreword)
Editorial Reviews
Product Description:
A comprehensive analysis of the effects of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan & the ensuing war for Afghan independence on the Soviet Russian imperial system. The Soviet defeat in the Afghan war was one of the key factors in causing the disintegration of the Soviet Union, which was already beset with a myriad of economic, social & political problems. Provides unique perceptions of Russian & Afghan psychology, & a historical view of how military defeat had led to earlier Russian domestic upheavals. Describes how the Communist Party, the Soviet mil. establishment & the KGB had successfully defended Moscow's empire in the past

Product Details
Hardcover
Publisher: Diane Pub.    (1993)
ISBN: 0788158368
=============================
"If you're not standing on the Edge,
you're taking up too much room."
=============================

Book Review: Buzkashi: Game and Power in Afghanistan (2nd Edition)

Buzkashi: Game and Power in Afghanistan (2nd Edition) on amazon.com


Book Review: Buzkashi: Game and Power in Afghanistan (2nd Edition)

Reader Rating: 9/10

Salaams! This book by G. Whitney Azoy, Buzkashi: Game and Power in Afghanistan (2nd Edition), was an excellent read; not an easy read, but a very insightful and illuminating one. Azoy is an anthropologist who first served a 2-year stint at the US Embassy in Kabul back in the early 1970s, when developed a deep interest in buzkashi. Actually, his interest in buzkashi was first piqued before he ever got to Afghanistan: it was during his 6-month Dari language program in the US when their Afghan teacher took them to see a new film called "The Horsemen," starring Omar Sharif. By the end of the movie, Azoy had determined that "there's the Afghanistan I'd like to know."

Azoy's anthropological perspective on the game of buzkashi--and its various associated levels of power/control display--are fascinating for the insights they give into the culture as a microcosm--as buzkashi is such a quintessentially Afghan activity (and so much more than "just a game"). He examines both the various technical aspects of the game--"for fun"--as well as all the associated and extended components of the game and its multiple implications on a person's place and name in wider society ("for real"). He dissects what he sees as the four different orders, or dimensions, that are intricately connected and built one upon the other, exploring the way they extend beyond the actual "for fun" part of the game into real life (both local and national). Buzkashi is very much a metaphor for insights into a wide range of cultural patterns; it is a prism that magnifies so much of what is going on behind what is going on across Afghan life.

Two key statements, made by Afghan acquaintances at very different times, helped frame Azoy's explorations:
1. "If you want to know what we're really like, go to a buzkashi game" (1972)
This is one of the early comments the author heard in response to his expressed desire to really get to know Afghans beyond the polite surface-level, sophisticated, urbane level of interaction. As he says, this suggestion "might better have been prefaced, 'If you want to know what we're really like sometimes but almost never admit to openly.' Here is the second dimension of social significance to buzkashi: it acts as a metaphor for the particular sort of unbridled competition--chaotic, uninhibited, and uncontrollable--that lurks below the apparently cooperative surface."
2. "Now the real buzkashi has begun" (1978)
This later comment, following the April 1978 Saur Revolution that brought the Afghan Communist Party (the PDPA) into power by deposing the King's uncle, Daoud, helped Azoy see the much wider applications of buzkashi as metaphor for power and control in the Afghan pysche. Here, finally, "with the coup of April 1978, the largest buzkashi of all began: handshakes became clenched fists, and Their Excellencies were executed...At a buzkashi no one knows who will score next or fall flat. Indeed, the problematic quality of this particular game can extend well beyond the calf carcass struggle and into politics."

Azoy's treatment of the game of buzkashi is a great example of someone asking and investigating, at a deep level, "What's really going on behind what's going on." So often, what appears to be "going on" at a surface level is not the full picture of what is really going on behind the symbolic imagery of the surface happenings.

Buzkashi: Game and Power in Afghanistan (2nd Edition)
by G. Whitney Azoy
Editorial Reviews
Product Description:
Much has happened since this book first appeared, almost all of it horrific for Afghanistan. The past quarter century devastated this country more than any other on earth. No country in all history has proven more resilient. No people alive today are more worthy of admiration, respect, and support. Now available from Waveland Press as an updated Second Edition, Buzkashi: Game and Power in Afghanistan is not only the first full-scale anthropological examination of a single sport, but also a beautifully written case study about a place and a people that have been largely ignored in the social science literature. Buzkashi, perhaps the wildest game in the world and a vivid feature of Afghan life, entails the aggressive struggle of hundreds of horsemen over a mutilated calf carcass. Shortly after the first appearance of Azoy's book, the world press came to use the actual play of buzkashi in print as a metaphor for Afghan politics. Azoy's incisive analysis of Afghan political dynamics demonstrates how play and politics, ordinarily perceived as separate activities, can interpenetrate one another. Sadly but truly, buzkashi continues to prove itself to be an apt metaphor for ongoing Afghan political control and chaos. The Waveland edition includes two new chapters: "For Real (1978 2002)," which describes buzkashi as played over the past twenty years in new places by new people, and a chapter serving as a personal tribute to the author's friend and field informant.

Product Details
Paperback: 176 pages
Publisher: Waveland Press; 2nd edition    (July, 2002)
ISBN: 1577662385

=============================
"If you're not standing on the Edge,
you're taking up too much room."
=============================

Book Review: Holy War, Unholy Victory: Eyewitness to the Cia's Secret War in Afghanistan

Holy War, Unholy Victory: Eyewitness to the Cia's Secret War in Afghanistan on amazon.com


Book Review: Holy War, Unholy Victory: Eyewitness to the Cia's Secret War in Afghanistan

Reader Rating: 7.5/10

Salaams! I'm dusting off some old books from my shelves on Afghanistan these days in efforts to get caught up on all that transpired over the past 30 years of my absence from the area. Lots to learn and read up on! Somewhat connected to Charlie Wilson's War, this book, Holy War, Unholy Victory: Eyewitness to the CIA's Secret War in Afghanistan, is written by Kurt Lohbeck, a news stringer for various media groups who covered the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan before he was hired full-time by CBS News to be their Afghanistan war correspondent. He was one of the few western correspondents who actually lived in Peshawar, rather than traveling in and out of there to do stories.

Lohbeck's book is a personal journey of his various trips and encounters with various Afghan Mujahideen fighters, rather than a comprehensive overlook at the efforts and strategies behind arming them against the Soviets. I think the book's title/sub-title is somewhat misleading. I guess that explains why Lohbeck is himself in just about every picture in the book! There's not much in specific about the actual workings of the CIA on behalf of the Mujahideen. Most of Lohbeck's experiences with the Mujahideen come through the filter of one of the Mujahideen leaders (and his exploits)--Abdul Haq, who was the leader of the "Kabul Front" and was an incredibly brilliant young military strategist and risk-taker. He was killed in late 2001 by the Taliban on one of his trips into E Afghanistan to stir up resistance as the US forces worked with the Northern Alliance to oust Taliban & Al-Qaeda forces.

Lohbeck quickly fell in love with the Afghan's strong sense of mission and willingness to give up everything in order to rid their country of the invading infidels. As Addul Haq said to him and others more than once: "We are not fighting just for Afghanistan or for the region; we are fighting for the whole world. If they want to help, they are just helping themselves. If they don't, we will still fight...You see, everybody has lost a mother or father, a sister, brother, uncles, children. We will fight until only one Afghan is left. Then they could just have a desert."

Traveling on some dangerous missions with the Mujahideen, Lohbeck was privy to some of the biggest news scoops of the little-covered Soviet invasion of Afghanistan: he filmed the first evidence of the Soviet's use of chemical weapons against the Afghans, as well as their use of napalm. He was a close enough eyewitness that he suffered the misfortunes of being wounded twice, once seriously enough--by his proximity to an exploding tank shell--that he had to have both his eardrums replaced.

Holy War, Unholy Victory: Eyewitness to the Cia's Secret War in Afghanistan
by Kurt Lohbeck
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Edition: Hardcover

Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Lohbeck, under contract to CBS, was the only American journalist to cover the war in Afghanistan on a full-time basis. Surviving on tea and turnips for long periods, he lived with the mujahaddin ("holy warriors"), enduring earthquakes, sickness, napalm burns and shrapnel wounds to record on videotape their way of life as they battled the Soviet invader. Lohbeck conveys his admiration for the muj and their cause, the emotional shock of battle (and its perverse appeal), and describes his risk-taking adventures as he sought the "great shot." He was the first journalist to obtain filmed proof that the Soviets used chemical gas and napalm in Afghanistan. His comments on the Central Intelligence Agency's wrongheaded attempts to "run the war" from Pakistan are too general to have impact; more interesting is his account of how CIA director William Casey heeded his recommendation to equip the muj with Stinger anti-aircraft missiles. Subsequent introduction of that weapon became an important turning point in the war. The free world, and former Iron Curtain countries, owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to the mujahaddin , stresses Lohbeck, who argues that their successful resistance was the beginning of the end of the Soviet Union. Photos.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details
Hardcover: 306 pages
Publisher: Regnery Publishing    (November 1, 1993)
ISBN: 0895264994
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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: Charlie Wilson's War: The Extraordinary Story of the Largest Covert Operation in History

Charlie Wilson's War: The Extraordinary Story of the Largest Covert Operation in History on amazon.com


Book Review: Charlie Wilson's War: The Extraordinary Story of the Largest Covert Operation in History

Reader Rating: 9/10

Salaams! Just finished reading Charlie Wilson's War, an incredible trek behind the scenes of the "largest covert operation in history" which involved US operations to arm and train the rag-tag, multi-UPG Afghan mujahideen freedom fighters as they fought off the vicious invasion in 1979 of one of the world's superpowers--the Soviet Union. This book, first published in 2003 by veteran "60 Minutes" producer George Crile, finally details the amazing story of America's "secret" and proxy war against the USSR that took place in the backwater mountain valleys of Afghanistan. As has been said by someone somewhere else, the bleeding and defeat of the mighty Soviet 40th Army in Afghanistan--between 1979 - 1989 (last troops over the Friendship Bridge in Termez, Uzbekistan in Feb 1989)--was the "fateful pebble" that precipitated the downfall of the Soviet Union and its dream of communist world domination.

This book focuses on some very unlikely characters responsible for building from scratch the "largest covert operation in history"--people most Americans have NEVER heard of to this day. Charlie Wilson, the US Congressman from Texas; Gust Avrakotos, the blue collar CIA agent of Greek heritage from Pennsylvania; Joanne Herring, the daring millionaire (& born again Christian?) socialite from Texas; Mike Vickers, a young, low-level CIA military strategist; and a host of other no names (including Avrakotos' "Dirty Dozen") who worked behind the scenes with a tenacity and ferocity unknown since the days of Churchill's rousing challenges to the people of the United Kingdom as they were "hung out to dry" in the face of Hitler's overpowering blitzkrieg advance and overwhelming odds of certain defeat.

This is a complex tale of surprising and unsuspecting accomplices brought together in surprising and unconventional ways. In the face of multiple, constant barriers, and against all odds, these unknown and unrecognized people worked together to (finally) provide the Afghan mujahideen ("holy warriors" & "freedom fighters") with weapons and training that allowed them to take the offensive against a menacing enemy. Crile engagingly unfolds the drama of how an initially reluctant US and Pakistani covert operation went from supplying the Afghan mujahideen with World War II Enflield rifles (with a outrageously low budget of some US$30 million) to providing them with a deadly mix of effective weaponry--along with enough ammunition and radios and other necessary equipment for waging war. This culminated in the delivery of the Stinger missiles which allowed the Afghans to nullify the Soviet's air superiority (with the Mi-24 "Hind" gun-ship and its US$20 million MiGs). With the help of matching Saudi funds, the budget of these covert operations at times exceeded US$1 billion a year (taking up to 70% of the worldwide Operations Budget for the entire CA)! After the US$70,000 Stingers were introduced in 1987, the Afghans, in a little more than a year, were shooting down close to 200 of these Mi-24s/MiGs a year!

"This book is the story of the biggest and most successful CIA campaign in history. It's the story of how the United States turned the tables on the Soviet Union and did to them in Afghanistan what they had done to the U.S. in Vietnam. The operation certainly contributed to the collapse of the Soviet Union, how critical a role it played is still being debated. But without doubt the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the Red Army's defeat at the hands of the CIA-backed Afghan rebels was a world-changing event. And what makes it all the more unusual is that at the heart of this drama is the story of two men, Charlie Wilson and Gust Avrakotos, and what they did in the shadows of the U.S. undergovernment...The CIA's war in Afghanistan is, of course, a huge historical event featuring many players in prominent roles. But responsibility for transforming the American side of it into what became the biggest CIA operation ever belongs to these two highly flawed and perhaps heroic characters...[N]o one ever gave them this commission. They seized it and this is the story of how they did it."

In the book's "Epilogue," with a post-9/11 perspective, Crile takes a realistic look at some of the outcomes of these covert operations. Probably the biggest contributing factor to the problems arising from the defeat of the Soviets in Afghanistan was that the US simply allowed a focus on Afghanistan to fade away in the face of other global concerns (fall of communism in Poland, falling of the Berlin Wall and communism in E Germany, and the fall of the Soviet Union itself). This has come back, in some ways, to sting us badly, once people like Osama bin-Laden and the Taliban hijacked the mujahideen cause and turned Afghanistan into a training camp for global terrorism.

Think about it: who to this day has still ever heard of Charlie Wilson or Gust Avrakotos? They never received any medals of honor or public accolades, they just did what they felt was necessary--by whatever means, and on a "need-to-know basis." I think there are some strategic lessons for our kind of work in the story of these unknown, unrecognized-at-large, behind-the-scenes, players in a drama that turned out to have global-reaching effects. In some ways, their story reads like a very colorful SC Training Manual!

"But the unorthodox alliance--of a scandal-prone Texas congressman and an out-of-favor CIA operative--that gave birth to the Afghan jihad kept this history under the radar. It is the missing chapter in the politics of our time, a rousing good story that is also a cautionary tale."

A thoroughly enjoyable read!

US Congressman Wilson rides the white steed to Victory with his heavily armed Afghan holy warriors

CIA agent Gus Avrakotos and US Congressman Wilson on an arms purchasing trip (probably in Egypt)

Note: Charlie Wilson's War, the New York Times bestseller, has been purchased by Tom Hanks to make into a movie. Hanks intends to play the Texas Congressman himself. For more information, go to:
http://movies.go.com/movies/C/charliewilsonswar_2004/index.html or
http://www.filmstew.com/Content/DailyNews/Details.asp?ContentID=6341&Pg=1

Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Put the Tom Clancy clones back on the shelf; this covert-ops chronicle is practically impossible to put down. No thriller writer would dare invent Wilson, a six-feet-four-inch Texas congressman,liberal on social issues but rabidly anti-Communist, a boozer, engaged in serial affairs and wheeler-dealer of consummate skill. Only slightly less improbable is Gust Avrakotos, a blue-collar Greek immigrant who joined the CIA when it was an Ivy League preserve and fought his elitist colleagues almost as ruthlessly as he fought the Soviet Union in the Cold War's waning years. In conjunction with President Zia of Pakistan in the 1980s, Wilson and Arvakotos circumvented most of the barriers to arming the Afghan mujahideen-distance, money, law and internal CIA politics, to name a few. Their coups included getting Israeli-modified Chinese weapons smuggled into Afghanistan, with the Pakistanis turning a blind eye,and the cultivation of a genius-level weapons designer and strategist named Michael Vickers, a key architect of the guerrilla campaign that left the Soviet army stymied. The ultimate weapon in Afghanistan was the portable Stinger anti-aircraft missile, which eliminated the Soviet's Mi-24 helicopter gunships and began the train of events leading to the collapse of the U.S.S.R. and its satellites. A triumph of ruthless ability over scruples, this story has dominated recent history in the form of blowback: many of the men armed by the CIA became the Taliban's murderous enforcers and Osama bin Laden's protectors. Yet superb writing from Crile, a 60 Minutes producer, will keep even the most vigorous critics of this Contra-like affair reading to the end.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details
• Hardcover: 550 pages
• Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press (April, 2003)
• ISBN: 0871138549
• Average Customer Review: based on 85 reviews. (Write a review)

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"If you're not standing on the Edge,
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=============================

Book Review: The Swallows of Kabul

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Book Review: The Swallows of Kabul

Reader Rating: 8.5/10

Salaams! Just finished up a short novel called The Swallows of Kabul, originally published in French by an Algerian writer (he published under the name "Yasmina Khadra" while still in the military to avoid censors). The novel's setting is the hyper-fundamentalist Taliban regime, where public executions were commonplace. The story follows the intertwined lives of an older prison guard and his sickly wife, and a younger, university-educated, middle-class couple. Both of the couples, in different ways, struggle with the daily effects of the repressive Taliban regime, questioning their sanity and desire to go on living. It all comes to a very tragic end after the younger man's wife ends up under the watch care of the older man in the prison he is responsible for guarding. This story is not a happy one and leaves the reader with a classic Central Asian tragic ending which serves to accentuate the despair and plight of its characters.

The author's writing style (and the translation) is notable, at times feeling more like poetry than prose. His sentences are densely packed with powerful and evocative imagery, painting pictures that leave a lasting impression on the mind. Notice the various techniques of metaphor, alliteration, and carefully chosen (loaded) words used in this early passage of the book which I feel needs to be quoted in length:

"In the middle of nowhere, a whirlwind spins like a sorceress flinging out her skirts in a macabre dance; yet not even this hysteria serves to blow the dust off the calcified palm trees thrust against the sky like beseeching arms....The Afghan countryside is nothing but battlefields, expanses of sand, and cemeteries. Artillery exchanges shatter prayers, wolves howl at the moon every night, and the wind, when it breathes, mingles beggars' laments with the croaking of crows. Everything appears charred, fossilized, blasted by some unspeakable spell. Erosion grinds away with complete impunity, scratching, rasping, peeling, cobbling the necrotic soil, erecting monuments to its own calm power. Then, without warning, at the foot of mountains singed bare by the breath of raging battles, rises Kabul, or rather, what's left of it: a city in an advanced stage of decomposition."

As wonderful as the writing in the book is, I felt at times that there was a lack of authenticity in some of its descriptions of the setting. I was left with the feeling that the writer has never actually been to Kabul or Afghanistan, and that he simply cloaked his North African experience with a Taliban setting. Even in the passage quoted above, which I feel is very evocative of Afghanistan in general, the author mentions "palm trees," as though they are to be found everywhere across the country (as they are in most of the Middle East). There were also other Arabic word choices that indicated the writer based his setting on a middle eastern foundation ("coffee houses," chilam smoking, "La hawla," and even the names of many of the characters).

Nonetheless, the book is worth reading and is very powerful in its imagery depicting the conflicts and hopelessness and despair that descended on people as a result of the Taliban's extremist policies.

The Swallows of Kabul : A Novel
by YASMINA KHADRA

Product Details
• Hardcover: 208 pages
• Publisher: Nan A. Talese; 1st Us edition (February 17, 2004)
• ISBN: 0385510012
• Average Customer Review: based on 18 reviews. (Write a review)
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Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Khadra is the nom de plume for Algerian army officer Mohamed Moulessehoul (In the Name of God; Wolf Dreams), who illustrates the effects of repression on a pair of Kabul couples in this slim, harrowing novel of life in Afghanistan under Taliban rule. Gloomy prison guard Atiq Shaukat is tired of his grim duties, keeping watch over prisoners slated for public execution. Life at home, where his wife, Musarrat, is slowly dying of a chronic illness, is no better. Mohsen Ramat, meanwhile, clings to the remains of his middle-class life together with his beautiful, progressive wife, Zunaira, after the Taliban strip them of their livelihood and dignity. Khadra's storytelling style recalls that of Naguib Mahfouz in the early chapters, in which the tense dissatisfaction of both couples is revealed. The pivotal event occurs when Ramat discharges his frustrations by participating in the brutal stoning of a female Taliban prisoner. The incident changes the dynamic of his marriage; after an extended argument about the incident, Ramat persuades Zunaira to go for a stroll in downtown Kabul and the couple is harassed and nearly brutalized by Taliban soldiers. Zunaira continues to bridle at her situation, and when their next argument turns physical, Ramat falls and dies after hitting his head on the wall. Shaukat is given the assignment of guarding Zunaira after she is arrested and charged with murder, and his instant infatuation with her sets off a remarkable chain of events. Khadra's simple, elegant prose, finely drawn characters and chilling insights ("Kabul has become the antechamber to the great beyond") prepare the way for the terrible climax. Like Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner, this is a superb meditation on the fate of the Afghan people.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.The New York Time

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"If you're not standing on the Edge,
you're taking up too much room."
=============================

Book Review: The Heartbreaker

The Heartbreaker at amazon.com


Book Review: The Heartbreaker

Salaams! Just finished up another Howatch book called The Heartbreaker. As usual, Howatch weaves a masterful tale, incorporating spiritual truths into the whole story in a very interesting and relevant way. Her characterizations are always so impeccably done; the psychological insights into the main characters are fascinating.

This book is NOT for everyone, though, as its subject matter and one of its main characters are not a pretty picture. But, WHO did Jesus say he came for? The healthy don't need a physician--it's the sick! And there is a physician at work on the sick main character in this book.

Better to start out reading one of her other 6 novels in the Church of England series, of which this book is the third in a separate, but connected, series of novels.

Reader Rating: 8.5/10

Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
The heartbreaker of the title is a stylish and gorgeous young man by the name of Gavin Blake—a newcomer to Howatch's popular Church of England series. Set in 1992, two years after the conclusion of the last entry in the series (The High Flyer), this latest details Gavin's life as a high-class prostitute in London and his involvement with characters who will be familiar to readers of the series: Carta Graham, a well-heeled former lawyer; Nicholas Darrow, the charismatic rector of St. Benet's church; and the mysterious Elizabeth, Gavin's pimp-mistress with a shady past in the occult and New Age healing. Carta and Gavin meet when a friend of Carta's suddenly dies—and she discovers that he was a secret homosexual and one of Gavin's clients. As the story unfolds in parallel first-person narratives, the cocksure Gavin is shown in an increasing state of unraveling as his life is revealed to be less than the hip, bed-hopping blast he portrays it to be. Meanwhile, Carta—who fends off innuendoes from Gavin, despite her strong physical attraction to him—works as a fund-raiser for St. Benet's, where Darrow has played a crucial role in her psychic crash and spiritual recovery. As Gavin spirals into a breakdown, Carta finds herself increasingly connected to him—and to a dangerous underworld of sex and violence with links to her own past. As usual, plot improbabilities and long sections of spiritual musing are redeemed by Howatch's strongly drawn characters: if Carta can come across as brittle and prudish, Gavin's self-absorbed cant is continually entertaining, and supporting characters—such as the smoothly evil Asherton and tetchy but big-hearted ex-prostitute Susanne—round out the cast. Some readers may drop out during the final hundred pages (wherein Gavin recovers and finds the spiritual light), but this final book in the trilogy should satisfy fans who have been eagerly awaiting it.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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"If you're not standing on the Edge,
you're taking up too much room."
=============================

Book Review: Lying Awake

Lying Awake at amazon.com

Book Review: Lying Awake

Reader Rating: 7/10

Salaams! Just finished up a slim volume called Lying Awake, by Mark Salzman. Salzman is the author of another wonderful book called Iron and Silk, about his experiences in China in the 1980s teaching ESL and studying Wushu (traditional Chinese martial arts). He has also written an interesting modern "Chinese Fairy Tale" book called The Laughing Sutra (I thoroughly enjoyed this book!).

Lying Awake chronicles four months in the life of a cloistered nun living in a modern-day Los Angeles Carmelite monastery. Sister John of the Cross (yes, nuns even take male saints names!) has been earnestly seeking to know God better for many, many years, but has often felt spiritually dry, alone, and out of touch with God. In contrast, the last three years she has been having ecstatic visions and bouts of incredible spiritual clarity, all of which has overflowed through her pen into well-received volumes of poetry. But, these bright insights into God's glory and radiance have also brought blinding headaches and fainting spells that seem to be increasingly dangerous.

The central conflict for Sister John is whether or not she is willing to "give up" these wonderful spiritual experiences by undergoing medical treatment (and a "cure") which could possibly mean her experiences had been not genuine. This crisis of belief and faith (not unlike what Blackaby describes in his "Experiencing God" cycle), and its eventual outcome, are at the core of this well-written book's theme and underlying motifs.

Right at the crux of this crisis is the comment made by the monastery's priest to Sister John: "You allowed yourself to think that loving God meant enjoying His company, having ecstasies. It was all about you., wasn't it? But loving God is supposed to be all about Him."

Lying Awake
by MARK SALZMAN "Sister John of the Cross pushed her blanket aside, dropped to her knees on the floor of her cell, and offered the day to God..." (more)

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Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
In his third novel, Lying Awake, Mark Salzman breaks the primary rule of fiction by creating a protagonist who has virtually no external life. Sister John of the Cross, a middle-aged nun cloistered in a Carmelite monastery in contemporary Los Angeles, languished for years in a spiritual drought--"her prayers empty and her soul dry"--until she suddenly received God's grace in the form of intense mystical visions. So vivid have her visions become that they burn a kind of afterglow into her mind that she transcribes into crystalline (and highly popular) verse. The only downside is that they are accompanied by excruciating headaches that cause her to black out.

The story hinges on Sister John's discovery that her visions are in fact the result of mild epileptic seizures. As she learns from her neurologist, temporal-lobe epilepsy commonly brings about "hypergraphia (voluminous writing), an intensification but also a narrowing of emotional response, and an obsessive interest in religion and philosophy." Dostoyevsky, the classic victim of this condition, wrote of his raptures: "There are moments, and it is only a matter of five or six seconds, when you feel the presence of eternal harmony.... If this state were to last more than five seconds, the soul could not endure it and would have to disappear." An exact description of Sister John's visions. The question she now faces is whether to go ahead with surgery--and risk obliterating both her spiritual life and her art--or cling to a state of grace that may actually be a delusion ignited by an electrochemical imbalance.

Using a very limited palette, Mark Salzman creates an austere masterpiece. The real miracle of Lying Awake is that it works perfectly on every level: on the realistic surface, it captures the petty squabbles and tiny bursts of radiance of life in a Los Angeles monastery; deeper down it probes the nature of spiritual illumination and the meaning and purpose of prayer in everyday life; and, at bottom, there lurks a profound meditation on the mystery of artistic inspiration. Salzman made a highly auspicious debut in 1986 with Iron and Silk, a memoir of his years in China, and since then he has dramatically changed key in every book--most recently from the absurdist American suburban chronicle of Lost in Place to the artistic-crisis-cum-courtroom-drama novel The Soloist. Lying Awake is quieter and more sober than Salzman's previous narratives, but it is also more accomplished, more thought-provoking, and more highly crafted. --David Laskin--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Details
• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Vintage (October, 2001)
• ISBN: 0375706062
• Average Customer Review: based on 90 reviews. (Write a review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank in Books: #7,589

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"If you're not standing on the Edge,
you're taking up too much room."
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