prendrelemick
04-29-2010, 05:04 PM
THE BOOKSELLER OF KABUL. By Asne Seierstad
OK, you've read The Kite runner, you've read A Thousand Splendid Suns. Next along, on the everyday life in Kabul bandwagon, is The Bookseller of Kabul. By Asne Seierstad.
Of the three books I liked this one the best. In the first place it is not a fiction – not entirely- Seierstad lived with the bookseller and his family for four months. She tells the stories of the individuals, their experiences their hopes their frustrations, their plans for the future.
Secondly it attempts to offer some sort of balance. This is no small thing in a book written by a western journalist (female) who has experienced first hand the oppressive regimen imposed on the women of the household.
Sultan, the bookseller of the title, embodies the difficulty westeners have in coming to terms with this society. Outwardly he is educated, successful and principled. A heroic figure who has defied the Russians, the Mujahedeen and the Taliban to preserve the written cultural history of his country. At home he is a selfish tyrant, who's rule is absolute. The one side of him is not any truer than the other, what we see as an almost unresolvable contradiction, is a normal aspect of Afghan life.
The book is written in the Present Tense in extremely plain prose, adjectives are few and far between, it is the language of a factual documentry. Perhaps a bit more waxing lyrical would have been in order.
I shall give it a seven and a half out of ten.
OK, you've read The Kite runner, you've read A Thousand Splendid Suns. Next along, on the everyday life in Kabul bandwagon, is The Bookseller of Kabul. By Asne Seierstad.
Of the three books I liked this one the best. In the first place it is not a fiction – not entirely- Seierstad lived with the bookseller and his family for four months. She tells the stories of the individuals, their experiences their hopes their frustrations, their plans for the future.
Secondly it attempts to offer some sort of balance. This is no small thing in a book written by a western journalist (female) who has experienced first hand the oppressive regimen imposed on the women of the household.
Sultan, the bookseller of the title, embodies the difficulty westeners have in coming to terms with this society. Outwardly he is educated, successful and principled. A heroic figure who has defied the Russians, the Mujahedeen and the Taliban to preserve the written cultural history of his country. At home he is a selfish tyrant, who's rule is absolute. The one side of him is not any truer than the other, what we see as an almost unresolvable contradiction, is a normal aspect of Afghan life.
The book is written in the Present Tense in extremely plain prose, adjectives are few and far between, it is the language of a factual documentry. Perhaps a bit more waxing lyrical would have been in order.
I shall give it a seven and a half out of ten.