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3.55 AVERAGE
3.55 AVERAGE
Super fascinating read. I love the Middle East and accounts like this of domestic life and culture as experienced by a typical family really adds color to my own experiences there. (I need more experiences there!)
Really was getting annoyed with the treatment of women as portrayed here. I know it’s complex and this is just one perspective. But I think this is be a common experience in many countries, not just in the Gulf. Again, it’s complex! This is my first book about Kabul and Afghanistan so I need to read other accounts and compare against more current experiences. Regardless, it makes me grateful for my upbringing, opportunities and freedom of control over my life.
Definitely recommend!
Really was getting annoyed with the treatment of women as portrayed here. I know it’s complex and this is just one perspective. But I think this is be a common experience in many countries, not just in the Gulf. Again, it’s complex! This is my first book about Kabul and Afghanistan so I need to read other accounts and compare against more current experiences. Regardless, it makes me grateful for my upbringing, opportunities and freedom of control over my life.
Definitely recommend!
informative
sad
medium-paced
The Bookseller of Kabul is a detailed, journalistic portrayal of an Afghan bookseller and his family enduring various occupations and afflictions of their nation. Having read this, I am sympathetic to the women of Afghanistan, of how they are robbed of rights, choices, and dreams which still persist today. I have always been curious and wanted to read about Afghanistan and I'm very pleased I bought this at a used bookstore because it gave me the information I needed to augment my understanding of Afghanistan's culture, the wars, and its people.
dark
informative
sad
tense
slow-paced
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
reflective
tense
medium-paced
emotional
informative
sad
medium-paced
I can't think of any superlatives or a kind Introduction about this book, because…. The Bookseller of Kabul is very black and white. I felt this books is misleading about Muslims from the little knowledge I have about the religion and the faith towards Islam, almost hate inducing.
One of the reasons it didn’t work for me might be because of the vivid descriptions of violence on women, but I’ve read similar books… to handle the same factor of this book.
There is a sequence where a teenage girl is spotted meeting a teenage boy at a park and is beaten by her brothers and father, eventually forcing her into a marriage. And there is another woman who commits similar ‘crime’ and is suffocated to death.
Sultan, The bookseller in the title, describes himself as a man of literature and liberal, treats his wife as a sex object, when she gets old he gets himself a teenage wife. You sense any pedophilia with domestic violence there?
There are also plenty of other interesting stories giving an insight into how life in Afghanistan at that time was (Taliban/Al-khaida attacks), and the names given to each chapter manages to tickle that curiosity bone, sadly only that it lasts for a minute or two before you turn the page. And this is me trying to tell a thing or two that felt good to me about this book, well unlike this book, I’m not someone who sees something in black and white.
The Bookseller of Kabul is a subjective interpretation of events rather than a fact based report, which I think will be a drawback in a nonfiction. Correct me if I’m wrong, nonfiction books are to show things as they are, without or very less of creative liberation of the author which is clearly missing in this book. It felt more of a fiction.
One of the reasons it didn’t work for me might be because of the vivid descriptions of violence on women, but I’ve read similar books… to handle the same factor of this book.
There is a sequence where a teenage girl is spotted meeting a teenage boy at a park and is beaten by her brothers and father, eventually forcing her into a marriage. And there is another woman who commits similar ‘crime’ and is suffocated to death.
Sultan, The bookseller in the title, describes himself as a man of literature and liberal, treats his wife as a sex object, when she gets old he gets himself a teenage wife. You sense any pedophilia with domestic violence there?
There are also plenty of other interesting stories giving an insight into how life in Afghanistan at that time was (Taliban/Al-khaida attacks), and the names given to each chapter manages to tickle that curiosity bone, sadly only that it lasts for a minute or two before you turn the page. And this is me trying to tell a thing or two that felt good to me about this book, well unlike this book, I’m not someone who sees something in black and white.
The Bookseller of Kabul is a subjective interpretation of events rather than a fact based report, which I think will be a drawback in a nonfiction. Correct me if I’m wrong, nonfiction books are to show things as they are, without or very less of creative liberation of the author which is clearly missing in this book. It felt more of a fiction.
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced