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3.55 AVERAGE
3.55 AVERAGE
I had such a hard time with this book. It just sat on my night stand, and the content seemed so dreary and hard that it was a chore to pick it up each time. I realize that is quite a privileged perspective, being so troubled to read something about what others are living each day. I appreciate the author’s efforts to show us what she saw, but it did not make for a reading experience I enjoyed.
zahodnjakinja leta 2001 nekaj tednov spremlja severno zavezništvo po vojnih operacijah v afganistanu. Zatem ostane v glavnem mestu, kjer jo sprejme medse družina kabulskega knjigarnarja. Iz pripovedovanj sestavi knjigo, polno prikritega, tihega zgražanja nad načinom življenja tamkajšnjih ljudi, površno in selektivno obdelavo zgodovine in predvsem za moj okus premalo razumevanja in spoštovanja do drugačnosti.
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
hopeful
informative
reflective
sad
slow-paced
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
slow-paced
This is a very interesting book as it is more a series of short stories that draws a portrait of an atypical family in Afghanistan at the fall of the taliban. However it draws that portrait incredibly well telling different stories about each member of the family to demonstrate their personality such as mansur going to the tomb of Ali or laila the youngest finding English classes and trying to find love. It’s a beautifully described portrait even if some of the characters are shown to be unlikeable it is a true portrait of the family.
The book raised the plight of women very strongly demonstrating their subservience to men in so many ways in afghan society. It did this but also drew stories of the moments of resistance and the lives of women in their little rebellions.
Overall i would absolutely recommend this book to someone who is a bit more of an advanced reader.
I love the way Asne came from a very objective point of veiw while writting this book. I adore the middle eastern culture, but it is always a struggle for me to read about the things that happen and the way women are treated. I would love to read a book or essay of some sort of how she felt and thought while she was living with this family and writing about them.
Over two decades Sultan Khan sold books in defiance of the authorities. The authority changed from Afghans to communists to Taliban, but the persecutions remained the same; imprisonment, arrest, beatings and regular interrogation. He suffered watching illiterate Taliban thugs burn piles of his books in the streets of Kabul, so he hid them. His collection and stock was secreted across attics and rooms across the capital. Whilst he abhorred censorship and was passionate about all things literary he was also an Afghan man. He had strict and immovable views on family life, the role of women in society and the home and how he treated people and expected them to treat him with due deference.
It is into this family that Seierstad comes. In her unique position as a Western woman, she is able to move between the two hemispheres of male and female life in the home and the city, something that no male journalist would have been able to achieve. It is a time of huge change too, she arrived in 2002, just after the Taliban had be routed by the Americans, and whilst society had thrown of some of the shackles, many cultural norms still remained. In this she takes a step back and lets the Khans speak for themselves, and you see a very private life inside an Afghan family.
It is not the easiest book to read, not because it isn’t well written and translated, but because the society and culture that she describes is so very different to ours. It is brutal at times, heavily restricting women in what they can do, say and achieve in society, as well as having tribal fighting, harsh justice, precious little infrastructure and at times no hope. They have decades of oppression there and to make steps towards a society that has those opportunities that we take for granted will take many years and need deep fundamental changes to political and culture to bring it about. I had hoped that it would be more about the perils of the book business there, and whilst it made for a fascinating account, didn’t live up to what I had hoped for.
It is into this family that Seierstad comes. In her unique position as a Western woman, she is able to move between the two hemispheres of male and female life in the home and the city, something that no male journalist would have been able to achieve. It is a time of huge change too, she arrived in 2002, just after the Taliban had be routed by the Americans, and whilst society had thrown of some of the shackles, many cultural norms still remained. In this she takes a step back and lets the Khans speak for themselves, and you see a very private life inside an Afghan family.
It is not the easiest book to read, not because it isn’t well written and translated, but because the society and culture that she describes is so very different to ours. It is brutal at times, heavily restricting women in what they can do, say and achieve in society, as well as having tribal fighting, harsh justice, precious little infrastructure and at times no hope. They have decades of oppression there and to make steps towards a society that has those opportunities that we take for granted will take many years and need deep fundamental changes to political and culture to bring it about. I had hoped that it would be more about the perils of the book business there, and whilst it made for a fascinating account, didn’t live up to what I had hoped for.
This was a book I plucked from the shelves of my sister-in-law. It was an eye-opening look into a family of well-to-do means, and how no one was able to do or get what he/she wanted. It is a tale of ambition by the Sultan and how his family must fall in line. But his ambition is also curbed by the wars and various governments. What a dismal way to live.
Quick read. Provided me with insight into the culture and daily lifestyle of today's Afghanistan family(although the author is quick to point out that this family is not a typical family). The hardships of the women were both intriguing and painful to read. A very thought-provoking book.
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced