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binstonbirchill's review against another edition
4.0
Set in Pakistan not long after 9/11, The Blind Man’s Garden tells the story of a family and a region overtaken by events in Afghanistan. Aslam shows us a wide range of emotion concerning Islam, the west, Americans, tradition, and love. The interrelationship between war and society that is portrayed is filled with complexity and nuance. Lives are uprooted and destroyed but through all of the bleak times there remains people being good to each other. The content of the book is complicated but remains very approachable to the reader.
chrysalis11's review against another edition
4.0
Aslam's novels never disappoint and this is no exception. A tragic tale of a land in turmoil, the characters stay with you long after their lives and the book have ended. Moving, poetic and beautiful.
loldesh's review against another edition
3.0
Kısa süre önce gözden geçirmekte olduğu kitaptan, bu cümle geldi aklına. Giderek daha fazla sözcük hatırlarken, gözleri ayın kocaman bir soğuk halka halinde yer aldığı gökyüzünde dolaşıyordu. Sadece tek bir şeyin önemi var, tek bir sözcüğün. Eğer konuşursak bu, o şeyi bulamadığımız ve bulamayacağımız içindir.
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Yazarın insanın ruhuna hassasiyetle dokunan güçlü bir kalemi var. Haliyle şahane bir girişe sahip olan bu kitap finale kadar o dokunuşun etkisini kaybediyor bence. Duyguların stabil kalabilmesini sağlasaymış ‘n’olur herkes okusun’ diye gezer dururmuşum, şimdi ise ‘okumasanız olurmuş’.
Haksızlık etmeyeyim o kadar değil ama yazarla tanışmak için ideal bir kitap mı ben de emin değilim.
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Yazarın insanın ruhuna hassasiyetle dokunan güçlü bir kalemi var. Haliyle şahane bir girişe sahip olan bu kitap finale kadar o dokunuşun etkisini kaybediyor bence. Duyguların stabil kalabilmesini sağlasaymış ‘n’olur herkes okusun’ diye gezer dururmuşum, şimdi ise ‘okumasanız olurmuş’.
Haksızlık etmeyeyim o kadar değil ama yazarla tanışmak için ideal bir kitap mı ben de emin değilim.
rbharath's review against another edition
2.0
The story is set in the difficult times around 9/11 and had a lot of possibilities. However, while it takes up the issue of prejudices and extremism, it does so at a very shallow level. The characters are not well fleshed out and it is difficult to understand why they act the way they do. It is unclear what is the motivation for Jeo and Mikal to suddenly leave for Afghanistan. Similarly, in the face of imminent danger, Rohan picks quarrels rendering him blind. There is a good amount of realism with respect to the ground situation in Pakistan and Afghanistan and that is to the book's credit. But for it's passable story and poor characterization, this book is only an average read..
brogan7's review
I thought it was beautiful, complex, and layered with the horrors of the Middle East, and its real people, love and betrayal and mixtures of both...but then it took a turn for the weird, things started to happen that didn't make sense, and I can't read any more of it.
shankl's review against another edition
5.0
Captivated from the beginning, this is a truly compelling novel. It demonstrates that no matter the religion, ethnicity or country, we as people have this in common – humanity, loyalty, love and family ties. It is a story of hope in a war torn country after 9/11.
sharkybookshelf's review
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
4.0
Accompanied by his foster brother Mikal, Jeo sneaks into Afghanistan during the US invasion to provide medical assistance to civilians, but their good intentions don’t protect them from getting caught up in politics and war.
This is one of those books where I don’t think that my review can ever quite do it justice. You may well be wondering why I only gave it four stars, and it’s simply that the writing was beautiful but at times a little too lyrical for me,occasionally leaving me a little confused. There are a lot of elements, yet they cleverly come together into a nuanced story of the repercussions of the US’s invasion of Afghanistan in one of the peripheral players, Pakistan, something that seems rarely considered in the West. Aslam is deeply critical of the US’s atrocious treatment (torture) of anybody deemed a potential jihadi - this portion of the story was very well told - but he is also deeply critical of those in Pakistan taking advantage of events to push an extremist agenda and interpretation of Islam, showing how they are ultimately interlinked and play into each other. Through the lives of one family, the story touches on education, personal relationships with faith, women in Pakistani society, Pakistani politics and the factions within the military, and wrapped up in this story of war and its consequences are also stories of love and the wonder of nature. A beautifully-written, complex, heart-breaking story of living with past choices, survival, the far-reaching consequences of the US invasion of Afghanistan and so much more.
anna_hepworth's review against another edition
I got about a third of the way through this before the library requested it back, so my review is for the first third.
This is a beautifully written book, but being both densely written and covering some pretty difficult topics (including but not limited to murder by neglect, murder by deliberately placing in the line of fire, attempts at forced abortion) I read it very slowly. Set in Pakistan and Afghanistan it focuses on one family, where the adult son goes off to join the Taliban.
This is a beautifully written book, but being both densely written and covering some pretty difficult topics (including but not limited to murder by neglect, murder by deliberately placing in the line of fire, attempts at forced abortion) I read it very slowly. Set in Pakistan and Afghanistan it focuses on one family, where the adult son goes off to join the Taliban.