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Literature & Fiction |
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The Bookseller of Kabul
written by Asne Seierstad
Studio : Back Bay Books
by Back Bay Books
Publisher : Back Bay Books
Released : 2004-10-26
Availability : Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Number of Items : 1
EAN : 9780316159418
Avg. Customer Rating: (based on 130 reviews)
List Price : $12.99
Our Price : $4.50
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Download Description |
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For more than twenty years, Sultan Khan has defied the authorities, whether communist or Taliban, to supply books to the people of Kabul. He has been arrested, interrogated, and imprisoned, and has watched illiterate Taliban soldiers burn piles of his books in the street. Yet he has persisted in his passion for books, shedding light in one of the world's darkest places. This is the intimate portrait of a man of principle and of his family - two wives, five children, and many relatives sharing a small four-room apartment in this war-ravaged city. As they endure the extraordinary trials and tensions of Afghanistan's upheavals, they also still try to live ordinary lives, with work, relaxation, shopping, cooking, marriages, rivalries, and shared joys. Most of all, this is an intimate portrait of family life under Islam. Even after the Taliban's collapse, the women in Khan's family must submit to arranged marriages, polygamous husbands, and crippling limitations on their ability to travel, learn, and communicate with others. Seierstad lived with Khan's family for months, experiencing first-hand Afghani life as few outsiders have seen it. Stepping back from the page, she allows the Khans to speak for themselves, giving us a genuinely gripping and moving portrait of a family, and of a country of great cultural riches and extreme contradictions. |
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A Glimpse in the Life of an Afghani Family |
This is the depiction of a real Afghani family written by a journalist that wound up in bookstore and developed a "friendship" with the store's owner. The journalist decided that it would be interesting to live with a family in Afghanistan and this bookseller opened his home to her. Previously, I used the word "friendship" lightly because as the depiction progresses, the reader gains insight into that traditional role of the male head of the family, and the journalist does not portray the bookseller in the best light.
The bookseller, Sultan, is the ruler of his family and also reigns over his siblings as well. His wife, Sharifa, is a good wife, but has gotten on in years, so Sultan decides to take a young 2nd wife. I found that most of the book underscores the struggle and surrender of women in this culture. As told by the author, women could not leave their homes except to visit relatives. Women hide when company comes over because they cannot be seen by any man who is not within the family. Girls are raped, powerless. If they scream, then the act would be seen and the girl would be ruined, a disgrace. One woman tries to seek freedom by enrolling in school, only to find that she must ask for permission, which she will never receive, so she remains a slave to her family.
The book is written during the transition after Taliban control. The Taliban destroyed Sultan's books time and time again and even through him in jail because of his illegal books. (Any book with pictures of living creatures was considered a violation.) One admirable trait in Sultan I must say is that although he may not have agreed with the message in many of his books, he thought that people should have access to others' ideas.
I found this book very insightful, an eye-opener. It is a book that I am very glad to have experienced. It gave me a glimpse of a life much different than my own.
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Excellent book |
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This book provides an excellent portrait of Afghanistan. Very well written, easy to read. Great choice for book clubs; full of material for great discussions. |
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not very exciting |
The bookseller of Kabul from Asne Seierstad.
Even before I could finish the lecture of the book - I stay around the midle -I can say that the book is readable but not exciting, outstanding piece or something really especial. To be honest I expected something more from a so exciting issue especially from a person who live this advanture in the first line. I cannot see the soul of the book anywhere. |
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Where should poor reader focus? |
This book has nothing remotely to do with books or love of books or looking at a culture or hard times from a bookseller's perspective or even simply selling books.
The book feels like a series of journalistic portraitures rather than a coherent comprehensive picture about life in Afghanistan. The author never gets over herself or her anger at injustice that she saw perpetrated (accepted as norm) in Afghanistan. The author's anger does does not help in clarifying the situation but drags the reader from one pointed incident to another pointless incident.
Maybe this is a sincere attempt to capture a moment, a tough moment in a country, but the pace is uneven and emotions even more so.
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Realistically Depressing |
A journalist spends a few months living with the family of Sultan Khan, a bookseller in Kabul. Khan is an autocratic patriarch, whose idea of being liberal is permitting the women of his home to leave the house without wearing a burka. Khan determines the fate of his sons, wives, and daughters. No one is allowed to exert any autonomy over their own life, without having to leave home.
Privacy, volition, emotions, expectations and dreams of a better future are elusive, almost non-existent concepts for anyone other than Khan in this home.
This does fit in neatly with our stereotypes of life for Muslim women. But I sincerely hope this was a story of a family dominated by a particularly controlling man, and not a microcosm of life in Kabul. |
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