A snapshot of a modern Afghan family (The Bookseller of Kabul - Asne Seierstad)

Member Name: burtybookworm

Product:	The Bookseller of Kabul - Asne Seierstad
Date:	04/06/09 (93 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: compelling, thought-provoking and fascinating

Disadvantages: none whatsoever

I've read a few books about Afghanistan and its people during its troubled times which has evoked all sorts of emotions from sadness, anger, grief and heart break. However, the books that I have read have merely been based on facts from writers such as Khaled Hosseini who wrote "The Kite Runner" and the brilliant "A Thousand Splendid Suns." This book from Norwegian journalist Asne Seierstad deals purely in facts, which - quite obviously - gives a considerable amount of realism, shock and intrigue to the events and characters in which she describes.


** About the authors experience and the story of the 'Khans'...

Although this book is written exactly like a piece of fiction, Seierstad explains at the beginning of the book that all events in which she writes about is fact.
The Foreword from the author is the only time that Asne Seierstad appears in the story. She explains that she arrived in Kabul in November 2001 after the fall of the Taliban. The first person she met was Sultan Khan (all names have been changed, only because she "felt it was right" rather than it being a choice of Sultans family whom she stayed with whilst gleaning the facts of their life.)

Sultan Khan runs a bookshop in Kabul and his family are far from the typical one in modern Afghan. The Khan family live an almost luxurious lifestyle compared to most; some of the family are educated, Sultan Khan runs a successful business, a lot of his family can speak English and they are well respected within their community. The story that Sultan Khan and his family provide through Seierstad is a snapshot of life before, during and after the Taliban came to rule. It describes their family dynamic, the way in which women are treated, the political and religious position of the country at the time as well as Sultan's experience of hiding books from the police, the book burning that occurred.

** What did I think?..

This book caught me in its web the minute I read the foreword. Seierstad has a simple and direct way of describing and explaining the way of life of those living in Kabul. Through the foreword, she makes clear that she was an "invisible" family member during her time with the Khans, that there were certain events that she wasn't there for but through family members she managed to gain the facts of the stories. She also explains that of course she is not an omniscient author; that "internal dialogue and feelings are based entirely on what family members described to me".

As a result, there is nothing fanciful in her account, but nonetheless, it is extremely well written, describing traditions and life with good detail that still remains interesting. Instead of bombarding the reader with information about the rule of the Taliban, or overly long passages about the politics of the country, Seierstad thoughtfully drops in pieces of information that are relevant to the story, she keeps it simple as well as these facts providing an interesting side to the story told as a whole.
For instance, there is a section where Seierstad explains the history of the Burka. It is a fairly short passage, just telling how there are only a few women in Afghanistan who know that the Burka were strangers to the Burka. She also details how the Burka was only really used widely between 1901-1919. I just found these bits of information fascinating, especially since there aren't many women who have renounced the Burka since the fall of the Taliban.

Although I was prepared for how the men in Afghan society treat women through what I had gleaned from news and from books, to actually read the facts of a modern family such as the Khans did give me a shock. Although Seierstad makes it clear in her foreword that she hated the way in which the men treated the women ("The same thing was continually provoking me: the manner in which men treated women. The belief in man's superiority was so ingrained that it was seldom questioned.") I thought she handled their treatment brilliantly and I felt that she really was completely un-biased when it came to relaying the unfair treatment of women in society.

I don't think Seierstad could have picked a better family to observe. Like most Afghan families, their numbers are large and within that, there are some interesting characters that she managed to show in all their different colours to the reader. Most of the time, I was torn between fury at Sutlan Khan's superiority and arrogance over all that met him, and liking him for his ability to change his families circumstances, for standing up to the authorities and their censorship. I also found him frustrating - he is an unbelievable hypocrite; agreeing that Burkas are outdated and wanting his family to move with the times, but still wanting the traditional women's roles within the home. He was also hypocritical when it came to education; wanting Afghan people to have a better education and access to books, but pulling his sons out of their education because he didn't trust anyone to run his business.

All of these facts all of course just point to how ingrained tradition is in Afghan society - Sultan's small admissions of modernity are more than most men in Afghanistan today. However, I doubt very much that Sultan Khan will be happy of with his portrayal by Seierstad; the way In which he is described is not exactly flattering and he isn't portrayed as the modern Afghan man - I believe that is what he thinks he is. This coupled with the other members stories gives me the impression that Sultan Khan wouldn't be selling Seierstad's book in his shop anytime soon!

One of Sultan's sisters, Leila, was another intriguing character in this book. Seirstad points out in the foreword that Leila's English was excellent, so I imagine this is why I got such a clear picture of her throughout as well as the fact that Seierstad slept next to her for her stay. Her part of the story was at times really heart breaking as she is the last born child so she is treated as the servant for Sultans family and her mother. Leila, at only 19 is subjected to constant verbal abuse by her nephew who is only a couple of years younger and because of tradition and society, she cannot answer back. I admired her need to get more from her circumstances, she wanted to teach but the logistics in getting her papers in order without the presence of a male family member was tricky. Equally I found her families treatment of any possible suitors heart breaking. Out of all the family members, I felt the most sympathetic to this one person, who was depicted by Seierstad as intelligent, hard working and loyal.

Overall, this was a truly engrossing, thought provoking and most of all interesting snapshot of the modern Afghan family. I thought the way in which Seierstad blended the facts of her time with the Khans into an interesting story was extremely clever and the most successful book I have read that has tried to do this. It was by no means boring or loaded down with facts; I was totally absorbed in their lives from beginning to end, an intelligent and honest account of life of 21st Century Afghanistan.

Summary: .