NOVEMBER - BOOKS ABOUT AFGHANISTAN

THE PEARL THAT BROKE IT'S SHELL BY NADIA HASHIMI

CONNIE:  She did not enjoy this novel.  She got weary reading about the terrible violence.  The story is about one woman and her great,great-grandmother.  Connie said they might as well have put it in two books. Although she sympathized with what is going on there she couldn't cope with it but she did finish the book.

DENISE:  She normally hates books like this but she actually enjoyed this one.  It's all about women being treated badly.  It saddened her that this goes on.  Denise couldn't understand why the mother in law treated the young wife badly when she had been treated badly by her mother in law.

JO:  She found it very depressing that people live like that.  Jo said " it's not normal".  She did read the whole book.

JUDY 3:  She did enjoy (not love) this story about women in Afghanistan.  The two main characters are Rahima and Shekiba who live in different centuries but live remarkably similar lives.  Both grow up in all girl families.  Shekiba, having lost the rest of her family to disease, is married off by her uncle, and Rahima and two of her sisters are sold off as brides to strangers to pay off a debt of her father. Their bid to escape from their situations is the basis of this story.   Interwoven with their stories we get a picture of how life in Afghanistan changes and how much it remains the same. Judy said she found it difficult at first to cope with the foreign names but once she was past the first few chapters the story had her entranced. Judy said  the writing was not always to her taste and she probably would not read another one of her novels. She preferred Khaled Hosseini's books.

ROSEMARIE:  She agreed with what everyone else had said about the book. Rosemarie enjoyed the book but felt bad about it.

KRIS:  The story begins in Kabul in 2007.  The Taliban rule the streets.  Rahima and her sisters live in a village outside of Kabul with warlords holding most of the power. Their father is addicted to drugs. Their mother, with encouragement from her older sister, decides to use the ancient custom of Bacha Posh.  This will allow Rahima  to shop at the market for her and hopefully escort her sisters to school. Bacha Posh allows a girl to dress as a boy until she reaches marriageable age.  Interwoven with Rahima's story is the story of Shekiba, Rahima's great great grandmother who was also a Bach Posh in the early part of the 20th century.  Kris did not like the way women were treated but admired the young women's strength.  She enjoyed the book as it was a very interesting story.

WHEN THE MOON IS LOW BY NADIA HASHIMI 

JUDY 4:  This is another novel written by Nadia Hashimi.  Fareiba marries Mahmoud after her mother dies in labour.  Fareiba learns to love Mahmoud but he is murdered when the Taliban comes in to the village. Fereiba and her three children are forced to travel to safety.  Judy felt for their plight. The story portrays refugee camps in Europe and she felt for the people who were seeking safety for their families.  Saleem, Fereiba's teenage son becomes separated from them in Greece.

PRUE:  She has had a very busy month so Prue did not have time to read this book but read the blurb on the back. It's an expose of conditions in Afghanistan.  Kabul used to be very ancient, then modern and then turned around again.

DI:  She didn't think she was a good writer but a good storyteller.  Di had sympathy with the protagonist and her family.  They didn't want to go to Turkey as they considered it had one foot in Europe and one in Asia.  Saleem, the teenage son gets separated and tries to get across to England.  Di's sympathy went with them all trying to get to England rather than other places along the way.  She wouldn't recommend the book.

 DIANN:  She also read this book but felt differently as Fareiba was living a happy life and then the Taliban comes in and throws everything up in the air.  Her husband is murdered.  Diann was glad she read the book and said it's an insight.  

LESLEY:  The story is abut belief, religion and family and how all that pans out.  It's written in the first person of Fereiba, the mother.  This is the stronger part of the story but then it swaps to the third person when she's separated from her teenage son, Saleem.  This is the weaker part of the story.  The story is about displaced people, their traditions and superstitions that guide their life and the will to survive.  Lesley didn't particularly like it or not like it.

3 PARA by PATRICK BISHOP

VAL:  This is a true story set in Afghanistan in the summer of 2006.  Patrick Bishop is a war correspondent and Val said it was well written. It's about the different tribes and ethnic groups and the country has been at war for a long time.  The Taliban came in from Pakistan.  After 2001 they routed them out but  then they were back again quite strongly. 3 Para refers to the British parachute regiment sent to Helmand province, south of Afghanistan.  Their task was to keep the engineers safe while they were reconstructing the villages.  The temperatures were around 50 degrees.  The villagers appeared quite friendly but these fellows had been in Ireland so they felt a sense of unease. It was a good book.

FROM UNDER A LEAKY ROOF BY PHIL SPARROW

WENDY:  This book is non fiction.  Phil Sparrow is an experienced UN aid worker and this book is about the Afghan refugees in Australia.  The book is in the form of interviews with refugees.  They are mostly a tribal society.  Afghanistan is a western construction with Russian, American and British intervention.  Wendy said the stories were quite moving and revealing.

THE DRESSMAKER OF KHAIR KHANA by GAYLE TZEMACH-LEMMON

SHEILA:  This book is non fiction.  The author is a journalist from Europe. It is written in the form of personal interviews. Many men had fled Khair Khana, a suburb of Kabul and the Taliban controlled all aspects of the lives of the women left behind.  Their lives are miserable.  Kamila Sidiqi has a teaching degree but is banned from teaching.  As she is the sole breadwinner for her siblings, she takes up dressmaking and eventually has about 100 women working for her in secret.  Sheila found a lot of the book boring.  
Sheila also read UNDERGROUND GIRLS OF KABUL by JENNY NORDBERG 
This is another true account. The author is a New York based foreign correspondent who broke the story of the Bacha Posh in 2010.  Bacha Posh is where a daughter is raised and presented to the world as a son until menstruation.  In the Dari language it means dressed as a boy.  Sheila said this book was better written.

KITE RUNNER by KHALED HOSSEINI

PAMELA:   It is a story about a boy named Amir who lives with his wealthy father in Afghanistan.  Amir is constantly trying to win his father's love.They are Suni. They have two servants, Ali and his son, Hassan.  They are Hazaras, an ethnic minority.  The boys are best friends but there is a lot of prejudice against Hazaras by Suni's.  The boys enter the annual kite running contest and when Hassan is attacked by some Suni boys, Amir doesn't help.  Amir is racked by guilt.  Pamela thought Amir was a very unpleasant child.  When things change in Afghanistan the family have to get out of Kabul through Pakistan and finally go to America.  Unbelievable coincidences in the story prevented Pamela from reading the rest of the book. Pamela did not like the book.

THOUSAND SPLENDID SUNS by KHALED HOSSEINI 

BEV:  This novel was written after Kite Runner.  The title is from an Afghani poem. The main character is an illegitimate 15year old girl called Mariam.  Russia is invading Afghanistan.  The Taliban has taken over the villages.  Mariam is forced to marry a 40 year old when her mother commits suicide. Her husband is cruel but when she miscarries a few times he becomes worse because she doesn't produce a son.   The villagers are nice to her. When the parents of a little girl from the village are killed by a bomb the little girl becomes part of Mariam's family.

JULIA:  Julia also read this book.  She enjoyed it and said there wasn't a lot of descriptions of violence.  The book was more about relationships. 

 A SHORT WALK IN THE HINDU KUSH by ERIC NEWBY

PAULINE:  Eric Newby is an English travel writer and this is an autobiographical account of his adventures in the Hindu Kush, north of Nuristan in Afghanistan.  He went on a trip with his friend Hugh.  They made out they were mountaineers.  They go through Turkey and find a body on the road.  They get arrested, delayed by two days and when allowed to leave they go to Kabul.  There are quite good descriptions of the countryside.  They make a couple of attempts to go up the mountains. They end up with dysentry. Pauline said it's an amusing book and nicely written.  

It was a nice book to end with after most of our harrowing stories.

In DECEMBER we will be discussing the best book we have read this year. 









 

  

OCTOBER ~ Ian McEwan

This month members of the Book Club were asked to read one of the novels written by English author, Ian McEwan.

Atonement

ED found the first 1/3 of the book difficult to read, citing the lengthy character development and over descriptive writing. This was a common comment by others who also read the book.

13-year-old Briony Tallis misinterprets her older sister’s love affair with their family’s gardener to be something much worse than what it is. Her innocence and partial understanding of the world begins a chain of events that tears the family apart and alters the course of the rest of the girl’s life.

DIANE thought the title was very apt – others had committed the crime but no one had received any comeuppance.

She also couldn’t work out the ending and described the story as not very satisfying. She thought the author ‘puts down old age’.

MAREE also thought the book had a slow start, but that the middle was a really good story. She loved that part but thought it was let down by the ending.

She also commented that the film was quite different.

KRIS loved the book, so much so that she couldn’t put it down.

She thought the author had a great understanding of teenage girl’s emotions and that some of what happened did so because of class differences. There was a great build up of tension and the use of the 3 time periods worked well.

But she also was disappointed with the ending, thinking that it was too easy.

TAM made similar comments, enjoying the book but disappointed with the ending. But she thought she would read more of McEwan’s books.

The Children Act

WENDY loved the book! The plot involves a 60 year old woman who is a highly respected Supreme Court Judge. Every day she must make major decisions and moral judgements on other people’s lives. At the same time her marriage is becoming a bit shaky. Her husband believes life is passing him by; he wants to have an affair with a younger colleague.

ANN found the book to be gripping and moving. The author writes well and covers several ethical issues in the cases, many of them very relevant today.

BEV thought the ending was soppy and allowed the story to ‘peter off’.

JUDY J really enjoyed the book admiring the author for his thorough research not just on the legal details, but medical and musical facts he used. The author explained he had read many judgements and used the experience of his own divorce as part of his research.

LESLIE described it as an engrossing and clever book. She thought the author really got into the head of this 60 year old woman, hugely intelligent, cultured, in full control of her life. But even she could sometimes do irrational things.

Leslie also thought the ending was rushed and not satisfying. But maybe that’s how it was in her life; move on to the next stage, the natural progression of life.

 

ROSEMARY read from a passage at the end of the book with McEwan’s description of divorce. His own was particularly acrimonious.

DIANN F thought that the story line was good but overall she didn’t like the book. She struggled to read a book written by a man who was thinking like a woman!

JO likes to read for enjoyment and to pass the time. She loved it particularly as the book gave you a perspective of how the judge came to a decision.

Saturday

PAT’s first comment was that this book also had a slow beginning. In great detail the author describes the family of a very successful surgeon, the wife, daughter and son. For Pat there was too much vivid description of aspects of the surgeon’s work!

The story takes place on one horrendous Saturday, and tries to show why some people behave the way they do and those who show compassion. The surgeon is faced with a moral decision deciding whether he can treat someone who is likely to harm his family.

Pat enjoyed the book, thought it was clever and made you think. Worth reading!

Sweet Tooth

JUDY D  

The main character and narrator is an attractive young student at Cambridge University who after a brief affair with a History Professor is recruited to join MI5 as a spy in the Cold War.

There was some thought that parts of the book were based on the author’s own life experiences.

Again the ending to this book was commented on: Judy thinking it was contrived and convoluted. She reread it several times before reaching some sort of understanding.

TERESA also read the book, describing it as ‘weird’. She also reread the final chapter several times but still couldn’t grasp it.

DENISE found it easy to get into the book but described the young girl (the heroine) to be annoying and inconsequential, so much so that she didn’t finish the book.

Black Dogs

JOAN

 Published in 1992, Jeremy is the narrator. After his parents died in a car accident when he was 8 years old, his sisters raised him. He develops an obsession with other people’s families.

When he marries he gets his own family and in-laws etc and is determined to write their family history and memoirs. He discovers in their past devastating events which continue to shape their lives.

Joan described the book as intricate, symbol laden and ‘too deep’ for her and found the story very depressing!

 

Nutshell

PAMELA

 This short novel, narrated by a foetus, is loosely based onShakespeare’s Hamlet. The unborn child listens to his mother plotting to kill his father in partnership with her lover. The title ‘Nutshell’ refers to the unborn child. The writing was very good and included quotes from Hamlet.

PAULINE

Continuing with the plot, Pauline explains that the wife wants to kill her husband to get the house, an old Georgian town house in central London. The murder weapon was to be a smoothie!

The foetus is subjected to many amusing situations and muses over issues such as climate change and refugees. He also becomes a bit of a wine snob.

She thought it a simple idea for a book, cleverly written and very entertaining.

Solo

CONNIE

A brilliant scientist develops a way to harness the sun’s rays to create an amazing amount of power.

For his experiments he wins the Nobel Prize for Physics.

The book is solely about him, his marriages, his mistresses, his lack of respect for others, his fear of commitment, and his inability to relate with his children. He is not a likeable man.

Connie found the technical information was too much for her.

She praised his writing, but didn’t really enjoy the book.

LAURA liked it more but didn’t love it.

She thought it an interesting character study of a man who thinks he is the ‘bee’s knees’ and not unbelievable. This man was brilliant and focused. He won the Nobel Prize when he was quite young and then coasts along. He continues to go to conferences, to write and becomes totally self –obsessed. His career stagnates.

It is not a page-turner but Laura thought it had the right ending.

PRUE enjoyed the book and thought the author continued to create suspense through out.

His research regarding climate change was very good and he came up with a feasible idea.

Although much of the book was made up of long paragraphs, she had to keep reading. The sign of a good writing!