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.
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