List Price: $18.00
www.amazon.com's Price: $12.24
You Save: $5.76 (32%)
Condition: New
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Average Customer Rating: 4.5
Lowest New Price: $4.71
Lowest Used Price: $0.01
| Worth a read!Though overly poetic at times, Elliot does a brilliant job bringing to light the situation in Afghanistan just prior to the Taliban occupation of Kabul. Throughout the narrative Elliot strives to uncover the answer to the question: What is left of the culture in this war ravaged land? Elliot does a great job juxtaposing his experiences in Afghanistan during the Soviet invasion, the 1992 collapse of the communist regime in Kabul, and the time he spent exploring the country in the mid-1990s. Unlike other books I have read about Afghanistan, this title focuses on the people rather than the events which influence their lives. To answer the question as to whether culture can survive in such a harsh landscape Elliot circumnaivigates the country; from travelling on foot across the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, to Kabul, to Herat, to Mazar-e-Shariff, and deep into the rugged and little explored regions of the Panjshir and Nuristan. What he uncovers may surprise you... I would recommend this book to any individual who has an interest in learning about Afghanistan OUTSIDE of the events of the on-going 30 year war.
Not outstanding, in any way whatsoeverThe first chapter and a half of this book are truly abysmal. A torrent of clicheés pours from the pages and the rare gaps between clichées are filled with metaphors that fail. "Rumours ricocheting down the streets like shrapnel." As Dorothy Parker once said, "This is not a book that should be tossed lightly aside. It should be hurled with great force." After the first chapter and a half the book does get better, but it never gets to be good. The author has nothing to say about the character of the people he meets, nothing to say about the human condition, nothing to say about how Afghanistan got into the mess it is in, and nothing to say about how it might get out of it. He has no power of insight, he makes no analysis. The book is a series of descriptive passages of a young man's gap year. Most people are amazingly hospitable to him, many are positively indulgent, and just one person fails to provide the hospitality that the author seems to have come to expect almost as his right. It is an unusual thing for a nineteen year old to wander into Afghanistan, and well done him, but this is little more than a nineteen year old's diary, rewritten a decade or so later. The author reveals nothing about himself in this book, nor in his publisher's biography nor on his wikipedia entry. Reading this book one wants to like him, but the author won't allow the prerequisite of liking, getting to know him even to a small extent.
This book could be a book that gives insight into the Afghan, or into the human condition generally, or lets us get to know the author, or that explains something about a period of Afghan history or about those who would try to help it. Had the author tackled any one of these questions the book might have some merit. It tackles none of them and is perhaps best regarded as a valiant first effort by a young writer. Perhaps if he will allow his own character and humanity to make at least a guest appearance in his writing, Mr Elliott may produce a more substantial work.
There are many better books on all aspects that this book could have covered. One of them is David Loyn's _Frontline: The True Story of the British Mavericks Who Changed the Face of War Reporting_
"Epictetus"
In depth love of Afghanistan and its peopleI purchased this book after having read it at my local library because it has to be on my Top 25 list of favorite books of all time. Mr. Elliot lived and travelled in Afghanistan not as a journalist or tourist, but as a human being drawn to the area and its people. This was post-Soviet time and pre-American time, and probably many of the people and places he visited have changed irrevocably. What comes through is his intense willingness to meet people on their terms, without judgement or agenda, and what results is a deep love for the place and people of the land. It makes it doubly sad to know the corruption and continual war leaves so few people with any viable options for survival, let alone a good life--but I for one am very grateful and appreciative of this book and the attitude of its author towards a place and people I can only respect and admire the more for his sharing of his experience. The prose can be very lyrical and at times almost numinous, because he is being touched so by the deeper spirit of this land. Beautifully written with great respect and almost a reverence for the best of what is Afghanistan (hint: it's NOT Karzai). To me, delving into the nature of the place and people, I see that it is utterly fruitless for any other nation to occupy militarily and attempt to "win" any kind of war here. It will never happen, but I don't have another solution either. There is so much we can't understand about a foreign country, especially one with such a long history, but Afghanistan's people deserve peace and prosperity, and I wish it for them, somehow.
One of my all time favoritesHaving been to Afghanistan twice, I found that this was the only book that really captured the country and it's people for me. While the author is most certainly idealistic, I have read this book over and over again. If you have an interest at all in Afghanistan, I highly suggest this book!
No LightUggh, very boring,wordy, it was hard to stay awake in reading this book. Others have explained why this book is so boring -- just not much 'action.' The author recounts a couple of times that he was 'shelled' by the Ruskies. Admitedly, one cannot expect to have many 'deep' political discussions with the locals; so, sadly, most of the author's converstations with the Afghani are pretty boring: "how's the amputee?" Maybe it was interesting when first issued back in 1999, but a decade later, it seems to just have no 'substance.' No meeting of the war-lords, just some of the donkey drivers. You will find much more enjoyable 'action packed' stories by reading the monthly issues of SOLDIER OF FORTUNE. I had hoped for something nice to say about this book: it finally ended. I junked it, I don't want anyone else to suffer.
Product DescriptionPart historical evocation, part travelogue, and part personal quest, An Unexpected Light is the account of Elliot's journey through Afghanistan, a country considered off-limits to travelers for twenty years. Aware of the risks involved, but determined to explore what he could of the Afghan people and culture, Elliot leaves the relative security of Kabul. He travels by foot and on horseback, and hitches rides on trucks that eventually lead him into the snowbound mountains of the North toward Uzbekistan, the former battlefields of the Soviet army's "hidden war." Here the Afghan landscape kindles a recollection of the author's life ten years earlier, when he fought with the anti-Soviet mujaheddin resistance during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.
Weaving different Afghan times and visits with revealing insights on matters ranging from antipersonnel mines to Sufism, Elliot has created a narrative mosaic of startling prose that captures perfectly the powerful allure of a seldom-glimpsed world.
Read more...
Similar Products:Mirrors of the Unseen: Journeys in Iran
The Places In Between
The Road to Oxiana
The Punishment of Virtue: Inside Afghanistan After the Taliban
The Bookseller of Kabul
|
