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: $5.25
Lowest Used Price: $0.60
| Features• ISBN13: 9780312288464
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• <a title='Condition Guide' href='/content/Condition_and_Shipping_Guide.htm' target='_blank'>Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices</a>
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.
Comprehensive insights into AfganistanVery well written with humor, empathy, and thoughtfulness. Provides in-depth insights into way of living for Afghan people. Jason doesn't miss a small detail in his observations, and it is the inclusion of the small details that allow reader to visualize the events. About three-quarters of way through, book started to get a bit "preachy". Maybe the book was form of therapy for Jason who is part Afghani(???) Not sure where his strong ties to the country developed. He definitely wanted reader to feel sympathy for Afghans which is not difficult. However, I was reading the book during 2-week tour of Uganda over the 2009 holidays, and couldn't help but think that Ugandan's live in equally similar conditions. I hope Jason has found a way to help a country he seems to so closely identify with, just as I am finding ways to help Ugandans having been so impacted by their poverty.
Manadatory reading!This book should be required reading of all Americans who are concerned about our national involvement in Afghanistan.
It is an extremely interesting and intimate look at the people of that country and a review of their turbulent history over the past 30 or so years.
Read this if interested in Afghanistan or off-beaten pathThis was really a memorable book. I have to thank Jason Elliott for being such a brave person and entering this very different and sometimes hostile place. His descriptions of the land, architecture and people are all very well done and his curiosity seems to know no bounds. Much better than his other book about Iran because he doesn't focus as much on architecture.
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
Afghanistan: A Short History of Its People and Politics
The Sewing Circles of Herat: A Personal Voyage Through Afghanistan
Islam, Oil, and Geopolitics: Central Asia after September 11
|
