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Summary: Not the usual travel book.
Review: The author has traveled to Afghanistan several times in the last decade and has some harrowing experiences while painting a vivid picture of the country. Not your typical travel book. I can't say I would like to have the author's near death experiences but I was captivated by them. This is a great painting of the country and its people before 9-11 and very well written. This is a non-fiction page turner.
Rating:
Summary: A gem of a book
Review: This amazing book is an extended travel journal by a British writer who developed an obsession with Afghanistan as a child. At the age of 19, fresh out of school, he made his way into the country and spent three months traveling with Mujahedin fighters, being strafed and bombed by Russian Migs, living in caves... but also meeting and traveling with regular Afghans, away from the war, learning the language and studying the history of the country (which is long, often tragic but important to the history of Asia as a whole).Now fast forward ten years and Elliot is back in Afghanistan, this time ducking for cover from Taliban artillery barrages, traveling first with government fighters but later on his own (by foot, horse and in the backs of dilapidated trucks) to long-forgotten regions of the country. All the while he's keeping an incredibly detailed and sympathetic account of the place and its people, some of the best travel writing I've ever read. Really, this is a gem of a book.
Rating:
Summary: An amazing book
Review: This book about a man who travels to Afghanistan twice - once during the Soviet war, and the second time when the Talebaan are taking over the country. It's very beautiful and bittersweet, and reflects some on how the Talebaan use religion to control people, and how there are so many different interpretations on Islam. It also talks about a lot of other things - the poverty and bravery of the Afghan people, and how they've managed to get through so much suffering over the past 50 years. It even slides a bit of history in there. I definately recommend it to anyone to read. I knew next to nothing about Afghanistan before I read it, now I almost feel like I've been there myself.
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Summary: A must read about Afghanistan!
Review: This has been one of the most enjoyable travelogues I have ever read. I picked up the book because I will be travelling to Afghanistan and wanted to get an idea of the land and people of this mysterious country. Jason Elliot is a wonderful writer, extremely talented and gifted for sure. I still can't believe this is the first book he has ever written. He has made this country and its people come alive for me. Mr. Elliot knows the history and cultures of the peoples of Afghanistan well and creatively interweaves this with his own story. I can't wait to get there and meet the people myself! I highly recommend this book.
Rating:
Summary: A very important book
Review: This is a must read for anyone who wants to know more about Afghanistan than what we read in the press. It is a detailed, refreshing, and sensitive portrait of this multifaceted country: its geography, its people, its cultures, and recent tragic history. It makes me want to read and learn more . I will certainly try to read anything else Jason Elliot writes.I especially appreciated the author's openness about his reactions to the events and situations in this book.
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Summary: Forget the reviews, just BUY IT!
Review: This is an amazing book. Quit reading the reviews and hit ONE CLICK! With World-War-III about to break out in the region, I wanted one book about Afghanistan that would tell me who is who, and what is really going on. Written in 1999 just as the Taliban seized power, this is the book. It's amazingly enlightening. Want to end the endless wars in Afghanistan? This book tells you how. Embargo the flow of foreign money into the country, money which is used to hire armies of people with no other work available to them. The Afghan people themselves are sick of war. Beautifully written, this book gives an insight into the people of Afghanistan you won't find anywhere else, a culture where a starving peasant will invite a stranger into their home to enjoy their last scrap of food. With or without the current war, this book is a joy to read, one of the finest examples ever of travel writing. I am so lucky to have stumbled across it in a bookstore!
Rating:
Summary: An Unexpected Joy
Review: This is one of the four best books I have read in the past 15 years. As I stood in a bookstore, cursorily flipping through its pages, the music of Elliott's prose swelled up at me like no other book I'd held in my hands. I knew I had to have it. I will admit that my primary motivation in seeking this book out was not to learn more about Afghanistan ... that was a secondary motive. I was seeking instead, as I always do, to read something beautifully written. The other books about Afghanistan I'd collected to choose among instantly fell away when I skimmed across the pages of Elliott's writing. If you want to BEGIN to understand the current conflict, to begin to grasp its roots, let Jason Elliott be your guide. I cannot say anything, really, that does justice to his brilliance. Instead, I will quote a bit of his writing. For starters, the opening paragraph: "From the beginning we became the captives of an unexpected light. Even as we stepped into its unaccustomed brightness that first morning, it seemed probable we had entered a world in some way enchanted, for which we lacked the proper measure." And now, a passage ... "It was late afternoon. Through hollow doorways suspended uselessly in columns of broken wall the sun shot long sloping lances of golden light. We walked along in stunned silence as the desolation grew, past what had once been a cinema where the scorched carcass of a crippled tank listed at a crazy angle against a mound of rubble. A few men were pulling carts of precious firewood on sacks piled piteously high, heaving at loads fit for animals... "A cold wind began to whip up the dust along the street, and like animals that have wandered too far from their lairs, we knew instinctively it was a bad place to be lost as the sun went down. It had a lawless air. The shadows thickened as the golden light retreated, and at last its touch slipped upwards, first from the city itself and then from the mountains beyond." "In a darkening doorway we glimpsed a one-legged man, rising on his crutches at the sight of us. He was young, perhaps thirty, with a rich black beard, and lured us nearer with an uncanny brightness in his eyes. Beckoning, and with a smile of improbable vigour, he asked if we would join him for a glass of tea." The exchange that follows is both a heart-touching delight and a soul-stirring revelation ... the first of so many in the treasure trove of beauty that this book is. Do yourself a favor ... buy this book. Then generously give yourself the time and space to take this journey with someone as brave as he is human, as humble as he is inquisitive, as respectful as he is humorous. Someone who will show you a people and a place quite marvelously unexpected.
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Summary: Best Book of 2000?
Review: This is perhaps the best book I have read in the last year. Having read Kaplan's 'Soldiers of God', and Rashid's 'Taliban', I thought I knew a little bit about Afghanistan. But this book opened my eyes to a complex and rich history, making the tragedy of recent events even more stark. Eliot knows more about Afghanistan's history and culture than any travel writer I have ever encountered writing on any country, and conveys this information in a way which makes it interesting to the reader. The real bonus of this book is its musings on travel itself: in addition to everything the reader learns about the country,(which as other reviewers have pointed out is certainly timely - though the book was published before 9/11) Eliot provides a fascinating series of questions and internal debate about the role and responsibility of the traveller. I read this book while on a trip in Peru and Bolivia, and it provoked many thoughts about how to make the most of my experience. We don't all have the attitude toward risk that Eliot does, but through his eyes we get a glimpse of what we may be missing. It may be that only by doing one's best (though incompletely) to live with and like the locals can the traveller really develop an understanding and affection for them like Eliot has. If you enjoyed this book, and are reading this review, I recommend the movie 'Kandahar': a remarkable portrayal of some of the life Eliot describes. Will Eliot write another book that is close to as good as this one someday? I don't know, but I am waiting expectantly.
Rating:
Summary: I wish I could rate it more highly...
Review: THis is quite simply the best travel book I have ever read in a 15 year love affair with travel writing. In actual fact, to describe this as travel writing is a misnomer. Elliot does not 'travel' in Afghanistan, he experiences it. For a first attempt at writing, Elliot shows that he is a very gifted individual indeed and time and again captures Afghanistan and its ironies exceptionally.
One section will remain with me for life, it moved me so deeply. When faced with yet another life threatening situation and having experienced a day which demanded all his resources emotionally, he receives a letter from his sister. In it she describes her ordeal of successfully matching the carpets and curtains of suburbia. The futility is poignant and sends clear and powerful messages about what is really valuable in life.
Rating:
Summary: Awesome
Review: This is the best book about travelling that I have ever read. It really encapsulates the feelings one has when living (as a backpacker) for an extended period in a foreign country. I have read many books on Afghanistan from miltary history to great game literature to the modern day problems and this is the only book I have found which has a positive outlook. He cuts through all of the politics and mass media rhetoric and tells the human story. Elliot has such a great sense of humour and it runs in currents throughout the book. I loved this book and I will definitely read it again. We need more authors out there who can see the good in everyone -- the fact that we are all human beings and we share the fundamental hopes, joys and humour of life.
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