Gretchen Peters

Highly recommend, very interesting story. I found it was a little hard to follow some of the twists and turns and jumps from place to place so I read it twice and found it much more coherent the 2nd go-around.

This is the author's opinion and theory, and so it could be true/not true or partly true but, regardless, the story of the "regular folk" in that neck of the world really individualizes the Afghanies to me. We - USA born folk, often generalize about Middle Easterners being all one way or the other... I tend to do that too, because that's all I hear and see on the news, but this book turned what, for me, was a monolithic group into millions of individuals with individual concerns and lives. I'm not sure I feel comfortable yet with them and I'm really impressed that the author felt (relatively) comfortable moving about in that world, but I hope I look at the problems in the Middle East through a more individualistic lens rather than lumping them all together. If I'm able to do that, it'll be partly (mostly?) due to this book. Highly recommend.… (més)

This is unquestionably an important topic, but the book doesn't do it justice. The narrative meanders around in circles, repeating points both major and minor; the reader is left to drown in detail. As someone who has been following the news, little of this felt new or surprising to me; I'm sure that some of the details were specific to this book, but they weren't set apart or highlighted in such a way that I could appreciate them. Ultimately, it read like a long -- a very long -- newswire story, without enough life or color to bring the story and color alive. A good narrative nonfiction book finds a way to organize its material and make it compelling; this one doesn't.… (més)