The Bookseller of Kabul by Asne Seierstad

After the fall of the Taliban in November 2001, journalist Asne Seierstad arrives in Kabul, Afghanistan and finds respite in a bookshop. She buys seven books and quickly becomes enchanted with the bookseller Sultan Khan - a rare specimen where three-fourths of the population is illiterate. She decides to invite herself and stay with the family during the following spring of 2002 "because it inspired me."

The daily conditions Seierstad reports on are dismal, but the family members are the have-mores of Afghanistan. Strikingly beautiful written sentences are seldom. Generally, the author writes in a plain, matter-of-fact tone to showcase her observations. For example, Seierstad's take on wearing the burka is a straightforward passage. "How it pinches the head and causes headaches, how difficult it is to see anything through the grille. How enclosed it is, how all the time you have to be aware of where you are walking because you cannot see your feet, what a lot of dirt it picks up, how dirty it is, how much in the way."

The saddest story is how the fledgling Leila, Sultan's daughter, is kept from blooming under the tyranny of a male-dominated society. In fact, Leila is pale and ill due to her lack of Vitamin D caused by insufficient amounts of sunlight. Seierstad states, "Kabul is one of the sunniest towns in the world. The sun shines nearly every day of the year, 6,000 feet above sea level. The sun makes cracks in the earth, dries up what were once moist gardens, burns the children's skin. But Leila never sees it. It never reaches the first-floor flat in Mikroayon, nor behind her burka. Not a single curative ray gets past the grille."

Since the text is simply written, it enables the reader to quickly follow the storyline. But Seierstad's ability to be objective was heavily tested and the author herself admits to being upset by her surroundings. She says, "We shared many good times, but I have rarely been as angry as I was with the Khan family, and I have rarely quarreled as much as I did there. Nor have I had the urge to hit anyone as much as I did there. The same thing was continually provoking me: the manner in which men treated women. The belief in male superiority was so ingrained that it was seldom questioned."

The journalist's Westernized viewpoint and anger towards the Khan family men disabled her ability to see the male character's lives clearly. Also, "The Bookseller of Kabul" is short on Afghanistan history, therefore the reader may come away with the feeling of being confused due to being ignorant of basic Afghanistan history. Despite Seierstad's failings to unfold enough of the country's history for the reader's benefit or delve deeper into the psyche of Afghan men, the book is still is a worthwhile read. In the end, we come away satisified because "The Bookseller of Kabul" envelopes us within the women's struggle and a culture the Western world seldom experiences within such intimate reportage.