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| The Sleeping Buddha | 
 enlarge | Author: Hamida Ghafour
Publisher: Constable
Category: Book
List Price: £8.99
Buy Used: £2.48
You Save: £6.51 (72%)
New (27) from £3.81
Avg. Customer Rating:  8 reviews
Sales Rank: 27267
Media: Paperback
Pages: 336
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 5.1 x 1
ISBN: 1845293134
EAN: 9781845293130
ASIN: 1845293134
Publication Date: March 29, 2007
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Condition: Paperback in good condition - dispatched daily form UK, in a Jiffy Bag for protection
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| Customer Reviews:
| Showing reviews 6-8 of 8 | | « PREV | | |
 A captivating read .. June 4, 2007
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
You can sink your teeth into the politics and discover a true understanding of how Afghanistan came to be...but the parts that resonated the most for me were Hamida's descriptions of the food and the people. The food's preparation, always seasonal, firey spiced or chilled just left me searching for the nearest Afghan restaurant. And the insight into the people - their tribal culture, mannerisms, hopes, thinking, successes and humour was rich, insightful and rewarding. Best of all is her story, how she fits into this land, and discovers the part of her that is Afghanistan.
Essential reading - forget everything you thought you knew about Afghanistan and read this. June 1, 2007
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
The tragedy of Afghanistan is expertly told through a combination of family memoirs and the eyes of the ordinary Afghans, whom Ghafour meets whilst travelling through the land of her birth. The author left the country when she was a child and it would have been all too easy for her own opinions and beliefs to cloud the narrative - rather she lets the people she meets tell the story and you get a sense of a nation tired of continual conflict and wanting the same security, same opportunities and same prosperity as the rest of us.
Time and time again we learn how Afghanistan has been abused by invading cultures and countries, and it is testament to the people's courage and resilience that the book is peppered with ambitious hopes and dreams; both you and the author can't help but wish them well. By the end you get a sense of the total lack of understanding (and unwillingness to learn) that the west has for the country and the culture, prefering to impose it's own ideas of freedom and democracy at any cost; creating a 'Disney-esque' version of what Afghanistan should be. Again Ghafour lets us discover this for ourselves and the book is all the better for it.
This book should be added to the libraries of The White House, the Kremlin and Downing St; and should be made compulsory reading for all those you claim to understand, influence or implement foreign policy in the region.
A must read book April 18, 2007
14 out of 14 found this review helpful
Books about Afghanistan are often seen to be dire and tedious but be ready to put aside those stereotypes with Hamida's wonderfully evocative memoir. I was unable to put it down and shared each step of the journey with her.
At last a book that acknowledges that there are two sides to every story. Hamida manages to present a fair and accurate picture of an oppressed nation that has been so often demonised in Western Media. At the end of the day, her story shows that behind the headlines, the Afghans are no different from any other nation.
Hamida does not patronise nor pass judgement, she simply observes. The power of the story lies in the ordinariness of Afghan life; they are ordinary people trying to lead an ordinary life under extraordinary conditions.
It is a timely book that goes a long way to explaining how the world has arrived at what is euphemisticaly called a 'clash of civilisations'.
A must read for anyone wanting to understanding the extraordinary juncture of history at which we find ourselves.
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