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| Plot Summary of The Bookseller of Kabul |
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"In The Bookseller of Kabul, Asne Seierstad tries to answer the question: What kind of lives do Afghani men, women and children lead after the fall of the Taliban? She does this through a case study of one family. Economically, the Khans are not a typical Afghani family. The head, Sultan, owns bookstores in the country's capitol, and he is modestly wealthy. When the author, Asne Seierstad, first meets him, she is impressed by his seemingly liberal way of thinking, especially with respect to women. Seierstad thinks she might have struck a cultural anomaly in the male-dominated Afghan society and arranges to live with Sultan and his family to develop her story on life in Afghanistan.
During her four month stay with the Khans, Seierstad interviewed dozens of family members, went on a religious pilgrimage, and attended weddings . Through her interviews and experiences, she found that her first impression of Sultan was somewhat incorrect. While Sultan generally supposed women's rights, capitolism and other social liberties in his conversations with outsiders, he still keeps a firm, patriarchial grip on his family. Despite being wealthier that most Afghanis, Sultan refuses to send his sons to school, and instead forces them to work at his bookstore. He marries a second wife and exiled his
first wife to Pakistan where she had to live alone and keep his second house. Sultan's ruling arm also extended over his youngest sister, Lelia, whom he keeps in his home as a servant.
Each chapter of The Bookseller of Kabul focuses on a different member of the Khan family or a different event in the family's collective life. Through these individual stories, Seierstad creates her collage of what it is like to be a man, woman or child in Kabul, Afghanistan."
, Resident Scholar
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| Review Analysis of The Bookseller of Kabul |
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Our unique search engine provides a wealth of detail about books by breaking them down into many different literary elements, all of which are searchable (click here).
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Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot
Ethnic/Relig. of subject (inside)
- Arab
Gender/Class story?
- woman's story
If this is a culture clash:
- visiting a different culture
Ethnic/regional/gender
Yes
ethnic of society (outside)
- Arab
Subject of Biography
Gender
- Male
Profession/status:
- business executive
Age:
- 40's-50's
Ethnicity
- Other Asian
How sensitive is this person?
- mean, arrogant
Sense of humor
- Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence
- Average intelligence
Setting
How much descriptions of surroundings?
- 3 (some)
Asia/Pacific
Yes
Asian country:
- The 'stans
City?
Yes
Century:
- 1980's-Present
Style
Person
- mostly 3rd
Accounts of torture and death?
- no torture/death
Book makes you feel?
- thoughtful
Commentary on society?
Yes
Commentary on
- love/sex
- selfishness
- wicked men
- religion
Writer's slant towards subject:
- neutral
Story of entire life, or part?
- story of set of events during life
Is this a biography of several people?
Yes
Pictures/Illustrations?
- None
How much dialogue in bio?
- significantly more descript than dialog
How much of bio focuses on most famous period of life?
- 51%-75% of book
How much is philosophy rather than life story?
- 0-25% of book
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Note: the views expressed here are only those of the reviewer(s). | |
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