Customer Reviews

American Taliban: A Novel

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Pearl Abraham's powerful novel "American Taliban" is the story of John Jude Parish, turned 19 years old during the course of the book, a scion of privilege, and sole offspring of well-educated, liberal, east coast parents Bill and Barbara Parish. In a story inspired by the real life drama of John Walker Lindh, John Jude, named after Barbara's favorite Beatle and a Beatle song, embraces Islam and takes that to the limit. He winds up with the Taliban in the wilds of Afghanistan.
Abraham deals with major concerns of consciousness, spirituality, and world views in this incisely written tale. John embodies post-modern mentality at the story's beginning, as he loves his Dylan, his Emerson, and his Tao Te Ching, while also talking Muslim spirituality with strangers in a chat room. He loves to surf off the Outer Banks of North Carolina, where he and his pals Katie, Sylvie and Jilly explore the razor's edge of extreme sports with existential aplomb. With his post-modern openness to the truths of all wisdom traditions, he begins to plumb the depths of Islam, and to study classical Arabic, moving to Brooklyn to do so after a broken leg cuts his surfing summer short. His parents support this move, not troubled by the fact that, in his openness, John is beginning to embrace a traditional worldview--a gorgeous, intricate, deeply moving and transcendent sectarian perspective. Sectarian perspective, as in, not open, and propounding the belief that theirs is vastly superior to other faiths.
John, with his romantic, 19th century notion of travelling faraway lands in quest of self-transcendance, leaves his dual love interests in America, and heads off for a summer of study in Pakistan. He is taking his spiritual quest more and more seriously, with a seed of fanaticism expressed in the idea that submission leads to freedom. He is onto something profound, the discovery of the highest self through prayer. He is an ardent student of the Qu'ran and Muslim poetry. He begins to explore his newfound bisexuality. A sensitive reader becomes nervous when an esteemed orator addresses John's Pakistani school with praise for the superior intelligence of the Qu'ran, vis a vis the Bible.
A tragedy occurs back in the States. John is distraught, and it is suggested that he recuperate by taking some rest and relaxation in a camp away from the school, in the hills. This camp is military in focus, and John's break morphs into boot camp.
Abraham does a stellar job of slowly, almost imperceptibly, allowing her character to drift into bad decisions, in the realm of relative, political, truth, while pursuing his absolute ideals. September 11, 2001 occurs while John is on the move with the young men who are the Taliban. Beneath the veil of a largely unknown geopolitical history, and the ugly legacy of Western malfeasance, in the language of religious fanaticism, the Taliban persuade John to take up arms against his own country. John is so caught up in the beauty of the mystical pursuit, and the idea of salvation through annihilation, that he fails to distinguish between profundity and propaganda. His quest for high consciousness is an extreme sport of the most exalted order, but is contaminated by naivete. He's 19 years old, and his new comrades are similarly aged. They enjoy the freedom of having conquered the fear of death. They take up arms and march into a firestorm.
"American Taliban" had me weeping in the final pages. Barbara Parish, John's "force of nature" mother, a Freudian analyst by profession, goes through a cauldron of emotion, and to read about her doing so is harrowing. But, in the denouement, Abraham breaks through to an electrifying level of writing, intoning "There is only becoming. Being doesn't exist" as Barbara's brutally-wrought epiphany, uncovered as she finds a spiritual connection with her son. It's the reader's epiphany, too.

The young impassioned seeker is one of Pearl Abraham's quintessential subjects, and in John Jude she has created an extraordinary hero uniquely of our time. Previous readers of her work will recognize Abraham's intimate, fiercely intelligent style which carries this tale as a wave carries a surfer, with an intensity that is almost surreal.

Pearl Abraham has done something interesting with the notion of how a smart, young American could find himself in the thrall of enemy combat camps. She's made her story one of belief and of the strong parallels that lie at the foundation of disparate spiritual views.

Her soul surfer John Jude wants to give himself over to something more, something greater. Abraham introduces the reader to this idea early when John Jude finds himself under the waves and in no hurry to surface while he takes in the whole of the experience. He finds ideas that touch upon this in Sufism and pursues his growing interest in Islam with that all-encompassing verve of an 18-year-old, all along idolizing the great English explorer Richard Burton. What he does the farther he goes is believable, frustrating, endearing and frightening, just like a teenager can be. Just like parents hope they won't be.

Abraham has written a book that is both a good story and challenging, insightful read.

Is it just me? Or is anyone else wondering what happened to John? The book was riveting right up until the last page, I will give it that. The story of John was plausible, and I read with baited breath to discover where his amazing journey took him. Having said that, it seems to me that Ms. Abraham forgot to add the last chapter. The chapter that would tell what ever became of John. The telling of his journey ended abruptly, too abruptly for me to feel even slightly satisfied. I feel cheated. I invested my time and energy into John, and then poof! He was nowhere to be found. Big. Fat. Disappointment.

I liked the idea behind this novel -- what would lead a privileged young American to join the Taliban? -- much more than the novel itself. The early sections of the book are quite convincing but as John Jude begins his transformation from surfer to Taliban the story becomes ever less credible.

Still, I read to the end wanting to know how it all turned out. But it seems Ms. Abraham became bored with her hero as well and no resolution is provided.

Disappointing overall.

Pearl is a good story teller and she accurately captures how an 18-year-old's intuition does not match up to his belief that he's indestructible. What I like most about this book is the simple truth that our decisions take us on paths we may never expect to travel and that there can be consequences that are beyond our present-day understanding.

It is August 2000, and John Jude Parish, an 18 year old American surfer, skater and lover of philosophy, breaks his leg while skating. A year later we find him in a training camp in Pakistan, ready to join the armed forces of the Taliban in Afghanistan. How can an all American surfer, who is into Bob Dylan, Walt Whitman and Hegel, have radicalized in such a short time? Pearl Abraham crawls inside the head of a teenager who is searching for spirituality, beauty and purity in his life, and who slowly sacrifices his identity to become part of a bigger whole. The writer surprisingly and effectively changes gears and perspective in the final part of the novel, when we see the mother's struggle to understand her son, giving it an emotional resonance. A heartfelt ending to an intellectual pageturner, that not only manages to make John Jude's huge leap plausible, but also makes you think, long after you've put down the novel.

American Taliban is on one level a vivid portrayal of external landscapes: the unique coastal areas of Atlantic America and the far off mountains of Pakistan and Afghanistan with their underlying philosophical and cultural strata. John Jude Parish, an American young man--and what parents would not praise God or fortune for such a son?--moves gradually and alarmingly between these two terrains, perhaps unexpectedly given his upbringing, but with an inexorable internal spiritual logic. John Jude and his mother Barbara are wonderfully depicted characters the reader will not forget and cannot afford to ignore. This is a marvelous book.

American Taliban follows the journey of an American surfer boy, thoughtful, idealistic and intellectually open, from the Outer Banks of North Carolina to his gradual fascination with Arabic, with the language, the culture, and the philosophy of Islam. Pearl Abraham brilliantly connects John's romance with Islam to the 19th century orientalists' journeys, like those of explorer Richard Burton, who fell in love with the East's spirituality and sensuality. In her hands, John's quest is not only completely understandable, but romantic, intellectually thrilling and profoundly moving. Unfortunately for him and his family, his journey of exploration and self-discovery collides with 9/11 and the hard reality of geopolitics...

I was very excited to read this book when I first discovered it. I am impressed with Pearl Abraham's effort, education, experience and ability to composite.

I was a bit surprised how quickly the character transitioned from a female dominated world to an immersion into Islam and men. However, human nature can be complex so the reader should go with it.

Pearl Abraham is cool and smart. She knows a lot: surfing, skateboarding, the arabic language. I enjoyed dipping into these topics; her approach is fresh and she composites her main character based on her idea of his obsessions and life experience.

The ending makes complete sense and John's mother transcends. A rebirth. He lives through her, that is meaning I received and it was enlightening, upbeat and clear.