Customer Reviews

Come Back to Afghanistan: A California Teenager's Story

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Often when we read a book or see a movie at the same time we run our own life's experiences against the story. In this book the US pre and post 9-11 history is inextricably interlaced with Afghanistan's. They get a 9-11 over and over again. In getting a look how Afghanistan is we also get a bigger look at our current world.

The book is deeply inspiring and sad too. It should be required reading for all high school students. A study question should be where are the woman. Another question should be is why so many of us do not follow our dreams like Hyder does.

Hyder, in finding himself also shows us so much between the lines about Afghanistan and this country's greatness and warts. He is modest about his real contributions leaving that for the dust jacket.

Yesterday a friend asked what I was reading.

I just finished 'Come Back to Afghanistan: My Journey from California to Kabul' written by Said Hyder Akbar, a 20-year old college student in California. Like many others, Akbar's story is a migrating one - from Afghanistan to Pakistan, India, and then the USA.

When the Taliban were ousted in 2001, Akbar's father, a long time friend of President Hamid Karzai decided to go back to Afghanistan. Akbar started coming with him on his school and college breaks, and got back in touch with his country that he had left a long time ago. It's a homecoming of sorts.

The book is brilliant. Written with the assistance of journalist Susan Brunton, Akbar takes us into corners and niches that few books on Afghanistan do. It is deeply personal and highly political without the usual history, geography or other details. Born in Afghanistan and raised in the US, Akbar is able to straddle both countries and regions. He neither despairs nor scoffs at anyone or anytime. His writing is passionate, gentle and unassuming.

Akbar's goal in Afghanistan is to be with his father and get to know his country. He travels with, among other things, a tape recorder, and makes programmes for National Pubic Radio in California. He interviews the person in the highest office - President Karzai - as well as his driver, Sartor. He listens to everyone and judges none. During the two years he goes back and forth, Akbar's brother and mother visit Afghanistan. His father is appointed as the Governor of the province of Kunar, a remote and troubled area, where the family collects and lives together.

Through sickness and health Akbar goes through the journeys he charts for himself. His writing is sensitive and engaging. It never strays or lags. It is clear that he loves Afghanistan, is sensing what his relationship with his old land is, and how it will develop. He is conscious of the contradictions within himself.

When I think about why I liked the book so much, and the experience of reading the book, I feel it its so akin to my time in Afghanistan. Without being able to speak the language (Dari an Pashto), I communicated with those I could, in Urdu, Hindi and English. I reached out to the humanity in them, and they in turn, reached out to mine.

In the final analysis the book is about being reconciled to where we come from. No matter where we are, our multiple identities always call us to the land we were born, and we yearn to return. That has been my experience too.

The book also describes the Afghan situation - the challenges to the Afghan people, the leaders, the donor community and Americans stationed in Afghanistan and back home. It presents everyone's reality. Akbar's strength is his ability to see what is happening, from many perspectives, and present it in a dispassionate way.

In a growing body of literature on Afghanistan, Akbar's will enjoy a place of pride. It's young, passionate, and terribly easy to read.

What a wonderful experience to find a book written by a student at a community college, Diablo Valley College in Pleasant Hill, CA.

What Hyder is experiencing is also what community college students often are after - finding out who they are, where they are supposed to be, looking for those second and third chances.

Hyder's literary voice is already well developed despite his youth, no doubt because of the rich life experience he already has.

I recommend this book to anybody interested not only in uncensored information on what really is going on in Afghanistan, but also to those of of us who are bridging countries and continents by being born in one and living in another.

The beginning of the book where he had talked about the plane parts in the airport, really got me to read it. I had to read a non fiction book for LA, and I chose this book. It looked like an interesting story so I picked it up and read it. I really enjoyed the book but I had some questions for the author. For instance: If you knew what was happening in Afghanistan why did you still choose to go there. I would not have because I wou;d've been afraid to go there and something happen to me. I really liked your writing style and how you described the bombing and crossing into Pakistand. Very good book but it's kind of confusing for me

The most striking thing about this book isn't the age of the author, or even his unique perspective, returning to Afghanistan after September 11, having been raised in California. The most striking thing about this book is that, by the time you have finished reading it, you will care very deeply about what has happened, and IS happening, in Afghanistan. At times very touching and sad, and at other times very funny, this is a very moving, emotionally-charged and honest book.

Wow, this book was magnificent. It reveals Afghanistan in a way that I've never seen before (and I've read about extensively this country), giving the readers great insight into the past and present situation of the country. What I most enjoyed about this book was how, because of the unique and compelling viewpoint from which this story is told, it manages to be an informative and entertaining read at the same time.

Akbar writes with incredible details that help make this often stereotyped land come alive, and his background as an American teenager can make some of his anecdotes surprisingly funny. One of the more memorable parts of the book for me was when Hyder, arriving home having just survived an ambush with American Special Forces, decides to tell his father about what happened and gets reprimanded by his father for cutting off a meeting he was in - it was too trivial an issue, his father thought.

His adventures inside the country make this an exciting read, but what was more appealing for me was how he seems to keep his objectivity throughout his extended stays in Afghanistan. Whether he is talking to Americans or villagers or the President, Akbar doesn't seem to have an agenda and it really comes through in this book.

I definitely recommend this book especially for people who want to obtain a better understanding of Afghanistan, its people, and the current US involvement in the country.

I was intrigued after hearing the author as a special correspondent on NPR's Morning Edition. His insightful recorded journal was riveting. To encourage my 79 year-old mother to keep mentally active, I often buy a second copy of a book for her to read simultaneously and then we discuss the book as we read it. She and I were both very impressed by the maturity and skill of this young author. We had both just finished reading the novel The Kite Runner which is set in Afghanistan. Said does a masterful job of viewing Afghanistan from both the perspective of an American and of a native son which makes the read both enjoyable and enlightening. My mother, who has very limited experience with other cultures and is very conservative, was quite moved by the dilemma of the people of Afghanistan. I think this is a must-read for anyone who wants to have a better global perspective than they are given by the evening news.

Comback to Afghanistan, by Hydar Akbar is unique
because it is an account of a typical American high
school kid who has spent the last 3 summers in
Afghanistan to help out his father who is a friend of
the President of Afghanistan and this book spans the
summers he was 17, 18, 19 respectively. The kid came
here around age 2 and has been totally Northern CA
"Americanized" over in East Bay in Concord area (SFO Bay Area) and had never been to Afghanistan before because he was born
after his family had gotten out, and was born in
Pakistan. Before his first trip over, he was given a mike and lots of tapes to be a teen reporter for a Teen news service. He got better and better equipment including video with each
coming summer.

The first summer was spent in Kabul because his father
was the acting media/press spokesperson for the
President or acting President of Afghanistan. By the
time he returned the next summer, his Dad was now the
Governor of Kunar on the Pakistan Border and by a
military base that has been a military base for
centuries. The Americans are just the most recent
occupants and this is where the Al Quaida go back and
forth over the border up in the mountains between
Pakistan and Afghanistan too.

This kid is fluent in Dari, and Pashtu and American
English with all the slang and he is a little younger
than a lot of the recruits. He begins acting as an
interperter and goes out with the Military to villages
and so on. He is also present at some interrogations
because he is better and faster and in a big sense
more trusted than the hired interpreters who do not
know American English as well as this kid.

I learned more from this book than all the other books
about Afghanistan put together. I can not stress
enough how important this book is for anyone who is
interested in what's been going on in Afghanistan
since the US arrived after the bombings in October
2001.

My own personal opinion is that this kid is actually
older than he is and might not even know it. He is
totally computer/internet/ebay shopping savvy and
before he ever went to Afghanistan he got hold of all
the books he could to learn the past history of it and
wanted to know all the politics through the years and
with this grasp of the past and all the tribal and
cultural differences, he arrived for the first time in
his parents' country with an astute knowledge of the
past, more so than most kids who had never been out of
the USA would have been. His goal is to graduate from
UC Berkeley with a degree in Business, then get his
MBA and depending on the situation in Afghanistan, go
back over and work in that government like his Dad is
doing. (His Dad ran Radio Kabul before the Soviet
Invasion and after until it was totally shut
down,etc.)

In the Afghanistan culture, dates like date of birth,
weeks, months, years, do not mean anything and it comes out at one point in the book that his father routinely had this habit of just making up arbitrary dates when filling out official and/or governmental forms like for immigration. While supposely his mother knew/remembers the actual dates, this is the most mature high school senior I've ever heard of. He gave up his high school prom and graduation with all his friends and classmates because getting over to Afghanistan was more important than that. What usual teen would give up a class trip to some beach/resort locale? He did that too, because getting to Afghanistan was more important. So he might be even older than he realizes; he sure acts like it. What he knows and says just really blows you away as far as your preconceptions about the mind of a
teenager.

He was working as an aide to his father and was given
a lot more responsibility than any other kid would
have been given and he was working with the US
Military to make their lives a lot easier when doing
the translations, etc. A lot of major stuff went down
during his stay and so you have a front seat to this
from this kid's book/memoir.

I highly recommend this book. The others I've read
are all memoirs too and about their families'
struggles under the Soviets/Communists mostly and
their escape to Pakistan and eventual coming to the
USA or Canada and the adjustment there to their new
lives and such. This kid grew up American but had the
Afghanistan languages and cultural norms to be able to
adjust to what life is like today over there and be
able to relate to the Afganis in the villages, etc.
And this one talks about what the Military is doing
overthere too and how they do what they do, too. So
this is the one to read for many reasons.

Hyder is a most exceptional teenager. He speaks English, Dari and Pashtu, and spends his summer vacations helping his father rebuild Afganistan. That he will meet his college language requirement by studying French... as though the world is crying for French translators... is only one anomaly of his eventful young life.

Hyder describes the dangerous, grinding work of rebuilding Afganistan. I hope Young (and Senior)Akbar can keep enthusiasm because their country needs them and they are in a unique position to serve.

I believe there is more consensus in the US for Afgan assistance than almost any issue out there, but Hyder doesn't encounter much reconstruction. Everytime we see the US, it's a military presence, and the encounters are less than desireable.

Failures on the micro level - Soldiers give a village a pipe so that they can build a water supply - Karsai's US bodyguards contradict him in front of others - Hyder's dad, governor of a province, close personal friend of Karsai, father of American citizens, has to be searched to enter a US military base.

On the macro level is the fate of Abdul Wali. It's unclear why he's presumed to have information or to be guilty of something. But, Adbul Wali, father of 15 children, (29 years old?) can't tell us why or how he died in US custody, setting back credibility for the US and Karsai. We meet people who lose loved ones in what is commonly called "collateral damage" or "friendly fire".

We drive with Hyder through roadless places and climb surreptitiously into Pakistan. He recounts the nuances of the first post Taliban Loya Jirga (missling the big point the female reps). We get insight into how a tiny country manages an international media, the appointment processes, how UN workers will accept triage in its voting registration process if local officials let them, the legacy of the comminist era, warlords and notables.

We learn how opportunitsts like Malik Zarin play the US troops like a fiddle... just call your enemies Taliban!

Afganistan only makes headlines when there is an explosion. Where is our tax money going? What do we have to show for the post-Taliban dollars and human lives that have been spent? HOW do we support Karsai, his cabinet and his governors? In this book, the only Americans are in the military or with the press. WHAT are they doing over there?

This book should be required reading for any soldier or official in Afganistan or Iraq and be highly recommended for anyone even thinking about nation building anywhere in the world.

Said Hyder Akbar is a surprisingly strong writer for his age. The way that he leads the reader into this exotic world is amazing. One genuinely gets to feel some of the things that are in the news as far as the conflict near Pakistan's border. Although the book was written in 2006 many of his observations ring true to this day. If you are interested in Afghanistan/Pakistan make sure to read this book becuase it will not dissapoint you.