Customer Reviews

The Sewing Circles of Herat: A Personal Voyage Through Afghanistan

5 star:		(16)
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3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
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Christina Lamb's book "The Sewing Circles of Herat" personalizes Afghanistan. In her book, you learn and eventually care about many of the colorful figures of this country. She introduces you to a former Taliban member who details the way he tortured individuals; a rising politician who is descended from Afghan nobility; the widow of the last individual executed by the Taliban who had her first child at the age of 14.

Lamb also takes care in noting the efforts of so many individuals in preserving the country's literary, social and political traditions in secret during the rule of the Taliban. The book's title refers to a group of female writers who kept meeting during the Taliban's time under the pretense of attending meetings of their "sewing circles."

Lamb's book does have some flaws. "The Sewing Circles of Herat" is beautifully reported with many rich details which enliven her stories. However beautiful reporting does not necessarily translate to well written or a strong narrative. In many respects, the book is a series of disparate accounts of Lamb's encounters with various citizens of Afghanistan soon after September 11th. She does not weave overriding themes or carry one strong narrative viewpoint throughout the book.

Still I highly recommend this book for individuals who wish to learn more about Afghanistan or simply want to read a well reported book on a very misunderstood country.

There are many good books now offering us insight into Afghanistan and Pakistan, but even the best of them -- like Carpet Wars -- are by men and almost all the people they meet and talk about are men -- not surprisingly, given where they are. Christina Lamb has been in Afghanistan and nearby Pakistan over a period of decades. Her writing is clear, direct, and sympathetic to the people she's known there for many years, including Hamid Karzai. The people she meets -- and re-meets -- along the way become part of her story which humanizes the the local situations she describes. Top notch!

Christine Lamb's book, "Sewing Circles of Herat" is an interesting and enlightening book about the problems Afghanistan has gone through for centuries. Her primary focus is on the last fifteen or so years. Ms. Lamb is a journalist who reports on Afghanistan, not as a reporter reporting a story, but as a participant in some of the events that occurred in the country. The book, while very interesting reading, was a little misleading in its title. I expected to find more written about the amazing women in Afghanistan who braved the wrath of the Taliban by holding secret study groups under the disguise of sewing circles. While there were many interesting stories laid out for the reader, the one about the sewing circles was just a small sample of what women went through during the Taliban years. However, the overall book was good and if your knowledge of Afghanistan is limited, this is the book to read. It provides true stories of everyday life in a country as unforgiving as its soldiers. Interspersed with the stories are some historical facts which help the reader to understand some of the politics behind the Afghanistan of today.

Reading THE SEWING CIRCLES OF HERAT is like embarking on a personal tour through Afghanistan's history, culture, and geography. Christina Lamb brings this complex and misunderstood country to vivid life. Most books in this genre attempt to tell the story from the outside-looking-in perspective but Lamb's extensive knowledge of Afghani history, people, and conflict results in a virtual first-hand account of this troubled nation.

Lamb first became acquainted with Afghanistan while covering the war between the mujaheddin and the Soviets for two years as a foreign correspondent. During this time she made many friendships and allies with the mullahs and possessed a deep appreciation and sympathy for Afghanistan that continued even after she returned home to London. Twelve years later Lamb returned to Afghanistan once again as a foreign correspondent after the media obsession with September 11th and the hunt for Osama bin Laden. It became apparent quite early that Afghanistan has suffered dearly as a result of the rise and fall of the Taliban. As Lamb travels throughout the country she blends her extensive knowledge of Afghani history and culture with her current observations. Most interestingly she was able to interview a former Taliban torturer, tour a madrassa (religious school) that is credited for educating such figures as Mullah Omar, and speak with her long-term friend Hamid Karzai who is now the appointed leader of Afghanistan.

Lamb's observations into the people and conflicts of Afghanistan are insightful and very interesting. After reading this I now have a renewed since of this country and am more understanding of current events. I especially appreciated all the photos that were included throughout the text. With the exception of frequent run-on sentences Lamb's prose is remarkable and very clear. She has the ability to make her subject matter come alive and I was continually interested throughout.

Highly recommended.

Not knowing Christina Lamb's reputation as an award-winning, hardcore journalist, I started this book expecting it to explore the domestic arts and social conditions of women in this regional center of Afghanistan. Wrong. Couldn't be more wrong. This is a hard-hitting look at the combined political, military, and religious forces that over the last three decades have shattered this country.

Not that Afghanistan was ever a peaceable kingdom, its brief periods of relative calm punctuated over 5000 years with invasions, occupations, and bloody fraternal warfare, characterized by extremes of brutality. And Lamb's book provides plenty of historical background in this regard. However, the tragedy of modern-day Afghanistan as spelled out in detail here is sometimes traumatizing. Lamb ventures obsessively and heart stoppingly into the pitch of battle, traveling now with mujaheddin fighters during the last months of the Soviet Occupation and later, on her own, to Herat, Kandahar, and Kabul at the end of the Taliban regime. She interviews military commanders, along with Hamid Karzai, two high-ranking Taliban on the run and the former director of Pakistan's ISI, which used a massive infusion of capital from both the CIA and Osama bin Laden to arm and mastermind the mujaheddin resistance.

Meanwhile, in her interviews with both combatants and noncombatants, we see the human cost of warfare of which the Taliban for all their excesses are only partly to blame. The loss has been inconceivable, as Lamb describes it - the dead, the tortured and maimed, the devastated cities, countless uncharted mine fields, a destroyed cultural heritage, and the impact on a whole generation who have grown up with war; the list is endless. Lamb doesn't pull her punches. It's clear that whatever foreign hands have touched Afghanistan - always in their own "interest" - they have left a proud country with a rich culture in ruins. And as today's headlines continue to reveal, that process seems far from over.

Also recommended: Jason Eliot's Afghanistan travelogue, "An Unexpected Light," and E. M. Hirsch's novel "Kabul."

Over the years, there have been many writers (mostly British for some reason) who travel the world, writing about what they see and who they meet. They usually sprinkle the story of their travels with bits of trivia, anecdotes of inconveniences they encounter, accounts of recent events from people they meet, and brief historical accounts of the areas they visit. Among the past figures who have written in this vein are Rebecca West (Black Lamb, Grey Falcon) and (more recently) Paul Theroux. Christina Lamb, a British journalist, apparently aspires to membership in this group: if this book is any indication, she should be a shoo-in.

Lamb travelled to Afghanistan in the late 80s and spent a couple of years there as a correspondent. She made friends with various mujaheddin who were fighting against the Soviets and their Communist allies. She spent a good deal of time with a group that she knew as the "Mullahs on Motorbikes," a bunch of religious fanatics who were fearless in their opposition to the Communist regime. These fighters later morphed into the Taliban (which name merely means religious students in Pashto) and ran the country. Though she didn't ever meet Mullah Omar, their leader, she was acquainted with several of his important subordinates. She was also rather close to Hamid Karzai, who's now the President of the country.

Fast forward 12 or so years. Lamb has done other things (she mentions at one point visiting the Amazon rainforest), but when 9/11 happens, she decides to return to Afghanistan and see if she can meet her old friends and acquaintances, and catch up on what's been going on since, and what's likely to happen in the future. She visits Herat (where the sewing circles were literature classes for women, banned by the Taliban and so disguised) and other cities in Afghanistan, and also travels around Pakistan interviewing people who were involved in Afghan politics in the last 15 years or so.

The result is a sort of a stew of everything you might expect to read in such a book. From stories of kites being banned, and why, to the fellow trying to wash the blood out of the ground at the Kabul football stadium, to the poet who resisted the Taliban by writing subversive poetry, and the fellow who owns the only convertible car in Kabul, this is a somewhat whimsical tour of a war-ravvaged country full of people who are scarred, wounded, and yet strangely optimistic. It's illustrated with photos (some by the author, some by a photographer she took with her on her second trip, and a few by others) that are throughout the book, and also in an illustration section in the center. It isn't well-organized, and Lamb's eccentric British prose might be a bit jarring to American ears, but the overall result is quite entertaining, and frankly rather informative at the same time. I highly enjoyed this book, and would recommend it.

Though this book was at times hard to follow (mostly dates of trips, return trips, interviews and return intervies) it was an excellent read. Difficult to put down, journalist Christina Lamb compels the reader forward with a prose that rivals many novels. A non-american perspective also helps portray a realistic and empathetic look at past and current Afghanistan issues while adding some historical data I find useful in following the situation today. I highly recommend.

The Sewing Circles of Herat helps to bring today's Afghanistan into a clearer perspective. Christina Lamb lets the reader better see the faces and hearts of many who have been, to most westerners, simply names mentioned when Afghanistan was bigger TV pull. Lamb brings to light, through sharing her own experience, the personal and political struggle of the people of Afghanistan. Through her, the reader is able to get closer to the individual stories of strength and sorrow. She introduces warlords and foot soldiers, and through her they become real people. It is too easy to sit back and watch the newscasts, to turn them off and forget. In knowing more about the people involved, it is harder to forget.

Lamb does not tell an entertaining tale. She reports her own fascinating experience, and she reports it well. She gives the reader the details. She shares her deep love for a people, culture and county, and through her writing she allows the reader to share some of the sadness and joy with her. Above all the reader learns, of history, heroism, bravery, and caring. Lamb helps the reader see the landscape of Afghanistan in years past and now. And the reader, through Lamb, mourns the loss of what was Afghanistan, and hopes for what its people might have in the future.

I found the book The Sewing Circles of Herat to be historically very informative. The book showed a map at the beginning which it was helpful to keep referring to in order to keep in mind where the towns were located. There were also alot of photographs in the book which gave a good impression of how people looked. I really understood the change that all the unrest in Afghanistan had wrought on both the people and the country. I enjoyed the book very much.

This is an intensely personal encounter of the author with old friends and some not-so-friendly people in Afghanistan. A must read for understanding the deep cultural roots of conflict in the region.