A Thousand Rooms of Dream and Fear

In Kabul in 1979 Farhad, a 21-year-old university student, is out after curfew to celebrate a friend’s imminent escape to Pakistan. After suffering a vicious beating by soldiers on patrol, a mysterious and brave woman rescues the unconscious Farhad from the sewer. A Thousand Rooms of Dream and Fear consists of Farhad’s splintered memories and dreams mixed with his brief moments of lucidity as Fahad slowly returns to awareness. A Thousand Rooms of Dream and Fear is a disturbing and masterful depiction of the harrowing circumstances suffered by both men and women in war-torn Afghanistan. ( )

When Jenn and Nicole announced their Book Club, I was excited to participate. Their first selection was A Thousand Rooms of Dreams and Fear by Atiq Rahimi and published by Other Press. The cover is beautiful and the premise, a young man on the run from the Afghani government in 1979 was even more intriguing. It is a short book, but don’t let that fool you. It is a deep and intense reading experience.

When we first meet Farhad, he believes he is dying in his room and he cannot get his family to hear or help him. His mind runs to his fears of the afterlife and he tries to dispel the ghosts he believes are torturing him by using the superstitious prayers his grandfather taught him. What he doesn’t remember was the beating he received the night before, out on the streets. Slowly, his situation and his unfamiliar location become clear to him. Then, new fears and worries take hold.

There was definitely something lost in the translation with Rahimi’s novel. First, I’m not from the same or even similar cultures or religious traditions, so I could almost feel subtext and dialog fly over my head. Also, I believe there was a lot of beauty in the author’s writing that is missed by English speaking readers. There was something about the structure that made me feel that way. It’s not that I took issue with the translators themselves. There are just some differences in languages that can’t be translated.

For all the cultural distance, I could very much relate to Farhad on a personal level. His gut reaction to imminent death is the strongest example. My religious views have been in conflict since I moved away from home, if not even before. With the current exception of attending Mass (mostly) weekly and seeing to my daughters’ religious education, there’s nothing else there. Despite the fact that I can’t much be motivated to do much more than provide my children some semblance of religious tradition within my day to day life, I would worry about going to hell if I thought the end was nigh. We're worlds apart, Farhad and me, but his experience shed light on my own soul.

A Thousand Rooms of Dreams and Fear is a book I may not have otherwise read had it not been for Book Club. I am glad that I had the opportunity to read outside of my ordinary selections. I read it at the perfect time in my life, making it a rewarding read. I don't know that this is a novel for everyone, but it certainly made an impact on me. ( )

http://www.bostonbibliophile.com/2011/04/review-thousand-rooms-of-dream-and-fear... ( )

I walk into the lecture theater. Above the huge blackboard they’ve rigged up a red banner on which a famous slogan has been written in white:

If I do not stand up,
If you do not stand up,
If he does not stand up,
Then who will light a torch in the midst of this darkness?

- from A Thousand Rooms of Dream and Fear, page 92 -

Farhad is a young college student living in Kabul in 1979 during the early days of the pro-Soviet coup. He has been out drinking with a friend whose politics are against the current government. Farhad doesn’t realize it, but his association with this friend and his stumbling into the path of a group of soldiers on his way home will change his life forever. He is brutally beaten by the soldiers and left laying in a sewer. As he drifts in and out of consciousness he remembers the words of his religious grandfather and is confused by the presence of a woman and her son who drag Farhad into their home to hide him from the soldiers who come back looking for him.

What is going on? What could possibly explain this confusion? Why does this night never come to an end? Who were those soldiers and why did they stop and question me? How did I end up her, with this woman and child? Why does she call me “Brother” and he calls me “Father?” - from A Thousand Rooms of Dream and Fear, page 36 -

A Thousand Rooms of Dream and Fear takes place over a period of a couple of days and is written from the limited point of view of Farhad. The protagonist finds himself inexplicably attracted to Mahnaz, the beautiful and widowed woman who becomes his savior. Love for her is clearly prohibited (even being in her home would be seen as a crime), yet Farhad fantasizes about taking Mahnaz away from the difficulties in Afghanistan and marrying her.

I’ve never felt this close to a woman before apart from my mother and Parwaneh. I’ve never been part of another woman’s life. No other woman has ever entered my consciousness like this. In the space of just one night, I have gone through a thousand different emotions with this woman, as though something momentous has happened between us. She has given me shelter. My life is in her hands. It is hers. – from A Thousand Rooms of Dream and Fear, page 100 -

Atiq Rahimi’s writing is simple, yet beautiful in its stark language. There is a strong theme about women’s roles in Afghanistan as mothers and wives: Farhad’s mother leaves him with her veil hiding her grief, Mahnaz ministers to her damaged brother by offering him her breast for comfort yet hides her face from Farhad in the shadows of her hair. Rahimi uses strong imagery and symbolism in this novella – Mahnaz and her son offer him grapes and the image of grapes is repeated again and again (grapes can symbolize blood and sacrifice) and Farhad continually notes the red and black colors woven into a rug (the black stripe in the Afghanistan flag represents the darkness of the past history of Afghanistan, while the red stripe represents blood shed and war in the history of Afghanistan). The political unrest during this period of Afghanistan history informs the novella from start to finish by giving the reader dramatic and disturbing images of a country in terror.

What else can you call those moments of nameless terror other than “annihilation?” Those moments when you begin to doubt your very existence. When you’re so paralyzed with fear that you turn to fantasies for reassurance, to imaginary women, to dijinn, to angels, to life after death … – from A Thousand Rooms of Dream and Fear, page 83 -

A Thousand Rooms of Dream and Fear is a complex story despite its short length (less than 150 pages). I appreciated Rahimi’s use of language and imagery, although I feel like I missed some of the underlying meaning in the novella. Students of Afghanistan history will likely be able to tease even more out of this book than I have. Luckily, I am participating in a discussion of this book on January 25th in the inaugural meeting of BOOK CLUB and I hope to gain even more insight into this beautifully wrought translation.

I’ll leave you with a quote from the book which I loved as it seems to imply that we are in great need of others, and without our connection to others, we must rely only on ourselves to survive.

"If you meet someone on your journey, grab him by the scruff of the neck and hang on!”

The dervish is getting fainter. The sound of his voice roots me to the spot.

“And if you never meet anyone…then hang on to yourself!” - from A Thousand Rooms of Dream and Fear, page 143 -

Readers who enjoy translated literary fiction, and who are drawn to poetic writing, will want to pick up a copy of Rahimi’s book.

Highly recommended. ( )

I got this book right before Christmas and I thought I read it quickly before the holidays. It is a small book, 147 pages, some pages a mere few sentences. Great, I thought, a quick read and then I can reread it when I joined Nicole @ Linus’s Blanket and Jen @ Devourer of Books for their online book club in January. I sat down to breeze through it and took a quick one two punch to the gut. This was not going to be a simple quick read.

I started this book as lost and confused as Farhad. I wasn’t sure what was going on, what was real, what had happened. Just like Farhad. As the story became more clear I was devastated by the horror of the world where Farhad and Mahnaz exist. It’s hard to call it living. I knew a little of what was happening in Afghanistan during this period and found myself online trying to put the story in some context. Let’s just say things have never really been easy there.

But to only see the brutality in this book is to miss what Atiq Rahimi has done. This is a beautiful story, with beautiful language. I like a good wordy book, I’m not afraid of lots of words in a novel. But there is nothing lost in the brevity of this book. Every word is used to it’s utmost power. It makes me appreciate the statement less is more.

It would be wrong not to mention the translators. I’ve read plenty of translated books in my time and I’m always struck by what an act of bravery and faith it is for both author and translator. It’s one thing if it were a novel of nothing but declarative sentences. If you had a story of nothing but “The dog is brown” heck, I could do that. But how do you translate poetry and ideas, nuances made with such a light touch you need a magnifying glass to see them? Some languages must be easier than others, where there are easy word for word translations. But to capture to beauty and meaning between to diverse languages. What an art. And then when you consider you have so few words to carry the point, this was an amazing accomplishment.

I had so many thought about this story and can’t wait until January 25 to discuss it with Nicole, Jen, and everyone else who read this.

Also, don’t think you need to know the history of the region or time period. It won’t be hard to understand the world in which these people live. This picture is drawn so clearly you should have no problem understanding.

I received this copy from Other Press through Nicole @ Linus’s Blanket in anticipation of the online book club she is hosting with Jen @ Devourer of Books. ( )