The Sewing Circles of Herat: A Personal Voyage Through Afghanistan (2002)

Christina Lamb was in Afghanistan in 88-89, and returns in 2001. She covers a bit of Afghan history, mainly from a (sympathetic) Britisher's point of view. She evokes the beauty and culture that once was Afghanistan, the gardens, fruit trees, and birds, the art and literature, especially poetry. And the proud and courageous people. She was in Afghanistan in '88-89, then returns again in 2001. The sewing circles of Herat were literary circles, held in a sewing shop as a cover.
This book drives home the fact that the losses in Afghanistan are the whole world's losses. The bell _is_ tolling for all of us.... ( )

An adventuresome read and an amazing narrative on this ancient and fascinating land, based on the author's sojourns both in pre-Taliban Afghanistan and after the Taliban's fall post-9/11. Lamb does an excellent job of capturing the sights, sounds, smells and feelings of the places and people she encounters. Some of the incidents she relates are hair-raising (e.g., crouching in the trenches with the mujaheddin, drinking mud-puddle water and eating sand-crabs while awaiting a break in enemy fire); others are tragic, poignant, moving, or inspiring -- and not infrequently, all of the above.

Lamb puts a very human face on the country and introduces us to flesh-and-blood people from all walks of life, including mujaheddin, Taliban, government officials, teachers, refugees, museum curators, ordinary families, street people, the old, the young, and more. Afghanistan is a diverse country with an array of ethnic groups, religious sects, and attitudes, and Lamb's writing conveys that clearly. The book also contains a generous serving of the history of the country, which helps to illuminate current situations and events and put them into context.

The book was issued in 2002. It would be interesting to see a follow-up and have Lamb's insights into the current situation.

The book would likely be appreciated by those who have an interest in Afghanistan; by Americans who would like to learn more about a country that looms large in our foreign/military policy, and want to know some of the context behind the current events that fill our newspapers; or by anyone who simply enjoys reading a vivid travel narrative. ( )

This is an interesting story about a female journalist and her relationship with Afghanistan. While later in the book the woman behind the Sewing Circle becomes central to her trip around Herat, it's a background to an unfolding of the horrors that one group of fanatics were capable of inflicting on a people and the normalisation of inhumanity.

If I've taken anything from this story it's that we have to stand up for what we believe in because we are sometimes the only ones who will. Without individual resistance and occasional shining of a light on what we find imcomfortable we may also find ourselves living in a world we hardly recognise, and all "for our own good". ( )

http://amiralace.blogspot.com/2006/08/sewing-circles-of-herat.html ( )