Kristin Ohlson

The details about life in Afghanistan, stories of the women who survived the war with Russia and the rule of the Taliban are interesting and informative. But there is much that is perplexing and even disingenuous. The author sleep walks into an arranged marriage with a man who already has a wife and children in Saudi Arabia. She fixes herself inside this system that has been responsible for the oppressive lives of the women she is there to help. The most potent feeling she can conjure for show more the other wife (who is treated as a servant in the home of their husband's parents) is a squeamishness about her father-in-law's suggestion that they meet. She identifies with many of the women in her school because of her previous marriage to an abusive spouse, and it seems like she would be informed by that experience in the choices that she makes. The sexual abuse of a young girl in her home that happened with Ali, her business partner and house mate, seem inevitable. She puts a stop to it when she witnesses it, regrets the acquaintance, and distances herself from him as soon as she can, but it seems like it went on for months or years before she caught on and wasn't it obvious all along? There were other instances of sexually abusive behavior from a housekeeper, but Debbie kept the woman around and it broke her heart to let her go. The book is more complicated in the questions that it begs than it is as a memoir of an intrepid traveler trying to do some good in the world. It seems like the author's intentions were good, but her motivations and impulses unexamined and maybe even harmful. show less

This is a book that clearly showcases the best intentions of Americans towards those in need of assistance; it also shows just how ill-conceived that aid may be in practice.

Deborah Rodriguez cheerfully admits that she had no useful skills to bring to an aid mission to Afghanistan (other than an overwhelming desire to escape an abusive husband.) That didn't stop her, and she ends up setting up a beauty school for Afghan women. But while she continues to laud the women she is helping, their show more strength, etc., she seems to behave in ways that at best are culturally insensitive and at worst jeopardize the lives of those around her. In one jaw-dropping moment, she even allows herself to marry an Afghan man with whom she can't communicate. (No spoiler; this happens early in the story.) She seems to recognize her foolishness, and giggle at it. But for the Afghans around her, I can't imagine that flippancy was terribly helpful.

There are bits of this which are interesting, but by and large Rodriguez doesn't seem interested enough in the world outside her salon walls to give a thorough picture of the lives of the women she encounters. And I really hope that she has changed identifying details for these women as well as their names, or some of them will find themselves in a world of trouble with their menfolk as a result of what Rodriguez so glibly recounts.

This is no Bookseller of Kabul, Asne Seierstad's book that took a thoughtful look at real life in Kabul; nor is it Stones into Schools, Greg Mortenson's chronicle of building schools for youngsters in the poorest parts of Pakistan, Kashmir and Afghanistan. It's only heartwarming if you can ignore the fact that the real point of these exercises is to transform, in a lasting way, the lives of the people we touch for the better. Based on Rodriguez's behavior, as chronicled here and in the book's afterward, it's unclear that has happened. (I'm also fairly bemused that after spending five years in Kabul, she didn't manage to acquire more in the way of language skills...) It's a book more about Rodriguez and hairdressing than it is about rebuilding the lives of women in an ultra-traditional society riven by decades of violence. And for those without a historical background, the offhand references to Soviet invasions, mujahadeen civil wars, etc. in the pre-Taliban days will just prove confusing.

This doesn't work as a book about current affairs -- it's too narrow. Nor does it work as a memoir, a genre in which the narrator should grow or undergo a transformative experience for the book to be compelling. This may be a colorful and sometimes interesting tale, but it's hard to really like or respect a memoir when you find its narrator to be self-satisfied and sentimental, and not seeming to learn anything over the course of the book. It's like the worst of travel journalism: foreigner goes to 'exotic' place; 'helps' out; talks to 'real local' people and then makes money writing about it. show less

Fascinating, if nothing else. I thought Rodriguez seemed pretty wild, even by American standards. But at the same time her fearlessness and "all-in" approach to life is what suits her for the role of a social entrepreneur in Afghanistan. I don't think a woman with less gumption and resolve could have pulled off this project, or have made the beauty school last for as long as it did. It's very sad that the school closed in 2007, but I don't think it was a poor model for sustainable social show more change.

The version of the book I read came with a set of discussion questions in the back. All but two or three of the questions seem to ask whether or not readers think Debbie is stupid and/or dangerous, and why. Just...what *is* that? show less

An extraordinary experience related in ordinary prose. Rodriguez retells the stories of Afghan women she meets through her work with the Kabul Beauty School. Her own personality and reactions to the culture make for humorous and occasionally unbelievable reading.