A Poet and Bin-Laden

In these paranoid times any book with Bin Laden in the title is bound to draw a second glance. And some at least of the Taliban hark back to the eighteenth century effloresence of Urdu and Persian poetry as an example of Islamic culture before its contamination by the west.

But this is not what this dense and complex novel is about. Rather, Ismailov blends reportage, fiction and magic reality to paint a portrait of the impact of the events of 09/11 and the subsequent war in Afghanistan on the peoples of central Asia where corrupt post-Soviet regimes were maintained in power as an act of political expediency by the west.

It is a dispriting story of false friends, arbitrary arrests, the suppression of a cultural life just begining to show more re-establish itself in a post Soviet thaw, and the rise of fundamentalism in central Asia in the post communist ideological vacuum - at times Bulgakov, at times Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

This not the easiest novel to read. But it is an important one. Bounded by Russia to the north, China to the east and Iran to the south,Central asia and Afghanistan have immense strategic significance, yet we know little of this region. This novel lets us understand the impact of the post Soviet changes and the war in Afghanistan on this turbulent region. show less

I wanted to like this book better than I did. It appears to be two things juxtaposed. It's a fictional account of the poet Belgi's flight from Uzbekistan in the late 1990s; he ends up involved with the Taliban in Tasjikistan. This part on its own I might have read and enjoyed for its portrayal of men caught up in politics and the rise of Islamicism. But it is interspersed with (purported? real?) documents (transcripts, press releases, . . .) and I found the form jarring and confusing. Jarring in that the reader is tossed from narrative to dry reports and back again. And confusing because it's hard to tell what is "real" and what is "fiction."

I know this could give rise to interesting discussions about reliable versus unreliable show more narrators, but I simply don't have the energy to plow through this one.

For some it will be worth reading for its portrayal of individuals and the wave of Islamicism; anyone who doesn't know the history & culture of Central Asia, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan in particular, will find it confusing without some reference material to set the context.

1.75 stars show less

I struggled with this book for a number of reasons. I worked for an online political risk publisher in the 1990s and followed what happened in Central Asia, albeit not closely. Even with a level of knowledge I failed to keep track of Ismailov's narrative, not helped by his tendency to refer to capitals (Bishkek, Tashkent) rather than country (Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan) when talking about the network of links between the states. Added to this, he jumps backwards and forwards in time, and between narrator, and from 'fiction' to 'fact' (third party accounts from the press, the internet, interviews etc). The effect was dislocating and left me failing to engage with the poet's almost accidental journey towards radicalism, though I feel there is show more a key truth to explore here. Finally while the last section was probably my favourite, I wasn't clear on its connection with the earlier text. I assume it is intended to parallel the modern divergent and incompatible paths of poet and radical Muslim with the dislocation between poet and strict Muslim in earlier times. It is an account, supposedly written by Belgi/Yosir of the final days of the Mughal ruler Shah Jehan and the fallout of power among his sons, where the strict Muslim Aurangzeb defeats his poet/Sufi brother Dara Shukuh. I felt the need for more signposts on this journey. show less

I won't provide a summary of the plot, as other reviewers have already done this more than adequately. I, too, had problems with maintaining my interest, despite really wanting to read a book by an Uzbek writer about such topical, interesting, and serious issues. However, the narrative drive is missing; the characters were not given enough space to live fully on the page; there was too much exposition, not enough dialogue. I like experiments in fiction, and appreciate an author's attempt to do something different. Unfortunately, this mixture of fiction and non-fiction styles did not work for me, perhaps because there was not enough art-making and too much journalistic style? Thanks very much to the publisher for the opportunity to read show more this book, and I will try it again at another time. show less

A Poet and Bin-Laden is a fairly impenetrable book. It's further muddled by the intertwining of fact and fiction when I think that it would have been better served either being a factual account of the rise of Islamic Fundamentalism in the former Soviet Central Asian republics or a fictional piece about Belgi/Yosir. Even reading it with my iPad nearby to look up historical facts or people that were touched upon in the narrative, I was often lost. I pushed through to the end because there is something important here in this book, but it is so wrapped up in the decomposition of fact versus fiction that while I can see there is something hidden in the prose, I just can't get myself there.

Some of the scenes are quite moving - such as the show more final scene with Belgi, but for the most part, it is just a dry and confusing account of an area of the world that would benefit from having a clearer exposition.

The second part is unnecessary. I'm sure it is an allegory in some way about the first part, but I was not clever enough to figure out exactly how. It is extraneous to the narrative except to demonstrate that Islamic Fundamentalism has always been an issue in Central Asia, but that could be detailed in one sentence; the reader hardly needs forty additional pages to detail that.

Finally, one last go-through by a good editor was probably needed. The book is dotted with odd carriage returns breaking up the middle of paragraphs, small typos, and differences in spelling (for example, in the last section, Dekkan is spelled both as Dekkan and Dekan and occasionally the last a in Dara is left out). show less

I had high hopes for this book. There is material here aplenty that could be turned into a very interesting, readable and valuable novel. Instead we have a very dry, near impossible to follow collection of accounts and transcripts. He said this, he said that, he said this etc. This read far more like a text book than a novel. If you are already familiar with the Uzbekistan Islamic movement you may get something from this book. Otherwise it is likely going to go well over your head like it did mine. I do have to say that some of the writing was wonderful. If 95% of the material could be dropped and a story weaved from what is left I would happily read that book.

To me this book is a strange mix of non-fiction, including footnotes; some fiction about the book's narrator (which seems to have strong parallels with the author's own experience); incidents in a poet's life and transcripts of various interviews. There is no consistency about time, character or place - these jump around every few pages. I'm just getting lost and this feeling does not entice me to continue reading the book.

As the subject and write up for the ER page did intrigue me I am not sure whether this is just not the right time for me to read this or if it really is a jumbled up mess of incidents. But I'm really sorry to say that I have had to abandon this book. I do hope to return to it someday but, at the moment, I just could show more not get into whatever the author was trying to do. show less