Introduction: 11/19/2010

Hello! This is Heather, Abby, Melissa, and Luke and we are reading The Bookseller of Kabul by Asne Seierstad.  This book centers on a female Westerner from Norway (Seierstad) who gives her account of living with an Afghan family.  She writes specifically about Sultan, a bookseller who wants to bring Afghan literature to the people of Kabul.  Along with his experiences, she also writes about his family and their struggles in the war-torn Afghanistan.
The four of us are all white college students in the Midwest. None of us have studied the Afghani lifestyle so this book is a new experience for us. Because of the United States' involvement in Afghanistan, it is important for us to familiarize ourselves with the culture because it does affect us indirectly. Along with lack of knowledge about the Afghani culture, Melissa was interested in reading The Bookseller of Kabul because she had read book reviews that highly praised the book, as it is an international bestseller. Abby chose to read The Bookseller of Kabul because she thought the book sounded interesting.  Heather wanted to read this book because she is a sociology major and is very interested in culture, gender, religion, etc. and this book does a great job of talking about all of those topics.  Luke was excited to read this book because he has never read a novel written about daily life in Afganistan. We tend to have a little bias against a different culture because we are not used to it and we tend to associate people from the Middle East with the negative outcomes of radical Islam. Because we each have our own set of beliefs living in the United States, it could possibly affect how we read this book because the culture is so different from our own and it will be interesting to see how we view the culture after we have finished reading.

The Bookseller of Kabul Blurb

In this captivating portrayal of Sultan Khan’s family living in the war-torn region of Afghanistan, The Bookseller of Kabul provides insight to the daily struggles and triumphs of each family member’s personal life. While each member’s experiences differ, they all share the improbable goal of personal freedom. Leila hides a forbidden relationship, Mansur attempts to escape the dictations of his father, and Bibi Gul copes with the long lonely days without her children. From Afghanistan’s political regimes to the burden of the burka, this charismatic account will leave readers with a refreshed and knowledgeable perspective of the modern-day Afghan culture.

Journal Entry 4

            All in all we thought this was a great book and enjoyed reading it.  We thought it was very refreshing to here things from a new perspective, and it has opened our eyes to the world in a variety of new ways.  Many books try to depict the poverty of the Middle East and leave you feeling sad, and sympathetic.  However, in this book the author told us the story through the eyes of a family who is well respected and has enough money to live more than adequately, especially by Afghani standards.  It was also interesting that the author actually lived with this family and experienced some of the events of this book.  This is different from a boring memoir written by someone who has never actually met the people who they are writing about.

            Something that really surprised us in this section was when Tajmir came into the picture and his life is completely ruled by his mother.  Since he was a boy he has obeyed her every wish because otherwise she will hit him.  Now, he is a man and he still comes home and gives her his salary.  His mother then does as she pleases with it, leaving him some spending money to buy things with.  This would be odd even in our society, but in theirs it is particularly odd because of the role gender plays in Afghanistan’s daily life.  Throughout the book we have seen countless women be ruled, overruled, and abused by men simply because of their traditions of men making the decisions.  Men are wanted as children.  Men decide whom they will marry.  Men make the money.  Men have the power.  Now it appears the tables have turned and this man’s old mother completely rules his life even though he is the one paying the bills.  That was something that really surprised us in this section.   

            One assumption that I had coming into the book was that the main character would be a very poor old man who sold books.  This was wrong because Sultan is somewhat old, but he has a good amount of money.  One thing that I should have assumed coming in, but did not was that women are treated as second-class citizens in Afghanistan.  In this section especially this reoccurring theme is brought out.  Leila has had three suitors, or people who wish to marry her, for some time.  In this section a new young man comes along and falls in love with Leila.  He writes her love letters and tries to see her in any way he can.  Leila knows she should not accept the letters according to their traditions, but she reads them anyway and then tucks them away in her safe.  This young man find out that Leila needs to meet with the minister of education to get a job as a teacher (something she has always wanted), and he uses this as his way to get to talk to her at last.  Leila likes the young man because she knows that marrying him she will not remain simply a servant girl, which would be the case if she married her other suitors.  She also likes how he is kind enough to try to get her a teaching job although he fails at it when they deny her a teaching permit.  After a long day of trying to get the permit and just when she is starting to like him, her mother asks her something.  She asks is Leila will marry one of the other suitors who has a family of over 30 people.  Leila refuses to argue with her mother and in doing so throws away her chance at a happy life.  This important ending to the story shows the gender roles that are so evident in everyday life in Afghanistan.  Leila’s tragic story is similar to that of many other young Afghani women, many of whom the author talks about in the book. 

            This was a great book and we are all glad we chose to read it.  We learned a lot about a culture that we knew little about prior to reading this book, and we saw the struggle that people around the world go through on a daily basis just to meet their basic needs.  This is our last journal entry and we would encourage anyone who has not read it to read The Bookseller of Kabul.

            

Discussion Leader Luke Anderson 12/8/2010

Why did Tajmir stop working for the charity?

After 9/11 when journalists were streaming into Kabul and American magazine picked him up.  They offered to pay him in one day, what he was usually paid in two weeks.  Tajmir, thinking of his poor family, reluctantly accepted their job offering as an interpreter.  Tajmir is the sole provider for his family so when the better job came along he felt compelled to take it, even though he rather enjoying helping feed people with his old charity job.

Explain what is unusual about Tajmir’s home life.

His mother was strict with him since he was a boy.  She always hit him hard when he disobeyed her.  He always came straight home from school when he was a child and was rarely allowed to play with the other children or leave the house outside of school.  Even now that he is a man Tajmir still comes home from work and hands his salary over to his mother who dispenses him out some spending money.  This is weird because in all the other relationships between men and women in this book the man has the power.

Why is the fighting in the region that Bob and Tajmir visit?

Those who oppose president Karzai have taken over this region and everything goes according to their rules.  They are led by Padsha Khan who seems only to desire power for the sake of having it.  In this area those who have weapons make the rules.  Mustafa supports Karzai and is leading a rebellion against the Khan clan.  He and his men are holding up in an old police station that is heavily fortified. 

Why is Bob really interested in traveling to this region?

Bob is an American journalist who writes for an American magazine.  He goes to this region to find out what is happening between the warlords.  But what he is really interested in is the whereabouts of Osama Bin Laden, or one of Bin Laden’s senior officers.  He hopes that these people will be able to help him, but, as they find out, some of the men do not even know what Osama Bin Laden looks like.    

  

Melissa Stalowski: Summarizer 12/8/2010

In the final section of The Bookseller of Kabul, Tajmir and an American journalist travel throughout Afghanistan in search of information on Osama bin Laden. The author starts off the chapter by listing what Americans have done in Afghanistan in search for Osama bin Laden. Throughout the section, the author portrays the United States' involvement in Afghanistan in a negative way as she lists that their operatins have interrogated the Afghans, blown up their land, and killed innocent civilians. Tajmir and the American journalist, Bob, meet with opposing parties throughout Afghanistan and the American journalist reports his findings back to the United States. Back in Kabul, Leila continues to receive love letters from Karim. The author speaks of Karim as a character that could free Leila from her home life. Leila's home is compared to a prison and marrying Karim is an act that could free her from that prison and provide her with multiple opportunities. However, the family finds out about the romance and Leila is unable to marry Karim. At the very end of the book, Sultan's family has broken up and half of the family has moved in with Sultan's brother. Emphasizing the constant struggle that every member of Sultan's family faces every day in Afghanistan, the author ends the book with the line "Another little catasrophe in the Khan family" (288).

Abby Husfeldt: Vocabulary Builder/Article Finder 12/8/2010

Vocab

Taleb (249): A member of the Taliban

Vociferous (253): Crying out noisily

Kalashnikovs (252): A type of machine gun made in the U.S.S.R.

Constable (258): An officer of the peace, having police and minor judicial functions, usually in a small town, rural district, etc.

Spurious (258): not genuine, authentic, or true; not from the claimed, pretended, or proper source; counterfeit

Fawning (258): To seek notice or favor by servile demeanor.

Reconnaissance (262): A search made for useful military information in the field.

Gesticulate (265): To make or use gestures, esp. In an animated or excited manner with or instead of speech.

 Article Finder

         Here is an article from November 29 of this year that goes along with the section of the book that we read this week.  In the chapter titled My Mother Osama, it discusses the hunt for Osama and other al-Qaida leaders.  This article, Close Calls for al-Qaeda's No. 2, from Time magazine discusses the updates on the possible whereabouts of Bin Laden and his right hand Ayman al-Zawahiri.  The article pays close attention to the CIA’s attempts to capture the two men and also other forces as well that are looking for them.  In The Bookseller, Tajmir is working closely with a group that is in search of Bin Laden and others such as Zawahiri who are associated with al-Qaida.  I thought that this article would be an interesting connector between the book and current events.

Graphic Organizer: Heather Sandberg 12/8/10

I made Leila the center of this graphic organizer because she seemed to be the main focus in the last section of the book.  Each of the men listed above have asked her Leila's hand in marriage and she has turned them all down.  I thought this would be beneficial because there are so many mens' names being thrown around in these chapters, so I figured I would make it clear as to who her suitors were.  Karim is at the top because he has gone to every length to have Leila and in the end he still failed along with the other three men.  This gives a good representation of many women's lives in Afghanistan because most women have many suitors before they or their family agree on any one man.