Caravans: A Novel of Afghanistan
by James A. Michener
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Book Summary Information
Author: James A. MichenerEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2003-09-09
ISBN: 0812969820
Number of pages: 352
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks
Product features:
- ISBN13: 9780812969825
- Condition: New
- Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!
Book Reviews of Caravans: A Novel of Afghanistan
Book Review: If only they had read this...
Summary: 5 Stars
A friend of mine, whose husband was head of UNESCO's Book Development Agency in Kabul, gave me Caravans a long time ago. They had thrown up their hands in frustration at the utter futility of bringing humanist values to the Afghan culture, such as it is. Indeed, the idea of an Afghan nation, much less a discrete Afghan culture, is, as they found out, ridiculous. Of course, not ridiculous to our too-clever-by-half policymakers who, from the Soviet invasion to arming the Mujahideen, to "nation building," got it woefully wrong.
I must confess, Caravans hasn't been good for my equanimity. For years I've found myself shouting at the TV or newspaper, "No, no, you bloody idiots -- read the book!"
It's an easy read (and perhaps that's why the policymakers didn't read it -- pop fiction is beneath them). It's the familiar Michener formula of exhaustively researched history as the setting for conventional plots, like family chronicle or romance or, in this case, thriller. Good historical fiction uses the fictional shell to engage the reader, and it's Michener's fictional shells that make his histories so enjoyable. Michener is the summer read that you come away from having learned something, and Caravans is no exception.
Afghanistan is not a failed state. It's never been a state the way we think of it. It's an inchoate conglomeration of tribes, clans and ad hoc alliances, usually in service to vendetta, smuggling and banditry, and surrounded by a meaningless border, which is why foreign intervention has always been a fool's errand. No, it's not a state -- beyond the fancy of Western map-makers and players of The Great Game -- but neither is it a vacuum, as the British, the Russians and the Americans have learned to their chagrin.
Go in there, get bin Laden and his henchmen, kill as many Taliban as possible, and to hell with borders (that's what you get when you let lawyers run a war), then get out and let them resume murdering and pillaging each other as they have for millennia. If we had read Caravans, we would have known, after 9/11 (if there had been a 9/11), that this was our only recourse.
Summary of Caravans: A Novel of Afghanistan
In this romantic adventure of wild Afghanistan, master storyteller James Michener mixes the allure of the past with the dangers of today. After an impetuous American girl, Ellen Jasper, marries a young Afghan engineer, her parents hear no word from her. Although she wants freedom to do as she wishes, not even she is sure what that means. In the meantime, she is as good as lost in that wild land, perhaps forever...."An extraordinary novel....Brilliant."
THE NEW YORK TIMES
From the Paperback edition.
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