worldlibraries's review against another edition
1.0
The title held such promise! Unfortunately, this book did not deliver.
Here are some things I felt the author failed to do:
1) make me care
2) help me understand why she did - that was completely unclear to me
3) what the point of the story was
4) develop my empathy for any of the characters, indeed, I felt the author actually did her characters a disservice. I left the book identifying with the people of the geography less than before.
5) explain carpets in a way that made me feel I knew them better. I felt an opportunity was lost to make the world Afghan carpet snobs, This would have at least delivered something of value to the villagers who hosted her for a year.
6) explain the viewpoints of the Afghans toward their Russian occupiers. Surely they had a viewpoint and since she was Russian, that would have been a good discussion.
7) explain more about the American occupation.
8) make me feel like my time was well-spent. Often I would read five pages of vocabulary new to me (I feel like the author pulled out a pantone color wheel and wrote down every possible color to use in the book), only to reflect and think "ok, what action happened in those five pages - someone loaded a carpet on a bus and drove it to another city." Yawn!
9) why the people didn't leave that God forsaken place.
10) why the women put up with their men living off of their carpet weaving.
11) what putting opium in their children's mouths didn't set off red flags for the villages that "hey! We need to get out of this place. There has to be some place better." That was completely unclear to me why that didn't occur to the villagers.
I will say that the author did make me imagine what our climate-changed future will be like when everything is too dry and there isn't enough water. I looked at all the locations as I read on Google Maps and images. I can see why Afghan landscape has attracted imperialist adventurers for centuries. It looks like it would be a blast to ride a horse there.
This book was badly in need of an editor or a different translator. The grammar was mystifying. This book is skippable.
Here are some things I felt the author failed to do:
1) make me care
2) help me understand why she did - that was completely unclear to me
3) what the point of the story was
4) develop my empathy for any of the characters, indeed, I felt the author actually did her characters a disservice. I left the book identifying with the people of the geography less than before.
5) explain carpets in a way that made me feel I knew them better. I felt an opportunity was lost to make the world Afghan carpet snobs, This would have at least delivered something of value to the villagers who hosted her for a year.
6) explain the viewpoints of the Afghans toward their Russian occupiers. Surely they had a viewpoint and since she was Russian, that would have been a good discussion.
7) explain more about the American occupation.
8) make me feel like my time was well-spent. Often I would read five pages of vocabulary new to me (I feel like the author pulled out a pantone color wheel and wrote down every possible color to use in the book), only to reflect and think "ok, what action happened in those five pages - someone loaded a carpet on a bus and drove it to another city." Yawn!
9) why the people didn't leave that God forsaken place.
10) why the women put up with their men living off of their carpet weaving.
11) what putting opium in their children's mouths didn't set off red flags for the villages that "hey! We need to get out of this place. There has to be some place better." That was completely unclear to me why that didn't occur to the villagers.
I will say that the author did make me imagine what our climate-changed future will be like when everything is too dry and there isn't enough water. I looked at all the locations as I read on Google Maps and images. I can see why Afghan landscape has attracted imperialist adventurers for centuries. It looks like it would be a blast to ride a horse there.
This book was badly in need of an editor or a different translator. The grammar was mystifying. This book is skippable.
lilliangretsinger's review against another edition
1.0
This book was a struggle to finish. I had a hard time keeping track of the characters. The author who is observing this village narrates the story from both first and third person which was hard to adjust to at times.
The author did draw amazing pictures through her descriptions of the village and it is desolation so that you understood that it really was a place out of time with the rest of the world. A forgotten place.
If this wasn't a book club book, I wouldn't have finished it.
The author did draw amazing pictures through her descriptions of the village and it is desolation so that you understood that it really was a place out of time with the rest of the world. A forgotten place.
If this wasn't a book club book, I wouldn't have finished it.
abetterjulie's review against another edition
4.0
This is a powerful little book about rural life in Afghanistan. There were two points in the book where I had to stop reading and just process the profound and alien differences between our cultures. It is illuminating and humbling to imagine trying to drop our ideas and way of life into a land that has centuries of tribal history, addiction, and a lack of modern education.
I felt like the descriptive language was overdone at times and resulted in an inability to see the picture she was painting. I was unhappy with her brutal and unnecessary description of the crane deaths.
I felt like the descriptive language was overdone at times and resulted in an inability to see the picture she was painting. I was unhappy with her brutal and unnecessary description of the crane deaths.
sabinereads's review against another edition
4.0
Anna Badhken catalogs her time in the village of Oqa, a carpet-making, intensely rural & impoverished village in Afghanistan. Having spent several years in Afghanistan, Badhken's knowledge of the country emerges beautifully and rarely between the book's meat: its careful, thorough portraits of the village's inhabitants. Badhken avoids generalizing about Afghanistan, rural life, or poverty while providing devastating scenes from daily life in Oqa. Alongside Badhken, readers celebrate villagers' births and deaths, witness opium addiction and starvation, love and camaraderie. Badhken's clear, complex way of capturing a cluster of people recalls Rory Stewart and Katherine Boo, both of whom have the impressive ability to present their foreign subjects in a manner that is both enormously compassionate and brutally truthful. Absolutely recommend.
nostalgicplant's review against another edition
5.0
I personally felt that this novel shared an exquisite view of Afghanistan and the parts that we don't see on the news. You grow personal with Afghani Villagers, while still tied to the ever present reality that this is the Afghanistan of today - the Afghanistan of war. The language is melodic and smooth, like a well turned caramel. The novel was a very interesting read and I would recommend it to anyone who is looking for a quick read with substance and depth.
tuscareads's review
4.0
I liked this book. I was sick while reading the last half but it didn't feel laborious to read. It was gentle yet intriguing honestly.
abetterjulie's review against another edition
4.0
This is a powerful little book about rural life in Afghanistan. There were two points in the book where I had to stop reading and just process the profound and alien differences between our cultures. It is illuminating and humbling to imagine trying to drop our ideas and way of life into a land that has centuries of tribal history, addiction, and a lack of modern education.
I felt like the descriptive language was overdone at times and resulted in an inability to see the picture she was painting. I was unhappy with her brutal and unnecessary description of the crane deaths.
I felt like the descriptive language was overdone at times and resulted in an inability to see the picture she was painting. I was unhappy with her brutal and unnecessary description of the crane deaths.
debnanceatreaderbuzz's review against another edition
4.0
Yes, sometimes the world is a carpet, but mostly it’s not. This book is about a world that’s not.
You may think you have learned all about Afghanistan from the years our soldiers have spent time there, but this is not that Afghanistan. This is the Afghanistan experienced by the women who live there. The women who spend most of their days, most of their lives, making amazing carpets, beautiful carpets that will support their families, while their husbands escape this world with opium, while their children hunger.
Yes, the world is a carpet. But mostly it’s not.
You may think you have learned all about Afghanistan from the years our soldiers have spent time there, but this is not that Afghanistan. This is the Afghanistan experienced by the women who live there. The women who spend most of their days, most of their lives, making amazing carpets, beautiful carpets that will support their families, while their husbands escape this world with opium, while their children hunger.
Yes, the world is a carpet. But mostly it’s not.
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