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Book Review of The Swallows of Kabul

The Swallows of Kabul
Minehava avatar reviewed on + 819 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2


Positives: This book was very realistic in a brutal sort of way. Giving a glimpse into the mind of an intellectual gradually crippled beyond endurance by fanaticism and human cruelty. On the other side there is the idiocy of a woman fanatically rejecting her husband for his failure to stand up to Taliban mob, to defend his principles, even though he was beaten, and would have been killed had he kept resisting.

Negatives: This book is overloaded with awkward....awkward sentences, awkward people, and awkward story. I say this because it had the potential to be another Kite Runner, a book which ended in a very ummmm awkward way, but was otherwise engaging, with fascinating characters. In this story, it was implied that before Taliban, before Russia, Afghanistan was a happy place, which is as far from truth as it can be. The women/wives were barely there sketched out characters.

The end: was very Kite-Runner-style shocker, unexpected but not well executed.

So over all I think this book is a decent, but dark (and depressing) read, which shows the poverty, the desperation, the cruelty and the unhappiness of ordinary life, ruled by fundamental Islamic Fanatics. Something we must be aware is being, bit by bit imported to USA and Europe right under our noses in the name of "Preserving immigrant's cultures" and Diversity. And though the book falls a bit short of its potential, it is still worthy read.