An interesting book, if only because it deals with Kabul under Taliban rule. It's a sad tale, as one might expect, but somehow I feel it fails to reach its intended apex. The sense of suspense one would expect to find as the story approaches its announced climax was absent. Yet the novel contains lovely prose and descriptive narrative. The main characters come in differing degrees of interesting; some dull, others grotesque, and one of them startlingly fascinating. But the author fails to fully flesh them out. The same with the plot. It doesn't take off completely, and so falls short of fulfilling its promise.
My feelings regarding the author's intent may be that he was merely trying to offer the reader a slice of life in the Taliban's Afghanistan. That much was well managed. It's a short read, so if you are at all curious about life under Sharia law, I won't hesitate to recommend it.
Read from April 21 to 30, 2013
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