An exceedingly, commendably unique eyewitness account of a country in transition, told by a charming young narrator.
What did you do over summer vacation? Akbar spent his—actually three of them—in Kunar, Afghanistan, with his father, a repatriated Afghan who happened to be tight with President Hamid Karzai.
The 20-year-old author first told his story on NPR’s This American Life—and quite an American life it’s been. Akbar grew up in California, where his father sold hip-hop–style clothing. Following 9/11 and the subsequent dismantling of the Taliban, Akbar’s father, who had left Afghanistan for Pakistan and ultimately America after the Soviet invasion of 1979, went straight home, where he became Karzai’s spokesman and, soon after, governor of the rural province Kunar. Akbar, then a high-school senior, took his exams early and skipped the prom so that he could join his father as soon as possible. Although he’d never traveled to Afghanistan before, he felt an immediate attachment to the country. On his first trip, he brought along his beloved collection of U2 CDs, and, for his father, dress socks, Krazy Glue and Tylenol PM, rarities in Kabul. Akbar attended a traditional wedding celebration; listened in on some of his father’s political meetings; dealt with suspicious security guards upon arrival from the U.S.; discussed ’80s music with American soldiers; learned to shoot; was falsely accused of smuggling gems; ogled famous Afghan writers; and visited, as a “tourist,” Osama bin Laden’s house. Refreshingly, what Akbar did not do was feel—or at least demonstrate here—much angst over what could have been conflicting identities. With the help of Harper’s editor Burton, Akbar achieves a level of artistry that co-authored works rarely even approach.
An exceedingly, commendably unique eyewitness account of a country in transition, told by a charming young narrator.Pub Date: Nov. 10, 2005
ISBN: 1-58234-520-1
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2005
The author's youthfulness helps to assure the inevitable comparison with the Anne Frank diary although over and above the...
Elie Wiesel spent his early years in a small Transylvanian town as one of four children.
He was the only one of the family to survive what Francois Maurois, in his introduction, calls the "human holocaust" of the persecution of the Jews, which began with the restrictions, the singularization of the yellow star, the enclosure within the ghetto, and went on to the mass deportations to the ovens of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. There are unforgettable and horrifying scenes here in this spare and sombre memoir of this experience of the hanging of a child, of his first farewell with his father who leaves him an inheritance of a knife and a spoon, and of his last goodbye at Buchenwald his father's corpse is already cold let alone the long months of survival under unconscionable conditions.
Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2006
ISBN: 0374500010
Page Count: 120
Publisher: Hill & Wang
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2006
Well-told and admonitory.
Young-rags-to-mature-riches memoir by broker and motivational speaker Gardner.
Born and raised in the Milwaukee ghetto, the author pulled himself up from considerable disadvantage. He was fatherless, and his adored mother wasn’t always around; once, as a child, he spied her at a family funeral accompanied by a prison guard. When beautiful, evanescent Moms was there, Chris also had to deal with Freddie “I ain’t your goddamn daddy!” Triplett, one of the meanest stepfathers in recent literature. Chris did “the dozens” with the homies, boosted a bit and in the course of youthful adventure was raped. His heroes were Miles Davis, James Brown and Muhammad Ali. Meanwhile, at the behest of Moms, he developed a fondness for reading. He joined the Navy and became a medic (preparing badass Marines for proctology), and a proficient lab technician. Moving up in San Francisco, married and then divorced, he sold medical supplies. He was recruited as a trainee at Dean Witter just around the time he became a homeless single father. All his belongings in a shopping cart, Gardner sometimes slept with his young son at the office (apparently undiscovered by the night cleaning crew). The two also frequently bedded down in a public restroom. After Gardner’s talents were finally appreciated by the firm of Bear Stearns, his American Dream became real. He got the cool duds, hot car and fine ladies so coveted from afar back in the day. He even had a meeting with Nelson Mandela. Through it all, he remained a prideful parent. His own no-daddy blues are gone now.
Well-told and admonitory.Pub Date: June 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-06-074486-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Amistad/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2006
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