Reviews for John L. O'Sullivan and His Times

The average rating for John L. O'Sullivan and His Times based on 2 reviews is 4.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2014-02-17 00:00:00 Bernd Bell This book was first published in 2004, which relates, perhaps, different events than the current, but the deeper truths behind cruelties of war, dispossession and dislocation of millions of people did not change, in fact, it became worse. Afghan by descent, but brought up in England, she claims to have thought herself half Western liberal, half wild Afghan warrior. To try and resolve this conflict she went to Afghanistan at the time of the Soviet invasion and was propelled into the world of the mujahidin. She was twenty-one years old, and beautiful: dangerous some would think, but she spoke Farsi, knew all their traditions; they treated her as one of them. Her courage is such that even reading about some of her exploits is frightening. This book will speak not only to the many people who admire the Afghan people and pity their ordeals, but to those like Saira Shah who owe allegiance to two cultures … more and more of them now in the world. Saira Shah shares her memories of discovering the country of her parents when she becomes a journalist and travel to Pakistan and Afghanistan to find her father's paradise. She grew up with the old stories he shared and his nostalgia of a life before politics and international warfare in these countries destroyed everything. Beautiful gardens, unforgettable vistas made room for human suffering on an unimaginable scale. Few invaders cared for this desolate crossroads of Asia where, the Afghans say, when God finished making the world, he laughed and threw down his rubbish She kept going back to find the other half of herself. Two people live inside me. Like a couple who rarely speak, they are not compatible. My Western side is a sensitive, liberal, middle-class pacifist. My Afghan side I can only describe as a rapacious robber baron. It revels in bloodshed, glories in risk and will not be afraid Despite the suffering and hardships, her paternal country grew on her. Captured her soul. I began my quest for truth peddling lies in the offices of Fleet Street editors. I spoke fluent Persian; I was personally known to most of the mujahidin leaders; I was an experienced reporter, hardened to combat. Even as I uttered these outrageous falsehoods, I marvelled that anyone could believe them. I didn't realize it then but, unconsciously, I was following in the footsteps of the very myths I was trying to put behind me. This is a deeply heartfelt story. I was at times so traumatized that I just couldn't continue reading. Yet, the well-written prose of this documentary memoir kept me coming back. Saira Shah shares her experience behind the documentary film she made and the challenges they had to endure to introduce the outside world to a region of the world where many people still haven't seen airplanes and where some groups live so remote, that they were, by the grace of God, not affected by the war. Afghanistan have become a country where murder, death, the ending of a life, left no room for conscience, regret or tears. Where fighting is a job opportunity, and where drug and weapon smuggling are the game of politicians from different countries. A fascinating but very sad read. The prose is in the journalese style. The emotions behind it is left for the reader to discover. It has a powerful impact. Doris Lessing sums up this book perfectly: 'This is a remarkable and essential book about Afghanistan which succeeds in describing the people of that country ' men and also women ' their identities, hopes, fears, generosity and cruelties, all of which have too long been buried under the rubble of endless geopolitical clashes. It is alive with detail, emotion, myth, fable, bleeding reality and those laughs and freedoms which arise defiantly out of the darkest of times to assert the human spirit. Saira Shah's descriptions of her relatives - Auntie Soraya with her folded painted face, for example ' are written from the position of an intimate who is also an outsider with values which do not forgive the unforgivable. The murders, threats, violence of life in the Afghanistan she has previously only known in the stories fail to really disarm this brave woman with enviable verve and imagination.' In the end I cried for the little children.

Review # 2 was written on 2018-07-10 00:00:00 Richard Hagan This book is a MUST-READ! If I could give it more than 5 stars I would. Why? Because it is a marvelous balancing act of the stories, myths and philosophical beliefs of Afghanistan and a clear presentation of historical facts, Afghanistan's passage from the Soviet take-over in 1980 to the mujahidin control 1992-1996 and thereafter Afghanistan under the Talibans through 2001 and 9/11. The author's struggle wih her own Afghan identity is a very important part of the book. It helps the reader further understand the Afghan character. Even better than A Thousand Splendid Suns.