Reviews for Travels In Syria And The Holy Land (Large Print Edition)

The average rating for Travels In Syria And The Holy Land (Large Print Edition) based on 2 reviews is 2 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2014-04-20 00:00:00 Fawn Hoang In the late seventies, David Chaffetz travelled through a country that no longer exists: Afghanistan. Not that there is not a country by that name, but the Afghanistan that Chaffetz visited, riding a horse between dusty towns and their teahouses, entertained by the local landowners, drinking tea and conversing with shrine-keepers, impoverished teachers, and military men, has in the meantime been savaged by more than three decades of war, and a recovery that has been uneven at best. In his telling, this poverty-stricken territory was almost unfailingly hospitable, if occasionally suspicious, of this foreigner, even when he insisted on riding into a blizzard or insulted his hosts unwittingly by following Western customs and discourse instead of Afghan ones. But the Afghans were courteous, peaceful, whether showing the visitors around a nearly-forgotten shrine, feeding them and their horses, riding for days to make sure they reach the next outpost in an unforgiving countryside. (Unforgiving perhaps underestimates the case: this is brutal terrain, cold, dusty plains broken by mountains.) There is not even a hint that the Afghans were on the verge of tearing each other to pieces. Granted, Chaffetz travelled through and around the city of Herat, influenced by Iran (at that time still ruled by the Shah), and proud of the mosque built by Queen Gawharshad. Chaffetz' reportage does not spare his own occasional lack of grace. He chronicles being cheated when purchasing clothes or a horse, and recounts how his Afghan companion occasionally chides him for rudeness. Chaffetz captures how different Afghan discourse is from the West's, much more concerned with the preservation of relationships, mildly curious about Chaffetz' home. At the end of the book, Chaffetz recounts a conversation he had with an Afghan who called him. They talked of this and that; Chaffetz offered an invitation that he no doubt knew would be declined, as it was. At the end, the Afghan explained why he had called. "I don't want anything. Just to talk. I will call you again, so we can talk and remind one another how Afghanistan used to be when you travelled here." That declaration is sad enough, but the even greater sorrow - the publication date of my edition is 1984, while the mujahedeen were still fighting against the Russians, before they were successful and then turned their guns on each other, only to lose most of the country to the Taliban - is just how much farther Afghanistan had yet to go, how much more its people had yet to endure.

Review # 2 was written on 2013-03-16 00:00:00 Jason Laflin Couldn't get all the way through it without being disturbed by the condescending tone. While some observations are spot on, others are imperialistic and judgmental. If I were reading this for scholarly purposes I would have finished, but not a great leisure read.