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A Door in the Earth
For readers of Cutting for Stone and The Reluctant Fundamentalist, a new novel from the author of the national bestseller The Submission, about an idealistic young Afghan-American woman trapped between her ideals and the complicated truth.
Twenty-two-year-old Parveen is an Afghan-American anthropology student at UC Berkeley, adrift between the separate pulls of a charismatic professor whose contempt for Western cultural narratives runs deep, Afghan immigrant parents who have never quite found their footing in America's strange orbit, and the illicit secret life of young Afghan Americans trying to live normal lives in America. When she comes upon a best-selling book called Mother Afghanistan, a memoir by humanitarian Gideon Crane that has been turned into a sort of bible for American engagement abroad, she's inspired. Galvanized by the author's experience and bent on following in his footsteps, Parveen travels to a remote village in the land of her birth to join with his charitable foundation.
When she arrives, however, Gideon's clinic is not a light in the war-torn darkness but a decrepit, unstaffed tomb, the shadowy remains of the place she'd read about. Bit by bit, the fabrications in Gideon's account are revealed, until the foundation on which Parveen chose to make her life-changing pilgrimage crumbles beneath her. Meanwhile, various forces on both sides of the perpetual conflict are amassing, eager to use Crane's words and Parveen's presence to their own ends. When a dramatic bombing occurs, Parveen must decide whether her loyalties lie with the villagers or with the U.S. military-and, by extension, America.
A Door in the Earth is a piercingly intelligent story about power, perspective, and idealism, a taut, propulsive novel that brushes aside the dust of America's longest-standing conflict and reveals the complicated truths beneath.
Twenty-two-year-old Parveen is an Afghan-American anthropology student at UC Berkeley, adrift between the separate pulls of a charismatic professor whose contempt for Western cultural narratives runs deep, Afghan immigrant parents who have never quite found their footing in America's strange orbit, and the illicit secret life of young Afghan Americans trying to live normal lives in America. When she comes upon a best-selling book called Mother Afghanistan, a memoir by humanitarian Gideon Crane that has been turned into a sort of bible for American engagement abroad, she's inspired. Galvanized by the author's experience and bent on following in his footsteps, Parveen travels to a remote village in the land of her birth to join with his charitable foundation.
When she arrives, however, Gideon's clinic is not a light in the war-torn darkness but a decrepit, unstaffed tomb, the shadowy remains of the place she'd read about. Bit by bit, the fabrications in Gideon's account are revealed, until the foundation on which Parveen chose to make her life-changing pilgrimage crumbles beneath her. Meanwhile, various forces on both sides of the perpetual conflict are amassing, eager to use Crane's words and Parveen's presence to their own ends. When a dramatic bombing occurs, Parveen must decide whether her loyalties lie with the villagers or with the U.S. military-and, by extension, America.
A Door in the Earth is a piercingly intelligent story about power, perspective, and idealism, a taut, propulsive novel that brushes aside the dust of America's longest-standing conflict and reveals the complicated truths beneath.
400 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 27, 2019
171 people are currently reading
6147 people want to read
About the author
Amy Waldman
8 books176 followersAmy Waldman is the author of two novels, A Door in the Earth, which will be published August 27, 2019, and The Submission, which was a national bestseller, a PEN/Hemingway Award finalist, and the #1 Book of the Year for Entertainment Weekly and Esquire. She has received fellowships from the American Academy in Berlin, Ledig House for International Writers, the MacDowell Colony, and the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. Waldman was previously a national correspondent for The Atlantic and a reporter for the New York Times, where, as a bureau chief for South Asia, she covered Afghanistan. She lives in Brooklyn.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 297 reviews
August 9, 2020
I didn’t just finish this, but actually read this book last year and not sure how it got reposted with 8/8 date . Must have done it inadvertently!
———
Just yesterday as I finished this book, I read an article that a meeting between the United States, the Afghan President and Taliban leaders was canceled. The continued presence of the US in Afghanistan is obviously a current issue. I can’t say that I’ve ever really had a good understanding of what happened there and what is happening today. It’s always seemed so complex to me. Amy Waldman, formerly a New York Times reporter who covered Afghanistan sheds some light, because she illustrates in this novel how complex it really is. Sometimes there is information that doesn’t quite coincide with the reality of the situation, shaping people’s perspective.
Parveen Shamsa, a naive Afghan-American woman is taken by a book called “Mother Afghanistan”, a memoir by Dr. Gideon Crane, telling of the awful situation of poor medical help for pregnant women in a small village in the mountains of Afghanistan. He relates how he did everything to save a woman, and when he couldn’t, he built a clinic. Parveen is blindly accepting of all that Gideon Crane wrote in his book, even when warned by her professor. She decides to go there with an idealistic desire to be a part of what Crane has started. She finds that things are not as she expected, gradually finding out that not every thing in Crane’s book is the truth. It’s also quite a cultural shock to her to see the place of women, the child marriages, the illiteracy and she’s shocked that although Crane’s clinic is there, it is meagerly staffed by one doctor on a part time basis, a picture quite at odds to Crane’s memoir. It takes her a long time to recognize and accept that Crane has lied as the intimate look at the people of the village and the family she stays with unfolds, as the US military arrive to build a road and as tragedy occurs.
It’s well written and the descriptions take us to this mountain village. The things that happen are heartbreaking, eye opening, but I still feel that there is a complexity to the situation that for me is hard to understand. It’s an intellectual as well as an emotional read and I’m glad I read it.
I received an advanced copy of this book from Little, Brown and Company through NetGalley
———
Just yesterday as I finished this book, I read an article that a meeting between the United States, the Afghan President and Taliban leaders was canceled. The continued presence of the US in Afghanistan is obviously a current issue. I can’t say that I’ve ever really had a good understanding of what happened there and what is happening today. It’s always seemed so complex to me. Amy Waldman, formerly a New York Times reporter who covered Afghanistan sheds some light, because she illustrates in this novel how complex it really is. Sometimes there is information that doesn’t quite coincide with the reality of the situation, shaping people’s perspective.
Parveen Shamsa, a naive Afghan-American woman is taken by a book called “Mother Afghanistan”, a memoir by Dr. Gideon Crane, telling of the awful situation of poor medical help for pregnant women in a small village in the mountains of Afghanistan. He relates how he did everything to save a woman, and when he couldn’t, he built a clinic. Parveen is blindly accepting of all that Gideon Crane wrote in his book, even when warned by her professor. She decides to go there with an idealistic desire to be a part of what Crane has started. She finds that things are not as she expected, gradually finding out that not every thing in Crane’s book is the truth. It’s also quite a cultural shock to her to see the place of women, the child marriages, the illiteracy and she’s shocked that although Crane’s clinic is there, it is meagerly staffed by one doctor on a part time basis, a picture quite at odds to Crane’s memoir. It takes her a long time to recognize and accept that Crane has lied as the intimate look at the people of the village and the family she stays with unfolds, as the US military arrive to build a road and as tragedy occurs.
It’s well written and the descriptions take us to this mountain village. The things that happen are heartbreaking, eye opening, but I still feel that there is a complexity to the situation that for me is hard to understand. It’s an intellectual as well as an emotional read and I’m glad I read it.
I received an advanced copy of this book from Little, Brown and Company through NetGalley
June 12, 2019
For those who want a compelling read, a page turning intimate historical novel ...
with elegant style and thoughtful insight....this is THAT NOVEL!
I absolutely loved it!!!!!
Amy Waldman’s unblinking look at medical patient care in Afghanistan-post-9/11 era, one of the poorest healthcare systems in the world - unfamiliar with western practices - is astounding and ambitious. We look at misunderstandings, mistreatment, and misdiagnosis.
Amy Waldman considers the issues particular to women in Afghanistan....examines the complexities of global development - the changing role of women in non-Western cultures - ethical controversies- in A REMOTE AFGHAN MOUNTAIN VILLAGE!
There was so much that I related to in this novel. The storytelling filled in holes from my own experiences of living in Berkeley- being a student at Cal - then leaving the country to travel the world for the next two years. In the early 70’s, I, too, traveled to Afghanistan. Many memories were brought back to me - both in Waldman’s detailed descriptions in Berkeley and Afghanistan.
I’ve never forgotten those breathtaking mountains and Afghanistan.... colors changing from browns and greens to lavender and purple and smoky blues. It’s an
incredible sight.
Amy Waldman mentions ‘The Hippie Trail” during the 1970’s. Most of us Westerners who took it - definitely - didn’t have a name for it at the time. But history gave it the right label. I was fascinated that this story was written post 9/11.
She filled in historical understanding for me.
The main character- Parveen Shamsa - a College Senior -studied medical anthropology…which looked at how people in other cultures treated medical problems.
She says:
“I had assumed Kabul would be a hardship. I wasn’t prepared for its comfort, it’s mix of decadence and familiarity.
In the 1970s, it had been a stop on the “Hippie Trail”,
the overland route that young Westerners took from Europe to South Asia.
The mere name evoked a loose-limbed morality. Now, in the long wake of 9/11, it was inhabited by a new round of expats, do-gooders, and profiteers, three groups which proved not to mutually exclusive categories”.
Parveen’s inspiration to go to Afghanistan in the first place, was from a memoir she read, ( fictional for this novel’s purpose), called “Mother Afghanistan”, by Gideon Crane. The deeper w get into the storytelling...Parveen Discovers fabrications, lies, coverups, Major discrepancies from her experiences in village than what Crane wrote in his book.
Not everything was cozy comfortable when Parveen arrived in Kabul....unless you consider it - ha - comfortable being driven by a stranger -Issa - on an unmarked and unpaved road - single dirt lane - in a Land Cruiser bouncing over peddles - traveling this way for two days - and hungry.
Parveen slept in one room - on a bedroll of straw with only one hanging lightbulb- in a room with other women and children and goats.
No cell service, internet, computers, television...
(And coffee??)....
One room...for sleeping and eating, that everyone, (adults, 9 kids, and animals), shared together.
During the day they stacked the bedrolls in a corner.
In the compound yard - were three goats, a handful of chickens, four cows, and a donkey. Piles of hay, a vegetable garden, a pomegranate tree, an outhouse, manure.
Eventually- Parveen ‘paid’ for her own room - valuing solitary. Over time, she questioned Western solitary confinement.
The village that Parveen arrived at wasn’t the most conservative part of the country, yet married women still had to cover themselves - wear the chadri- over their heads.
“The Village had no visual clutter. No billboards, no advertisements, no graffiti. No names on street signs, no numbers on the homes. The village was washed clean of words. Most of them didn’t know how to read, and anyway they didn’t seem to need such guidance and the village where they’d live their whole lives”
One of the characters we meet is Shokoh. She was a city girl - a teenage - educated with desires to study more. She lost her loving mother - and gained a ruthless stepmother.
“Her father had sold her, in her words, into a life where there were no books to read, no paper to write on, no pencils to hold, only cow teats to grip. She was married to a man who was not only too old, but was so illiterate and dirty, who smelled of the fields and could poke his corncob in her whenever he wanted, which was often”.
The characters and dialogue are what gives this book so much intimacy.
You’ll meet, ‘Dr. Yasmeen’, ( the lady doctor)...who worked at medical clinic....and learn why it’s called “Fereshta’s House”.
When we first meet tough-cookie ‘Bina’, she is breast-feeding and kneading bread at the same time.
You’ll be introduced to Mullah’s. Mosque leaders, vicar, or master guardian - used in the Quran.
You’ll meet the kids, and I can’t imagine anyone not falling in love with nine-year-old,
Jamshid: He lost a hand in an accident .....also lost his first mother ( Fereshta). Bina becomes his new mother.
We meet Waheed who was first married to Fereshta who had been gracious and warm.. Bina ....( she’s a character to grow ‘with’....a character I grew to appreciate and understand deeper in time).
We really get to know the characters - many more I haven’t mentioned....their stories - and the ( some painfully disturbing) - trials and tribulations — with the Afghani civilians, and American soldiers ...bringing new light on the war.
The reader is left to contemplate two decades of war and how it’s rendered the healthcare in Afghanistan, Poor roads and transportation, a weak economy, lack of education, lack of physicians and nurses....
But also look at the Afghani culture around religion ( Islam), and family.
What happens when Americans bring their Western wisdom? We look at morality.. and more than one philosophical perspective on what’s right and what’s wrong.
Engrossing reading...and essential to our times!
Thank you, Netgalley, Little Brown and Company, and Amy Waldman
with elegant style and thoughtful insight....this is THAT NOVEL!
I absolutely loved it!!!!!
Amy Waldman’s unblinking look at medical patient care in Afghanistan-post-9/11 era, one of the poorest healthcare systems in the world - unfamiliar with western practices - is astounding and ambitious. We look at misunderstandings, mistreatment, and misdiagnosis.
Amy Waldman considers the issues particular to women in Afghanistan....examines the complexities of global development - the changing role of women in non-Western cultures - ethical controversies- in A REMOTE AFGHAN MOUNTAIN VILLAGE!
There was so much that I related to in this novel. The storytelling filled in holes from my own experiences of living in Berkeley- being a student at Cal - then leaving the country to travel the world for the next two years. In the early 70’s, I, too, traveled to Afghanistan. Many memories were brought back to me - both in Waldman’s detailed descriptions in Berkeley and Afghanistan.
I’ve never forgotten those breathtaking mountains and Afghanistan.... colors changing from browns and greens to lavender and purple and smoky blues. It’s an
incredible sight.
Amy Waldman mentions ‘The Hippie Trail” during the 1970’s. Most of us Westerners who took it - definitely - didn’t have a name for it at the time. But history gave it the right label. I was fascinated that this story was written post 9/11.
She filled in historical understanding for me.
The main character- Parveen Shamsa - a College Senior -studied medical anthropology…which looked at how people in other cultures treated medical problems.
She says:
“I had assumed Kabul would be a hardship. I wasn’t prepared for its comfort, it’s mix of decadence and familiarity.
In the 1970s, it had been a stop on the “Hippie Trail”,
the overland route that young Westerners took from Europe to South Asia.
The mere name evoked a loose-limbed morality. Now, in the long wake of 9/11, it was inhabited by a new round of expats, do-gooders, and profiteers, three groups which proved not to mutually exclusive categories”.
Parveen’s inspiration to go to Afghanistan in the first place, was from a memoir she read, ( fictional for this novel’s purpose), called “Mother Afghanistan”, by Gideon Crane. The deeper w get into the storytelling...Parveen Discovers fabrications, lies, coverups, Major discrepancies from her experiences in village than what Crane wrote in his book.
Not everything was cozy comfortable when Parveen arrived in Kabul....unless you consider it - ha - comfortable being driven by a stranger -Issa - on an unmarked and unpaved road - single dirt lane - in a Land Cruiser bouncing over peddles - traveling this way for two days - and hungry.
Parveen slept in one room - on a bedroll of straw with only one hanging lightbulb- in a room with other women and children and goats.
No cell service, internet, computers, television...
(And coffee??)....
One room...for sleeping and eating, that everyone, (adults, 9 kids, and animals), shared together.
During the day they stacked the bedrolls in a corner.
In the compound yard - were three goats, a handful of chickens, four cows, and a donkey. Piles of hay, a vegetable garden, a pomegranate tree, an outhouse, manure.
Eventually- Parveen ‘paid’ for her own room - valuing solitary. Over time, she questioned Western solitary confinement.
The village that Parveen arrived at wasn’t the most conservative part of the country, yet married women still had to cover themselves - wear the chadri- over their heads.
“The Village had no visual clutter. No billboards, no advertisements, no graffiti. No names on street signs, no numbers on the homes. The village was washed clean of words. Most of them didn’t know how to read, and anyway they didn’t seem to need such guidance and the village where they’d live their whole lives”
One of the characters we meet is Shokoh. She was a city girl - a teenage - educated with desires to study more. She lost her loving mother - and gained a ruthless stepmother.
“Her father had sold her, in her words, into a life where there were no books to read, no paper to write on, no pencils to hold, only cow teats to grip. She was married to a man who was not only too old, but was so illiterate and dirty, who smelled of the fields and could poke his corncob in her whenever he wanted, which was often”.
The characters and dialogue are what gives this book so much intimacy.
You’ll meet, ‘Dr. Yasmeen’, ( the lady doctor)...who worked at medical clinic....and learn why it’s called “Fereshta’s House”.
When we first meet tough-cookie ‘Bina’, she is breast-feeding and kneading bread at the same time.
You’ll be introduced to Mullah’s. Mosque leaders, vicar, or master guardian - used in the Quran.
You’ll meet the kids, and I can’t imagine anyone not falling in love with nine-year-old,
Jamshid: He lost a hand in an accident .....also lost his first mother ( Fereshta). Bina becomes his new mother.
We meet Waheed who was first married to Fereshta who had been gracious and warm.. Bina ....( she’s a character to grow ‘with’....a character I grew to appreciate and understand deeper in time).
We really get to know the characters - many more I haven’t mentioned....their stories - and the ( some painfully disturbing) - trials and tribulations — with the Afghani civilians, and American soldiers ...bringing new light on the war.
The reader is left to contemplate two decades of war and how it’s rendered the healthcare in Afghanistan, Poor roads and transportation, a weak economy, lack of education, lack of physicians and nurses....
But also look at the Afghani culture around religion ( Islam), and family.
What happens when Americans bring their Western wisdom? We look at morality.. and more than one philosophical perspective on what’s right and what’s wrong.
Engrossing reading...and essential to our times!
Thank you, Netgalley, Little Brown and Company, and Amy Waldman
August 11, 2019
Parveen is a young Afghan-American who takes it into her head to go to Afghanistan to help the women in a rural community there. She’s inspired by a best seller, a memoir of a male American doctor who starts a women’s clinic in this same village. With no training, she is not met with the enthusiasm she expected. It’s immediately apparent how different life is here, from the most basic things to huge philosophical differences.
At the beginning, I had trouble finding Parveen a sympathetic character. She’s an idealist, and a stupid one at that. What was enlightening was listening to the female doctor. She pointed out how stupid and idealistic most Americans are. What good is an operating room without anesthesiologists, follow up care, etc.? “Perhaps idealism was an experiment whose variables couldn’t be controlled.”
This book took awhile to grow on me. Parveen took a while to grow on me. She gives Crane, the author of the book, the benefit of the doubt for much longer than I would. But when the Americans arrive and want to pave the road leading into the village, she alone has the value of insight into each culture.
The book shines a huge spotlight on our naivety when it comes to wanting to impose our standards on other cultures. I envision this book being a big favorite for book clubs. In fact, I would recommend it to anyone looking for something different to discuss.
My thanks to netgalley and Little, Brown for an advance copy of this book.
At the beginning, I had trouble finding Parveen a sympathetic character. She’s an idealist, and a stupid one at that. What was enlightening was listening to the female doctor. She pointed out how stupid and idealistic most Americans are. What good is an operating room without anesthesiologists, follow up care, etc.? “Perhaps idealism was an experiment whose variables couldn’t be controlled.”
This book took awhile to grow on me. Parveen took a while to grow on me. She gives Crane, the author of the book, the benefit of the doubt for much longer than I would. But when the Americans arrive and want to pave the road leading into the village, she alone has the value of insight into each culture.
The book shines a huge spotlight on our naivety when it comes to wanting to impose our standards on other cultures. I envision this book being a big favorite for book clubs. In fact, I would recommend it to anyone looking for something different to discuss.
My thanks to netgalley and Little, Brown for an advance copy of this book.
December 1, 2019
Middle Eastern stories always fascinate and often enrage me. The suppression and oppression of women. The lack of education. The survival living in a worn torn country.
A door in the earth is like an eye in the sky.
Parveen, an American, returns to her birth country of Afghanistan, after reading of an extraordinary man who opened a clinic for pregnant women in a small village.
Following his words she seeks to help, learn and live like this author.
However, what she uncovers is more than just the content of an exaggerated and misleading story.
She learns of lies that are told that violate the moral code but do they if they are used to enrich lives of the less fortunate? The internal and eternal conflict.
The writing, passionately engrossing. This may be a work of fiction but the struggle is real.
4⭐️
A door in the earth is like an eye in the sky.
Parveen, an American, returns to her birth country of Afghanistan, after reading of an extraordinary man who opened a clinic for pregnant women in a small village.
Following his words she seeks to help, learn and live like this author.
However, what she uncovers is more than just the content of an exaggerated and misleading story.
She learns of lies that are told that violate the moral code but do they if they are used to enrich lives of the less fortunate? The internal and eternal conflict.
The writing, passionately engrossing. This may be a work of fiction but the struggle is real.
4⭐️
August 26, 2019
4.5 Stars
Born in Afghanistan, Parveen Shamsa left her country of birth when she was not yet two, along with her family. So young that she had little chance to be able to recall the place where she was born. They settled in the Bay Area of California, where her father took a series of demeaning jobs, and gradually their life improved to the point where Parveen was able to attend, and graduate from UC Berkeley.
While at Berkeley, Parveen read a memoir written by a Dr. Gideon Crane, Mother Afghanistan, his story relaying his experience in a post-9/11 Afghanistan, building a maternity hospital / clinic to care for the local people in this poverty-stricken isolated location. She wants desperately to help the people and to bask in the light of Dr. Crane, walk the halls of the hospital he built with the funds sent to him, donations made by Americans whose hearts may be in the right place. Donations made to assuage their guilt. Despite her professor and her family advising her not to attempt this, she eventually goes to the village where she is politely, if not enthusiastically, welcomed.
”The sun, descending, reached into the canyon to daub rocks gold and paint the river emerald. Twilight, violet-blue, seeped in before night snuffed it. She’d never seen a darkness so thick of a driver so tense: he and Fawad stopped talking.”
Once there, and settling in among a village of men and women who seem somewhat distrustful of her in this place, little by little Parveen realizes that the pedestal she’s put Dr. Gideon Crane on is one created by fiction. The gilded image presented through his pages painted a picture that was very different from the reality. The American soldiers try, through their limited perspective, to do what they believe will be helpful to the town and the people, to further advance their cause, and bring progress to this isolated place. Progress with roads, by providing work for these people, but not understanding the cost to these people – or what will happen to them when these soldiers are gone.
Power, idealism, the manipulation of a story / news to change the perspective, or inflate the story / news in order to garner favour, or funds, or followers, this is an unforgettable read.
Pub Date: 27 Aug 2019
Many thanks for the ARC provided by Little, Brown and Company
Born in Afghanistan, Parveen Shamsa left her country of birth when she was not yet two, along with her family. So young that she had little chance to be able to recall the place where she was born. They settled in the Bay Area of California, where her father took a series of demeaning jobs, and gradually their life improved to the point where Parveen was able to attend, and graduate from UC Berkeley.
While at Berkeley, Parveen read a memoir written by a Dr. Gideon Crane, Mother Afghanistan, his story relaying his experience in a post-9/11 Afghanistan, building a maternity hospital / clinic to care for the local people in this poverty-stricken isolated location. She wants desperately to help the people and to bask in the light of Dr. Crane, walk the halls of the hospital he built with the funds sent to him, donations made by Americans whose hearts may be in the right place. Donations made to assuage their guilt. Despite her professor and her family advising her not to attempt this, she eventually goes to the village where she is politely, if not enthusiastically, welcomed.
”The sun, descending, reached into the canyon to daub rocks gold and paint the river emerald. Twilight, violet-blue, seeped in before night snuffed it. She’d never seen a darkness so thick of a driver so tense: he and Fawad stopped talking.”
Once there, and settling in among a village of men and women who seem somewhat distrustful of her in this place, little by little Parveen realizes that the pedestal she’s put Dr. Gideon Crane on is one created by fiction. The gilded image presented through his pages painted a picture that was very different from the reality. The American soldiers try, through their limited perspective, to do what they believe will be helpful to the town and the people, to further advance their cause, and bring progress to this isolated place. Progress with roads, by providing work for these people, but not understanding the cost to these people – or what will happen to them when these soldiers are gone.
Power, idealism, the manipulation of a story / news to change the perspective, or inflate the story / news in order to garner favour, or funds, or followers, this is an unforgettable read.
Pub Date: 27 Aug 2019
Many thanks for the ARC provided by Little, Brown and Company
October 19, 2019
My ex-husband and I served briefly as Peace Corps volunteers in Chad in the early 90s. We were young newlyweds— 24 & 27 — but we'd lived abroad, we were fluent in one of Chad's official languages (French), we were trained as educators, he as a K-12 certificated teacher, me as an instructor of ESL. We left Chad after a few months, heartbroken, disillusioned, angry and bewildered. We quickly realized that as members of a well-intentioned but grinding government bureaucracy we were likely doing more harm than any possible benefit we could offer to a country imploding into civil war. We were essentially taking jobs away from Chadian teachers, who were on rolling strikes to protest not being paid by their own government. Into the vacuum stepped the "education" volunteers to take their place. It was a moral dilemma that we chose not to be a part of.
Misguided, even harmful, development projects are dirty not-so-secret aspects of NGOs and goodwill government organizations everywhere: foreign-funded projects often center on making the foreigners look good by creating physical structures to show donors back home the good things that come from their money. These projects are initiated not by local populations who understand best what is needed in their communities, but by outsiders desperate to spend the monies they've been awarded. It's a tangled mess of convenient compassion, "white savior" mentality, and nefarious politics centered on "winning hearts and minds" that we had the intelligence to recognize and distance ourselves from, even if leaving hurt our potential careers.
Humanitarian superstar Greg Mortenson, author of Three Cups of Tea and Stones into Schools is perhaps the most infamous example of development projects gone bad. Mortensen perpetuated his NGO fraud in the post 9-11 bewilderment of the war with Afghanistan to the tune of millions of dollars of donations from compassionate and guilt-laden Americans, two bestselling and nearly completely fabricated memoirs, and a foundation that served as his own money laundering network. He was exposed at last in 2011, several years after the publication of his first book, by writer Jon Krakauer and the team at 60 Minutes. It's absolutely worth looking up Krakauer's articles and the 60 Minutes episode to see in real time how far Mortensen led astray not just well-meaning donors, but the American military, for whom he served as a guide and advisor.
Amy Waldman, who spent several years in Afghanistan as a journalist in the fragile and frightening era immediately after 9-11, mines the rich ridiculousness of Mortensen's rise and crash to create the premise of her latest novel, A Door in the Earth. Set in 2009, the novel tells the story of young Afghan-American woman, Parveen Shamsa, who travels to a mountain village in northern Afghanistan to conduct anthropological research. Like many Americans of the era, Parveen has fallen under the spell of a book entitled Mother Afghanistan, written by an American humanitarian Gideon Crane (our fictional Greg Mortensen) who found himself in Afghanistan after 9-11 and became a superstar philanthropist by building women-only medical clinics. Parveen traces Crane's footsteps and secures an introduction to members of the village where Crane established the first clinic. Parveen arrives with a vague academic plan and a small grant from UC Berkeley, where she is a student. Her Afghan roots allow her family in distant Kabul and solid knowledge of Dari, the primary language spoken by the villagers.
The story is the awakening of Parveen to her own idealism, the disaster of military intervention to instigate regime change, the faulty logic of many humanitarian assistance programs that try to solve problems first and ask questions later, and the very devastating consequences that can result when outsiders intervene in places they don't bother to take the time to learn about or understand.
I struggled with the sheep-like plodding of Parveen; her naïveté made a caricature of her character at times, and kept her from developing into a fully-realized being. She was more like a mirror upon which the truth was reflected.
Rather, it was the richness of the Afghan human and physical landscape that held me fast to the page. Waheed, the patriarch of the family which takes in Parveen, plays a central role in the fictional memoir he's never read; the tragic death of his wife, Fereshta is supposedly what galvanized Crane into humanitarian action. He is written with nuance and compassion, as are his wives, Bina and Shokoh, and their children. I felt the urgency and warmth of the woman doctor, Yasmeen, who makes a perilous drive once a week to the village with her son, Naseer, to treat its women; the fallibility and vulnerability of interpreter Aziz, whose limited knowledge of English and selective translations imperil villagers and American soldiers alike. Most importantly, the many voices given to the Afghan village women are the heart and soul of this complex and nuanced story. The setting, which reads like an Edenic oasis in the midst of chaos, was intoxicating and revelatory.
Waldman uses Parveen's dawning realization that she has been taken in by a terrible fabrication illustrates the very real tragedy of America's presence in Afghanistan, and the greater context and consequences of foreign assistance projects everywhere. It is not that foreign aid and humanitarian assistance aren't needed; they are, desperately. It's that unless these projects are initiated, led and assessed by local populations, even the best intentions can do irreparable harm.
Misguided, even harmful, development projects are dirty not-so-secret aspects of NGOs and goodwill government organizations everywhere: foreign-funded projects often center on making the foreigners look good by creating physical structures to show donors back home the good things that come from their money. These projects are initiated not by local populations who understand best what is needed in their communities, but by outsiders desperate to spend the monies they've been awarded. It's a tangled mess of convenient compassion, "white savior" mentality, and nefarious politics centered on "winning hearts and minds" that we had the intelligence to recognize and distance ourselves from, even if leaving hurt our potential careers.
Humanitarian superstar Greg Mortenson, author of Three Cups of Tea and Stones into Schools is perhaps the most infamous example of development projects gone bad. Mortensen perpetuated his NGO fraud in the post 9-11 bewilderment of the war with Afghanistan to the tune of millions of dollars of donations from compassionate and guilt-laden Americans, two bestselling and nearly completely fabricated memoirs, and a foundation that served as his own money laundering network. He was exposed at last in 2011, several years after the publication of his first book, by writer Jon Krakauer and the team at 60 Minutes. It's absolutely worth looking up Krakauer's articles and the 60 Minutes episode to see in real time how far Mortensen led astray not just well-meaning donors, but the American military, for whom he served as a guide and advisor.
Amy Waldman, who spent several years in Afghanistan as a journalist in the fragile and frightening era immediately after 9-11, mines the rich ridiculousness of Mortensen's rise and crash to create the premise of her latest novel, A Door in the Earth. Set in 2009, the novel tells the story of young Afghan-American woman, Parveen Shamsa, who travels to a mountain village in northern Afghanistan to conduct anthropological research. Like many Americans of the era, Parveen has fallen under the spell of a book entitled Mother Afghanistan, written by an American humanitarian Gideon Crane (our fictional Greg Mortensen) who found himself in Afghanistan after 9-11 and became a superstar philanthropist by building women-only medical clinics. Parveen traces Crane's footsteps and secures an introduction to members of the village where Crane established the first clinic. Parveen arrives with a vague academic plan and a small grant from UC Berkeley, where she is a student. Her Afghan roots allow her family in distant Kabul and solid knowledge of Dari, the primary language spoken by the villagers.
The story is the awakening of Parveen to her own idealism, the disaster of military intervention to instigate regime change, the faulty logic of many humanitarian assistance programs that try to solve problems first and ask questions later, and the very devastating consequences that can result when outsiders intervene in places they don't bother to take the time to learn about or understand.
I struggled with the sheep-like plodding of Parveen; her naïveté made a caricature of her character at times, and kept her from developing into a fully-realized being. She was more like a mirror upon which the truth was reflected.
Rather, it was the richness of the Afghan human and physical landscape that held me fast to the page. Waheed, the patriarch of the family which takes in Parveen, plays a central role in the fictional memoir he's never read; the tragic death of his wife, Fereshta is supposedly what galvanized Crane into humanitarian action. He is written with nuance and compassion, as are his wives, Bina and Shokoh, and their children. I felt the urgency and warmth of the woman doctor, Yasmeen, who makes a perilous drive once a week to the village with her son, Naseer, to treat its women; the fallibility and vulnerability of interpreter Aziz, whose limited knowledge of English and selective translations imperil villagers and American soldiers alike. Most importantly, the many voices given to the Afghan village women are the heart and soul of this complex and nuanced story. The setting, which reads like an Edenic oasis in the midst of chaos, was intoxicating and revelatory.
Waldman uses Parveen's dawning realization that she has been taken in by a terrible fabrication illustrates the very real tragedy of America's presence in Afghanistan, and the greater context and consequences of foreign assistance projects everywhere. It is not that foreign aid and humanitarian assistance aren't needed; they are, desperately. It's that unless these projects are initiated, led and assessed by local populations, even the best intentions can do irreparable harm.
October 28, 2019
In her senior year at UC Berkeley, not quite a decade after the 911 terrorist attacks on the Twin Towers, Afghan-American anthropology student Parveen Shams happens upon a memoir, the best-selling Mother Afghanistan. In it, Dr. Gideon Crane, the prodigal son of medical missionary parents, explains his transformation from a scheming, money-obsessed physician criminally charged with Medicare fraud to a philanthropist dedicated to building women’s medical clinics in Afghanistan. Vouched for and sponsored by an evangelical mega church, the disgraced Crane claims he found a new purpose in life when, in lieu of jail time or community service in the US, he was allowed to carry out charitable medical work in Afghanistan. Now he has become a celebrity, earning tens of thousands of dollars for each stop on the lecture circuit. Parveen makes a point of attending one of his appearances.
The twenty-two-year-old student is particularly struck by Crane’s account of his attempt to save the life of a poor Afghan mother, Fereshta, who experienced serious complications during labour and delivery. According to Crane, the village mullah prohibited the American doctor (a foreigner, a male, and an infidel) from intervening when the unborn child became lodged in the birth canal; the woman died as a result. Haunted by her tragic death and the grief of her family, the story goes, Crane vowed to build a medical clinic in the woman’s small village to ensure that the lives of other mothers would not be lost. Since that time, Crane has built not one but several such facilities.
Like many of her fellow Americans, Parveen is inspired by the memoir. Restless and directionless, she has no real plans for life after graduation. Consequently, she decides to travel to the very village in Afghanistan where Fereshta died. Like Crane, Parveen is intoxicated by the drama of making a trip to the dangerous, war-torn country. Yes, there is a certain degree of naïve idealism in her project to assist at the clinic and perform medical anthropology fieldwork, but there are also signs of the attention-seeking and self-aggrandizement exhibited by Gideon Crane (who is obviously based on the real-life, mountain-climbing fraudster Greg Mortenson, the Three Cups of Tea author, who gained fame as a builder of Pakistani and Afghan girls’ schools and notoriety for using the “institute” he founded as his personal ATM.)
Through her protagonist, Parveen, Waldman rather heavy-handedly exposes the harm caused by bumbling and egoistic American do-gooders who are almost entirely ignorant of Afghan culture. Her novel is a send-up of both humanitarian and military interventions in post-911 Afghanistan. On arrival in the remote northern village, Parveen finds out almost immediately that the pristine, state-of-the art medical clinic has barely been used. There was briefly a male doctor on the premises, but Afghan cultural practice prohibited his providing medical care to females. There are few female physicians in the province, never mind the anesthetist who’d be needed for surgeries to occur; however, a generous female doctor and her medical-student son volunteer to drive in one day a week to care for this needy group of women, many of whom are endlessly pregnant.
Many chapters of the novel are dedicated to Parveen’s gradual uncovering of Gideon Crane’s multitudinous lies. Dr. Yasmeen is the first to fill her in on the fact that the OR, the several-bed hospital ward, and the incubators have never been used—contrary to Crane’s claims in his book that many female lives have been saved by emergency Caesarean-sections and other procedures. However, it is when Parveen undertakes translating and reading sections of Gideon Crane’s memoir to the female members of Fereshta’s family and the other village women that the extent of his distortion of the truth becomes clear. Parveen’s central dilemma revolves around what to do with this information.
The second and third sections of the three-part novel revolve around the arrival of the American military, in whom Dr. Gideon’s book has inspired the idea of blasting a proper road into the village. An evenly paved surface into the community will improve its economic prospects and make it easier for medical personnel to access the place. The village council is silently opposed to the project, and, it turns out, for good reason. The American presence in this corner of the country attracts insurgents who begin placing IEDs, killing or maiming local labourers and military personnel.
Waldman’s is a fairly incident-rich novel. The details provided reflect the author’s considerable knowledge of Afghan culture. There are several subplots, and the author weighs in on many aspects of American attitudes to and presence in Afghanistan. It is necessary for the reader to suspend a certain amount of disbelief regarding Parveen’s situation in the village. First of all, it is hard to believe a person who grew up in America would be as fluent in Dari as Parveen is. Furthermore, the young woman has far more access to and interaction with male characters, both Afghan and American, than would likely be the case in real life. Finally, Parveen’s initial cluelessness about Afghanistan, the country she was born in, is pretty over-the-top. Bringing cosmetics, a hair dryer, an exercise ball, and a yoga mat to a remote Afghan village and demanding one’s own bedroom while staying with a poor Afghan family? Come on. The author didn’t need to go that far.
I enjoyed this novel but I think a more nuanced, economical approach would have improved the work significantly.
The twenty-two-year-old student is particularly struck by Crane’s account of his attempt to save the life of a poor Afghan mother, Fereshta, who experienced serious complications during labour and delivery. According to Crane, the village mullah prohibited the American doctor (a foreigner, a male, and an infidel) from intervening when the unborn child became lodged in the birth canal; the woman died as a result. Haunted by her tragic death and the grief of her family, the story goes, Crane vowed to build a medical clinic in the woman’s small village to ensure that the lives of other mothers would not be lost. Since that time, Crane has built not one but several such facilities.
Like many of her fellow Americans, Parveen is inspired by the memoir. Restless and directionless, she has no real plans for life after graduation. Consequently, she decides to travel to the very village in Afghanistan where Fereshta died. Like Crane, Parveen is intoxicated by the drama of making a trip to the dangerous, war-torn country. Yes, there is a certain degree of naïve idealism in her project to assist at the clinic and perform medical anthropology fieldwork, but there are also signs of the attention-seeking and self-aggrandizement exhibited by Gideon Crane (who is obviously based on the real-life, mountain-climbing fraudster Greg Mortenson, the Three Cups of Tea author, who gained fame as a builder of Pakistani and Afghan girls’ schools and notoriety for using the “institute” he founded as his personal ATM.)
Through her protagonist, Parveen, Waldman rather heavy-handedly exposes the harm caused by bumbling and egoistic American do-gooders who are almost entirely ignorant of Afghan culture. Her novel is a send-up of both humanitarian and military interventions in post-911 Afghanistan. On arrival in the remote northern village, Parveen finds out almost immediately that the pristine, state-of-the art medical clinic has barely been used. There was briefly a male doctor on the premises, but Afghan cultural practice prohibited his providing medical care to females. There are few female physicians in the province, never mind the anesthetist who’d be needed for surgeries to occur; however, a generous female doctor and her medical-student son volunteer to drive in one day a week to care for this needy group of women, many of whom are endlessly pregnant.
Many chapters of the novel are dedicated to Parveen’s gradual uncovering of Gideon Crane’s multitudinous lies. Dr. Yasmeen is the first to fill her in on the fact that the OR, the several-bed hospital ward, and the incubators have never been used—contrary to Crane’s claims in his book that many female lives have been saved by emergency Caesarean-sections and other procedures. However, it is when Parveen undertakes translating and reading sections of Gideon Crane’s memoir to the female members of Fereshta’s family and the other village women that the extent of his distortion of the truth becomes clear. Parveen’s central dilemma revolves around what to do with this information.
The second and third sections of the three-part novel revolve around the arrival of the American military, in whom Dr. Gideon’s book has inspired the idea of blasting a proper road into the village. An evenly paved surface into the community will improve its economic prospects and make it easier for medical personnel to access the place. The village council is silently opposed to the project, and, it turns out, for good reason. The American presence in this corner of the country attracts insurgents who begin placing IEDs, killing or maiming local labourers and military personnel.
Waldman’s is a fairly incident-rich novel. The details provided reflect the author’s considerable knowledge of Afghan culture. There are several subplots, and the author weighs in on many aspects of American attitudes to and presence in Afghanistan. It is necessary for the reader to suspend a certain amount of disbelief regarding Parveen’s situation in the village. First of all, it is hard to believe a person who grew up in America would be as fluent in Dari as Parveen is. Furthermore, the young woman has far more access to and interaction with male characters, both Afghan and American, than would likely be the case in real life. Finally, Parveen’s initial cluelessness about Afghanistan, the country she was born in, is pretty over-the-top. Bringing cosmetics, a hair dryer, an exercise ball, and a yoga mat to a remote Afghan village and demanding one’s own bedroom while staying with a poor Afghan family? Come on. The author didn’t need to go that far.
I enjoyed this novel but I think a more nuanced, economical approach would have improved the work significantly.
August 6, 2019
A Door in the Earth may very well be the book that Amy Waldman was born to write. Only someone who is intimately aware of the nuances of Afghanistan and its misunderstood societal landscape and complicated truths could ever have put together a book like this.
Ironically, the impetus for this book is—a book. Parveen Shamsa, an American of Afghan descent, is galvanized to action after reading a bestseller from humanitarian activist Gideon Crane called Mother Afghanistan. Surely the author had Greg Mortenson’s Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace in mind. Like that book—filled with chicanery and fabrications—Mother Afghanistan is an inspirational memoir about a young mother who died needlessly in childbirth in a poverty-stricken rural village. Although the book results in the building of a hospital, it also serves as a monument to the author and his ego.
It takes the misdirected and idealistic college graduate Parveen time to recognize what the reader is able to instinctively parse. The gleaming hospital lacks appropriate personnel and a second generator and is, in effect, a modern building and not a care center. But it does capture America’s imagination and before too long, the U.S. Army shows up and wants to pave a road. Problem is, in an area where no one has cars and where a road could lead to envy from nearby villages, a road is not what’s needed. What the village really needs is he with their aging irrigation systems, or a school bu8iding for their children, who are educated in the mosque.
This novel tackles many subjects: the subjugation of women and its tragic consequences, the fantasies of American goodwill, the invention of fairytale-like stories and symbols to justify continual American intervention, the necessity for lies in a place where truth can sometimes lead to death. We, the readers, see life in Afghanistan from varying perspectives that include the village commander and khan, the dai (midwife), the host family, the solitary OB/GYN who can only visit weekly, the U.S. military and of course, Parveen herself.
From time to time, I sensed a bit of authorial intrusion—the feeling that the author had stepped in to drum home a point. Normally this would cause me to distract a star but in this case, the book is just so incredibly good and so important that to me, it is a definite 5-star. I closed the last page feeling far more informed about the intricate challenges that lie ahead for this misunderstood part of the world.
I also loved Amy Waldman’s previous book, The Submission, so I was delighted to receive an advance copy of this new one from @LittleBrown in exchange for an honest review. #ADoorInTheEarth #AmyWaldman
March 4, 2022
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Genre: Literary/Contemporary
Synopsis:
Parveen Shamsa is an Afghan American girl, a recent college graduate who decides to go to Afghanistan (The land of her family & ancestors). This decision was taken after she read and got obsessed with the bestselling book "Mother Afghanistan", a memoir written by humanitarian Gideon Crane. When she arrives there she will make lots of discoveries about the book, the author, and this whole war which makes her think in a different way. Through the story, Parveen will meet many other characters, listen to their stories, and understand all their hardship during these difficult times.
Book Structure:
This is a well-structured book. It is divided into three parts and 28 chapters. There are 400 pages and the story is narrated in the third person's perspective. Sometimes this becomes a book in a book because the main character reads the book Mother Afghanistan to the other characters.
Pros:
- This is an extremely serious subject that the story tackles. The war in Afghanistan. Some people call it a war and others term it as an occupation. The subject is very relevant to everybody and the story does not side with one party but it tells the point of view of all parties, the Afghans, American soldiers, and also the ones who are stuck in between like Parveen in this story.
"So any of us could be killed, if we don't follow the Americans' orders. If we drive too fast, or too slow. If we don't hear them and choose not to listen. If we're in the wrong place" Jamshid
"In that statement was a history every Afghan knew- a history of imperial armies that had attempted to conquer and subdue Afghanistan. The British. The Soviets. And now, the Americans"
I love how the author had treated this subject throughout the book, especially in the eyes of the protagonist. She arrived there as this young college graduate, maybe a little naive thinking what Dr. Gideon was the absolute truth, but later the reader gets to see how this young lady matures and has a better understanding of all her current surroundings and dangers.
- Excellent atmosphere. Great writing that takes you with Parveen to Afghanistan. With the character, you will see the beauty of nature through her eyes and you will also feel all the difficulties and dangers she will face there.
- Varied characters: This is another thing I really appreciate about the book that the author has created so many characters, they are all different. She gave them different identities, motives, and goals. You will not get confused as a reader even if you are not very familiar with the names.
"If I was shot, would anyone remember me? Or would they leave me behind?" Aziz
"This marriage between us and the Americans was arranged, and my feelings about it don't matter" Dr. Yasmeen
Cons:
- I would not consider this a big con but I wish there was more about Parveen and her own family. We get to know about her family members and her mother's illness and demise but still, I wish there was a little more about that side of hers.
Final Thought:
"It is not the inability to breathe that you must fight, but the fear of the inability to breathe" Crane
Amy Waldman has done a tremendous job in creating this beautiful novel. You are set up to be taken to Afghanistan with Parveen and see what is happening there, live it all with her. This is a great achievement for an author to be able to do, to make you live inside her story. A story that is still going on there on a daily basis. Bring back the soldiers home, the Americans have no business to do in Afghanistan.
A Door in the Earth will be released on August 27th, 2019. Don't hesitate in grabbing it.
Many thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for providing me with an advanced reading copy of this book in return for this honest and unbiased review.
Genre: Literary/Contemporary
Synopsis:
Parveen Shamsa is an Afghan American girl, a recent college graduate who decides to go to Afghanistan (The land of her family & ancestors). This decision was taken after she read and got obsessed with the bestselling book "Mother Afghanistan", a memoir written by humanitarian Gideon Crane. When she arrives there she will make lots of discoveries about the book, the author, and this whole war which makes her think in a different way. Through the story, Parveen will meet many other characters, listen to their stories, and understand all their hardship during these difficult times.
Book Structure:
This is a well-structured book. It is divided into three parts and 28 chapters. There are 400 pages and the story is narrated in the third person's perspective. Sometimes this becomes a book in a book because the main character reads the book Mother Afghanistan to the other characters.
Pros:
- This is an extremely serious subject that the story tackles. The war in Afghanistan. Some people call it a war and others term it as an occupation. The subject is very relevant to everybody and the story does not side with one party but it tells the point of view of all parties, the Afghans, American soldiers, and also the ones who are stuck in between like Parveen in this story.
"So any of us could be killed, if we don't follow the Americans' orders. If we drive too fast, or too slow. If we don't hear them and choose not to listen. If we're in the wrong place" Jamshid
"In that statement was a history every Afghan knew- a history of imperial armies that had attempted to conquer and subdue Afghanistan. The British. The Soviets. And now, the Americans"
I love how the author had treated this subject throughout the book, especially in the eyes of the protagonist. She arrived there as this young college graduate, maybe a little naive thinking what Dr. Gideon was the absolute truth, but later the reader gets to see how this young lady matures and has a better understanding of all her current surroundings and dangers.
- Excellent atmosphere. Great writing that takes you with Parveen to Afghanistan. With the character, you will see the beauty of nature through her eyes and you will also feel all the difficulties and dangers she will face there.
- Varied characters: This is another thing I really appreciate about the book that the author has created so many characters, they are all different. She gave them different identities, motives, and goals. You will not get confused as a reader even if you are not very familiar with the names.
"If I was shot, would anyone remember me? Or would they leave me behind?" Aziz
"This marriage between us and the Americans was arranged, and my feelings about it don't matter" Dr. Yasmeen
Cons:
- I would not consider this a big con but I wish there was more about Parveen and her own family. We get to know about her family members and her mother's illness and demise but still, I wish there was a little more about that side of hers.
Final Thought:
"It is not the inability to breathe that you must fight, but the fear of the inability to breathe" Crane
Amy Waldman has done a tremendous job in creating this beautiful novel. You are set up to be taken to Afghanistan with Parveen and see what is happening there, live it all with her. This is a great achievement for an author to be able to do, to make you live inside her story. A story that is still going on there on a daily basis. Bring back the soldiers home, the Americans have no business to do in Afghanistan.
A Door in the Earth will be released on August 27th, 2019. Don't hesitate in grabbing it.
Many thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for providing me with an advanced reading copy of this book in return for this honest and unbiased review.
June 23, 2019
One of my favorite novels of 2019. Amy Waldman opens a door into contemporary Afghanistan in this character-driven literary novel. The author worked as a journalist reporting for the New York Times from their South Asia bureau. Details of life and conflict when the Americans try to build a new road to a remote village ring with truth and heartbreak. Main character is recent UC Berkeley grad Parveen, who was born in Kabul but raised in California. Parveen craves connection with her cultural roots and also seeks to improve women's health. Her naiveté collides with realities of American occupation, insurgent activism, women's lives, and traditional practices. Highly recommended! Releases in the USA on August 27. Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC.
February 19, 2023
Das Buch war wahnsinnig intensiv.
Parvin, eine junge Studentin liest ein Buch eines Amerikaners, der von einer Hilfsaktion in einem afghanischen Dorf berichtet . Sie selbst ist in Kabul geboren. Ist aber mit einem Jahr von dort mit ihren Eltern geflohen.
Berührt und fasziniert von dem Autor und seiner Geschichte, beschließt sie in dieses Dorf zu reisen. Dort angekommen, nimmt alles seinen Lauf.
Der erste Teil des Buches war meines Empfindens nach, voll von Klischees und der Naivität der Protagonistin. Das ging mir extrem auf die Nerven.
Das Blatt wendete sich dann jedoch und es wurde zum Page Turner. Für mich, leider etwas zu spät.
Daher nur 4 Sterne.
Trotz allem hatte ich dann während des Lesens einen wahnsinnigen Kloß im Hals.
Parvin macht zum Glück eine Wandlung durch, die der Geschichte gut getan hat. Sie kommt als “ Fremde” in dieses Dorf und sieht kulturelle Missstände, will helfen, ver- und beurteilt auch gleichzeitig ….. bis sie die Menschen und deren Leben dort wirklich kennen lernt.
Invasionen bleiben einfach oftmals Invasionen…. Auch wenn die Hintergedanken keine schlechten sind. Dennoch laufen trotzdem eben diese Eingriffe entwickelter Industrieländer zu häufig unter dem Deckmantel der Hilfsbereitschaft ab.
Nach dem Abzug westlicher Truppen aus Afghanistan hat man mit eigenen Augen sehen können, dass viel verbrannte Erde einfach so zurück gelassen wurde und damit auch gleichzeitig die Leben tausender Afghan:innen, die vertraut und an westliche Mächte geglaubt haben.
Beide Seiten mussten hohe Preise für Entscheidungen bezahlen, die irgendwo von hochrangigen Politikern und/ oder Militärs in klimatisierten Büros getroffen wurden.
Wir Menschen sind überhaupt nicht unterschiedlich. Niemand auf dieser Welt sucht sich aus, wo er oder sie geboren wird. Menschen, die ein friedvolles Leben führen dürfen, für die Bildung selbstverständlich ist, die von einem Sozialstaat und Gesundheitssystem profitieren dürfen, haben sich diese Privilegien nicht verdient. Sie haben einfach ein Scheiß Glück gehabt. Das ist natürlich keine neue Erkenntnis, aber manchmal möchte man dies bestimmten Erdenbürgern einfach nur jede Sekunde entgegen schreien. Uns gehört gar nichts auf dieser Welt. Es besteht kein Anspruch auf irgendwas. Wenn es einen gut getroffen hat, dann tut es nicht weh, dort zu helfen, wo man kann und wie es gewollt ist bzw. gebraucht wird.
Letztlich wollen doch die meisten Menschen nur in Frieden zusammenleben. Ja. Ausnahmen gibt es immer und Idioten gibt es auch üüüberall auf der Welt. Die gibt es in allen Farben und Formen. Und auch nicht nur in bildungsfernen, wenig entwickelten Ländern!!!!!
Auch wenn dieser Gedanke immer utopisch sein wird, dass alle Bewohner:innen dieses Planeten friedvoll zusammen leben werden , so ist es trotzdem ein Bild an dem festgehalten werden muss und jede Person kann auch im kleinen Rahmen dazu beitragen, dass wir Menschen uns mit Respekt, Liebe und Toleranz begegnen.
Für mich ein Buch, dass ins Herz trifft und den Fokus auf Essenzielles im Leben lenkt🫶🏻
Parvin, eine junge Studentin liest ein Buch eines Amerikaners, der von einer Hilfsaktion in einem afghanischen Dorf berichtet . Sie selbst ist in Kabul geboren. Ist aber mit einem Jahr von dort mit ihren Eltern geflohen.
Berührt und fasziniert von dem Autor und seiner Geschichte, beschließt sie in dieses Dorf zu reisen. Dort angekommen, nimmt alles seinen Lauf.
Der erste Teil des Buches war meines Empfindens nach, voll von Klischees und der Naivität der Protagonistin. Das ging mir extrem auf die Nerven.
Das Blatt wendete sich dann jedoch und es wurde zum Page Turner. Für mich, leider etwas zu spät.
Daher nur 4 Sterne.
Trotz allem hatte ich dann während des Lesens einen wahnsinnigen Kloß im Hals.
Parvin macht zum Glück eine Wandlung durch, die der Geschichte gut getan hat. Sie kommt als “ Fremde” in dieses Dorf und sieht kulturelle Missstände, will helfen, ver- und beurteilt auch gleichzeitig ….. bis sie die Menschen und deren Leben dort wirklich kennen lernt.
Invasionen bleiben einfach oftmals Invasionen…. Auch wenn die Hintergedanken keine schlechten sind. Dennoch laufen trotzdem eben diese Eingriffe entwickelter Industrieländer zu häufig unter dem Deckmantel der Hilfsbereitschaft ab.
Nach dem Abzug westlicher Truppen aus Afghanistan hat man mit eigenen Augen sehen können, dass viel verbrannte Erde einfach so zurück gelassen wurde und damit auch gleichzeitig die Leben tausender Afghan:innen, die vertraut und an westliche Mächte geglaubt haben.
Beide Seiten mussten hohe Preise für Entscheidungen bezahlen, die irgendwo von hochrangigen Politikern und/ oder Militärs in klimatisierten Büros getroffen wurden.
Wir Menschen sind überhaupt nicht unterschiedlich. Niemand auf dieser Welt sucht sich aus, wo er oder sie geboren wird. Menschen, die ein friedvolles Leben führen dürfen, für die Bildung selbstverständlich ist, die von einem Sozialstaat und Gesundheitssystem profitieren dürfen, haben sich diese Privilegien nicht verdient. Sie haben einfach ein Scheiß Glück gehabt. Das ist natürlich keine neue Erkenntnis, aber manchmal möchte man dies bestimmten Erdenbürgern einfach nur jede Sekunde entgegen schreien. Uns gehört gar nichts auf dieser Welt. Es besteht kein Anspruch auf irgendwas. Wenn es einen gut getroffen hat, dann tut es nicht weh, dort zu helfen, wo man kann und wie es gewollt ist bzw. gebraucht wird.
Letztlich wollen doch die meisten Menschen nur in Frieden zusammenleben. Ja. Ausnahmen gibt es immer und Idioten gibt es auch üüüberall auf der Welt. Die gibt es in allen Farben und Formen. Und auch nicht nur in bildungsfernen, wenig entwickelten Ländern!!!!!
Auch wenn dieser Gedanke immer utopisch sein wird, dass alle Bewohner:innen dieses Planeten friedvoll zusammen leben werden , so ist es trotzdem ein Bild an dem festgehalten werden muss und jede Person kann auch im kleinen Rahmen dazu beitragen, dass wir Menschen uns mit Respekt, Liebe und Toleranz begegnen.
Für mich ein Buch, dass ins Herz trifft und den Fokus auf Essenzielles im Leben lenkt🫶🏻
July 15, 2019
I really learned a lot about Afghanistan, our presence, the culture, and more from this excellent story! Many things to think about. A great deal of questions along with the information. Reminds me of the Kite Runner but with a different family. One of my favorite reads of 2019. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.
August 27, 2019
Amy Waldman demonstrates the complexities of family, education, culture, religious traditionalism, and the role of media and the military in shaping perception in this captivating new novel centered on a remote village in Afghanistan. Parveen Shamsa is a recent college graduate of anthropology in Northern California, where she has lived as an Afghan émigré since age two. Now, in 2009, at age 21, she is passionately inspired by a memoir, Mother Afghanistan, written by an American ophthalmologist and activist, Gideon Crane.
Parveen decides to be the first American since Crane to go to this quiet village and stay with the same host family. Initially, Crane went to Afghanistan after he was busted as a crook, in exchange for his fraud schemes against the American government, and to redeem his adulterous past. Parveen is going as an idealist and to put her medical anthropology studies to good use.
Through a charitable foundation that Crane initiated after his return to America, he built a maternity clinic in this village many miles away from Kabul, where he stayed with Waheed, Fereshta, and their six children--Fereshta was pregnant with their seventh. It was his grief over her death in childbirth that inspired his shiny, technologically advanced new clinic and the memoir of his experience there in the farm village. And currently, Crane’s activism has spread to influence the American military in elevating Afghanistan’s infrastructure, such as paving roads to allow outside access.
Waheed is now married to Fereshta’s younger sister, and has had three more children. Moreover, he has taken on yet another young wife to help with the daily labor. Almost everyone in the village is illiterate, sharing the backbreaking farm work. The village’s religious leader, a shrewd businessman who keeps the inhabitants in check, does nothing to dispel their ignorance about medicine and infection control, or to assist in bringing education and modernity to village life. The village birth assistant, an ancient and suspicious woman, is content to keep the families in the Dark Ages and to resist innovation.
But why does the female doctor only travel once a week to the clinic, for an afternoon only, and why is the technology sitting mostly idle? Although Crane spent money to staff the clinic, it sits there empty most of the time. Why does it seem that, even after all the donated monies, the women who are pregnant are no better off than before? These and other questions emerge as Parveen integrates into village life and attends all the appointments at the clinic. She sets up daily readings of the book chapters of Mother Afghanistan to any interested villagers, to demonstrate and uplift them with how “famous” their village is to Americans, and to help open their minds.
Mother Afghanistan stood as an enigmatic unknown to these backward, hardworking, and earnest inhabitants, despite its reach in America. But once they started hearing the contents of the memoir from Parveen’s daily readings, the question of its truth, exaggeration, or outright fiction begins to unfold. The book was like the ziggurat of American intervention in Afghanistan, but is it truth or fable? Is paving over the roads equal to paving over the truth?
Waldman also does a superb job of highlighting the paradox of deception between the military and Afghanistan. What is noble in ideology and workable in practice may require a sleight of hand. Parveen’s virtuous ideals could be both honorable and dangerous. It is a coming of age for her, to see shades of grey-- where black and white can be reductive and untenable between truth and lies—and can make all the difference between life and death.
In graceful and measured prose, Waldman, in my estimation, exceeds even her last book, THE SUBMISSION, in moving me to the edge of the abyss and persuading me to realize that, from the comfort of the U.S., with our modern homes, big-screen TVs, and comfortable lifestyles, we may still be somewhere on the continuum between arrogance and ignorance. When a developed country like ours tries to help, it can scorch the earth even in the most undeveloped places of need.
“…anthropology, while purportedly allowing us to understand other cultures, was really a tool to understand our own.”
Thank you to @LittleBrown for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
#AmyWaldman #ADoorintheEarth #AmyWaldman2019masterpiece
Parveen decides to be the first American since Crane to go to this quiet village and stay with the same host family. Initially, Crane went to Afghanistan after he was busted as a crook, in exchange for his fraud schemes against the American government, and to redeem his adulterous past. Parveen is going as an idealist and to put her medical anthropology studies to good use.
Through a charitable foundation that Crane initiated after his return to America, he built a maternity clinic in this village many miles away from Kabul, where he stayed with Waheed, Fereshta, and their six children--Fereshta was pregnant with their seventh. It was his grief over her death in childbirth that inspired his shiny, technologically advanced new clinic and the memoir of his experience there in the farm village. And currently, Crane’s activism has spread to influence the American military in elevating Afghanistan’s infrastructure, such as paving roads to allow outside access.
Waheed is now married to Fereshta’s younger sister, and has had three more children. Moreover, he has taken on yet another young wife to help with the daily labor. Almost everyone in the village is illiterate, sharing the backbreaking farm work. The village’s religious leader, a shrewd businessman who keeps the inhabitants in check, does nothing to dispel their ignorance about medicine and infection control, or to assist in bringing education and modernity to village life. The village birth assistant, an ancient and suspicious woman, is content to keep the families in the Dark Ages and to resist innovation.
But why does the female doctor only travel once a week to the clinic, for an afternoon only, and why is the technology sitting mostly idle? Although Crane spent money to staff the clinic, it sits there empty most of the time. Why does it seem that, even after all the donated monies, the women who are pregnant are no better off than before? These and other questions emerge as Parveen integrates into village life and attends all the appointments at the clinic. She sets up daily readings of the book chapters of Mother Afghanistan to any interested villagers, to demonstrate and uplift them with how “famous” their village is to Americans, and to help open their minds.
Mother Afghanistan stood as an enigmatic unknown to these backward, hardworking, and earnest inhabitants, despite its reach in America. But once they started hearing the contents of the memoir from Parveen’s daily readings, the question of its truth, exaggeration, or outright fiction begins to unfold. The book was like the ziggurat of American intervention in Afghanistan, but is it truth or fable? Is paving over the roads equal to paving over the truth?
Waldman also does a superb job of highlighting the paradox of deception between the military and Afghanistan. What is noble in ideology and workable in practice may require a sleight of hand. Parveen’s virtuous ideals could be both honorable and dangerous. It is a coming of age for her, to see shades of grey-- where black and white can be reductive and untenable between truth and lies—and can make all the difference between life and death.
In graceful and measured prose, Waldman, in my estimation, exceeds even her last book, THE SUBMISSION, in moving me to the edge of the abyss and persuading me to realize that, from the comfort of the U.S., with our modern homes, big-screen TVs, and comfortable lifestyles, we may still be somewhere on the continuum between arrogance and ignorance. When a developed country like ours tries to help, it can scorch the earth even in the most undeveloped places of need.
“…anthropology, while purportedly allowing us to understand other cultures, was really a tool to understand our own.”
Thank you to @LittleBrown for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
#AmyWaldman #ADoorintheEarth #AmyWaldman2019masterpiece
April 27, 2021
I never did figure out what the title of this book meant as I listened to the audible book following along with the Kindle edition. For the first half or more of this book I thought this was a very interesting look at the life of women in Afghanistan. I actually thought That was enough to make this a pretty interesting book. I tried to look at the lives of women in a small village in the part of Afghanistan that the war had not reached.
But then the world went to hell. The war arrived in this small village and in the lives of the women there in the guise of the US military coming supposedly to engineer a road into the village to benefit the people.
The main character in the story is a afghan American woman who returns to a country she had left long ago. The Muslim culture in the country is explored reasonably Well although I have no real way to know how accurately. The desperate status of women is also emphasized although this is of course completely seen from the western point of view. And the role of the military as it destroys the country to save it is also paramount.
There is a considerable amount of emotional weight in the story and it is hard to evaluate how much the reader is being manipulated by the events and by our own assumptions about how life might be in this foreign land where are the United States has been at war for 20 years. I have not read very many books about the war in Afghanistan although it seems that we in the United States have been exposed to information about it through the media for two decades and have plenty of soundbites and bits of detail That allow us to grossly misjudge events. I am not sure if I think this book helps or hurts that understanding.
But then the world went to hell. The war arrived in this small village and in the lives of the women there in the guise of the US military coming supposedly to engineer a road into the village to benefit the people.
The main character in the story is a afghan American woman who returns to a country she had left long ago. The Muslim culture in the country is explored reasonably Well although I have no real way to know how accurately. The desperate status of women is also emphasized although this is of course completely seen from the western point of view. And the role of the military as it destroys the country to save it is also paramount.
There is a considerable amount of emotional weight in the story and it is hard to evaluate how much the reader is being manipulated by the events and by our own assumptions about how life might be in this foreign land where are the United States has been at war for 20 years. I have not read very many books about the war in Afghanistan although it seems that we in the United States have been exposed to information about it through the media for two decades and have plenty of soundbites and bits of detail That allow us to grossly misjudge events. I am not sure if I think this book helps or hurts that understanding.
July 28, 2024
All fiction is lies. I’m comfortable with this. But when I read Amy Waldman’s brilliant novel, A Door in the Earth, I realized that I have a rule about this that I didn’t know I had before. I’m comfortable with lies when I know they’re lies. I don’t like liars if I don’t know they’re liars. (This explains why, to this day, I still loathe James Frey and Greg Mortenson.) The protagonist of this novel, Parveen Shamsa, has to learn how to discern truth from lies the hard way when she follows a story to Afghanistan, to do something great like the author of Mother Afghanistan. She is warned by everyone from her favorite professor to her family and friends, but she goes anyway, only to discover that her hero was not so heroic...
Read the rest of my review at A Bookish Type. I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley, for review consideration.
Read the rest of my review at A Bookish Type. I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley, for review consideration.
July 2, 2019
Young Afghan American Parveen Shamsa travels to her family’s land after recently graduating from college and reading the gut-wrenching bestseller Mother Afghanistan. She arrives to the poor-stricken and secluded village where Dr. Gideon Crane’s traumatic events happened years before, leading him to write the remarkable memoirs. As Parveen meets and befriends with the villagers, she soon discovers the discrepancies between the book and the facts of what really happened to him, to Fereshta who died in childbirth, and to the clinic which was built in her memory.
This novel is a powerful tale about the power of misinformation, of political lies, with a marvelous country and simple, beautiful people in the backdrop.
Thanks to NetGalley and Little Brown and Company for the advance copy.
This novel is a powerful tale about the power of misinformation, of political lies, with a marvelous country and simple, beautiful people in the backdrop.
Thanks to NetGalley and Little Brown and Company for the advance copy.
August 16, 2019
I loved this book. Parveen is a young Afghan/American who travels to Afghanistan after becoming absorbed in a book written by Crane and A Door in the Earth is the story of her travels and the people she meets. More than that it's a story about the shades of grey in each of us and in each person's story. No characters are all good or all bad and nothing is ever as it seems. I smiled at Parveen's American young adult behavior and attitudes and came to admire her growth and ability to challenge herself and her motivations. Her interactions with the US military provide additional material for reflection as did the realities faced by the people of Afghanistan.
This would be a wonderful book club book as it's rich with discussion opportunities and is well written. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
This would be a wonderful book club book as it's rich with discussion opportunities and is well written. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
March 10, 2022
The women drifted off. Parveen lingered alone in the quiet of the orchard, trying to parse what had just occurred. Outside the walls, Bina and Shokoh were waiting for her. IN their presence she felt embarrassed, uncertain. "I'm sure this can all be explained," she said.
"Why does it need to be explained?" Bina said. "It's just a story Dr. Gideon made up."
"He said it was--is--a true story."
"Why does it matter?" Shokoh asked.
"Because it does," Parveen said impatiently, then tried to explain. "In life, in history, it's important to know what happened to us."
"But we know what happened to us," Bina observed. "Whether the story you tell is true or not true doesn't change what already happened."
Parveen hesitated, searching for a rebuttal. "We make decisions about the future based on the stories we tell about the past," she said.
"We're women," Shokoh replied. "We're not allowed to make decisions."
~~While the women in the village wear green chadri, this photograph closely matches my mental image of Parveen walking amongst the village women. She is Afgan-American, and wearing a hijab, but in rural Afghanistan she does anything but blend in.
To go deeper into Afghanistan, I was sure, would take me deeper into myself. I wanted somewhere, something, harder to push against. What we think of as comforts are buffers, ways of not knowing ourselves, not becoming ourselves. I wanted to turn myself inside out, to empty my pockets, and so to learn what I contained.
First two sentences: As soon as she saw the road, she understood how it had seduced him. Unmarked and unpaved, it rose up between mauve foothills, then slipped through them.
Parveen Shams is a college senior at UC Berkeley, California. Close to graduating with a degree in anthropology, she is starting to worry about the future. It's the fall of 2008 and America is in the throws of a recession. Grad school is suddenly out of the question, and liberal arts majors are fighting for any work scraps they can find. During her senior year, Parveen read Mother Afghanistan by a man named Gideon Crane. His book chronicles his time in Afghanistan doing community service (after being charged with fraud). He stumbles onto a remote village with virtually no access to healthcare, and vows to build a woman's clinic there. His book and his clinic become a sensation in the US. Parveen listens to him give a live talk at a local university, and impulsively decides, as only those in their childless early 20s can, to go to Afghanistan herself to see the village, the clinic, and assist the work. She will put her anthropology degree to use. After all, she knows the language and the culture. And anything is better than moving in with her older, married sister upon graduation.
But Parveen quickly finds just how far rural Afghanistan is from California. "The goat hovered in the doorway, letting Parveen get a good look at its yellow eyes, large ears, and unsightly teeth. Parveen reached for her phone, already writing the caption-- My new roommate --for a Facebook post. Then she remembered that she had no way to post anything. The village had no internet, no computers, no television, no cell service. It is not an easy place for someone used to the comforts of America , Crane had warned in one of his talks. This had only made her want to come more, but now, lacking an audience for her experiences, she felt lost. Unwitnessed."
She herself is unwitnessed by the world, but there is plenty for her to witness. But can she separate the village in front of her eyes from the village in the book? Can she let go of her preconceived prejudices, her immature ideals, her pride, and learn what the woman of the village have to teach her? And if she can learn, then perhaps she can also help. Perhaps she can make a difference. Read this immersive, captivating story of self-discovery to find out!
My two cents: I could tell, after one chapter, that Amy Waldman knows how to write. She starts with a great premise, then expertly weaves the story arc with memorable characters, engaging dialogue, and a compelling main character. Waldman takes us to the front lines and shows how even the most well-intentioned charity can go array. I loved watching Parveen grow as a character and as a young woman. Having ideals is easy. Having one's ideals and pivotal role models challenged can be devastating for a young adult. Parveen instead perseveres, adapts, and ultimately finds her own way. Given 5 stars or a rating of "Perfect". Highly, highly recommended!!
Other favorite quotes: "Might opens the door for mission, which in turn justifies might. Controlling land and bodies paves the way for saving souls, and saving souls solidifies control over land," Professor Banerjee had said in her class lecture.
~~It struck her, even at the time, that there was no self, no core, unshaped by others, that from the moment you're conscious that you're being viewed, you're being molded.
~~It was only natural that humans, when faced with the inexplicable, posited complex theories dense with jargon, then conveniently forgot they were theories.
~~A man could endure anything if he had hope that things would get better. Hope, maybe, was as important as bread.
~~Self-pity was a blank check that would cover the costs of almost anything.
~~The truth about a death in a faraway war was both sacred and secret, Parveen thought. So many witnesses--commanders, fellow soldiers, innumerable Afghans--carried this kind of knowledge, yet they kept it to themselves. As, most likely, would Parveen.
Further reading: A good starting point for learning about healthcare in Afghanistan--an article in Pubmed, with links to additional articles. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti...
"Why does it need to be explained?" Bina said. "It's just a story Dr. Gideon made up."
"He said it was--is--a true story."
"Why does it matter?" Shokoh asked.
"Because it does," Parveen said impatiently, then tried to explain. "In life, in history, it's important to know what happened to us."
"But we know what happened to us," Bina observed. "Whether the story you tell is true or not true doesn't change what already happened."
Parveen hesitated, searching for a rebuttal. "We make decisions about the future based on the stories we tell about the past," she said.
"We're women," Shokoh replied. "We're not allowed to make decisions."
~~While the women in the village wear green chadri, this photograph closely matches my mental image of Parveen walking amongst the village women. She is Afgan-American, and wearing a hijab, but in rural Afghanistan she does anything but blend in.
To go deeper into Afghanistan, I was sure, would take me deeper into myself. I wanted somewhere, something, harder to push against. What we think of as comforts are buffers, ways of not knowing ourselves, not becoming ourselves. I wanted to turn myself inside out, to empty my pockets, and so to learn what I contained.
First two sentences: As soon as she saw the road, she understood how it had seduced him. Unmarked and unpaved, it rose up between mauve foothills, then slipped through them.
Parveen Shams is a college senior at UC Berkeley, California. Close to graduating with a degree in anthropology, she is starting to worry about the future. It's the fall of 2008 and America is in the throws of a recession. Grad school is suddenly out of the question, and liberal arts majors are fighting for any work scraps they can find. During her senior year, Parveen read Mother Afghanistan by a man named Gideon Crane. His book chronicles his time in Afghanistan doing community service (after being charged with fraud). He stumbles onto a remote village with virtually no access to healthcare, and vows to build a woman's clinic there. His book and his clinic become a sensation in the US. Parveen listens to him give a live talk at a local university, and impulsively decides, as only those in their childless early 20s can, to go to Afghanistan herself to see the village, the clinic, and assist the work. She will put her anthropology degree to use. After all, she knows the language and the culture. And anything is better than moving in with her older, married sister upon graduation.
But Parveen quickly finds just how far rural Afghanistan is from California. "The goat hovered in the doorway, letting Parveen get a good look at its yellow eyes, large ears, and unsightly teeth. Parveen reached for her phone, already writing the caption-- My new roommate --for a Facebook post. Then she remembered that she had no way to post anything. The village had no internet, no computers, no television, no cell service. It is not an easy place for someone used to the comforts of America , Crane had warned in one of his talks. This had only made her want to come more, but now, lacking an audience for her experiences, she felt lost. Unwitnessed."
She herself is unwitnessed by the world, but there is plenty for her to witness. But can she separate the village in front of her eyes from the village in the book? Can she let go of her preconceived prejudices, her immature ideals, her pride, and learn what the woman of the village have to teach her? And if she can learn, then perhaps she can also help. Perhaps she can make a difference. Read this immersive, captivating story of self-discovery to find out!
My two cents: I could tell, after one chapter, that Amy Waldman knows how to write. She starts with a great premise, then expertly weaves the story arc with memorable characters, engaging dialogue, and a compelling main character. Waldman takes us to the front lines and shows how even the most well-intentioned charity can go array. I loved watching Parveen grow as a character and as a young woman. Having ideals is easy. Having one's ideals and pivotal role models challenged can be devastating for a young adult. Parveen instead perseveres, adapts, and ultimately finds her own way. Given 5 stars or a rating of "Perfect". Highly, highly recommended!!
Other favorite quotes: "Might opens the door for mission, which in turn justifies might. Controlling land and bodies paves the way for saving souls, and saving souls solidifies control over land," Professor Banerjee had said in her class lecture.
~~It struck her, even at the time, that there was no self, no core, unshaped by others, that from the moment you're conscious that you're being viewed, you're being molded.
~~It was only natural that humans, when faced with the inexplicable, posited complex theories dense with jargon, then conveniently forgot they were theories.
~~A man could endure anything if he had hope that things would get better. Hope, maybe, was as important as bread.
~~Self-pity was a blank check that would cover the costs of almost anything.
~~The truth about a death in a faraway war was both sacred and secret, Parveen thought. So many witnesses--commanders, fellow soldiers, innumerable Afghans--carried this kind of knowledge, yet they kept it to themselves. As, most likely, would Parveen.
Further reading: A good starting point for learning about healthcare in Afghanistan--an article in Pubmed, with links to additional articles. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti...
August 25, 2020
"the villain was rarely whom you expected and often the person who seemed to good to be true"
September 24, 2019
Beautifully written story I had to keep reminding myself was fiction.
The point being made in the book, showing not telling, is that the road to hell is paved with good intentions.
The road to the village in the book was not paved and in fact was rather dicey at the beginning of the story. By the end there was no road.
An Afghan-American young woman, Parveen, is the protagonist and returns to Afganistan seeing herself as a rescuer/hero after reading a book about a man who had done great work in a certain village. She wants to join that work.
It is an excellent portrayal of learning that people in the midst of anything know way more than any outsider coming in (speaking the language and understanding the American version of the culture notwithstanding), and outsiders (military after "hearts and minds" especially) need to find reliable translaters and LISTEN.
excerpt:
Crane [the author of the book that led Parveen to Afganistan] had told stories of elders from other villages begging for clinics of their own, but no one...knew who these men were. Most Afghans had never heard of Crane or his book. As Parveen knew, it hadn't ever been translated into pashto or Dari. Nor would these men have known where to find Crane. For help, for hope - for clinics or schools or peace - ordinary Afghans sat in the waiting rooms and courtyards of warlords, provincial officials and minor personages like the khan. and most of the tine they went home empty-handed. The foundation had built some other clinics...most nearly as nice as this one, in villages that were easy to reach. But they'd come at the foundation's directive, not that of the villagers, and their numbers were far fewer than Crane or the foundation's publications had said. And most of them, like Fereshta's, were closed except for when journalists or VIPs planned a visit.
***
I can't help but think much of the plot about Crane was taken form Greg Mortenson's deceitful "Three Cups of Tea" and, although I can't find any follow up to the villages he purportedly helped, I believe that much the same results probably happened with that "help." (https://medium.com/galleys/greg-morte...)
It is a riveting story. I did want to smack Parveen on several occasions but her character is young and she often thinks and acts that way - I forget what it's like to be in my 20s and a true believer.
Highly recommend.
The story broke my heart. And it is so well written you should see whether or not it will break yours.
The point being made in the book, showing not telling, is that the road to hell is paved with good intentions.
The road to the village in the book was not paved and in fact was rather dicey at the beginning of the story. By the end there was no road.
An Afghan-American young woman, Parveen, is the protagonist and returns to Afganistan seeing herself as a rescuer/hero after reading a book about a man who had done great work in a certain village. She wants to join that work.
It is an excellent portrayal of learning that people in the midst of anything know way more than any outsider coming in (speaking the language and understanding the American version of the culture notwithstanding), and outsiders (military after "hearts and minds" especially) need to find reliable translaters and LISTEN.
excerpt:
Crane [the author of the book that led Parveen to Afganistan] had told stories of elders from other villages begging for clinics of their own, but no one...knew who these men were. Most Afghans had never heard of Crane or his book. As Parveen knew, it hadn't ever been translated into pashto or Dari. Nor would these men have known where to find Crane. For help, for hope - for clinics or schools or peace - ordinary Afghans sat in the waiting rooms and courtyards of warlords, provincial officials and minor personages like the khan. and most of the tine they went home empty-handed. The foundation had built some other clinics...most nearly as nice as this one, in villages that were easy to reach. But they'd come at the foundation's directive, not that of the villagers, and their numbers were far fewer than Crane or the foundation's publications had said. And most of them, like Fereshta's, were closed except for when journalists or VIPs planned a visit.
***
I can't help but think much of the plot about Crane was taken form Greg Mortenson's deceitful "Three Cups of Tea" and, although I can't find any follow up to the villages he purportedly helped, I believe that much the same results probably happened with that "help." (https://medium.com/galleys/greg-morte...)
It is a riveting story. I did want to smack Parveen on several occasions but her character is young and she often thinks and acts that way - I forget what it's like to be in my 20s and a true believer.
Highly recommend.
The story broke my heart. And it is so well written you should see whether or not it will break yours.
October 9, 2019
Parveen Shamsa is a U.C. Berkeley college student intellectually enamored of her anthropology professor, Dr. Bannerjee, and the author of a popular book by Gideon Crane's on his experiences providing health care to pregnant women in Afghanistan. Praveen herself is of Afghan ethnicity, her family having moved to the United States from Kabul when she was two years old. She is close to graduation from college and has discussions with her professor about wanting to travel to Afghanistan to continue Crane's work. Dr. Bannerjee is skeptical but Praveen's idealism is her north star.
Praveen has read Crane's book, Mother Afghanistan, several times and has heard him speak. She emails him repeatedly, asking him questions and telling him of her plans to go to Afghanistan and help with the hospital he started. She receives nothing but an obtuse and terse reply from this man who has a very unflattering past. He's been convicted of embezzlement, admits adultery and speaks of himself as a liar. However, he states he has somehow seen the light and changed. (I must interject at this point because I smelled a fraud from the beginning. His writing sounded like that of a cult leader more than a humanitarian.)
At any rate, Parveen goes by herself to a remote area of Afghanistan and quickly realizes that things are not as Crane described in his book. At first she gives him the benefit of the doubt but then she starts questioning the veracity of his writing. She lives with a family that Crane wrote about, the family of Fereshta, the pregnant woman who died of complications, and for whom his hospital is named after.
It doesn't take Parveen long to realize that though the hospital is a modern building with all sorts of expensive machines and examining rooms, there is no doctor on staff there. The only doctor to enter the hospital is one who volunteers for part of one day each week and comes a long way to assist the women of the village with their health concerns.
Parveen believes she is safe from the war but that, too, is not the case. The war will be too close to her too soon and she will have to test her loyalties - to the village of to the United States.
This novel reads too much like a textbook in social anthropology for my liking. Having a graduate degree in this field, I know what I'm speaking about. I felt lectured to, as though I was reading an assigned text. Some textbooks give fictionalized examples to demonstrate the facts. That's what I felt was happening in A Door in the Floor. It fell flat for me.
Praveen has read Crane's book, Mother Afghanistan, several times and has heard him speak. She emails him repeatedly, asking him questions and telling him of her plans to go to Afghanistan and help with the hospital he started. She receives nothing but an obtuse and terse reply from this man who has a very unflattering past. He's been convicted of embezzlement, admits adultery and speaks of himself as a liar. However, he states he has somehow seen the light and changed. (I must interject at this point because I smelled a fraud from the beginning. His writing sounded like that of a cult leader more than a humanitarian.)
At any rate, Parveen goes by herself to a remote area of Afghanistan and quickly realizes that things are not as Crane described in his book. At first she gives him the benefit of the doubt but then she starts questioning the veracity of his writing. She lives with a family that Crane wrote about, the family of Fereshta, the pregnant woman who died of complications, and for whom his hospital is named after.
It doesn't take Parveen long to realize that though the hospital is a modern building with all sorts of expensive machines and examining rooms, there is no doctor on staff there. The only doctor to enter the hospital is one who volunteers for part of one day each week and comes a long way to assist the women of the village with their health concerns.
Parveen believes she is safe from the war but that, too, is not the case. The war will be too close to her too soon and she will have to test her loyalties - to the village of to the United States.
This novel reads too much like a textbook in social anthropology for my liking. Having a graduate degree in this field, I know what I'm speaking about. I felt lectured to, as though I was reading an assigned text. Some textbooks give fictionalized examples to demonstrate the facts. That's what I felt was happening in A Door in the Floor. It fell flat for me.
December 16, 2019
A recent college graduate travels to Afghanistan after being inspired by a Three Cups of Tea style memoir. As she did with The Submission, Waldman crafts a thoughtful, well-written story that explores complex issues and gains authority from her years reporting from the Middle East.
January 12, 2020
Beautifully written, with wonderfully drawn characters, Waldman makes us take a compelling look at Americans' presence in Afghanistan. A young woman, Parveen, aspires to change the lives of Afghani women, realizing that not all change is welcomed nor celebrated. This novel will stay with you long after the final chapter.
October 24, 2020
4.5 - This beautifully written and atmospheric story immersed me in the conundrum of America’s occupation of Afghanistan. Fully drawn and sympathetic characters and a moving storyline. “The dragon’s tale of 9/11 swept back and forth and back and forth, devastating everything in its path.”
September 26, 2019
This book captured my heart. So compelling and eloquently written. A powerful, political, character driven novel focusing on post 9/11 patient and maternity care in Afghanistan.
I really appreciate Waldman focusing on the female experience in Afghanistan. Such great characters. Her writing is beautiful and I loved the structure of the book. It flowed really well. The author had a first hand look at modern Afganistan so I felt this book offered an educational perspective. One blurb states this is essential reading in post 9/11 era and I couldn't agree with that more. This book leaves you with a lot to think about.
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Thank You to the Publisher for sending me this #ARC opinions are my own.
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For more of my book content check out instagram.com/bookalong
I really appreciate Waldman focusing on the female experience in Afghanistan. Such great characters. Her writing is beautiful and I loved the structure of the book. It flowed really well. The author had a first hand look at modern Afganistan so I felt this book offered an educational perspective. One blurb states this is essential reading in post 9/11 era and I couldn't agree with that more. This book leaves you with a lot to think about.
•
Thank You to the Publisher for sending me this #ARC opinions are my own.
•
For more of my book content check out instagram.com/bookalong
September 17, 2019
4.5 stars. A novel about the American presence in Afghanistan. Complications upon more complications, mostly due to cultural differences, the exigencies of war, and good intentions that have bad consequences. Very depressing but so well done.
July 6, 2022
DNF: not a believable premise. A young Afghan American woman who spent four years at Berkeley majoring in anthro (post 9/11) is supposed to be this naive and hasn’t heard of basic white saviorism concepts?
July 16, 2022
Enjoyed this as a palette cleanser from Eat, Pray and Love.
September 16, 2020
“A Door in the Earth” was my September book club read. I’ll say again, through this club I am definitely reading books I would not have chosen. This one is about Parveen, a recent Berkeley anthropology grad who has traveled to Afghanistan on a mission to “save the world.” She was inspired by American doctor Gideon Crane, whose book “Mother Afghanistan” told about Fereshka, an Afghani woman who died in childbirth. Crane is outraged and raises money to build a clinic in the village where Fereshka lived.
Parveen travels to that village and ends up living with Fereshka’s remaining family: her husband, her many children, and her husband’s two other wives. Parveen is the typical young American social justice warrior who would do AOC or Meghan Markle proud. “In America, women can do anything they dream of,” she confidently tells Fereshka’s husband and son.
Parveen frets over her privilege as she gets involved in the village; helping a doctor who comes to the clinic each week and teaching one of Fereshka’s sons to read. She gathers the village women to read “Mother Afghanistan” to them. She hopes to right the wrongs of the world. “In her mind this had become a political project.”
But there’s a fly in the ointment, several actually. When Parveen reads parts of “Mother Afghanistan” to the women, they speak up. Apparently, things didn’t happen as Dr. Crane had written in his best-selling book. Parveen now is conflicted: had she come halfway across the world based on inaccurate information? What was true and what wasn’t? Who were the “bad guys” in this area and who were the good? She is forced to see that many situations out here may be a little less black-and-white than she’d figured.
I enjoyed this book pretty much. I felt it started strong, and I enjoyed watching Parveen mature a little (although it drove me crazy how long it took her to wake up to some realities). As she said, “having no loyalties was easy. It was having too many that was hard.” I would have cut about 15% out of the second half. Several big events in the final 50 pages make for a strong ending. Interesting look at a part of the world I hadn’t thought much about before.
Parveen travels to that village and ends up living with Fereshka’s remaining family: her husband, her many children, and her husband’s two other wives. Parveen is the typical young American social justice warrior who would do AOC or Meghan Markle proud. “In America, women can do anything they dream of,” she confidently tells Fereshka’s husband and son.
Parveen frets over her privilege as she gets involved in the village; helping a doctor who comes to the clinic each week and teaching one of Fereshka’s sons to read. She gathers the village women to read “Mother Afghanistan” to them. She hopes to right the wrongs of the world. “In her mind this had become a political project.”
But there’s a fly in the ointment, several actually. When Parveen reads parts of “Mother Afghanistan” to the women, they speak up. Apparently, things didn’t happen as Dr. Crane had written in his best-selling book. Parveen now is conflicted: had she come halfway across the world based on inaccurate information? What was true and what wasn’t? Who were the “bad guys” in this area and who were the good? She is forced to see that many situations out here may be a little less black-and-white than she’d figured.
I enjoyed this book pretty much. I felt it started strong, and I enjoyed watching Parveen mature a little (although it drove me crazy how long it took her to wake up to some realities). As she said, “having no loyalties was easy. It was having too many that was hard.” I would have cut about 15% out of the second half. Several big events in the final 50 pages make for a strong ending. Interesting look at a part of the world I hadn’t thought much about before.
September 17, 2020
Probably my favourite read of 2020. A beautifully intricate historical fiction that exposes the portrayal of Afghanistan through the American lens versus the reality. Intention vs impact, the blur of right and wrong, help and harm. The main character Parveen shows up in a rural Afghan village following in the footsteps of an American author who set up a clinic specifically to support woman, but finds her voluntourism experience to be nothing what she expected. There is perspective of the villagers, one doctor responsible for them, the power of the mullah and from the other side, the academic, the military and the self proclaimed hero with parveen stuck in the middle.
“They’ll talk about how much they’re helping you even as they’re breaking what’s most dear to you”
“They’ll talk about how much they’re helping you even as they’re breaking what’s most dear to you”
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