I bought this book after loving Michener's Hawaii, hoping for a similarly wonderful reading experience. I was disappointed. The best I can say is that I learned some things--the book takes you around Afghanistan in the 1940s, introducing a variety of places and cultures and including pertinent historical information--and that's why it gets 2 stars despite being otherwise awful. This book suffers from the twin problems of an uninspired, meandering plot and a narrator who is one of the most unlikeable characters I've encountered in quite a while. First, the plot. The book is marketed as a tale about a diplomat (Mark) searching for an American girl (Ellen) who married an Afghan, then disappeared. But the first 100 pages of the 400-page book are all about everyday diplomatic life in Kabul (there isn't even any conflict to keep readers entertained), and we're past the halfway point before Mark bothers to ask Ellen's husband about her whereabouts--despite the fact that everyone has known the husband's location all along and he has nothing to hide! A plot that serves mostly as an excuse to explore a setting can work, but in a novel, descriptions of the geography and culture can't just replace interesting events and dialogue. For that matter, all of the characters work to avoid plot advancement: before actually sending someone to search for Ellen, or even talk to her husband, the U.S. government interviews all of her former boyfriends and roommates in an attempt to figure out "what was wrong with her" that made her marry an Afghan in the first place, and there's much serious discussion of whether Ellen's hometown was objectively a bad place. (If Michener intended to poke fun at the investigation this might have been clever, but unfortunately he seems 100% serious, providing some unintentional comedy.) If missing-persons investigations are conducted this way in real life, I'm surprised anyone is ever found. Then there's Mark. He's a jerk. For instance, he theorizes that Ellen chose her unusual lifestyle because she can't have kids, resulting in--wait for it--"a barrenness of spirit." I haven't even gotten to his creepy relationship with the Nazi refugee Stiglitz, a prime example of character relationships that make no sense. Mark is Jewish (and prides himself on having "table manners" despite that fact, as if Judaism and etiquette were mutually exclusive), and he veers back and forth between wanting Stiglitz dead for the atrocities he committed and wanting to be his friend. I can't imagine why, since Stiglitz--like Mark and most of the other characters--is utterly unappealing and unsympathetic. Oh, and it's worth mentioning that Mark has random, plot-irrelevant flings with most of the female characters in the book. Give me a break. Ultimately, this book was a huge letdown. It read like a travelogue--dull, with little plot or conflict and uninteresting characters. It felt incredibly dated (I suppose I should have known that from the plot summary: it is, after all, a book about a white man traveling around an Eastern country, getting "closer to earth," and attempting to "rescue" an American woman he has no reason to believe is even in danger). Unfortunately, after Caravans, I will be wary of Michener books in the future. For those who want to learn about Afghanistan through enjoyable fiction, I'd recommend Khaled Hosseini's works instead.
The protagonist, whose name we don’t learn until well into the novel, gives a hackneyed travelogue of Afghanistan: the strange Middle Eastern custom of sex with transgendered young men and boys, brutal public executions for the most mundane offenses (including stealing another man's boy), and the mysterious Afghani women wearing the cloaked chaderi. For today's standards, these practices are hardly shocking or revealing. The protagonist's Western condescension, apart from the narrator finding the notion of homosexuality revolting, is what surprised me. The novel, published in 1963 and takes place in 1946, comes well before the West’s post-9/11 fascination with Islam. Nevertheless, Michener's description of the chaderi as "sexy" echoes what many modern feminists, entrenched in multiculturalism, say about head scarves and burqas. It's that very post-modern "progressiveness" that made me dislike the novel so much.The singular frayed thread to hold the story together – the disappearance of an American woman who discarded her “bourgeois” suburban upbringing to marry a wealthy Afghani man and enter into his harem – failed to pull me into the novel. Her backstory, if anything, turned me off further. Several times I wanted to chuck the book across the room for all the obnoxious stereotyping and cultural relativism. (Again, Michener expresses contemporary "progressive" thought when he suggests that Nazi Germany wasn't all that much different from suburban America.)The narrator’s American and Jewish roots should have provided more interest, especially in the midst of the Middle East and the Holocaust going on in Europe, but Michener brushes over what might have been the novel’s most fascinating feature. I persevered until the end, unconcerned for any of the characters. The prose is adequate, and I can find no fault with the grammar or writing style, although at times it was rather bland. If you enjoy superficial exposes of foreign nations without any characters to care for, you might enjoy this book. Otherwise, I’d advise to avoid.
What do You think about Caravans (2003)?
I am never disappointed when I read a Michener book. For readers who enjoy a well researched, well written historical fiction with well developed characters, Michener is a good choice. This one is set in Afghanistan immediately following WWII when the US and Russia are both vying to elevate their influence in this country where life is still very much as has been for centuries without change.First published in 1963, this book offers insight into this culture, their history, their ways of living and thinking, the kinds of people who live there, why and how they survive in a very harsh climate and how those who try to modernize and change it really have an uphill climb against the many who want it to remain pretty much the same as it has for so long.I was really engaged with this story as it gave me at least a little more understanding of what has happened in this area more recently. A great read.
—LemonLinda
Despite--perhaps because of--its age, Michner's view of the then-current affairs and potential futures for Afghanistan make fascinating reading now. Forty-five years ago he recognized the potential of fundamentalist Moslem control of the land, but he voted for the secularists. He was wrong, but it didn't have to be that way.(I never saw the motion picture based on Michner's book and encourage a reader to seek the novel rather than the movie.)For a modern alternative ending to Afghanistan's latest chapter as political football to world powers and religions, read Greg Mortenson's Three Cups of Tea.
—Ron
Even though this book is set a bazillion years ago (I don't know, like in the 1940's or something), whenever I think of Afghanistan, I think of this book. I read it in high school. I still remember a scene where a woman was stoned to death in public. It never disturbed me to read in the Bible about people being stoned to death until I read this book. I still get chills each time I read about a stoning the scriptures to this day. It is a surprisingly gruesome event, for how little it's described biblically. Anyways, a good book, as it is one of the few that has stuck with me after all these years. Not a light cheery tale, but very interesting.
—Abby
