yes, yes. I am still pulverised by having read this - in a daze and think I need to read it again, more slowly, so the shock is less and the learning greater. There is a review on the back of the paperback that is spot - on "shows how fiction can be so much more than reportage". Oh Afghanistan ...NA looks at so much - i wonder if everyone reading it (Americans, Russians, Brits, Afghanis, Taliban, Al Quaeda members, Pakistani Security Forces) will find it honest and unbiased. i will try and add to this review when i have had morev time with this book Beautiful, Soulful and too intense. For a self proclaimed 'recluse', I am blown away by Aslam's initimate understanding of human nature. He really does get under the skin of his characters. This passage towards the end gives you an idea of how human sense perception in constructed, here he describes how 'Casa', a hardcore jihadist's life is altered after his first encounter with a woman(page 404) "Marcus had told him,'You listen to music with your memories, Casa, not your ears.'Perhaps it is the same with other senses also. You smell, see touch, and taste with your memory. There have been occassions when he has eaten something sweet and been reminded for the briefest moments of dynamite, from the time in the al Qaeda camps when he had been made to recognise various explosives through taste, placing a small amount on the tongue. Certain large flower buds in Marcus's garden remind him of bullets. Now he wonders if the girl's voice will be a component he'll look for in any piece of music in the future."
What do You think about The Wasted Vigil (2000)?
Probably the best book I read this. Aslam instantly became one of my favourite authors.
—ashleyhailey
An exceptional read. Poignant, lyrical, honest.
—Lynxx
