A Door In The Earth: A Novel in Which an Afghani-American Returns to Afghanistan

 The last time I reviewed a Goodreads giveaway win on this blog was Josephine Baker's Last Dance here .  A Door Into Earth by Amy Waldman is a 2019 GR giveaway win that I just finished reading.  I am still going through the stack of physical GR giveaway books in the order I received them when I have the time to read them.

                               

If you had told me that I was going to read a novel taking place in current day Afghanistan, I wouldn't have believed you.  I looked up the status of the war.  It's still going on despite the United States signing a peace treaty with the Taliban about a year ago.  See recent developments .  

 A Door In The Earth isn't primarily about the war.   The war does become prominent toward the end of the novel, but this novel centers on an Afghani-American woman in a small Afghan village with an American built women's medical clinic.  Parveen Shamsa, who left Afghanistan with her parents when she was two years old, was drawn back to the land of her birth by a memoir called Mother Afghanistan written by a fictional American called Gideon Crane.    She was inspired by Crane's reputation as a great humanitarian and wanted to help. 

 Unfortunately, sometimes reputations are built on lies.  I was reminded of  Greg Mortenson who was exposed in Three Cups of Deceit by Jon Krakauer.  In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if Crane was loosely based on Mortenson.   I'd say that Amy Waldman's Crane was never the benevolent figure that Parveen imagined he was.   I wondered how she could have had so elevated a view of Crane after having read his memoir.  He doesn't exactly hide his wrongdoings. It also occurred to me to wonder who in U.S. law enforcement would know if he'd completed his community service in Afghanistan.

Parveen feels "unwitnessed" at first because there's no internet access that will allow her to post about her experiences.  I imagined she would have that problem when I first picked up the book.

I finished A Door in the Earth still feeling ambivalent about Parveen.  I also found the ending too inconclusive.  If I were giving a letter grade to this book, it would be a B- .

  

 

The Pearl That Broke Its Shell by Nadia Hashimi

There are two stories here, one that begins in the late 1800s and one more modern day--2007.

And yet both are so parallel. It's an eye-opening look at how very little has changed for women in Afghanistan in 100 years. The past heroine is beaten, abused, ridiculed, treated like dirt, given no rights...and so is the modern-day one.

There's a serious need for some progress.

Rahima is the modern heroine. Her father is addicted to opium and is like every other man in Afghanistan (See * note below)--he beats his wife, hates the fact he has daughters, cries about the lack of a son, and keeps his household of women away from school. An ignorant woman is a woman who doesn't know better and thus, will never fight back.

She's dressed in pants and turned into a boy for her childhood, just so someone can run out and go to market and do this and that.

But when it comes to marry...and at the tender age of thirteen, this makes a problem for Rahima as she must give up all her freedom and enter a jail of sorts--her husband's house. Her husband is a warlord and just like every other man in Afghanistan apparently, beats his women, keeps them ignorant and shut in...

But my favorite heroine is Shekiba. Oh, she gets beaten; she cowers at times, she is uneducated, but her strength comes from her determination to persevere and though it comes to nothing, I admire her for speaking up for herself. Doesn't matter if no one listens. She tries. With a disfigured face, she's constantly ridiculed and made fun of--by her family, by the villagers, by the palace. When her entire family dies, she tries to obtain the land. When she's sent to the king's palace to guard the harem, she adapts, stands tall and proud in her pants.

I was completely and totally engrossed in this novel though, despite the fact it is one depressing occurrence after another. What I took from this story though was: NEVER GIVE UP HOPE. I gave up on hope for the heroines 3/4 in the novel. I actually became sad and depressed from reading this. I said, "You should just curl into a ball and die." At what point does a woman have enough abuse and injustice?

The point is, I gave up before the heroines did, and I shouldn't have. NEVER GIVE UP HOPE.

My one quibble, if you could call it that, is... *no offense to the people of Afghanistan, but this story made it seem as though 95% of the population is just pure evil. ALL husbands beat their wives, ALL MILS (except maybe one) beat their daughter-in-laws, everyone backstabs and betrays. Every single time a new character was introduced, I sat back and waited for the first blow. The only good people until the very end, it seems, are the heroines and an aunt. When a co-worker asked me what I was reading, I replied with, "A book about Hell on earth, apparently."

But this also hit home how people who have known nothing but abuse become abusers themselves. Take Rahima's MIL for example...

But the book is very, very well written. Impeccable. This is a writer who can suck you right in. When you set the book down, you have to blink a few times, remember where you are, that you haven't just been thrown in a jail cell for a crime someone else committed, that your husband didn't just beat you to an inch of your life...

And it made me see what all I take for granted--not that I'll settle. Women need to progress everywhere.

Another strong point in this book:
--It's easy to be brainwashed and controlled when are uneducated and cut off from the outside world. Don't let this happen to you. Get educated, ladies.

Highly recommended. It's a lot of misery, but worth it. Don't let the bad happenings deter you. We all have bad things in our lives. What's important is to remember the light at the end of the tunnel, and if Rahima has one, so can you.

I received this via Amazon Vine.

Lipstick in Afghanistan by Roberta Gately

This is a very well-written and entertaining contemporary tale about a Boston ER nurse, Elsa.  Elsa had a hard knock life and as a result, wants to help others in dire situations.  She joins an aid organization and travels to Bamiyan, Afghanistan, home of the famous Buddha statues to work in a clinic.  She has no electricity and no running water, but she is determined to spend one year there.  She learns that running water and electricity do not a happy environment make.  Instead, she discovers love with an American solider, friendships with Afghani women, and learns how hope and determination of a people can raise a country from the ashes of war. 

A Bamiyan Budda before the Taliban

It's  not a vacation, however,  Elsa faces many nursing challenges, challenges not to her skills and abilities, but to her emotions.  A drastic bus bombing leads to her meeting Parween.  Parween has had a few hard knocks herself and a quarter of the novel visits Parween and her life up till meeting Elsa, her childhood, her friends, how the Taliban changed everything, and the loss of her husband.  Through Parween, readers can see what Afghanistan is like for Afghan women. 

The Bamiyan Buddhas being destoyed by Taliban.

The book goes back and forth, following both Elsa and Parween.  Both women help others from women with extra digits to beaten little girls and risk their own lives to do so.  One day they may go too far.  The ending is not a happy one, not completely anyway. 

I was very entertained and I appreciate how the author portrayed American soldiers in a kind light.  I was bothered by two things, however, enough to give the book a four star instead of five star rating.  First, both Elsa and Parween are just too good and kind to be true (until the end when they are a bit stupid.  I was screaming at them, No No No!)  Second, the love at first sight thing with Elsa and Mike... I get it's a war zone, but come on, one day?? 

Good debut though.  I bought this on Amazon.