Afghanistan: The Wasted Vigil by Nadeem Aslam
stify”>Thoughts: I read this book thinking how could it be missed, how could it not have won every award the year it was published, how come I have never heard of it.
Then I got to the chapter inside James’ head and realised why not: the whole thing falls apart on James. The writing is weak, the analysis is poor, and all nuance is lost. How Aslam can so perfectly map the voices of the other four characters yet do James so poorly is mysterious. James’ chapter is like the airport paperback thriller someone left in Ethiopia that I read one night when there was nothing else to do. It is just supremely, amazingly, uninspiringly awful.
And so the book fell apart.
But before the book fell apart, it made me want to dig up my unfinished Afghanistan story and try to work that one through. It’s like a freaking other planet there. I am baffled Afghanistan exists.
Rating: 3.5/5