Monday, July 25

Caravans

The last time I went to a library book sale, I picked up Caravans by James Michener. I've read many, but not all, of his books. When I read the back cover and saw that the setting was in Afghanistan I decided I wanted to read this one. The reason, obviously, is because of our military involvement there. I know next to nothing about the country.

I learned a lot about Afghanistan from this book, although some of it may be outdated as it was written in 1963 or thereabouts. Michener is skilled at telling the history of a region and its people. I enjoyed all the native characters because it was through them I learned the most about life and culture in Afghanistan 1946. I didn't care too much for the "hero" Mark Miller nor the missing girl Ellen Jaspar.

The story basically is that Mark Miller, some kind of attache to the U.S. Embassy, is sent on a journey to find Ellen Jaspar, who's run away from home to marry an Afghan engineer and then disappeared. Parents and senators are clamoring to know what happened to her. The more interesting part of the book is the search and caravaning to find her. Once she appeared, she totally turned me off. I won't get into why because it would spoil the book for anyone who hasn't read it.

I gave it three stars out of five because of it. It's probably not fair but there you go.

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