The Great Game

Anyone who takes an interest in the historical and political development of Afghanistan will come across the expression The Great Game or The New Great Game. It refers to the fight between Russia and Great Britain over influence over the region in the 19.th century or the struggle for power after the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan in 1989 respectively. The person accredited for coining the expression is normally Rudyard Kipling in his novel Kim, although it was actually the British Captain Arthur Conolly and Kipling only made it more well-known.

Therefore I felt obliged to read Kim and I did a while ago. It was indeed interesting and exciting although the fact that it was written in rather archaic English made it a little hard to digest for me. However, I am now reading another book on the same theme that I can highly recommend to anyone interested in the matter.

It is Peter Hopkirk’s book “The Great Game; The Struggle for Empire in Central Asia”. This is not a novel but is the story about the real players of the Great Game, such as Arthur Conolly. It is more exciting than any spy or agent story. I don’t even think you have to be very interested in either history, politics or military or diplomatic matters, although it contains very interesting details on all those areas. It is truly enjoyable reading and I think you can enjoy it also simply as a fascinating agent story. It is also a proof of that fact often supersedes fiction.

More reading on Afghanistan

I feel there is actually no need to further promote Khaled Hoesseini's books as they are already rather well known and well read, but for anyone who is interested in Afghanistan and women's situation in Afghanistan in particular, I can recommend the author Siba Shakib. I am not quite sure about the English title of the book, but judging from the Swedish and the German it should be; To Afghanistan, "God only comes to cry." It is very special! Beautiful and cruel at the same time.

The language of the author is also very special. It is very beautiful, creative and fascinating. I read the book in Swedish as I kind of assumed that it was originally written in some language I do not understand, and that a translation into Swedish or English would not make a difference. Later I found out it is originally written in German! That made me want to read it again, in German, just to read the real words of the author and see how they translate. The only time I ever felt anything like that before, was when I read The God of Small Things, by Arundhati Roy. Then I first read it in English and was completely fascinated by the language and felt an urge to read it in Swedish as well, just to see how that text and those words could be translated. Havning thought of The God of Small Things while reading Shakib's book, I actually was not very surprised to read that Siba Shakib thanked Arundhati Roy in the postscript of the book. Rather a little proud that I noticed the likeness; I mean, I haven never thought of my self as any kind of expert on literature... I simply like to read, and I like languages and words.

Travelling from the Couch

I have just done something I very rarely (never?) do. I have just re-read a book.
When I was at my parent’s place for Easter I found Åsne Seinerstads book The Bookseller of Kabul. I read it when it was quite new and liked it. At that time of course I never knew I would go to Afghanistan, even though I have always wanted to travel to that part of the world. Now I thought it could be interesting to read the book again, after having been there myself. It was. It definitely gave another dimension to it. I recognised a lot of the things, places and situations she described. But I could also better understand something else. The author has been criticised for the way she treated the family in the book; for putting words and thoughts in their mind that she could not know about etc. That is also something that I have been thinking about when writing on my blog. Of course my blog is not by far read by as many people as her books, and my blog is mostly for showing friends and family what I am up to, but as anyone can go in there, I still have tried to show respect and to be careful when choosing the pictures to post and about not mentioning names and sites etc. That is one of the reasons I did not post any of the pictures that I took at my driver’s home and the reason I haven’t given his full name etc.

The movie based on the book The Kite Runner went up on cinemas in Sweden this weekend. I liked the book and think I would like to see the film, but still I am afraid to get disappointed. I am afraid the feeling and atmosphere I got when reading the book will be difficult to capture in a film. And the trailers I have seen on it has seemed a bit “flat” to me. But maybe I will still have to see it. Anyone who has seen it and can recommend or comment on it?!

Entertaining Reading

The other day I was searching some literature on Afghanistan on the internet, when I stumbled on something I did not expect. I found the Lonely Planet Afghanistan, issued 2007!! That is so unreal!! The country no one wants to go to (recruiting for Afghanistan is pretty hard) and when you tell people you are going there they think you are crazy, then you find it presented in a guide book as any normal country!! I mentioned this to your security advisor as a joke more or less, and then another colleague, overhearing us, simply picks the very book up from her desk!! Now I have it at my place and have started reading it. It is great! It makes Afghanistan seem like a normal country for tourism.

Although it is sometimes a little too harsh; most of the literature on Afghanistan is mostly political or somehow analytical, but here they just show a picture of a boy and a girl in a poppy field with the text: “cutting and scraping opium poppy in Badakhshan”. Not a word on child labour or Afghanistan being the world’s largest opium producer. Or under a picture of a truck full of burning cargo driven down into a river you find a text calling it “Firefighting Afghan style”. Hmmm, when you know something about the status of the rescue services in the country it is a bit difficult to find it picturesque.

Although the book is sometimes funny. Still I have to say; I find it hard to read Lonely Planet and take it seriously after having read “Molvania”.

Substitute travelling

I feel I have become a bit addicted to travelling. I really miss it now when I don’t travel as much as I want. And what I miss the most is to feel different smells. Just to breathe another air with a different scent, no matter whether it is clean, polluted, sweet, spicy or even smelly; I want to feel a different air. My next possible journey might be in September when I have some plans to go to Italy. No matter how much I love Italy, it does not really count. I have been there quite a few times and it almost feels like home, yet I still love it and really hope I will be able to go!

I haven’t really noticed until I wrote the last post, that my reading is a way to make up for the missed travelling, I have never really made an overview of what kind of books I read. I have just noticed that I don’t read the same books as other people around me seem to read. Right now it is very popular in Sweden to read criminal novels, and there are quite a few Swedish writers of criminal stories that everyone seems to know and have read, except for me. After having written about the book about the Yangtze I received a package of books that I have ordered and while unpacking them it struck me; all the books where about travelling or life in different exotic countries and cultures (as India, Nigeria and Albania). The one book that was not about travelling was an atlas!
Therefore I think I will continue here to give my reviews about books on travelling! As a substitute for the real thing!

The River at the Centre of the World

As I can not travel as much as a would like to right now, I have to settle for imaginary travels, as through reading. Thought I could share some of my literary travel experiences too.
I have just been reading The River at the Centre of the World, A Journey up the reiver Yangtze, and back in Chinese time, by Simon Winchester. It is a very beautiful book about a very fascinating country and as I now know an amazing river. I don't know whether all the "biggest, longest, highest and wildest" really are true, but I don't care. Reading the book made me want to go there at the same time it made me feel I had almost been there too. A good combination. I can recommend it!



I also like the very beautiful cover! I wanted to put a picture of it here on the blog, but all the pictures I first found on the net had a different cover from the one I have. Maybe because I bought my book a couple of years ago and in China... But finally I found a picture.

And... the book has maps! Several maps! I love maps and I like books that have maps! :-)