Careful steps are what you take

The New York Times called Rory Stewart's The Places in Between a masterpiece. I'm not sure I would go that far, but it's an amazing book. Stewart walked (with one very short car ride) between Herat and Kabul, in winter, right after the fall of the Taliban. That alone makes for an interesting read as Stewart interacts with different ethnic groups, political parties and people along the way. We see how those that supported the Taliban fare today as well as those that fought the Russians and the Taliban.

I read the Publishers Weekly review on Amazon and had an opposite reaction to that person. The reviewer disliked Stewart's understated emotional distance and his intense interest in the lost past of Afghanistan. I found that merely relating the traumatic experiences was far more effective than some mawkish or macho me-fest would be. The reviewer wanted to know more about Stewart as a person. I think that might be nice, but really I wanted to know what it is like to walk across a war ravaged country.

The reviewer also takes Stewart to task for seemingly putting the maintenance of Afghanistan's past over the needs of its current residents. I can't really see that. He harshly criticizes some villagers who pillage a potentially priceless archaeological site. This seems right, destroying something like that for some short term, non-sustainable economic gain should be condemned. I doubt the reviewer would support the looting of Iraq's museums as a model.

I should also point out that in addition to his understated flavor in writing, he takes great care in capturing the feel of each village he visits. These people and places are different and he helps us see that. He creates doubt that such a thing as an Afghan identity really exists. Perhaps the highest praise, that I, as an ADD reader, can give is that I took this one quite slowly not wanting to waste any of it. There's a lot more to mention from this one, so I will probably come back to it.