I Capture the Castle

By Dodie Smith

This novel is a love story set in the 1930s. 17-year-old Cassandra Mortimer lives with her family in a small ramshackle castle in the English countryside. She is the middle child, plainer than her older sister, but still lovely. A quiet observer; the serious girl who wishes to perfect her writing skills. This novel is her journal over six turbulent months of her life.

The family have very little money, mostly because their father, a writer blocked by his own past display of genius, has not written a novel in over a decade. His bohemian second wife, Topaz, poses nude in the rain and dyes the family clothes green for no good reason at all. Cassandra’s beautiful older sister, Rose, wishes desperately for a way out by marrying into money. There is also the witty younger brother, Thomas.

One day two wealthy American brothers, Simon and Neil, arrive at the castle. Rose decides to marry one for his money and using their guile, Rose and Cassandra begin devising a way to woo Simon's heart, which would lead to Rose's departure and riches for the family. It is all very muddled up when she runs off with the other brother and Cassandra kisses Rose's ex.

Her journal candidly chronicle the great changes that take place within the walls of the old castle as well as her own first descent into love.

I really liked this book in the beginning but nearing the end I somehow lost interest. Maybe because it all started out as more of an adventure story but ended up being a love story, and a love story I have read so many times before. I also thought it a very fitting novel for teenage girls, because somehow I found the story a little childish at time.

The Bookseller of Kabul

By Åsne Seierstad

“Never have I had the urge to hit anyone as much as I did there. The same thing was continually provoking me: the manner in which men treated women.”

This book is written by Norwegian journalist Åsne Seierstad who, after the fall of the Taliban in November 2001, went to Afghanistan to report on the conflict. The following spring she returned to live with a bookseller and his family for several months.

Sultan Khan (this is not his real name) owns a bookstore in Kabul and has defied the authorities for 20 years to supply books to the people of Kabul. He claims to have 10,000 books on Afghanistan, the world’s largest collection. This has led him to be imprisoned twice by the communists and also jailed by the Taliban. He was even forced to watch illiterate Taliban soldiers burn some of his most precious works in huge bonfires on the streets of Kabul. When he was freed, he hid the books in attics all over the city and smuggled others out to Pakistan. But while Khan is passionate in his love of books and hatred of censorship, he is also a committed Muslim with strict views on family life.

This book offers a unique view into the life of Afghan women especially. It clearly shines through that although the author obviously respected her host in many ways, she finds it difficult to come to terms with some of his values, in particular his treatment of the women in his family. We hear about how he buys himself a 16-year-old bride without telling his wife of 30 years and how he uses his sister as a maid, refusing to let her become a teacher. Even though he is a bookseller he still deprives his sons of education. He also gets a poor carpenter jailed for three years for stealing a few postcards from his store, leaving the man’s destitute family, including two daughters who have polio, with no means of support.

A very interesting book which gives the reader a unique view into the lives of the Afghan people, both before and after the fall of the Taliban. You cannot help but feel for the women who seem to be suffering so much. This is not a book you read because of the author’s brilliant writing skills, because it is written very matter-of-factly (remember the author is a journalist). It is also short on Afghanistan history, which might leave a Westerner feeling a bit confused since I do not think we are very knowledgeable of basic Afghanistan history. All that aside, this is an intimate and fascinating portrait of a family and a unique perspective on a troubled country.