West of Kabul, East of New York: An Afghan American Story

by Tamim Ansary

Tamim Ansary's passionate personal journey through two cultures in conflict, West of Kabul, East of New York.

Shortly after militant Islamic terrorists destroyed the World Trade Center, Tamim Ansary of San Francisco sent an e-mail to twenty friends, telling how the threatened U.S. reprisals against Afghanistan looked to him as an Afghan American. The message spread, and in a few days it had reached, and affected, millions of people-Afghans and Americans, soldiers and pacifists, conservative Christians and talk-show hosts; for the message, written in twenty minutes, was one Ansary had been writing all his life.

West of Kabul, East of New York is an urgent communiqué by an American with "an Afghan soul still inside me," who has lived in the very different worlds of Islam and the secular West. The son of an Afghan man and the first American woman to live as an Afghan, Ansary grew up in the intimate world of Afghan family life, one never seen by outsiders. No sooner had he emigrated to San Francisco than he was drawn into the community of Afghan expatriates sustained by the dream of returning to their country -and then drawn back to the Islamic world himself to discover the nascent phenomenon of militant religious fundamentalism.

Tamim Ansary has emerged as one of the most eloquent voices on the conflict between Islam and the West. His book is a deeply personal account of the struggle to reconcile two great civilizations and to find some point in the imagination where they might meet.

Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir, History, Biography, Middle East, Audiobook, Politics

304 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2002

About the author

Mir Tamim Ansary is an Afghan-American author and public speaker. Ansary gained prominence in 2001 after he penned a widely circulated e-mail that denounced the Taliban but warned of the dangers of a military intervention by the United States. The e-mail was a response to a call to bomb Afghanistan "into the Stone Age." His book West of Kabul, East of New York published shortly after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, is a literary memoir recounting his bicultural perspective on contemporary world conflicts. Ansary writes about Islam, Afghanistan, and history. His book Destiny Disrupted retells the history of the world through Islamic eyes. His new book The Invention of Yesterday explores the role of narrative as a force in world history Ansary directed the San Francisco Writers Workshop for 22 years.

Reviews

[Jim B · Rating 4 out of 5]

I highly recommend this book to anyone who thinks they understand Islam, as well as anyone with an interest in Afghanistan. My experience with Muslims has shown me that there is no more of a uniform, single-minded Islam than there is a Christianity where everyone has the same agenda, values and goals. Reading a memoir of a man who grew up in a form of Islam, and now is an atheist with family and friends in many forms of Islam gives great insight into the challenge we humans have in understanding and interpreting other people's religious perspective.

Even the term "atheist" forms an image in most people's minds that Tamim Ansary's memoir challenges. Among the many facets of this book that I enjoyed, probably the one that will stay with me was Ansary's description of the explosive argument he had with his youngest brother who had lived the least amount of time in Afghanistan and has become what the popular media would call a "fundamentalist Muslim" (although Ansary provides context, so that you know exactly what his youngest brother became -- and may not have believed). The argument was one I could relate to: the angry brother attacking the views of his newly converts baby brother and putting words in his mouth -- drawing conclusions that his brother never said and the brother stubbornly refusing to refute the horrible charges. And so the brothers are estranged to this day, and because of differences are religious and real to both of them, it is hard to solve this estrangement.

Another illuminating bit of the book was the author's early involvement in charitable giving to Afghan refugees, and how confused and odd those efforts became. I've often read about efforts to funnel money to terrorists via such efforts -- Ansary shows a real life effort to do something good and its derailment.

I've enjoyed several books about life in Afghanistan, but this one starts much earlier than most of the recent best sellers -- the author's family came to America before much of the history that we know today (including the Soviet war), and is viewed by Afghans living outside the country.

The author's voice in this audio book adds much to the telling of the story. Unfortunately, the publisher failed to edit out several places where Ansary had to reread a sentence to get the inflection he wanted.

As a Christian, I've been surprised at what I've learned from thoughtful, cautious atheist writers like Ansary. He is a careful observer of himself, even as he analyzes the beliefs and choices of others. He is able to write diffidently, while having come to disagree with some viewpoint.

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ansary's two big histories - Destiny Disrupted and Games Without Rules - are both fantastic resources for the history of Islam, and the history of Afghanistan, respectively. I recommend both frequently, and hope to revisit both texts again.

In West of Kabul, Ansary tells his personal history of childhood and youth in Afghanistan, and emigration to the US in the 1960s, his bi-cultural family (Afghan Muslim father, white mother from US). In his twenties, he attempts to go back to Afghanistan (or at least Pakistan so he won't be conscripted in the army) but is stalled by the Iranian Revolution and the hostage crisis in the 1970s. The stories of his travels in North Africa and Turkey were among the best parts of the book.

Loved his conversational writing style in the history books, and it is even more potent here in the memoir. He talks about challenging subjects like family members' fundamentalist conversions, sex and women's rights, 9/11, and the Taliban's effect on his birth country (from the 2006 publishing date lens).

4.5* // engaging, informative, passionate memoir

[Jolanta (knygupė)]

3.6*

Autoriaus prisiminimai iš vaikystės praleistos Afganistane, su trupučiu šios kultūros istorijos ir Islamo subtilybių paaiškinimais. Tamim Ansary aprašo dvasinių, religinių, filosofinių vertybių paieškas, jų apmąstymus, apsisprendimus. Daug dėmesio šeimai, ypač tėvo, dirbusio Afganistano vyriausybėje, biografijai. Jaučiasi autoriaus širdies sunkumas dėl brolio - pasirinkusio islamo fundamentalisto kelią, supažindinama su mama amerikiete ir visai čiut čiut apie seserį.
Man gal labiausiai patiko autoriaus, jau suaugusio ir gyvenančio JAV, kelionės po islamiškuosius kraštus istorijos. Tų skirtingų šalių (Maroko, Alžyro, Libijos, Turkijos) tokie skirtingi islamo supratimai, jo traktavimai, vieni kitų niekinimai... Ir čia - ne apie Sunitus ar Šiitus. Žodžiu, visai neblogas skaitinys šių dienų aktualijų fone.

[Katy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a memoir by Afghan American Tamim Ansary. Born in Kabul to an Afghan father and American mother the author tries to reconcile his two heritages.

This memoir of life in Afghanistan is like none other I have read. It is a deeply personal account and yet also explains the political climate, first from the view of a young child growing up in Afghanistan then later as a young adult who returns. However the author is not always accepted as an Afghan because of his American mother, which changes his status for many purposes. His American privilege, while it opens some doors, at times also makes him somewhat of a misfit, being neither truly an American nor an Afghan. As he doesn’t hold traditional Afghan views he finds himself stuck between two worlds.

At the age of sixteen, in 1964, his family moves to America so that he and his sister could obtain a higher education. Following that and as a new graduate he finds himself in Portland, where he enters the counterculture of the time. Later he moves to San Francisco where many of his jobs involve writing.

Never one to adopt the ideologies of Islam, and as a self proclaimed Atheist, he wishes to learn more about his Afghan heritage and to understand Islam perspective. Around the age of thirty he returns to the east traveling through a number of countries before finally arriving in Afghanistan. His storytelling is eloquent, very engaging and descriptive. This part of he story is very entertaining as he tries to navigate situations he is no longer familiar with or that don’t always fit with his perceived familiarity. Again his status as an Afghan American works both for and against him as he searches for a reconciliation. He returns to the USA with a somewhat different perspective, although the author never really seems to find what he is looking for. It seems to be a struggle he is forever wrestling to process.

Then, numerous years later, after the 2001 terrorist attack of the twin towers the author sends an email denouncing the Taliban to a few friends who in turn sent it to more friends (with the author’s permission) and the email became a global phenomenon. He returns once again to Afghanistan for a short visit, yet again seems to come away without resolving his ideological struggles.

I thoroughly enjoyed this memoir although it clearly took a different route than I expected. The first hand view from a child, a teenager, a young adult, and then as a mature adult were all interesting and offered a perspective appropriate to what was important at each age. Although there were no exceptional events or adventures, this was a perfect mix of personal, political, emotional and religious discussion to keep your interest. I , however, (much like the author), was hoping to gain a deeper understanding of Islamic ideology, but that didn’t happen. Nonetheless, it was an enjoyable read.

[Neha · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was a comfort because it was not an article you could read in 20 minutes claiming to reveal some big truth - articles like these are so ubiquitous the millennial's internet world. Instead, this book is a full-fledged story about one man's journey towards finding identity, community and belonging within two vastly different cultures, especially amidst growing Islamophobia in America. "West of Kabul, East of New York" is bookended by Ansary's reaction to 9/11 and is filled in the middle with his journey towards a cohesive American-Afghanistani identity. Ansary meanders in his storytelling sometimes but in the end it all comes together. He shares the answers (or more so, non-answers - which I think are much more useful!) he's learned throughout his life. Granted, this is only one man's point of view, so he's likely missing a lot of the picture, but that doesn't lessen his experiences or his interpretations of them.

I'd recommend this to anyone who wants to understand a different point of view and a brief history of a culture that is so quickly judged by the media and the world.

Below are some of my favorite quotes:

"...human relationships are the only things that are utterly irreplaceable" - pg. 206

"For all of us, surrendering to diversity is probably the only plausible path left to attaining unity. The international community is supposedly committed to helping [Afghanistan] rebuild, but the lost world will not be reconstituted. Whatever rises from the rubble will be something new, and I suspect I may not have to decide who I am in order to take some part in this impending Afghanistan, because I am a kaleidoscope of parts now - an so is Afghanistan. So is the world, when you get right down to it." - pg. 285

"So you never know. That's what I have concluded. Even the past can change, depending on what happens next -- or at least the meaning of the past can change, which is what counts. Broken friendships can turn out to have been everlasting. Weakness can turn out to have been strengths. The pattern is never visible until it's over -- and it's never over. Endings don't exist." - pg. 300

[Jeanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

West of Kabul, East of New York is a fascinating but frustrating read, in part because I was unclear about Tamim Ansary's thesis. As I read his prologue, where he described learning about 9/11, writing an email to friends that went viral, and being asked to serve as "spokesman" for Afghanistan, I thought I was going to read a book that would help Americans understand Afghanistan.

We developed a culture that said, No one is ever on their own. Everyone belongs to a big group. The prosperity and survival of the group comes first. And no, everyone is not equal. Some are patriachs, and some are poor relations; that’s life. But generosity is the value that makes it all work. (p. 265)

West of Kabul offered a sympathetic portrait of his childhood Afghanistan and even some empathy for the misguided attempts to westernize that Afghanistan, which broke the connections that maintained it, but this story could have been an extended essay rather than a book.

As Ansary's title suggests, West of Kabul is more accurately a memoir of one bicultural Afghan American. Ansary tells good stories of his life in Afghanistan (warm, supportive), which explains his ongoing connection to Kabul. He was often perceived as an outsider, as his mother was an American and their life was relatively more western in values and lifestyle than that of his Afghani peers. Ansary's mother and her children moved to the US when he was in high school. He and his siblings had to come to terms with their culture, religious beliefs, and how they identified: "Growing up bicultural is like straddling a crack in the earth. If the cultures are far apart—like those of Afghanistan and America—one feels an urge to get entirely over to one side or the other" (p. 278). Their decisions were different than one might guess, as Ansary's older sister is the least Afghani-identified, his much younger and blonder brother was the most; nonetheless, Ansary's own decisions often reflected his context and who he was with (e.g., Portland's counterculture, activists in San Francisco, his more recently-arrived cousins).

Ansary is a fascinating storyteller and, in West of Kabul, he has the basis for two interesting books. If I had been his editor, however, I would have encouraged him to more clearly identify for himself which story he wanted to tell and why (a story of Afghanistan and Islam, a memoir, or even a more cohesive merging of the two). Unfortunately, in the time after 9/11, none of us were thinking clearly. In that climate, a strong editor would have been especially helpful.

[Gary Singh · Rating 5 out of 5]

His wedding reception was at the Farm in San Francisco.

[Fiona · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tamim Ansary does what many authors do, and starts with an action packed turning point in his story, in this case an event that every American and most of the world have an intimate to good amount of knowledge of. This is incredibly effective, as it instantly draws the readers in as events begin to unfold. Starting with the point where he was introduced to the media is also a smart move, as readers may have already heard of him based on these events and it immediately allows them to make that connection. He then sets the scene back in his childhood home of Afghanistan, describing first the environment and culture, then introducing his family into the picture, with the phrase ‘now let me place my family in this scene.” This reminding me strikingly of Jo Ann Beard’s signature “here is a scene,” and is used to a similar affect, although Tamim Ansary doesn’t ever stray from first person narrator, always laying out for the reader when exactly he is speculating or embellishing with his own imagination (a trait that Beard doesn’t employ in Boys of My Youth, although she uses this to make her writing have a surreal dreamlike quality). For the first half of the book it feels like we are building up to something bigger, and I will admit there were certain times when he was describing the details of the family tree that I had trouble making myself pay attention. There wasn’t a lot of action in the family history section, and I think that’s why I had trouble with it; at the same time, there was a definite sense of him building the readers understanding of the importance of family in his culture, so I feel this section was important even though it was a bit difficult for me to get through. Overall, I enjoyed Ansary’s writing style, although to be honest, after an author like Jo Ann Beard, some of his descriptors and metaphors fall a bit flat for me. That being said, one that stood out to me in particular was “Oh, quarrels and disagreements abounded, and they were never really buried; they were hashed and rehashed till they had been thoroughly mulched into the clan soil.” He has a tendency to end the chapters with these visual comparisons, some of them working more than others.


Ansary definitely has a more factual style of writing - he doesn't take the same creative liberties that Beard does, and when he does exaggerate or push the against the boundaries of what's considered non-fiction (such as the metaphors and visual analogies at the end of almost every chapter), it's clear to the reader where the line is between what actually happened and where he is reflecting from the "writing at the desk" perspective down the line. Another thing that I felt differed between the two was that Ansary never jumps into another persons perspective, always sticking to his own experiences. This makes this memoir seem more straightforward, and gives him a certain level of credibility that Beard lacked in areas (her style is conducive to leaving the reader questioning - wait, did that really happen?).
Ansary definitely follows a more traditional chronological narrative, bar the introduction of the events post 9/11, which is the only real time jump that we see. This is beneficial to him, especially since his general audience won't be familiar with a lot of the scenes and situations that he is describing taking place across the Atlantic ocean. I feel that by not skipping around too much, he allows his reader to focus more fully on the information being presented. It's definitely written in a different style than Boys of My Youth; while Beard pushes the boundary between fiction and non-fiction, Ansary has a more black and white method of writing - it's very clear where he is embellishing and where he isn't, as he takes care to lay it out for the reader.
The second part of the book was different from the first part in many ways. For me, I felt like I got a more accurate sense of who Ansary was as an individual, as opposed to him telling me about the aspects of his childhood that later contributed to who he was. Through direct dialogue between him and other people he interacts with throughout his travels through the Middle East, we as readers get a better idea of who he is, and how the two conflicting lives he experienced as a kid made him grow up to be a somewhat culturally conflicted adult.
His companionship with Jake was particularly intriguing to me. At one point they are talking about the state of affairs in Libya and Tamim tries to warn him that it may not be the most stable place for an American to take up employment. Jake responds with several comments about how oil companies aren’t limited the same way political organizations are, and they have the advantage of being able to use violence against opposition without being caught up in red tape. He describes how in America, this guy would be repulsive to him, but “here in Algeria, he felt like my wayward brother: much in need of correction and advice, yes, but still our clothes, or language, even our most trivial shared cultural references…bound us together”. This reaction in particular really seemed to represent a lot of the internal conflict that Ansary is dealing with in the struggles to come to terms with his identity. He feels the need to help out an unsavory stranger in a foreign country because of the sense that they are in some inexplicable way companions, or that they should have each other’s backs because of their origin. In the same way, that sense of brotherhood he feels despite the repulsion he feels based on Jakes character is somewhat emphatic of the Afghan culture he grew up with, a society where everyone was family by some extension, where they all looked out for each other. Ansary’s internal reactions to this bit of dialogue subtly shows again how those two different worlds he grew up in combine to contribute to who he is later in life.
The section on the train definitely had me nervous about the two men's well-being, particularly Jake's. The fact that this interaction occurred when Ansary was so low on sleep made me terrified that he would pass out and the other men in their compartment were going to attack Jake. I was thoroughly impressed by Ansary's ability to think on his feet and try to keep the dialogue light despite the context. The fact that he went out of his way to stand up for a fellow American really demonstrates the sense of camaraderie that he feels with someone from the same place of origin as himself while in a foreign country. I also noticed the author's lack of description about how characters in the memoir delivery different bits of dialogue, and I agree that this effective moves the piece along without coming across as long winded - especially in scenes like on the train where the conversation consists of witty back and forth.
"His eyes looked like broken eggs" was a line that stood out to me vividly - was he bleeding from the blows to his eyes, or does this just symbolize how broken they were compared to being whole before the attack? I love how Ansary throws in lines like this that not only paint a picture for the reader, but really make the reader stop to try to unravel exactly what he is trying to say (but in a good way!). I ran into the same problems when reading the sections more focused on religious doctrine. To me, although I tried hard to pay attention, coming into this topic with little background education on the subject, a lot of the terms got muddled in my mind. I had trouble differentiating between the different groups vying for power, particular in the "Crossing Morocco" chapter when discussing the different doctrines and how they evolved. I guess for me, I had trouble understanding what the difference was between the definition of "Muslim", "Arab", and "Islam". At times they seemed interchangeable, but at other times there seemed to be distinct differences between the three. I feel a little silly not fully grasping the deviation here, but this is something I haven't studied incredibly in depth in the past.
As I reached the end of West of Kabul, East of New York, I found myself thinking back to the first discussion we had about this book in class. We talked about why Ansary had chosen to begin his memoir with the story of how he sent out the email, without actually including the email within the text, instead choosing to add it on at the end of the book. Having now reached the end of his autobiography, I think that it matters less whether you chose to read the email in the beginning instead of waiting until the end. It’s there if the reader want to check it out earlier, which allows it to serves as a sort of loop back once you reach it at the end again. Or, you can save it for the very end and have it serve as the sort of climax and answer to the question of what exactly the email referenced throughout the book entailed.
Regardless of how the reader chooses to approach the inclusion of the email, it has the same desired affect once the rest of the memoir has been completed. At this point, we see what experiences in Ansary life cause the pressure to build up like a storm inside him until his words finally need to be heard. I think the argument that he has with his brother Riaz about concerns for the extremity of his new beliefs, and the fact that the feelings of animosity between the two in particular was one of the driving factors behind the passion behind the email. In addition, throughout the book, Ansary gives the reader a clear sense of the feeling of family in the Islamic society in which he grew up. The driving ideology behind this culture was the sense of generosity, which is a personality trait that Ansary at the same time struggles with and seems to revere in others. By giving the readers this background and build-up of knowledge about the reality of the Islamic culture, by the end of the book we have a more clear idea of the contrast between Taliban ideals and the ideals that Ansary grew up with. This gives the email even more poignancy, which has the effect of giving it another dimension for those reading it a second time, while serving as a mic-dropping conclusion for new readers.
Overall, I enjoyed this book, although I do feel like there were areas where I had to force myself to keep going. It was pretty much what I expected it to be; for me the title gave me a fairly good grasp of what concepts he would be covering in his memoirs, and I wasn’t surprised with the conclusions that he drew. In this sense it was a little hard to get through, as it felt like I knew where the book was going from the start, which made it a bit predictable. That being said Ansary is a talented writer, and I feel that this book definitely pushed my horizons, as it’s not generally something I’d read in my free time. It’s always a good feeling, completing a book and knowing you’ve gained a new perspective, especially with such an educationally written text such as this.

[Sara · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was so disappointing. I should've known by the cover image... I have so many complaints about this book I don't know where to begin. Firstly, to read an Afghan criticize South African apartheid but defend isr*el's apartheid within one page was one of the most horrific ironies I've ever encountered. This was the only mention of the region, and though I understand it was a negligible aspect in his larger story, it left me in shock for the rest of the book. Ansary's conflicting and overall ignorant stance at this moment made me question the legitimacy of the entire story. This is clearly a novel that is aimed at a white audience and attempts to convince the reader of Afghan humanity and nothing else-- read any of the reviews and this point is clear. Ansary positions himself in a Western framework by denouncing "radical Islam" and reiterating propagandistic adoration for the United States to the point that one may forget the writer is Afghan. The author's praise of the very imperialist powers that destroyed his own country is puzzling.

Besides the content, the organization of the story is unclear. Is this a memoir, an ethnography, a story of self-discovery, a denouncement of the Middle East? Who knows. Rare entertaining moments would be followed by endless pages of what felt like a student trying to reach a word count requirement. The book felt infested with the author's hubris and self indignation-- he literally writes, "I was right. I am still right" at one point.

The only positive thing I can say about this book is that one could produce a thrilling analytical critique of Ansary's colonial position.

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was really quite an impressive little book, humbled maybe only by it's own lack of ambition and grand vision.

Ansary tells us his life story, which allows him to go through most of the twentieth century history of Afghanistan as well as some of the more salient points in the history of Islam, especially as they relate to the current shape of what sometimes gets called Islamic fundamentalism. He also makes a convincing exploration of his own hyphenated self, half-American and half-Afghan.

It's a really readable, warm, compassionate showing, and Ansary's narrative rarely stumbles. He's a polished if unexciting writer, and his story seems well-developed and carefully presented. You almost wish he'd tried to do more, that he had a more ambitious agenda or point to get across, that instead of wanting to explain, he wanted us to do something with our new knowledge-- I guess that's the function served by the email at the end of the book, which was the genesis for the novel that precedes it: there, he asks us to commit ground troops to the war in Afghanistan. Now, on the verge of the US pulling out, I wonder what else Ansary would ask us to do.

[Martina Clark · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book and it felt timely to remind myself of the recent history of Afghanistan and the Taliban. It is a quick and colorful read, crammed with emotion, thoughtful observation, insight and history. I'd be curious to read something more recent by the author as he is both knowledgeable and an excellent story teller.

[Garrett · Rating 4 out of 5]

I remember this book vaguely when it was published in 2003, and I’m sure it’s arrival was powerful as an empathetic introduction to an Afghan experience. I assume the intent of this book at the time was to push back against the xenophobic agitation during the military occupation of Afghanistan and the second war in Iraq. Sadly, after nearly 20 years of military combat and US occupation, the Taliban has once again risen to power following a sudden and badly botched US withdrawal, and there are once again refugees - though this time we know better. I hardly hear of anti-Muslim sentiment regarding the Afghan diaspora.

I’ve also learned so much more since then, both from the foreign press over the years, and from books like The Looming Tower and Black Flags. The parts of regarding the ontology of Islamist terror and power are therefore well-known to me now, as it is to many other potential readers, but I’m willing to bet these points were educational and revelatory at the time of publishing. In any case, the points are no less true now than then.

But the real heart of this biography is the classic immigrant story. It’s a story about family and belonging. It’s about straddling two worlds, both metaphorically and literally. In this regard, the book still shines. The author sometimes meanders in his storytelling, particularly in the portion of the narrative when he travels North Africa, but I quite enjoyed it overall.

If you’re here reading this, a person curious about Afghanistan, I bet you will too.

[Betsy D · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very good memoir of a man born in Afghanistan in 1948, and brought up in a traditional family compound outside of Kabul, though his mother was American. As conflict heated up in his country, he and his immediate family, other than his father, left for the US. In his youth he lived in Portland, then until the end of the book in the SF Bay Area. We learn of his travels to Muslim countries as a journalist and a later trip, finally to Afghanistan. He seems to have great insight into the forces on his home country during his life, and into the reasons for the rise of the Taliban. And he tells his story well!

[Christine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reading this book certainly gave me a new perspective and some understanding into Afghanistan and Islam that I never had before and I appreciated that. I felt though that the author would often say something really profound or important but then never expand on it or follow up to explain which was frustrating. The copy of the email he wrote that set him on the path to write the book was the best part of the whole book because the contents seemed the most fully fleshed out but I didn't think that the rest of the book lived up to that same concise, clear explanation.

[Roopa Prabhu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just got to know one of my favourite author that much more 😊 And a little more about Afghanistan and Islam..

[Todd Cheng · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice unraveling of a journey to link back to his family roots in the context of his new country. A young college man takes $3k and goes on an adventure into the Middle East and Afghanistan.

In the US, people think Afghanistan is in Africa. In the Middle East the author is judged for his US ties. He shared his struggles dealing with loss, race, bias, faith, culture, and family.

His narrative was touching to me because the man was from Portland, Oregon. In a time of race issues and hyper bias he connects with a wonderful human tone.

[Paula Dembeck · Rating 4 out of 5]

This journalist was born to an American mother and an Afghan father. The couple met and married while Ansary’s father was attending an American University on scholarship. Once he finished his studies they returned to Afghanistan and raised a family. This is the story of the oldest child Tamim, who has lived in both Afghanistan and America, his exploration of his roots and his search for his identity.

Children raised in two cultures respond in different ways to the experience and Tamim has seen this in his own family, where his sister who spent more of her childhood in Afghanistan than her siblings, is the most Americanized and Riaz who is the youngest and spent the least, has become a radicalized Muslim.

As a boy in the sixties, Tamim lived in a small village outside Kabul until he was about sixteen when he left on a scholarship to attend an American high school and later college. In the eighties he travelled back to the Muslim world to revisit the land and experience the culture in which he grew up. During this trip he was abruptly confronted by a legalistic and authoritarian Islam he did not know as a child, one filled with a shocking observance of Sharia law.

As Ansary tries to understand and integrate his experiences, he explains his feelings through one simple statement: “Growing up biculturally is like straddling a crack in the earth.” He theorizes that individuals who grow up in diverse cultures such as that in America and Afghanistan, feel an urge to envelop themselves in one culture or the other, like his brother and sister. But Tamim has had a different experience. Although thoroughly Americanized, he still feels his Afghan roots deep in his soul. To this day, he has never stopped reading or writing about Afghanistan and Islam, maintains communication with all his friends and relatives, still speaks a passable Farsi, translates poetry from that language and can cook an Afghan meal.
Ansary does not feel his bifurcated cultural heritage is something unusual. Most Americans he says, are something else besides being American. Diversity is a characteristic of the American population where immigrants have flocked for years.

This is an interesting book. The author writes about the difficult subjects of culture, religion and politics in very readable prose. Able to move an understanding of Muslims and Islam beyond thoughts of angry Mullahs and suicide bombers, he provides some interesting theories about Islamic political ideology and how it has been able to construct a very effective propaganda that rallies its people to a political purpose.

This is basically a memoir in which the author tells us stories about times and events in his life. He recounts his experiences with the two cultures, his struggle to deal with and adapt to change, and his own common experience of love and loss.
The best part of the book was the details of his experience in the Muslim world when he returned during the period of the revolution in Iran, when the American embassy was seized and hostages were taken.

A very informative read.

[Janelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book because Khlaed Hosseini mentioned it as a book Westerners should read about Afghanistan (see the whole list here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jlw_in_p...). It was delightfully engaging exploration of the lost world of Afghanistan. It begins with a story about an email he composed following the 9/11 attacks, an email which went viral and brought him a lot of media attention.

In Part One, "The Lost World," Afghan-American Ansary describes his boyhood in Afghanistan (his mother is American; his father is Afghan). Perhaps because he spent his teenage and adult years in the U.S., he takes special care to "translate" certain aspects of Afghan culture and to explain by contrasting with Western culture (I'm thinking particularly of the family compound and the public/private spheres). This was both helpful and fascinating.

Part Two, "Looking for Islam," is a travel narrative. Ansary uses a financial windfall to return to Asia, seeking... something. Understanding. Reconnection. His younger brother had moved to Pakistan and embraced a very conservative and rigid form of Islam, and Ansary needed to know why. Despite the poor timing (it was late 1979, when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan), he traveled to Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Turkey, never making it to Afghanistan. He posed as someone seeking to learn more about his Muslim roots, as this disguise brought him safety and information. But in the end, he didn't find himself there. He returned to the U.S. and married his American beloved.

Part Three, "Forgetting Afghanistan," is interestingly titled. During this phase of Ansary's life, he becomes more and more entwined in the growing network of Afghans in America - but becomes increasingly American himself. He has a major fight with his brother and they become estranged. He watches uneasily as the Taliban philosophy spreads across national lines and even across an ocean - the story about the ranting cab driver in New York is particularly chilling. And he muses on how he and his two siblings - all Afghan-American - have become more or less Afghan or American.

This book taught me a lot about pre-Taliban Afghan culture. I recommend it!

[Masayu Mahmud · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was glad to reach the end of the book. It fell short of my expectations of being a good read to be curled up in the sofa with. Ansary is highly self indulgence and whiny. He was awkward and disastrous as a traveller always seeking for the easy way out in order to accomplish what he thought was a journey to find himself. Though he had good intentions of seeking out who he is and where he came from his lack of resourcefulness and inability to be decisive and creative in addressing his challenges irritated me. He presented himself as a man who went along with the ebb and flow of where ocean currents as well as border controls take him. His disdain for the religion in which he was born into but lost conviction in was evident throughout the novel and though there were tender descriptions of the beauty of the religion, in parts he was an atheist turned believer and then atheist again. He never fully developed his characters; his portrayal of his mother was at best sloppy, he focussed on the description of street urchins and touts of ancient Moroccan medinas and the various devout representations of the Muslim as opposed to really focussing on letting them know who he is really and what he stood. His criticism for his brother I felt was an indication of his resentment of himself; afterall his brother found what he could live and die for. Ansary never really got to where he wanted; since birth and throughout his youth and adult life he was pretty much a wannabe. Just as he lost his brother in an argument which is more to prove he was right rather than to see the world in another mind's eye and being happy for the choices they make, he lost me somewhere in the first 150 pages.

[Merredith · Rating 2 out of 5]

I only got to page 206 of this book, before i realized it was a chore and decided not to finish. i gave it two stars rather than one because at the beginning of the book, i was really enjoying it. this is a book written by an afghan american, and it starts just after 9/11. he then goes back to his childhood in afghanastan...he was born in the late 40s I think. this whole part is very interesting. we learn about how the country was at the time, what was going on, interspersed with little anecdotes just about living and being a kid. your typical memoir stuff, but stuff i love. but then he's grown up, living in san francisco, and he decides to take a trip back, when he left there as a teen and had grown up the rest of the time here. this should be interesting too, right? no. it's just one big 'are we there yet' story. it's like traveling in a bus and never getting there. i was reading this on the subway and thought wow this subway trip home is very long then i realized no, it's not me, it's this book. nothing's happening. he's getting nowhere. i'm no longer learning anything. i felt carsick. i stopped. if this could be two books, it would be a pretty good first book and a horrible second. i dont even care if he reaches his goal (though i'm pretty sure i know i just don't want to be a spoiler) or if he realizes what his goal is. i dont care about if his girlfriend's letter ever reaches him. he just lost it half way through this book.

[Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fantastic story of a person caught between living in Afghanistan and the United States. His father was given an opportunity by the afghan government (pre-taliban!) to study in the United States where he met a Finnish-American woman and they hit it off.

Eventually they were married, had kids and one of them is the author, Tamim Ansary. Tamim talks about growing up in Afghanistan, near the American and European expats, never quite being one of them, but never quite being full Afghan either.

He grows up and goes to Reed College, again, not quite sure whether he is Afghan or American. Meanwhile the Taliban takes over his country. He sees the deterioration, the refugee status of many of the people he knew, though his father stayed.

When 9/11 happens Ansary pens an email to a few of his friends about the point of view of a person who knows intimately the horrors of islamic quasi fundamentalism (my words to describe the Taliban). His email is one of the first things on the internet to go viral.

Shout out to the incredibly heart warming story of his dog in afghanistan who travelled a great distance (50 miles?) to be back with their family. Hungria, you are an inspiration!

[Gina · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to be enlightened by this book, but I think I misunderstood its purpose. The day after the World Trade Center was destroyed, the author sent an anguished email to twenty of his friends that went viral- that was the focus of my needs. Instead, 299 of the 300 pages focused on his childhood in Afghanistan and his move to America with a trip to to Islamic World in the 1970/80s. Just wasn't what I was looking for.

[Mira · Rating 5 out of 5]

Two different cultures, a journey of a man full of wisdom, determination and love not just to his country but also to the things and people around.

You'll learn a lot from this book. You'll understand things from this man's journey.

[Shayaalh · Rating 4 out of 5]

An adventurous and interesting account of the author's fractured identity, confusion and the struggle between his West and East, the American struggle in Kabul and the Afghan struggle in New York.
enjoyed every page of it even if some events sounded a bit exaggerated.

[David Fable · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read for research, and provides an eye-opening view of the culture and sensibility.

[K · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a really great insight into life in Afghanistan pre-Taliban and a sad and angry reflection on what militant Islam means on the ground. Even though the book is nearly 20 years old, it's relevant today, as little has changed for the poor people of that war-torn country.

The book has two fulcrums around which it pivots as it seeks to understand militant Islam that emerged in the 1980s-1990s and burst into general consciousness with the attack on the NYC Twin Towers. The first is how a gentler, more civilized Islam was practiced for centuries, and even into the 1960s and beyond. The second is about the scary, new, fanatical Islam and some of the mistaken beliefs that drive its adherents.

While this memoir is a little cringy at times ("sumptuous breasts" of a former girlfriend), it's a unique window into a vanished world. Tamim Ansary grew up in the 1950s-60s in Afghanistan as the child of a privileged and educated man who met an American while studying in Chicago. They married and she moved to Afghanistan with him, allegedly as the only American woman in Kabul at the time. The world of Ansary's youth was almost medieval, a term he uses. Homes lacked indoor plumbing and electricity; people lived in walled compounds of relatives; strict roles for boys and girls.

But despite this centuries-old way of life, Ansary said it had surprising freedoms -- and this is the beauty of his book. While girls and women were restricted outside of their family compounds and those of relatives, they were unrestricted within. Islam was everywhere, but it was a tolerant Islam that was trying to change with the times, such as experimenting with co-education and allowing modest western dress. But everything revolved around the family, and Ansary does a great job of explaining what family meant -- the tales of centuries of ancestors, the visits to the family's seat in a rural village, the uncles and aunts who were everyday presences and whose every spark of personality was adopted as a badge of honor by all relations.

In Ansary's case, his father was appointed to represent the government in the US when he was a teen. But within about a year of their move to the US East Coast, a change in government forced his father to make a terrible choice: Go back and try to find his footing in a changing situation, or leave his family probably forever. He took the latter, as Afghanistan was too woven into him.

Ansary, his mother and his two siblings stayed in the US. Ansary graduated from college (as did his older sister), and he became a 1960s hippie in Haight-Ashbury. In the book, he spends a little too much time on the mellow, pot-smoking, free love days, but he's allowed to be proud of his wilder times. And that free spiritness led him to the most stunning part of the book (the second fulcrum of its narrative): an aborted attempt to visit Afghanistan or to at least reach the Afghani-Pakistan border and look at his former country. Instead, he goes through a nightmarish couple of months trying to get through Algeria, Morocco, and other godforsaken countries during the height of the Iranian revolution, when westerners (especially Americans) are being kidnapped every week. Incredibly brave of him, even though he has the cover story of being an Aghani Moslem who is seeking a spiritual return to his roots.

In this section, Ansary explores the false narrative of the Taliban's justifiers that today's Jews are fake Jews who replaced the real Jews that the Koran venerates as part of the line that gave us Moses, Jesus and then Mohammed. In this narrative, an ethnic group in the 1300s in the Caucasus Mountains that was possibly Jewish (or at least not Islamic) was tricked by Satan into thinking it was Jewish. This group overran the Jews across the rest of the world by intermarriage and, basically, PR, and this is the group that now lives in Israel. But since they're not the real Jews, they don't deserve to live there. In fact, because they are representatives of Satan, the crazy Moslem fundamentalists think they should be killed. That lie is at the heart of Taliban violence, according to this book. (And you thought that QAnon was crazy....)

Unfortunately, there's no way to dislodge this idea from the minds of fanatics. They live in their world, and they suffer enough abuse and hardship that they will always stay together. Ansary's narrative makes that clear, both in his knowledge of these people through the experience of his brother Riaz who became a right-wing imam in the US, and also through his dispiriting attempts to work with fellow Afghans in the US on simple fundraising drives. Those efforts failed -- sort of comically -- as family groups fought over primacy, just as they would have in Afghanistan.

This is a powerful book for anyone who wants to start building their knowledge about today's Islam.

[Fred Dameron · Rating 4 out of 5]

This starts off as a memoire, then becomes a travel log, and finishes with some real insight into how Afghans in particular, but the radicalized muslim world in general, see's both the west and what their religion says. Lets be clear what the west would call "good" Afghans or "good" muslims is NOT what these people in both camps see themselves. Good Afghans and or muslims by western standards are not Good Muslims or Afghans by Afghan or Islamic standard. A Good Afghan is hospitable, he strives for his privacy, clan and family are everything. AT the same time he prays regularly, but also listens to non-radicalized Inman's. The average guy in the streets of Kabul is not a radical. He is not nor never was a Talib. He just wanted to provide for his family. Even though this work is 20 years old the message is the same. For Afghan's the Taliban was welcome at first because they provided stability. After a short time the Taliban outstayed their welcome. But, the Talib had gotten rid of most of the opposition, exception: Moussade of the Northern Alliance who was killed by two Talib the morning of 9/11/01. And Moussade had been relegated to northern Afghanistan and politically isolated. SO after the Russians were pushed out we, the U.S., left a power vacuum that the Taliban filled. Now also the Taliban are supported by Pakistan's intelligence service. SO the Pakistanis are running the Taliban who because of the Law of Hospitality that Afghanistan still lives by they had toilet OBL and other Saudi Terrorists live and train in country. Afghans themselves have no use for the Taliban and want them gone.

This work gives a lot of background that one really does need to really understand what happened leading up to 9/11. Understanding of what happened after and since this work also talked to "recent" Afghan refugees what has happened since the U.S start of operations in Afghanistan. The Taliban is no longer based out of Helmand province and has very few Afghan's involved. The current Taliban is a group of local war lords who are still illiterate religious fanatics. Men who believe ALL the lies that the Saudi and Pakistani supported madras have promugated over the last 20 to 30 years. The original Helmude province Taliban have been hunted down and killed by our missiles and forces. Their replacements are even more radical than they were under the original One Eyed Mulla of Helmued 20 years ago. They have been raised in Pakistani refuge camps to hate America and Americans because we bring death. They don't want Democracy or a Republic all they want to do is Kill just as their heroes did against the Russians, the Taliban, and or the U.S. and our allies. But these people aren't majority Afghans. They are Saudis, Pakistanis, Omanien, U.A.E, Kuwait, Syrian, North African, you get the picture: Afghanistan has become a place wear unattached young men who are wandering and wondering what to do with their live go to fight for God/Allah and kill. The Taliban today is NOT Afghani but a mash up of every Islamic nation's young men with leaders provided by the 20 year war with the U.S., or the Ten years of the Russian war, or the in-between years of Taliban rule were young men got to be god in their neighborhood.

Ansary has done a lot of good with this work and his personal experience with Islam along with his brothers experience with a more radical variety show how easy and seductive the radicalization process can be. How it does take a strong mans thoughts of other to keep from falling into the trap and end up in the fields of Central Asia.

Lots of good information for some one looking for why what happened from 1990 until today happened. From the Med to the Persian highlands to Central Asia is all related across borders, clans, Nations, and religions.

[Prattyush Giriraj · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tamim Ansary’s West of Kabul, East of New York deals with an Afghan-American trying to balance both being Afghan and American. The book starts out with Ansary talking about the action of 9/11 and how he feels about the racial prejudice that came after the events of 9/11. He says, “No one seemed to know how pitifully harmless Afghans were...and now, it seemed, marked out to suffer for the crimes of their torturers”(Ansary 5). What Tamim is trying to say is that people are only looking at Afghan’s from one side of the story. They only see that the Taliban (Afghanistan Terrorists) blew up the World Trade Center and now people put a stereotype on Afghans saying that they all are terrorists and you should be weary of them. The same thing happens this day and age in which people from the Middle East are being stereotyped as terrorists and people are avoiding them just because of a stereotype. Ansary understands firsthand how wrong stereotyping is and he writes an email entitling his personal experiences on this matter. His email reaches millions and the people and this caused people to have empathy towards the Afghanistan population instead of the sympathy that they were previously giving the race. The story then goes back in time and the story goes from when he was a child until the events of 9/11.
This story provided a breathtaking and invigorating journey of Ansary’s life and the struggles he had to face as an Afghan American. While reading this story I was immediately hooked because not many people look at 9/11 from the Afghan perspective. Tamim talks about how people only look at one side of the story whereas they should be looking at the whole story. An example of this is when Tamim and his brother are talking in which Tamim says, “So you want to erase Israel! What about Israelis... Kill them all, is that what you’re saying”(Ansary 260). Tamim’s brother is only looking through the perspective of a Muslim and wants revenge against all Israelis taking over parts of Afghanistan. If he looks at this using the whole story, he would’ve come to understand that not all Israelis had any part in the taking over land and that not all Israelis should be punished for something they haven’t done. I can connect to this because I am Indian and people usually judge Indians in the fact that they are smart and aren’t good at anything else like sports - where in reality most Indians are usually really good in sports and people don’t give them a chance just because of their race.
The reality of this story makes this story a 5 out of 5 because I was able to really connect with this story and the way Ansary was able to put his thoughts and emotions into words and make a beautiful story that touched the hearts of everyone who read it. Overall, the main thing that Ansary was trying to get out of this story was that when people only view people different from themselves from one perspective, they will end up either judging or stereotyping this person or group and they won’t truly understand who they are. This story describes the struggles in a perfect way that everyone should read it.

[Elizabeth Reuter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tamim Ansary offers a truly unique experience with his work. First, he provides rich and beautiful writing that stirs both images and emotion in the reader; second, he provides the clearest cross-cultural interpretation between Afghanistan and the United States that I've ever come across. He makes Afghanistan's history (Games Without Rules) and broader Islamic history (Destiny Disrupted: A History of the World Through Islamic Eyes) not only understandable, but entertaining, perfect introductions for the layman as well as great reads.

West of Kabul, East of New York is a "smaller" story, his autobiography describing his childhood in Afghanistan, then adulthood in the United States. The writing is less polished than in his later books, but has the evocative style and total lack of sugarcoating that I associate with him. He speaks openly of his failures and what he learned from them without excuse or apology, failures that, judging by some other reviews, were unforgivable to some. Not to me. Ansary was brave enough to take on the journeys that called to him, smart enough to know when to push on and when to give up, good enough to help people along the way and treat them with respect, and wise enough to learn about himself and the world without holding grudges (even against people that I felt deserved it).

If you must read only about men who reach all their goals without introspection or mistakes, this is not the book for you. For a book about love; human ties; and the successes and failures of people struggling to reach across wildly different cultures, countries, and perspectives to find themselves and each other, I can't think of a book I recommend more highly than this.

- Elizabeth Reuter

[Jeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really wanted to tell you that the Goodreads notes tells you the main points and I’ll give some final thoughts. But the notes greatly misrepresent the book. And it really ticks me off.

The notes say that 9-11 prompted this book. 9-11 is not mentioned until page 278, in the final small paragraph of the epilogue. I don’t really want to waste your time or my time telling you what this book is about if you don’t care. It’s not a great book, but it was ENLIGHTENING!

Oh, briefly..... the author’s father was the first Afghan to marry an American. Due to the father’s status in the government, the family moved into a compound outside of Kabul. Some things happened and the author went to the U.S. for high school and college.

While feeling detached from Islam and Afghanistan, he fell into some normal 70s anti-cultural groups in Portland and San Francisco. After a few years, needing a job, he got one for a newspaper that liked his interest in the Middle East. During this time, the author, who felt rather atheistic, but was willing to learn more about Islam, found out that his brother was deep into Islam. This was way before the Taliban, Al-Quaeda, or ISIS.

The author’s plan was to go into the Middle East and got all his paperwork — then the Iran hostage crisis began. He changed his plans and went into Morocco and North Africa, learning about Islam. When he was ready to go to Afghanistan and see his father for the first time time in many years, the Soviets invaded Afghanistan.

He then went to Istanbul, for the most important part of the book — pages 210-216, where he is explained Islam. While barbaric, even Sharia law makes sense in a community. Outside of Sharia law, there really is a beauty in the religion of Islam.

So he hurried home to SF and married his girlfriend. He’s still an atheist. His brother was in Pakistan and they hadn’t talked in 14 years. The author’s daughter was looking at colleges.

THEN 9-11 happened. Does that sound like the Goodreads notes?!

I hope someone reads this. It isn’t perfect, but I learned a lot. And I didn’t convert. 🙂