The World is a Carpet by Anna Badkhen

Title: The World is a Carpet: Four Seasons in an Afghan Village
Author: Anna Badkhen

Type: Non-Fiction
Genre: Non-Fiction

Series: No

Pages: 288
Copyright: 2013

Publisher: Riverhead Books

Rating: 2 out of 5


Summary: from Good Reads

An unforgettable portrait of a place and a people shaped by centuries of art, trade, and war.
In the middle of the salt-frosted Afghan desert, in a village so remote that Google can’t find it, a woman squats on top of a loom, making flowers bloom in the thousand threads she knots by hand. Here, where heroin is cheaper than rice, every day is a fast day. B-52s pass overhead—a sign of America’s omnipotence or its vulnerability, the villagers are unsure. They know, though, that the earth is flat—like a carpet.

Anna Badkhen first traveled to this country in 2001, as a war correspondent. She has returned many times since, drawn by a land that geography has made a perpetual battleground, and by a people who sustain an exquisite tradition there. Through the four seasons in which a new carpet is woven by the women and children of Oqa, she immortalizes their way of life much as the carpet does—from the petal half-finished where a hungry infant needs care to the interruptions when the women trade sex jokes or go fill in for wedding musicians scared away by the Taliban. As Badkhen follows the carpet out into the world beyond, she leaves the reader with an indelible portrait of fates woven by centuries of art, war, and an ancient trade that ultimately binds the invaded to the invader.

Feelings: 
I expected a lot more from this book than what it gave. I ended up feeling a little like the author didn't really have enough content for a full book and thus ended up with a hodgepodge of stories put together as a book. I didn't really think it worked.

Another thing that bothered me about the book was the author's use of language. I felt like words weren't always used properly or she would use really obscure words to describe something. That being said this book should be read with a dictionary handy. When I found out that English was likely not the author's first language this explained a lot.

I should note that some of the book was really good.

Once upon a time the moon was white, and the sun and the moon had a fight over who was more beautiful. The sun said it was more beautiful because its beauty illuminated the entire world. The moon said it was more beautiful because its face was completely white. Then the sun got angry and collected desert sand, dust, and ashes from its bukhari and threw them at the moon. The dirt soiled the moon's face forever. The moon became embarrassed and stopped coming out during the day. That's why the moon comes only at night and its face is blemished (p. 176)

This was one of the treasures held within this book. I wouldn't say you should read the book for just that though. I wanted to see more of the carpet and a lot less conjecture about what happens to the carpet after it leaves the loom.

Parts of this book were good but overall it just didn't hold up. I wouldn't recommend it unless you are going to skim it for the little jewels it does hold.