A Carpet Ride to Khiva: Seven Years on the Silk Road [Kindle Edition]

This was my first foray into the "travel" genre, knowing next to nothing about Central Asia in general or Khiva in particular. Although carpets aren't really my thing I admit I was engaged from the first page, chuckling and snorting every couple of pages at Alexander's amusing anecdotes and lively writing style. And I learnt a whole lot about Silk worms too! The book reads like a humorous and informative conversation, departing every now and again from Alexander's personal experiences into juicy little cultural tidbits, observations and relevant Silk Route history and politics.

Alexander is obviously lively company and my favourite minor episodes include him baffling a hawker by referring to 'International Pomegranate Day' and successfully teaching a downtrodden blind lad macrame. The chief thing that drew me in, however was how the relationships developed as he mastered the language and settled into the culture with his beloved host family, despite his ginger kitten and vegetarianism.

There is also the darker gut-wrenching reality of life lived behind the president's mass propaganda, including wife-beating and the awful Andijan Massacre.

There was slightly more about the donkey-related sexual proclivities of local men than was my taste, but I guess that is part of the cross-cultural education.

He doesn't dwell on this aspect, but it is clear that his presence in Khiva benfitted those around him hugely, with his blend of creativity and enterprising business sense bringing income-generation and discovery of hidden talents not only to employees of the carpet and Suzani workshops, but to many others along the way.

The colour plates are engrossing and authenticate the whole narrative. It's great putting faces to the names and being able to examine some of the authentic works of art that inspired the carpet designs.

I recommend this book very highly and feel much the richer in understanding.

Its all there, the happiness and the sadness, the achievements and the frustrations, the facts and the fables, the sites and the smells as Chris Alexander tells us about his seven years living and working in a World Heritage site in the deserts of Uzbekistan. The book takes you from from the humble beginings of going out there to write a guide book for tourists through to the stage where his workshop was the largest non state employer in he city hand making silk rugs using designs from the time of Tamberlaine.
You to meet the women and disabled who work there, others who are jealous of the enterprise and try to spoil it and the bureaucrats who ultimately lead to Chris`s expulsion. His writing shows how a travel book should be, interesting, amusing, informative and with pace. The reader learns about history, silk, design and the people who live and work in a city where a hundred year ago there were still slaves.
Read it and enjoy your own magic carpet ride to Khiva

Tricky to write this review since I know the author and I was initially reluctant to give it a 5. However, on its own merits the book probably deserves it, though I guess it would be difficult to find one reader who is able to appreciate everything it has to offer. For the book transcends categories, the book cover suggesting it is a travel/memoir but it is part also written for those with an interest in textiles and finally (and the stand out aspect for me) a powerful anthropological insight into the changes occurring in the post-socialist world and how development projects can make a small but significant difference.

As a travel book it wanders off into other parts of Uzbekistan as well as Afghanistan but is at its best when at home in Khiva. The author has a great eye of the absurd, and the book is chocked full of wonderful insights and the recounting of dramatic tales. However those wanting to find out more about, say, Bukhara, might need to know more than that is is the home of cunning competitors and human organ exporters. So it won't replace a good general guide book, but for the traveller whose itinerary would take in Khiva reading this book would enrich the experience enormously as it brings alive the history as well as the present realities of this fascinating city.

As a memoir it packs real emotional punch as the politics of the country cruelly cut short the love-affair with Khiva. To those interested in the history of textiles and the bringing of past designs back to life, this is a must read.

However for me, as someone interested in the development of society in Uzbekistan, the book's greatest value is as an insight into the plight of provincial towns in post-independence Uzbekistan. To spend seven years in a small town, and to make hugely impressive progress in mastering the language and the social norms, means that the author gained a level of trust and acceptance that opened up a window onto the sorrows but also the joys of everyday life. Accounts of domestic abuse and economic injustice are quite depressing, but then there are moments when acts of empathy and compassion deeply move both the author and reader - such as when the fellow weavers club together to buy their colleague a wedding dress. It is telling that while the minarets and murals grab the attention at the beginning, it is the personalities so vividly described that are mourned by the author who can't return, and for whom the reader also feels a sense of loss. For while the workshop projects are admittedly no panacea for the problems the town faces, they did bring both income and dignity to many of the downtrodden, and the project, shaped in part by the author's own stubbornness, was an irritant protest against the corruption that surrounded it. As such it should also be read by anyone conducting community based projects and interested in social change in Central Asia. The account of the project, honestly accepting mistakes made and bringing insight into the difficult choices to be made, make for a revealing, informative and stylishly written introduction.