The Book of Trouble: A Romance [Hardcover]

At first glance, this memoir-travelogue is a sensitive tale of a love affair that spans two cultures and ignores an age discrepancy. Ann Marlowe has long nurtured an interest in Afghanistan, is leaving her lair, New York's East Village, for four weeks to teach English in a school in Afghanistan. Then she meets Amir. Ten-years younger, he fled Pakistan in 1982, graduated from Princeton and currently works in New York. Although he is an acquired taste, Amir becomes more appealing through their conversations. In his defense, Amir clearly states his position on marriage and his eventual return to his country of origin. Contrary to her friends' advice, Ann keeps her own counsel, savoring the intimate moments with Amir, ignoring the distance he enforces when they are in public.

The book's tempo shifts abruptly with Marlowe's change of scene to Mazar-i-Sharif, her experiences in the Middle East rife with personal reactions to people and place: "I did not feel they were poor because they did not feel they were poor. It's like the morning of the world." She is moved by her host's commitment to family and the land. Marlowe's observations while traveling in Mazar-i-Sharif read like a travelogue, impressions of the country, people, and customs compared to America; the chapters on Amir are more intimate, an examination of the male-female condition, the love affair already doomed, in spite of the ease with which "love" seeps into the relationship.

But as Amir grows more distant and unavailable, Ann reacts with stubborn disbelief, clinging to her memories of their nights together. To escape her heartbreak, Marlowe visits Iraq after the beginning of the war, in travelogue mode again, sharing her views of that country and her approval of the war, including an interview with the infamous Ahmed Chalabi (whom she finds charming). She opines, "Life in post-war Baghdad isn't easy, even for the privileged." Returning to her familiar haunts in New York, nothing has changed, Amir still unavailable, unwilling even to be friends. At this point the author reveals that this great love affair has actually consisted of only five nights of intense physical interaction, a tiny part of the passing months of the memoir. Suddenly I feel gullible, for I have accepted Marlowe at her word, assuming that Amir is equally involved in the relationship, a detail she fails to mention until the end of the book.

Clearly, Marlowe has chosen a doomed affair, such drama grist for the writer's mill; equally suspect are her other observations of the world at large, the true nature of the people she claims such empathy with, her unquestioning acceptance of the Iraq war, a general approval of Saddam's removal, a ready admission she doesn't believe there are WMD's (this is an East Village intellectual?). The author breaks down each topic into cultural specifics, analyzing differences, cousin-marriage (a favorite topic), religion, male-female relationships, war, friends, food, everything categorized, desensitized. The romance, the travel, the ready opinions all assume a facile veneer, a justification for self-indulgence and a fear of personal vulnerability that leaves me confused and doubting her veracity. Oh, and by the way, an effusive back cover blurb is written by author James Frey. Luan Gaines/ 2006.

This is a wonderful, wide ranging, engaging memoir. It's all here - cousin marriage, intergenerational sex, cultural differences (and not the tedious starch you get served up in so much travel writing), criticisms of American society, a strong heart and powerful searching intelligence. "The Book of Trouble" is at the outset a love story. West Village writer meets significantly younger man from Afghanistan. Is he acceptable as a lover? No. Does she even consider him? No. Do they get together? Yes, briefly, savagely, and then sadly: it's all over.

Ann Marlowe is an acutely observant viewer of herself, and those around her: what they say, and what they think. She understands that what love is based on is a kind of tribalism, that you fall for people who reflect or refract the milieu you were raised in. The distance between herself, an American Jew, and Amir, an Afghan Muslim is, as she notes, much less than might be first imagined. Pursuing Amir, Marlowe is also pursuing Afghanistan, and the Middle East, and that chewy topic: America. What do Muslims have that the contemporary US has lost? Can it be retrieved? How? The love affair with Amir is always gently nudged back to politics and place.

Picky giddy people should beware. This is probably not a book to read if you think that someone like Iraqi politician Ahmed Chalabi cannot be a rogue, and also charming. It's not for you if you imagine it's witty to cast aspersions on the author just because whipping-boy-du-jour James Frey has praised it. It's not for you if you like ideas and events neatly dissected and served on a plate like so much mental sashimi: appetising at the outset, but then an hour later you're hungry again. Yes, "The Book of Trouble" has troubling themes, but their treatment is invigorating and satisfying.

If you enjoy reading stereotypes formulated by white westerners about people of the "third world" then this book is for you. It is complete with a cold and distant virgin wanting man and lots of the authors liberal American buffoonery ie her "love" and "fascination" with Afghanistan. White liberals of the west love to attach themselves to various non European culturals, it makes them feel very righteous and worldly. Ultimately the book is boring, poorly written and full of the expected stereotypes you would expect to find in a book about a Muslim society written by a white westerner. If you really want to learn about Afghanistan I would recommend a book written by an Afghan such as, West of Kabul, East of New York by Tamim Ansary.