Kabul Beauty School

Kabul Beauty School: An American Woman Goes Behind the Veil
by Deborah Rodriguez, 2007, 328 pages

When Deborah Rodriguez, a brash, outspoken hairdresser, joins a mission to volunteer in Afghanistan, she isn't sure what she can offer, alongside doctors and real aid workers. And then she begins to cut hair for a few volunteers, and to figure out how to do perms and highlights in a country where the electricity doesn't always work. After meeting Afghani women, she begins to work on a plan to start a beauty school. It will give the women confidence, a necessary skill, and most importantly, money to help them assert themselves against a culture of overbearing husbands and fathers. Completely insulated from men's prying eyes, the beauty school becomes a safe space, where women can laugh, joke, share, and draw strength from one another's stories.

I spot more than a few similarities to Steel Magnolias. A group of women draws close together, in a warm, sometimes funny celebration of their bond, sharing their frustrations about men and wanting to be taken seriously in their small community. Rodriguez plays to comparison easily in the persona she adopts throughout the narrative. Even when she acknowledges that she's being culturally clumsy in her exuberance (smoking, dancing, yelling for her rights, not honoring the taboos between genders) her heart's in the right place. She fights to get the school money and shipments of makeup and hair supplies.

Some aspects of the school are a success. It's a joy to read about the women growing confident in their skills, and welcoming the salon's safe space. Deborah recounts her own cultural pratfalls with warm self-deprecation. Even dangerous scenes like a confrontation with violent neighbors that scare her entire street feels as though it's going to turn out all right.Her humor and focus on stories of kindness insulates the reader. Maybe it's the beauty school setting. Maybe it's just Rodriguez's upbeat worldview.
That steadily upbeat worldview is just one of the similarities between this and Rodriguez's recent novel, A Cup of Friendship. Reading both slightly close together becomes a treasure hunt, for stories Rodriguez polished and idealized to tell in her novel. A grumbling housekeeper hides her perm under a veil. Her story weaves through the memoir and the novel both, albeit transformed and resolved into romance in the latter. The stories of the beauty school students finding their way are collapsed into one or two characters in Rodriguez's novel. The culture that Kabul takes for granted has so many emotionally wrenching stories to tell. Women emerging slowly from under the rule of their husbands to find confidence and purpose. Violence so unrelenting that the first class of women in the beauty school can scarcely learn about primary and secondary colors, because they're so traumatized.
Both the novel and the memoir use a scene in a women's prison as an emotionally charged turning point, to show an American just how terrible women's circumstances are. Deborah puts together packages of hair notions and conditioner samples as a treat for the women- only to see starving, sick women packed into cells and realize how inadequate her gifts are.

Another storyline the novel keeps refreshingly honest is Deborah's marriage and romance to Sam. When she decides to stay and anchor herself in the Kabul community, she knows that being married will give her more power and access in the community. Half-joking, her friends arrange a marriage for her. Sam is shy. The marriage is rocky with culture clashes and language barriers. I like the space she gives that story to be messy, argumentative, even a little unresolved.

 

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For every book I read in 2011, I'm donating $1 to the New York Public Library.

The Orchid Affair Was Wonderful

The Orchid Affair
Lauren Willig

I'm so very grateful that Lauren Willig's novels are on a February publication schedule. Late January to February are about the time of the year that I start to feel acutely miserable about winter, snow, slush, and relentless cold. I get dreary.

A new Lauren Willig novel is exactly the right antidote to the winter blues. I knew I was going to love The Orchid Affair as wholeheartedly as I did. Hooray!

A smart, funny heroine, who's worked as a governess, is now sent to spy on the actions of a Frenchman in a high government office, by teaching his kids grammar and deportment. Laura is prone to saying smart things primly, and tartly, and even the incidental prose, narrative between dialogue makes me laugh out loud. Smart banter between Laura and her employer, Andre, made me laugh.

There were spies and plots and disguises and romance and sword fights. And precocious kids. Gabrielle, 9, and adorable Pierre-Andre. A few nods to recurring Pink Carnation characters, including Miss Jane Wooliston. (when, when when, is she getting her own romance novel?)

Lauren Willig specializes in two sorts of romance heroine, I think: The dreamy, girlish one with whimsical ideas, and the brainy, sharp-tongued one who banters fiercely. Both are tremendous fun. You can guess which one I identify with, errrrmmm, enjoy reading best. Hooray for smart Laura and her wit!
I hope I don't have to wait til next February for another Lauren Willig novel. But if I do, I'll at least know it will be something fun to take the edge off the slush.

Train Your Mind, Change Your Brain: Not what I expected

Train Your Mind, Change Your Brain
Sharon Begley
Ballantine Books 2007 282 pages.

Scene: A literary agent's office, or maybe a publisher's.
Characters: Sharon Begley, her agent and her publisher.

SHARON BEGLEY: So I have this great idea for a book! All about neuroplasticicity and cognitive science. See there were all these scientific experiments on monkeys where they cut nerves and trained them to touch discs and...

OTHERS IN OFFICE: Neuro-what-now?

BEGLEY: Neuroplasticity! And so my book idea combines neuroscience about the brain, with Buddhist thought and teaching! The Dalai Lama loves science and loves talking to scientists. The way you think can activate different areas of your brain if you meditate. They used PET scans on monks!

PUBLISHER: Aha! Let me get on the phone with the self-help department! Hm, let's work on the jacket copy- cutting edge science and the ancient wisdom of Buddhism have come together to reveal that, contrary to popular belief, we have the power to literally change our brains by changing our minds!'"

BEGLEY: Wait... what? No, this is science. I'm writing about experiments! Lots and lots of experiments! Joe Average Guy can't learn to meditate from this book, or change HIS brain. Monks learn to change their brains after years of study! People in mindfulness-based cognitive therapy work one-on-one with therapists to change their brains. This isn't a self-help book!

PUBLISHER gets phone call, starts counting money.
----- END, CURTAIN------

Yes. I'm being reductionist and cynical about the book. There were a number of things about it that delighted me. I love the idea that the Dalai Lama meets with scientists, and asks probing, curious questions about the science of the mind. I love the idea of these literal meetings of the mind, these conferences where everyone shares ideas, and respectfully tries to figure out how Buddhist understandings and scientific findings can be reconciled. I'm also just purely delighted by the idea of the Dalai Lama grinning about scientific discovery. (When he was a little kid, he took his train set and his watch apart, just to see how they work!)

But I'm not sure I was ready for a book focused on a survey of experiments. Rats, monkeys, stats, electrodes. Yes, these are important parts of neuroscience and the study of neuroplasticity. But, a bit dry to read about all at once when you weren't expecting to. Much more interesting: the studies about human minds- brain damage and recovery, training programs that taught stroke patients to use their affected limb, attachment studies. And, of course, the studies of Buddhist thought and brains. I do love the integration of Buddhist religious doctrine with scientific belief and doctrine. I would love to read more along these lines. I was more interested in the details of bringing Buddhist monks into the lab, focused on the finer practical points of experiments fueled by these conferences at Dharamasala.

I think I know a few people who will like this book, my dear friend the Reverend Keri Bas, interfaith minister, is at the top of the list.
But I wish it were two different books: I want more of the Buddhist side, and less of a retread of the cognitive science lab animal experiments I've read about in other contexts.

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For every book I read in 2011, I'm donating $1 to the New York Public Library.

Fall In Love With These Books- Valentine Roundup

Reviewed by Elizabeth Willse, a freelance writer from Manhattan.


I Think I Love You
Allison Pearson
Alfred A. Knopf, 336 pp., $24.95
Read this if you remember plastering your walls with your idol’s posters, singing along with the radio or screaming at a concert. Allison Pearson has a terrific grasp of all facets of the experience.

Growing up in a small town in Wales, Petra and her teenage girlfriends devour every word of the David Cassidy Monthly.

Meanwhile, in an office in London, Bill is fabricating every one of David’s “personal” letters to his fans, and wondering how his dreams of being a rock journalist came to this. The story takes place in 1974 and 1998, setting up parallel stories for Petra and Bill.
Pearson does a wonderful job capturing each narrative voice. Teenage Petra is dreamy and awkward, her dialogue peppered with Welsh slang. Bill is cynical and pompous about pop music.

Returning to them 20 years later, Pearson intertwines their stories and their lives in ways that are whimsically sweet, but still believable. Reading this will make you smile.

Fatal February
Barbara Levenson
Oceanview Publishing, 253 pp., $22.95
The real mystery in “Fatal February” is wondering how a smart criminal defense attorney — like the central character, Mary Magruder Katz — would cause herself so many problems, even for the sake of romance. A rude stranger rear-ends Mary’s car, introduces himself with a handsome smile, and suddenly she’s ready to help him seal a real estate deal. Or kiss him. Both of which she does, placing her job in jeopardy.

Even while everything in Mary’s life — from her longtime engagement to her bar license — is in upheaval, she keeps the narrative cheerful. Whether salvaging her reputation, working on a big murder case, or starting her solo law practice, Mary stays upbeat. This is a fun, vacation getaway book if you don’t push its logic too hard.

To snowbound Northeast readers, the Florida scenery will feel just as escapist and perfect as the plot. Whether Mary’s in the courtroom, her apartment or a beach getaway, the sense of Florida community and climate comes through.

And the Rest Is History: The Famous (and Infamous) First Meetings of the World’s Most Passionate Couples
Marlene Wagman-Geller
Perigee, 242 pp., $18.95 paperback
From Antony and Cleopatra to George Burns and Gracie Allen to John Lennon and Yoko Ono, Marlene Wagman-Geller takes a closer look at iconic romantic couples throughout history. Each chapter tells the story of how two great lovers met, often overcoming differences like distance, age, even previous spouses. Once they meet what Wagman-Geller calls their “destiny,” the romance is spectacular. Each chapter ends on a bittersweet — if thorough — note, as Wagman-Geller adds a postscript noting how each of the lovers died and where they are buried.

While the general stories might be familiar, there are a few surprising details. Joe DiMaggio met Marilyn Monroe by arranging a blind date. Wallis Simpson’s scandalous affair with Prince Edward inspired Time Magazine to make her its first Woman of the Year.

Whether you browse these stories at random, or get absorbed enough to read several at a time, you’ll find it a fun, informative read.

The Science Of Kissing: What Our Lips Are Telling Us
Sheril Kirshenbaum
Grand Central Publishing, 246 pp., $19.95
Sheril Kirshenbaum’s discussion of the science behind kissing is a multidisciplinary overview of any science that might apply to the pastime. As kissing itself has not been studied very extensively, Kirshenbaum’s research draws on psychology, evolutionary theory, anthropology, biology, chemistry and studies that reveal more about lust and sexual attraction in humans and animals.

It was not, she acknowledges, an easy project. In her introduction, she recalls being embarrassed at having to ask an elderly librarian for an article called “Fetishes and Their Associated Behaviors.”

But her awkward conversations with librarians paid off, because she’s written an intriguing overview of several disciplines that inform the study of the kiss. From conjectures about the evolutionary roots of kissing to a broad survey of the place of the kiss in different cultures or historical periods, Kirshenbaum has provided a fascinating look at the big picture, loaded with interesting references to a wealth of studies.

The Lover’s Dictionary
David Levithan
Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, 224 pp., $18
From “aberrant” to “zenith,” David Levithan’s latest creates a relationship in short scenes, packed with lyrical language. Entries slip back and forth in time as they unfold through an alphabet of romance, anger, forgiveness and tenderness to make up one particular relationship. The narrator stays nameless, even as each entry reveals details both intimate and ordinary. They’ve both read “Charlotte’s Web.” They argue about drinking, finances, making the bed.

Some entries riff on the language itself: “better adj and adv. Will it ever get better? It better.”

The entries manage to be both intently focused and hinting at the larger picture. They read more like a well-crafted series of poems than a linear story line. Each word is defined and captured in a moment of the relationship. Levithan moves from romance to heartbreak to flirtation to devotion, in alphabetical order:
“breathtaking, adj. those mornings when we kiss and surrender for an hour before we say a single word.”

An Apple A Day: Science, Easy to Swallow

An Apple a Day: The Myths, Misconceptions And Truths About the Foods We Eat
Joe Schwarcz, Ph.D.
Other Press 2009 354

Ordinarily, I'm wary of books about food and the science of our food system. Because, once a book takes the stance that toxins are everywhere and every possible food or additive or habit causes cancer and big farm corporations are evil and we're all gonna DIE... I'm about ready to hide in a kitchen cabinet and whimper.

So- I was a little skittish in the first few pages, wondering when the alarmist doom was going to start. What I found, instead, was delightfully reassuring science. It was like attending a series of lectures by a congenial, articulate college professor. In concise, but fact-packed chapters, Schwarcz reassures me about all sorts of otherwise scary food headlines.

Irradiated food? Won't actually make you glow in the dark. Or cause cancer. Pesticides? A quick wash will get rid of all but the barely tiniest amount of pesticides, and what's left won't be enough to get you. Eat your vegetables. It really, really doesn't matter if they're conventional or organic. Eat oatmeal too. And maybe a little less salt.
It's like having a congenial uncle (or my retired science teacher grandpa, who I miss terribly) explain the science and history of nutrition. Accessible, fun, even funny, while unpacking conventional wisdom about what makes a diet healthy. He looks at original studies, evaluates the science, and helps readers understand the ways that science got warped by news headlines into a big, scary sensation.

I liked this book. I'm sorry I'm going to have to take it back to the library. After reading it, I want to keep it close to hand, to flip through pages and reread some of the straightforward, well focused chapters. There are interesting things to learn on every page. Apples contain acetone and cyanide, in miniscule amounts, along with all the good, cancer-preventing antioxidants. The whole Popeye getting strong from spinach idea started because a few decimal points were misplaced in a report on spinach's iron content. And most of the scientists credited with the discovery of artificial sweeteners did so by licking their fingers, accidentally. Gross! Of course, I want to show Lisa the studies about wine.

What makes this book work so well is that it's packed with information, but stays conversational. And if Schwarcz is going to give any advice, he keeps it upbeat and practical, rather than alarmist. I appreciate that. Reading about health and science means, on some level, looking for some kind of impossible standard to live up to, to make everything safe and okay, and possibly joyless. Joe Schwarcz explains nutrition like a man who's not afraid of a cheeseburger once in a while. Take that, sensationalist peril-happy journalism! I'll be over here in Schwarcz's camp, being happy, reasonably healthy, and eating tasty things.

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For every book I read in 2011, I'm donating $1 to the New York Public Library.

A Cup of Friendship- review

A Cup Of Friendship
Deborah Rodriguez
Random House January 2011
$25.00 304 pages
Thanks to Sharon Propson of Random House, for sending me a copy.

I was about halfway through A Cup of Friendship before I realized I loved it. And a few pages later, I figured out it was the kind of book designed for me to love. An interesting ensemble cast, clearly joined by love and mutual respect. They have flaws, and they can be uptight, prickly and scared, as well as warm and funny. It's a romance on many levels- and none of them the spellbound instant kind.

Sunny is an American expat who runs a coffee shop in Kabul. I'm not 100% clear on why and how she decided to go to Kabul in the first place. I think I missed that detail while her current life  and friends and the plot of the novel itself had captured me. The cafe has regulars and staff, all of whom have become her close friends, her community. Halajan, the Afghan woman who wears a denim skirt under her chador as a way of connecting to the pre-Taliban life she remembers. Ahmet, Halajan's uptight traditional Muslim son. Tommy, Sunny's boyfriend, who disappears to go do dangerous mercenary things for months at a time. Yazmina, widowed, pregnant and very scared for her own life. Sunny basically rescues her, by giving her a home and work through the cafe.

More than one romance develops across the novel's timeline. Some ensemble romances, you have one or two characters who are the focal romance throughout. Here, it's evenly handled, and woven so thoroughly into the story of the coffee shop and Kabul, that the story stays balanced. There were a few moments where I sighed, and held the open book across my chest, at a deeply felt moment. There are so many Romance Novels that get almost brash in their pursuit of the perfect love story for the couple, that I appreciate what's done here, an integrated, slowly developing affection. Another interesting love to read about was the love between friends. Cafe staff and regulars, the small community Sunny and friends have made for themselves in Kabul, playing out their friendships and their differences.

Because Kabul and its cultures are described with such matter-of-fact clarity, shaping characters and their lives, the city is almost a character in its own right in this ensemble novel. Kabul feels romanced, but not romanticized. The people of Sunny's world love the city and its past, fear for its future, and accept its realities. Violence and bombings and hardships are part of the cultural equations... but never feel sensationalized. Which shows the author's deft touch.

About midway through reading this, I started to feel like it was a spiritual cousin to some of the other books I love to reread. Ensemble casts of characters I wish I could meet, centered around a dynamic female presence. Matter of fact love and humor. Great food and place writing.

Comfort Food- Kate Jacobs

The School of Essential Ingredients- Erica Bauermeister

My Most Excellent Year- Steve Kluger

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For every book I read in 2011, I'm donating $1 to the New York Public Library. Donate now to help them keep me in books!