csirmaz1981

A tedious, clichéd, tired and ultimately boring portrayal of a troubled nation. Little surprises the reader as Nicholas races from one crises to another, virtually no overview or vision of every day life for regular Pakistanis is provided - a life that has its own challenges of food inflation and unemployment - while Schmidle plies the reader with "interesting" encounters with predictable "scary" islamists. This book is an quarter inch deep overview of a nation written for Western readers that has little to offer for anyone who knows even the basics about the region. A waste of a read though I found myself skipping Schmidle's elementary factual descriptions of regional political developments - thus lessening the pain and reading time of the book. A person looking for a similar but much better written book from a far more experienced and adventurous hand should read Eric Margolis' War at the Top of the World.

2022-11-14 13:30