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| Honor and Polygamy |
Honor
and Polygamy,
a debut novel of about fifty thousand words by Omar Farhad, is an emotionally
breaking story of fate and adventure that is driven by the cogs of war,
anarchy, religion, love and crime.
Nick
is an America Christian, husband and father of two who finds himself in
Afghanistan in a circumstance that compels him to marry an Afghan girl who is
born and raised at the far side of the cultural spectrum. Against all odds the
strong love that grows closes the social gap between the two. But then Nick
finds himself in the United States without his Afghan wife. He is determined to
travel back to bring her at a time when the safe travel routes to Afghanistan
have ceased to exist. He resorts to seeking the help of drug gangs. This brings
him face-to face with extreme danger and uncertainty. Will he succeed in
bringing his Afghan wife to the United States? If he does how will he explain
choosing to become a polygamist to his wife, kids and friends in the United
States?
The
writing approach is modest and sustains one’s interest up till the point of
real suspense. Farhad shows a strong ability to explore the minds of his
characters and paint a vivid picture of the details that at times deceives the
reader into believing that the book isn’t a work of fiction. In writing the
book Farhad arms himself with a good understanding of the history, culture and
politics of his ancestral nation. People that have known and love Afghanistan
have often lived with the fear that should things fall apart for the Afghan
Authorities the nation would be fragmented among warring factions with the name
“Afghanistan” ceasing to exist. The author builds his fiction partly on the
assumption that the fragmentation of the country has begun.
Reading
the book has changed my perception of Afghanistan as it brings to fore the
brilliant face of that nation that most people around the world aren’t aware
of. This calls to mind the sad situation where, most times, people paint in
their minds what they consider to be colored portraits of distant
nations, by just the use of a single color. Reading Honor and
Polygamy has reawakened my appreciation of the beauty of the cultural
diversity of our planet. Isn’t that what literature is all about?
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