Book Review
The Little Coffee Shop of Kabul
Alright, first book review of this whole blog! I started this book a while back to get out of a reading slump, and lemme tell you, this book was amazing. I like to talk about the different aspects instead of giving an overall opinion, so here it is:
Writing style
Deborah Rodriguez’s writing style is really good, she manages to keep tension high and keep me reading throughout the book, it almost feels like you’re not reading but watching the things happen in front of you. Her descriptions of all these scenes, from action packed situations to beautiful mosques, to celebrations, are so vivid, and I wish this book was turned into a movie years ago.
Story
This story is really moving, while sadly not an accurate reflection of Kabul right now. The way that Deborah Rodriguez manages to show five different women with different stories that all come together in the coffee shop, *chefs kiss*. I love her representation of women supporting women, through the rough, the ugly, the good, the bad, the pretty, through everything.
Accuracy
In my opinion, this is a pretty dangin’ accurate representation of Kabul around the time that this book was written and published. Rodriguez actually lived in Kabul and ran a beauty school there (and wrote a book about that, too), so her representation of the main character, Sunny, an American woman, is actually pretty accurate. She describes multiple places in Afghanistan, such as mosques, the mountains, and places within Kabul, with such richness, that it is just amazing. Lastly, the situation for women in Kabul and the safety of non Afghan people in Afghanistan is also sadly very accurate, at least when this book was published.
So that’s it, my sweet bees! I genuinely hope that this book inspires you to read up on Afghan culture, the situation in Afghanistan before 2001, and such. I definitely felt inspired to do so, and am still doing research on the white doves, and the color of blue referenced in this book (if you know you know). But yeah, please do at least check it out, it is such a well written book!
