The Almond Tree: I was so excited when I finally got to start reading this book. Once I started, I couldnt put it down. I was moved beyond words.....there were times that I cried, times that I felt hollowed out, times of joy, and times that I held my breath as I waited to see what would happen next. The journey this family went through was filled with so much loss and sorrow! I loved Babas character and his insistence that his children learn and love through peace and not through anger or hate. I was saddened by the accident that crippled Abbas and then how his hate took him on a dark journey that not only promoted violence and took him away from his family but also how his wives and children paid the price for his criminal acts and hatred. I thought the book was well written and was amazed at how well a female author wrote the book through a young mans point of view. Overall, I was impressed with this great debut novel and would recommend it to others with the understanding that this is a work of fiction and told from a single point of view. It would have been even better if the author would have written the book from several different points of view (maybe from a Jewish character and from both Ichmads professor and first wife.) That would paint a more accurate picture of life in the region. The remainder of my review has spoilers so please dont read further if you want to be surprised because I honestly dont know how to hide only a portion of my review. There was one part of the book that bothered me. At one point, Ichmad is upset that his country still arranges marriages and hes upset that women arent able to marry for love. Later in the book we find out that Ichmad, himself, is going to go through with a marriage that his parents have set up. Why did he not want to know how his soon to be wife felt about a pre-arranged marriage? After the wedding, Ichmad is so busy imagining his first wifes face and comparing her to his new wife that he pays no attention and rushes through his husbandly duties, leaving Yasmine in tears from the pain and later crying herself to sleep. This was a huge change in Ichmads character; so much so that it was as if the author had replaced the original protagonist with a stranger! Ichmads descriptions of his second wife Yasmin seemed overly cruel, changing my view of Ichmad almost completely. I believe that the author couldve done a much better job of portraying Yasmine.
Posted on: Mon, 29 Dec 2014 17:13:00 +0000
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