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About Eugene weekly. (Eugene, Oregon) 1993-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 4, 2003)
Winter Reading 2003-2004 description of a rape. It made no real dif- ference to me that the aggressor was a woman and the victim a man, though it gave a broadened perspective to the act. It’s an ambitious story, where Berkman has found a way for us, the readers, to have sympathy and hate for both charac- ters.— Marina Taylor NON-FICTION Memoir/Biography Afghanistan The Storyteller’s Daughter by Saira Shah. Alfred A. Knopf, 2003. Hardcover, $24. Darin J. Ward DDS PC, F.A.G.D. D Fellow of the Academy of General Dentistry Health Centered Dentistry 300 Country Club Rd. Ste. 290 Eugene, OR 97401 Bad Faith At Health Centered Dentistry, we focus on your overall wellness. By taking a holistic approach and arranging for health rather than merely treating disease, we offer an opportunity to restore your oral health to its optimum. We look at the whole picture, consider systemic health and underlying factors, and take steps to perfect your smile while preventing problems before they occur. Friendly faces welcome you in a relaxing, stress-free environment to ensure you are as comfortable as possible. Call today and experience the benefits we offer with the extraordinary people and unique setting only Health Centered Dentistry can provide. (541) 686-2441 seven feathers hotel & casino resort Tracy Lawrence In Concert Saturday, February 14 at 8 p.m. Tickets $29 & $19 Tickets on sale December 22 at the Box Office, Safeway TicketsWest Outlet or call 1-800-992-TIXX. I-5, Exit 99 or 98 • Canyonville, OR 1.800.548.8461 • sevenfeathers.com Looking for the perfect gift? Gift Certific ate This certific ate entitles 25 toward the purc Someone Special hase of dri nks/meals. Gift Giver Sam T. Klaws Authority S am T. Klaws Date Christmas Certificate Number to $ 1234567 890 384 W. 13th Ave. • Eugene, OR • 342-4410 16 DECEMBER 4, 2003 The Falling Nun … and other short stories by Pamela Rafael Berkman. Touchstone, 2003. Paperback, $12. T his is not a book for the faint of heart. Berkman’s collection of short stories explores worlds of pain in excruciating detail and in every human manifestation. At times, I had to leave this slim paperback on the other side of the room for days at a time, afraid to go back for the rest. But go back I did, because what Berkman writes feels real and is even occasionally edifying. The stories don’t all end happily, but hope, friendship and endorphins keep the collection from spik- ing above the pain threshold. The first story, “Tat,” is about a lovely young woman who’s getting her first tat- too, an old fashioned Valentine, on her forearm. She wants to wear her heart on her sleeve. She is already covered with piercings, and for her the tattoo is the next step. “She knows that part of why she likes the piercings is that they belie that her skin is undamaged and whole, that she herself is unpunctured,” Berkman writes. “She knows that everyone is punctured.” The nervousness, the anticipation, the very real physical pain set against the iso- lation and emotional pain the character feels are written with a wonderful sensitiv- ity, threads of sexuality and a modern cul- tural tone. The whole book has a pop culture feel to it. “The Falling Nun,” a bitter story about broken love and desperation, con- cerns a little plastic nun ordered from the Archie MacFee catalogue. The hope is that when the nun falls off your desk, love will enter your life. Of course, love is not always a good thing. In this story, love is betrayal, pain, fragility, helplessness and heartbreak. The women in the office end up smashing the nuns together, and the story ends with “smashing the mother- fucking little bitches to kingdom come. Nothing can help us, you know. Nothing.” All the stories are fairly intense, but fair warning for sensitive readers must go out for “Men Have More Upper Body Strength.” This is a very graphic, detailed aughter of Sufi fable writer Idres Shah and descendant of Afghan royalty, Saira Shah was raised and educated in England. As a young jour- nalist, she spent several years living dan- gerously in and around Afghanistan during and after the Soviet occupation. Her mem- oir of those years, The Storyteller’s Daughter, is a fascinating mixture of myth, history, cultural conflict and political out- rage. It gives the reader a rare glimpse into an Afghanistan most of us will never see. The media portrays Afghanistan as a country wracked by war, the Taliban, ter- rorist extremists, physical ruin and a her- itage of violence. But few Westerners have had in-depth access to the country in all its complexities. Shah’s book, in addition to being a personal journey, adds to the media sound-bytes something rarer: por- traits of the people of Afghanistan and the richness and beauty of their devastated culture. Among the people she encounters in her travels, the lawless Pushtun mujahidin, Zahir Shah, serves as guide and goad on her first trip into the northern mountains, where she meets villagers so isolated they hardly know there is a war on. Later, she discovers three traumatized, unforgettable young girls, whose rescue becomes an obsession. And in nearby Pakistan, her passionate, hilarious Afghani relatives first plot to marry her off to a local boy, and then help her to ruin the match. Far from being stereotypes or faceless foreign peo- ple, the individuals in this book are at once
