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| Opium Season: A Year on the Afghan Frontier | 
 enlarge | Author: Joel Hafvenstein
Publisher: The Lyons Press
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
Buy New: $4.00
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Avg. Customer Rating:  (12 reviews)
Sales Rank: 191861
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 336
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.6
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.2 x 1.4
ISBN: 1599211319
Dewey Decimal Number: 958.1047
EAN: 9781599211312
ASIN: 1599211319
Publication Date: November 1, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 Massively more exciting than my college lectures, and lots more edifying than my other pleasure reading January 21, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Reading the Opium Season felt like reading a first-rate adventure novel starring a particularly likeable and honest protagonist. The great thing about the book though is that, by the time I finished, I had real insight into Afghanistan and into international development and counter-insurgency strategies.
The Opium Season is the story of a young development worker thrust into a role above his pay grade: the number two position on a "cash-for-work" program designed to immediately create many thousands of jobs, in an Afghani province, for workers displaced by drug eradication. The protagonist grows from a bumbling neophyte to an effective and often ingenious leader; the project flourishes and pushes into the most Taliban-infested corners of Helmand province. Then the enterprise collapses when some combination of drug lords, Taliban and tribal leaders targets the project for extinction. Mr. Hafvenstein and his colleagues run for their lives.
Maybe my favorite thing about the book is the fact that, over a relatively short period of time, Hafvenstein seemed to achieve a remarkable degree of intimacy with a broad range of Afghanis -- and that he fills the book with acute renderings of these different personalities. You start to see how Afghanis think about sex, religion, gender, the United States, and other issues. You also find yourself caring passionately about the well-being of Hafvenstein's co-workers, which makes the second half of the book even more exciting.
The other thing I particularly appreciated about the Opium Season is the fact that the author delivered his policy critiques in a way that I found easy to digest. Unlike some authors, he doesn't tack 50 pages of pompous scholarship onto the back-end of 200 pages of breezy memoir. Instead, he shares his policy ideas in bits and pieces throughout the book. Hafvenstein's ideas seem to make sense, and his approach makes the book feel like an escape rather than homework.
In short, I think the Opium Season is a terrific book, and I suspect that a broad range of readers will feel likewise.
Telling it like it is January 5, 2008
Immensely readable and impressively honest. This is a great way to learn about Afghanistan's tortured history and what aid work actually involves on the ground. Written with real warmth, yet Hafvenstein is unflinching in analysing his own and others' motives in order to bring us the truth.
 Good first effort December 26, 2007
2 out of 5 found this review helpful
Although it probably wasn't intentional on the authors part, the main point I took away from the book was the general incompetence of American bureaucracy when it comes to dealing with Afghanistan. I was expecting something that revealed the true nature of the Afghan poppy trade and the effect it has, and it's eradication will have, on the people of Afghanistan. Instead I got a glimpse of American arrogance and naivety that is partly to blame for our failure in Iraq, and mishandling of much of Afghanistan.
One excerpt that comes to mind appears about a third of the way through, when the author and his team of aid workers are searching for a house in the city of Lashkargah. They spend time arguing over who is going to make the offer, and which house has the best "western amenities". One particular quip from an American who says they don't want to feel like they're in a war zone. Perhaps he forgot where they were for a second, Afghanistan has been a war zone for the past twenty-five years.
These things aren't the fault of the author, whose writing is very clear and concise. They were only observations of the organization he was working for. Consciously or not, I think the author highlighted the bureaucratic blunders and inefficiencies that have slowed progress in Afghanistan more than he gave readers a view of what the poppy eradication programs will really mean for the Afghan population in the long run. After all, the Americans can wipe out the poppies and go home, but Afghans need to stay, and they need an income.
For a more intimate look into rural Afghan life I highly suggest Rory Stewart's The Places In Between, and The Prince of the Marshes: And Other Occupational Hazards of a Year in Iraq for a glimpse into the British reconstruction of southern Iraq.
Excellent Book December 6, 2007
6 out of 7 found this review helpful
I read new books on Afghanistan whenever I can. Visiting Afghanistan seems to bring lunacy to the surface in westerners. Joel Hafvenstein retained his sanity and wrote a good common sense book about an experience that must have been really painful. His writing is easy to read, very expressive, and he does a superb job of explaining the local politics that cripple our efforts there and which we understand so poorly. This is easily the best personal experience book written by an American about Afghanistan so far.
An extremely good read. November 18, 2007
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
Mr. Hafvenstein is one of the best young non-fiction writers I have read in a while. The subject matter is fascinating, and this book introduces it well without oversimplifying. If you are interested in foreign policy, development, Afghanistan, or simply a human story, I highly recommend this book.
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