Lipstick in Afghanistan by Roberta Gately

Today I finished Roberta Gately's first novel, a work of fiction called Lipstick in Afghanistan. It tells a story that neither begins nor ends in that completely happy way. Elsa Murphy lives a harsh childhood in Dorchester, MA, becomes an emergency room nurse, and has a desire to help refugees anywhere that needs help. She gets that call for duty, after 9/11, to report to the Bamiyan village in Afghanistan. While there, Elsa finds herself in the middle of a war-zone with a completely different culture and the Taliban fighting against any foreigners or resistance. Elsa charms the strong-willed people of Bamiyan as a worker in the clinic and makes many friends along the way in a life that is much worse than her life in Dorchester.

After finishing this novel, I had to know if any of the characters, plot, or culture aspects of it were true. Roberta Gately establishes herself as a creditable author in her Author's Note. Gately has been a nurse and humanitarian aid worker in many war zones, including Afghanistan. She worked in the village of Bamiyan and her first work of fiction is based on the people she met in Afghanistan and the stories she was told, both the good and the bad. With that, the cultural aspects of this book are really what made it stand out to me. In a male dominated society, where males arrange marriages, rely on wives to produce sons, physically beat their wives if no sons are produced, and  hold the power over the family. Women are expected to hid their hair under their veils and keep to themselves. Gately even writes about the society rules for single men and single women. There are disturbing stories about the actions of the Taliban and the lengths they will go to in order to uphold their views, from murdering twenty Bamiyan men to beating and burning an eight year old girl. The stories Gately was told and how she incorporates them into the novel provide the adventure and tragedy. She combines the tragedy and adventure with forbidden romance and the strong bond of friendship that all kept me reading. The tragedy and adventure of this antithesis society appeal to the pathos of the audience as the Taliban perform formidable acts of murder and abuse. The forgetfulness of Elsa that Bamiyan is a dangerous place and the lengths that the Taliban will go to are what make the ending incompletely happy. The diction of Roberta Gately is direct and plainly to the point as it should be. There is nothing extensive or complicated about a war or murder and its consequences. The story of Elsa Murphy, though it was fiction, and the village of Bamiyan has given me a new perspective on how much I have in my American life and made me realize that I don't even begin to understand what real tragedy is.