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“But knowing yourself makes you wise.” – American Taliban

American Taliban opens with the reader embarking on a journey through a normal Americanized Lilly Pulitzer pink and green town with a surfer/skateboarder/future Brown University student from a wealthy upper middle class family seeking out the meaning of life through novel quotes from Taoism to Dylan. Summering in a typical East Coast beach town is a positively popular eighteen-year-old rightly named John Jude Parish. Surfing in his safe corner of the world, the passport of John Jude’s life is stamped with typical full-blooded American male travels, spending his days on the beach and nights surfing the virtual waves.

It is through Parish’s web surfing that the reader sees the first mapping of possible foreign lands of travel with companions carrying international passport names such as Naim, Tajh, Ahmed and Ibrahim. In Parish’s innocent online travels, the reader’s own compass begins to point to red flag territories of worry for many including Parish’s translucent mother, Barbara.

Parish’s dreamy existence changes course when a skateboarding accident leaves him with more time to surf the net instead of the waves. His fictional vision quest steers him from his parent’s safety net into a world rarely traveled or imagined by American males. With legs cast into non-use and boredom packed tightly with curiosity, Parish takes to chatting online into the worlds of Sufism, the Koran and other Arabic lands. Along the globe of internet travel, female persuasion leads Parish to a possibly unexpected though foreshadowed trip to the Sharia school in Brooklyn. With American movie logos packed lightly into the luggage of Parish’s surreal vision quest, the reader sees Parish’s naivete as possibly needed though not truly heroic. (“I think of a hero as someone who understands the degree of responsibility that comes with his freedom.” – Bob Dylan)

Parish travels between the world of American childhood games in white shalwar kameez to Pakistan, where he can not pretend to just be playing dress up any longer. It is in Abraham’s literary talent for packing modernism into the unfamiliar suitcase of terrorism that readers will find a worthwhile destination. “The first time he shoots a rifle while visiting a training camp, he dreams of Richard Burton doing the same thing a century before,” writes Abraham.

American Taliban may lead readers down a path mistakenly parallel to the reality of John Walker Lindh’s life. Upon closer review, though, they will discover that Abraham’s convincing writing style provides proof of how polar opposite Lindh and Parish’s truly are. Parish lives in a dreamy bubble with wealthy parental support holding him up while affording him the right to choose any destiny he desires. Lindh’s true reality proves to be the stuff of nightmares.

The only disengaging part of American Taliban is found at the journey’s end. Abraham’s decision to detour in the final pages of the book may leave the reader questioning her original literary travel plans. Parish is left in Taliban land with no clear destination stopping point as the story line parachutes down with Parish’s mother pulling the cord with her guilt, landing the reader frustratingly to the ending drop zone. Abraham’s decision to pack the final destination with an almost trite mother’s guilt over her lost son is one to which readers will have to adjust before the premise of the entire novel comes crashing down. Regardless, American Taliban provides passport-worthy travel.

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The eSSSence of Mare Henderson

Style: I've modeled for Seventeen magazine, runway and fashion shows, seen plenty of bad stuff girls do to not gain weight, and learned what being beautiful truly means.
Substance: I've been lucky enough to check off many of my bucket list items including completing a marathon andn mastering a parachute jump.
Soul: I believe if you live as if you can make a difference in someone else's life, then you've got a better chance than not.