Birds without Wings
posted in Uncategorized |We had a great discussion today on Louis de Berniere’s book Birds without Wings. The author has done a good job of talking about the impact of religion and politics on war, as well as the responsibilities of the individual toward their culture and in respect to religion and politics. It’s a thick book with some very stylized and elevated writing in places, but we think that’s just the way the author communicates. The book presents a view of the history of the Greeks and the Turks and how they have come to live the way they live and have the attitudes they have. War does not happen in a vacuum, but affects individual inhabitants on an immediate and daily basis. Neither does war occur naturally like the setting and rising of the sun, but rather is instigated by individuals with some investment in either religion and/or politics.
We seem to be on a kind of theme of war, politics and religion lately and have some very nice discussions about all of those notions and in addition, the role of women in culture and their role in society. Thank you all for your very insightful comments. I always learn so much in our groups and usually come away with a sea change.
Some other books sort of related to our discussions that came up during the group meeting are:
Desert Queen: the Extraordinary Life of Gertrude Bell… by Janet Wallach
Dreaming of East by Barbara Hodgson
The Books
eller of Kabul by Asne Seierstad