The Patience Stone in Around the World in 80 Books

May 04, 2024 Tony rated it liked it

Shelves: translated-fiction, adapted-for-film, setting-asia, novels

The title of this slim book comes from a story from Persian folklore, about a magic stone that absorbs the suffering of the person who speaks its woes to it, and then explodes, freeing the person from their trauma (an outcome some patients doubtlessly yearn for from their therapists). Here, the legend is recast in the wake of the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan (or, as the book says at the outset "somewhere in Afghanistan or elsewhere" just as easily be set in any number of times and places), The title of this slim book comes from a story from Persian folklore, about a magic stone that absorbs the suffering of the person who speaks its woes to it, and then explodes, freeing the person from their trauma (an outcome some patients doubtlessly yearn for from their therapists). Here, the legend is recast in the wake of the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan (or, as the book says at the outset "somewhere in Afghanistan or elsewhere" just as easily be set in any number of times and places), as a woman shelters in a stark home, attending to her coma-stricken husband, who has been shot in the neck.

It's almost like a lengthy one-act monologue, as the woman talks to her husband in language that shifts from imploring to cajoling to mocking to ranting. With him unable to speak or react, and their two young children installed at her aunt's house, she is free to speak as she never has before. At times she is aghast at her freedom of expression, talking explicitly of sex -- the mostly bad and ugly, but a little good. (Rahimi wrote this book in French, and in an interview he once said that he could never have written it in his first language, Dari, as he would feel culturally constricted.) The reader comes to understand that the country is in the grip of internecine war (as in his longer novel "The Curse of Dostoyevsky"). And there are a few interludes, such as when some other fighters come through the house, and a stamming teenager comes by several times. But for the most part, it's almost entirely the woman's one-sided dialogue that dominates.

I've read all five of Rahimi's books that are available in English and I suppose it's no surprise that this would be the one that won a major prize (France's Prix Goncourt). It's probably the most accessible in the sense that it delivers what a Western audience expects (a woman oppressed in a patriarchal society), along with the easy satisfaction of revenge (various secrets are revealed), and the frisson of the forbidden (explicit sex talk!). For me, it was a little one-note, but it would be interesting to see it staged as a play. The author is also a filmmaker and he adapted the book into a film, so I might check that out at some point. ...more

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