Bookseller Blog

From what I have read so far in book, the chapter that intrigued me the most is "Billowing, Fluttering, Winding." The author's choice of referring to the woman as burkas (synecdoche) gives the reader a sense of ambiguity as if the reader himself or herself is walking the streets of Kabul observing the women run their errands. When the women remove their burkas to try on make up or to observe fabric, the author carefully changes the way she refers to the women. At this point when someone on the street or a vender sees the women's faces, the author uses the name of the women, which provides the reader with the same sense of discovery of who the women are as the people on the street. This rhetorical device adds to the portrayal of the Afghanistan culture and allows the reader to experience it (in a remote way) as well.