To Live or to Perish Forever: Two Tumultuous Years in Pakistan |  | Author: Nicholas Schmidle
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.
Category: Book
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Rating:  15 reviews
Sales Rank: 423702
Media: Hardcover
Edition: First Edition
Pages: 272
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.1 x 1.1
ISBN: 0805089381
Dewey Decimal Number: 954.91053092
EAN: 9780805089387
ASIN: 0805089381
Publication Date: May 12, 2009
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Product Description
A gritty, lively, and revelatory look inside the crucial and volatile nation of Pakistan In To Live or to Perish Forever, Nicholas Schmidle takes readers to Pakistan’s rioting streets, to Taliban camps in the North-West Frontier Province, and on many surprising adventures as he provides a contemporary history of this country long riven by internal conflict. With the intimacy and good humor available only to the most fearless and open-eyed reporters, Schmidle narrates what was arguably the most turbulent period of Pakistan’s recent history, a time when President Pervez Musharraf lost his power and the Taliban found theirs, and when Americans began to realize that Pakistan’s fate is inextricably linked with our own. In February 2006 Schmidle had traveled to Pakistan hoping to learn about the place dubbed “the most dangerous country in the world.” It was while there that he befriended a radical cleric (who became an enemy of the state and was killed), came to crave the smell of tear gas (because it assured him that he was sufficiently close to the action), and in the end, was deported by the Pakistani authorities, managed to get back into the country, and was chased out a second time. Nicholas Schmidle is a fellow at the New America Foundation. He writes for the New York Times Magazine, Slate, The New Republic, Smithsonian, and the Virginia Quarterly Review, among other publications, and received the 2008 Kurt Schork Award for freelance journalism. As a fellow of the Institute of Current World Affairs, he lived and reported in Pakistan for two years. Schmidle is a graduate of James Madison University and American University. He lives in Washington, D.C., with his wife.
Nicholas Schmidle beat the Pakistani Army into Taliban country. In October 2007, just weeks before thousands of troops, backed by helicopters and artillery fire, marched into the Swat Valley to battle the gang of Talibs who had taken over the region, Schmidle rode into the town of Mingora on a public bus. He found girls' schools burned down and police stations long since abandoned. He drove through Taliban-manned checkpoints, took a zip line into a militant camp, and witnessed a public lashing. Schmidle had spent the previous two years living in Pakistan, a place dubbed "the most dangerous country in the world." Living off a small fellowship that required only that he stay in Pakistan, learn Urdu, and write about what he witnessed, Schmidle traveled to every corner of the country, ducking intelligence agents in Baluchistan, discussing American professional wrestling with mullahs in Karachi, running from tear gas-lobbing policemen in Islamabad, and avoiding the clutches of burly, jasmine-draped tribesmen in the North-West Frontier Province. Yet Schmidle's story is far more than just an adrenaline ride through a chaotic country. With the eye of an anthropologist and the mind of a historian, he explains the setting, the characters, and the background to many of the issues dominating headlines today—and those that promise to make news tomorrow. His unrivaled access and personal audacity, moreover, allow readers a thorough look inside Pakistan during a crucial phase in the nation's history—just as America's longtime ally Pervez Musharraf lost power, and the Taliban gained theirs. With a fresh blend of reportage and analysis, Schmidle weaves his own story into the wider narrative of a nation gripped by social upheaval and radicalization. “Nicholas Schmidle's portrait of Pakistan is worth more than a whole stack of intelligence reports. From remote Swat to teeming Karachi, he humanizes this labyrinthine country—where real danger has grown while the world focused elsewhere. Schmidle's blend of history and travelogue is by turns poignant and terrifying, but always relevant, always engaging, and more urgent now than ever.”—Nathaniel Fick, author of the New York Times bestseller One Bullet Away "If Schmidle has had the grandest of luck in the timing of his book's release, it's luck he earned. Still in his 20s and recently married, he took his young wife on a two-year 'honeymoon' to Pakistan, where he worked as a researcher and part-time journalist. Instead of clinging to the ex-pat community, Schmidle did all he could to insinuate himself into every sector of local life—including extended contacts with radical clerics and members of the Taliban. He went where others were afraid to go, and got the stories others couldn't get. The result is a crucial policy textbook disguised as a page-turner travel memoir. Ranging from Taliban rallies on the Afghan frontier, to the riot-torn slums of Karachi, then into the homes of Pakistan's top political leaders, Schmidle's experiences relied on a rare knack for gaining trust. Of course, it helped that he took pains to learn Urdu, Pakistan's dominant tongue—without the language, you don't get the deep story. At the book's center lies the oddly respectful relationship the author developed with radical mullah Abdul Rashid Ghazi, who opened doors sealed to other Westerners in the fundamentalist labyrinth. The son of a Marine Corps general, with a brother in the Marines, Schmidle encountered stunning openness about the extremists' goals as he wandered through the madrassahs and mosques that had lured Daniel Pearl to his death."—Ralph Peters, New York Post “Nicholas Schmidle's portrait of Pakistan is worth more than a whole stack of intelligence reports. From remote Swat to teeming Karachi, he humanizes this labyrinthine country—where real danger has grown while the world focused elsewhere. Schmidle's blend of history and travelogue is by turns poignant and terrifying, but always relevant, always engaging, and more urgent now than ever.”— Nathaniel Fick, author of the New York Times bestseller One Bullet Away
“ To Live or to Perish Forever is foreign correspondence of the very best kind—the account of a natural traveler who has the language skills, temerity, and eyesight to arrive where outsiders rarely go and then to report revealingly on what he sees and hears. This is a personal, informative, empathetic, surprising, and entertaining book that illuminates Pakistan, a country of vital interest to the wider world.”— Steve Coll, author of Ghost Wars and The Bin Ladens
“Nicholas Schmidle's To Live or to Perish Forever is the perfect primer on post-9/11 Pakistan. Poetically and also sensibly written, the book captures from up close the seminal events of Pakistan's recent history, including the Red Mosque siege and the assassination of Benazir Bhutto. From depicting disenfranchised Baluchis to shady ISI officers, Schmidle humanizes what has become the world's most dangerous country—and epicenter of the new Great Game.”— Parag Khanna, Senior Fellow, New America Foundation, author of The Second World: Empires and Influence in the New Global Order “A riveting read by an intrepid reporter in one of the world’s most dangerous countries. Nicholas Schmidle has written a must-read book to understand turbulent but pivotal Pakistan. He crosses paths with extremists, witnesses flashpoints that transformed regional politics and, most important, makes sense of the complex challenges in south Asia. A marvelous piece of work.”— Robin Wright, author of Dreams and Shadows: The Future of the Middle East“Pakistan is the vital country we can't fix. As the new administration in Washington promises to hurl additional billions of dollars into this foreign-aid black hole, Schmidle's brave and supremely timely book explains why our grand intentions have little hope of success . . . If Schmidle has had the grandest of luck in the timing of his book's release, it's luck he earned. Still in his 20s and recently married, he took his young wife on a two-year 'honeymoon' to Pakistan, where he worked as a researcher and part-time journalist. Instead of clinging to the ex-pat community, Schmidle did all he could to insinuate himself into every sector of local life—including extended contacts with radical clerics and members of the Taliban. He went where others were afraid to go, and got the stories others couldn't get. The result is a crucial policy textbook disguised as a page-turner travel memoir. Ranging from Taliban rallies on the Afghan frontier, to the riot-torn slums of Karachi, then into the homes of Pakistan's top political leaders, Schmidle's experiences relied on a rare knack for gaining trust. Of course, it helped that he took pains to learn Urdu, Pakistan's dominant tongue—without the language, you don't get the deep story. At the book's center lies the oddly respectful relationship the author developed with radical mullah Abdul Rashid Ghazi, who opened doors sealed to other Westerners in the fundamentalist labyrinth. The son of a Marine Corps general, with a brother in the Marines, Schmidle encountered stunning openness about the extremists' goals as he wandered through the madrassahs and mosques that had lured Daniel Pearl to his death.”— Ralph Peters, New York Post “Compelling and informative . . . If you can hardly figure out what is going on in Pakistan, this book's for you.”— Military Times
“Offers genuine insight into the travails of a nation ravaged by violence and political instability . . . [A] gripping and readable contribution to understanding the embattled landscape of Pakistan.”— The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
"A clear account of the dystopian politics of Pakistan. Journalist Schmidle arrived in Februa...
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 15
 Unravelling Pakistan August 14, 2010
Jerome Beck (Santa Rosa, CA , USA)
The title of this review, unraveling Pakistan, refers both to understanding the country and watching its fragmentation. Written with wit and verve this is an outstanding analysis of the social. political nnd religious complexities inside contemporary Pakistan. The insights are much deeper than Americans are usually exposed to.
A brave travelogue May 9, 2010
Mason Inman (Cambridge, MA)
Schmidle is a brave journalist who got his start on a two-year, all-expenses-paid fellowship in Pakistan. He made the most of it, traveling to remote regions of the country and hanging out with some of the country's notorious opposition leaders.
He used to make regular visits to Lal Masjid (the Red Mosque), just down the street from his house in Islamabad, to hang out with its leader. But then, in the summer of 2007, it became international news when then-dictator Musharraf decided he'd had enough opposition from Lal Masjid, where they were preaching against the government and stocking up arms.
Schmidle gained access to people in Pakistan that few foreign journalists have, and in To Live or to Perish Forever, he uses it to give a fascinating look into the stories behind the bombings and conflicts that get reported in the western press. One quibble about the reporting, however, is that he mainly seems to hang out with the leaders, and doesn't talk to average people as much. If he did talk to average people much, it's not clear it influenced his ideas.
Toward the end of the book, it might seem a bit disappointing when he writes: "I thought back to the question my grandfather had put to me more than a year earlier, when he asked, genuinely curious, 'What's wrong with that place?' I realized that I was no closer to offering a comprehensive answer now than I had been back then. That bothered me. The political, social, economic, and religious dynamics embedded in Pakistan seemed to become more and more complicated--and volatile--with time, and less and less solvable."
But I've lived in Pakistan nearly two years now, and although I haven't spent time with the kind of people that Schmidle has, I have the same feeling as he does. There's no clear answer about where things are headed, or what to do about it. When I've gone back to the U.S., people want to know what I think about Pakistan, what should be done. But it's really hard to say much.
Perhaps the best answer is simply to curb corruption, to help make development faster, and much more fair. That's not the kind of answer people are looking for, though, because it's a solution that would take decades, and no one can see the benefits on the horizon, it seems.
I also think Schmidle is on the right track when he writes: "I disagreed with those who said that ethnic tension, the Taliban, economic crises, years of military dictatorship, the lack of a cohesive identity and so on would eventually lead to Pakistan's breakup. That would almost be too linear and neat: creation, extended crisis, and then dissolution. It seemed more likely that Pakistan would continue to exist in a perpetual state of frenzied dysfunction; alive, but always appearing to be on the verge of perishing."
I wish he'd backed this up a bit more, since statements like this can seem like little more than personal bias. Some people see looming collapse everywhere--not just in Pakistan--whereas others see things stumbling along indefinitely. I do think he's right, though, to argue against Pakistan's collapse. People talk about that a lot--to the point where it made headlines when the President said the government is not going to collapse. What President would say that it would?
I don't think it will collapse because things are still developing. In the western press, all you hear about is things being blown up. But new buildings are going up. Pakistanis place a high value on education, and even the very poor still pay to send as many of their kids to school as they can.
It's true that not everyone in the country identifies as Pakistani first--they might have more allegiance to their sect of Islam, or to their tribe. But there's still a fair amount of people from the tribal areas who think of themselves as Pakistani first. No one seems to know what to do about the rampant corruption, but most do recognize it a big barrier blocking improvement here--and recognizing that is a crucial first step.
Average Pakistanis still have hope for the future, and that's the most basic reason I can see why the country isn't going to collapse any time soon.
Excellent Read! Good primer on Pakistan. December 17, 2009
Jon M. Lennon (Chicago, IL)
Schmidle's book is a thrilling read I couldn't put it down. If you are an untraveled American without much knowledge of Pakistan (like me) it's easy to imagine yourself in the author's shoes.
In the footsteps of Daniel Pearle November 28, 2009
Herbert L Calhoun (Falls Church, VA USA)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Nicholas Schmidle, a newly wed 26-year old research fellow, went to Pakistan for a two-year stint. His instructions were to go; don't come home, learn and write about what you hear and see. And this he did with astonishing clarity, depth and objectivity. There he lived as a Pakistani, learning to speak and write Urdu. What he learned and how he learned it were both dangerous, and eventually did put his life and that of his family at constant risk. Yet, compelled by his own inner drive, the author persisted.
We, the reader, are the beneficiaries of this exceptional author, his determination, his uncommon skill as a writer and the many revelations that seem fresh and indispensable to a full understanding of both the complexity and the dynamism that is Pakistan the country -- as well as the volatile region of which Pakistan is a pivotal part. What he discovers confirms a treatise by one of his mentors: that Pakistan is not yet a country, but a land of basically five side-by-side ethnic amalgams: independent ethnic strains held together only tenuously by their barely stable Islamic identity. Even the religious glue that holds together Islam, is no guarantee of an eventual stable nation state.
Riddled with world-class corruption and hypocrisy, all of the well-known problems of religious and class strife are greatly exacerbated in Pakistan. For the most part, radical Islamic groups such as the Taliban, are "backfilling the void" left by an ineffective and uncaring government, as the divide between rich and poor continues to grow dramatically and alarmingly. Schmidle's stories and vignettes give texture to the reality and the problems that are everyday Pakistan. It relates his stories region-by region. Following in the footsteps of, and feeling the ghost of Daniel Pearle, he learns his way around just enough to stay in trouble, interviewing radical Taliban tribal leaders, taking risk that only some one of his age and bullet-proof courage would take.
The upshot of his stay is this: There is far more at stake in Pakistan than we can even imagine. It is the most dangerous, the most dynamic and the most important country in the world as far as U.S. interests are concerned. And unless the civilian government wakes up, Talibanization of the country will continue. Because of the corruption, hypocrisy, and most of all the profound differences in wealth and lack of viable concern for the poor, this difference cannot be long sustained. Something has to give: There is a collision course in Pakistan's social and political future, perhaps on the order of what happened to the Shah of Iran in 1979. A hellava read: Ten stars
Butch Cassidy Goes To Pakistan November 6, 2009
A. Myers (Oceanside, CA USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is an extraordinary book by an extraordinary young man. It describes the turmoil and chaos that is the political and social maelstrom known as Pakistan. Schmidle spent two years on a fellowship (2006-2008) obtaining a very visceral and personal view of Pakistani society and politics. Well, almost two years, because a month before his scheduled departure, he was deported. The book, he declares, is "my humble attempt to explain the many identities and histories that exist throughout Pakistan.
He succeeds brilliantly. The only constant in Pakistani life seems to be its "chronic instability". Even dedicated Pakistani-watchers have trouble tracking the ebb and flow of destructive, destabilizing forces. One reason is that political assassination is so prevalent and , in this age of suicide bombers, terrifyingly efficient. Too many Americans seem to think that all Muslims are alike or that all militant Islamists are alike. Schmidle provides us with a much more believable and chaotic view.
Schmidle is a story teller, and a darn good one at that. In fact, he makes many of his points more through story-telling than analysis, and it gives his work a wonderful vitality. So, for example, he opens the book with the account of the police showing up at his apartment with deportations orders that they were going to execute without any delay. He managed to make a phone call to an important person who just happened to be playing bridge at that moment with the President of Pakistan's national security advisor, who told Schmidle to give the phone to the policeman in the room. In a matter of seconds, the policeman was apologizing for the inconvenience and left the apartment. "Connections...(he tells us, in case we missed the point)...meant everything in Pakistan".
Schmidle seems to have an uncanny ability to make those connections with all sorts of prominent and sometimes downright-scary people. He has the courage of a bandit, and he must be as engaging a talker as he is a writer because he talks himself into and out of countless dramatic encounters. As a result, the reader gets to be part of his involvement with important government officials, Islamist radicals, both leaders and potential suicide killers, and a variety of others who simply make things happen.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 15
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