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:  13 reviews
Sales Rank: 389899
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
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| • | ISBN13: 9780805089387 | | • | Condition: NEW | | • | Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark. |
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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.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 13
 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.
Understanding the complexities of Pakistan October 27, 2009
Grandma Moses (Chicago, IL United States)
This book explores the complexities of Pakistan and tangentially the countries in the area--Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, India, Bangladesh. I had never heard of Baluchistan before, yet it is part of Pakistan but ethnically has its own identity which is being suppressed by Pakistan's ruling party. The book made me wonder what in the world the U.S. can accomplish in this area of the world. Pakistan is tribal in nature under control of the person with the most guns and the most monies coming in from other countries with their own agendas. Mix in the Taliban and al-Qaeda and you get the feeling Pakistan is a quagmire that cannot be made straight. Schmidle writes with on-the-ground authority and gives the reader an understanding of the current status of Pakistan.
 An interesting read, only on long haul flights or lengthy lay overs September 30, 2009
Arshad Altaf (Karachi, Sindh Pakistan)
4 out of 8 found this review helpful
Mr. Schmidle has put together an interesting narrative on the expense of using his host country's hospitality for his own good and gaining immediate attention with a twist of cheap thrills, some of which are out of proportion.
The start distorts the facts. On page 18 he write, "A fight broke out after the death of Prophet Mohammad's death, in 632, over who should succeed him as leader of the Muslims." And then on the same page in the subsequent paragraph he writes, "Hussein, set out to avenge his father's death." Both these statements are thoroughly incorrect and only written to make the flow of the content better or perhaps develop the reader's interest, especially those who are not aware of Islamic history. On page 48, last paragraph, about his adventures in the North West Frontier region, in the penultimate sentence of the page he implies that everyone in Pakistan is willing to offer help to Taliban. He is generalizing a specific area's situation to the rest of the country and its people which is again to malign the mentality of moderate Pakistanis who equally dislike the Taliban and their tactics as any sane person would. Chapter 6 titled "What is Wrong with Pakistan?" is basically all about Bangladesh and one wonders why would he use this title? The author also lies and involuntarily writes it down on page 143, when a police officer asks for his introduction and also asks him whether the book is against Pakistan his reply, "Sir, Pakistan is my home. I live and love it here. Why would I write against it?" And later on the conversation casually dwells on wife and kids. What a glaring example of hypocrisy!
I wish he had mentioned somewhere in this falsely acclaimed thriller that how well foreigners are mostly treated wherever they go. Many locals go out of their way to help and treat them well. Obviously I am not referring to troubled areas where kidnapping and killings are going on. The book and the experiences are nothing more than a trivial example of double standards of a Western journalist who uses this as a jump board, that too on a country's expense.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 13
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