The Dressmaker of Khair Khana

This book was like, kiddy pool-shallow, which is unfortunate considering the setting and the subject. I think the author meant well, but the story itself just....fell incredibly flat.

The story follows a large family in the time of the Taliban takeover of Kabul. Needing to make ends meet, the large household of women who now find themselves at loose ends decide to take up dressmaking and seamstress work. They do so, they sell their dresses, and the book ends.

I wish I could say I'm being tongue in cheek here, but considering the subject there was a surprising lack of conflict. The sisters, with no experience in dressmaking, learn how to make store-quality dresses in an afternoon. The first store they go to to sell their dresses accepts immediately. They need more money and more work, so they go to another store, who also accepts immediately. They start teaching out of their home, which does not go awry. There's zero conflict in this book, zero setbacks, zero struggles, to a degree where it almost felt sort of juvenile or YA in its approach. Very sterile, very introductory. Even the Taliban's presence in Kabul never directly affects the sisters or anyone in their neighborhood or anyone they know. Aside from a brief scene in the beginning involving a woman getting beaten and one of the sisters watching from inside, and a few “what are you doing??” harassing shouts at them, it was very tame.

Maybe I'm used to the tragedy-centric stories by writers like Khaled Hosseini, but this one fell incredibly flat in its execution. Boring and disappointing.