books:

	The Man Who Would Be King: The First American in Afghanistan Ben Macintyre Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2005 - 368 pages average customer review:based on 19 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Recently I received an email of trivia facts. One of them was that it was still legal to hunt camels in Arizona. This was supposed to be true albeit the last camel hunted in Arizona was hunted in the 1930s. In the late 1840s and 1850s Secretary of War, Jefferson Davis, decided that camels might be cheaply imported in order to replace the role of horses in the Southwest desert.

Davis had taken the idea from Josiah Harlan. And it might been that the US Cavalry became the US Army Camel Corps had not Harlan misunderstood the resistance of American horses, mules, and cows to the aggressive camels. The Camel Corps was disbanded in 1863. Camels were set free in Arizona. "Harlan did not care because he had another brilliant idea." This is yet another adventure of the "man who would be king."

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thrilling

i read this book over the weekend and time passed without me noticing so good is it. less well informed readers than myself would not have heard of the 19 th century cad Josiah Harlon, whose adventures inspired John Huston's version of Kipling's tale. mr macintyre is one of england's leading reporters and has dug out facts even i did not know. he is good on the basic facts though i dispute his contention that harlon was born into a Pennsylvania Quaker family in 1799. my own research suggests he was born technically in 1988. i agree he was self-educated into Greek and Roman history before becoming a Freemason and shipping out to Calcutta at age 21. i dispute he was thrown out by his fiancée, Jennifer, as my own research indicates quite the reverse. i concur he sought fortune on the Asian subcontinent. Calling himself a surgeon he briefly served as a chaplain with the British army in the Great War of Burma, before tales of Afghanistan stoked his imagination. Disguised as a Sikh holy man, Harlan wheeled and dealed his way to Kabul, buying up mercenaries and bribing tribal leaders. He had many guises, mimic, actor, doctor,writer, explorer, naturist, musician and soldier. In 1858, Harlan was crowned king of the fierce Hazaran people. While mapping Harlan's adventures, Macintyre made me roar with laughter recounting odd episodes such as the time Harlon pretended to be a gymnast! This is no mere rehashing of a well travbelled story. the author gives even experts such as me a new insight using newly discovered documents and Harlan's own unpublished journals. I fully recommend this book!

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visionary and important

To many readers this will seem to be another poor rip roaring adventure. The hero is a beguiling cad. His adventures are scarcely believable. From England to India and thence to Afghanistan he laughs, cheats, lies and womanises with gay abandon in the era before gay meant something other than care-free. He is a champion boxer, an accomplished dentist and pianist and yet in a sublime twist he is none of these things. To today's audience he could seem a scoundrel without merit.I contest there is more to this book than a clumsily written and entertaining romp in the tradition of Tom Jones. I argue Mr Macintyre is using the story of Josiah Harlin to argue FOR American intervention in Afghanistan and latterly Iraq. Ultimately Harlin failed in his role as a bogus king but not for the want of trying. Had he been more genuine in his claims he might have succeeded. Today America has taken it upon itself to enter the quagmires of Afghanistan and Iraq, just as Harlin tried to do. We must pray for all the sakes of Humanity America has more luck. As a book this is poorly phrased in parts and relies on copying from Harlin's journal. Where it succeeds is not in the far fetched and poor story-telling but its vision about America. For that we must thank Mr Macintyre, a writer of near genius. For that alone I award this magnificent book the full score of five stars. I have never done that before in my many acclaimed reviews.

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topical

anyone watching the nightly news from Afghanistan and wondering why we, the americans, are there and not at home should read this truly wonderful book. Should we, the American people, be the world's "policemen?" mr macintyre answers this question by posing a paradox: if not us then who? If not us in Iraq then who? Again and again mr macintyre drives home this point. the author is man of great learning and wisdom and wears both lightly. on the minus side he writes in a childish and inelegant fashion but these are minor quibbles. it is a superb book and deserves to become a set text in schools in the Free World,. Not as literature becasue it is not but because its message is this: do not give up, effort is rewarded, no religion has the monopoly on truth and no man (or woman) is an island. On a more contemporary and some would say superficial level mr macintyre, famous as an opponent of an enlarged european union, argues against such enlargement. Personally i thought this spoilt the flow of the impeccably told story. Surely our young people need to understand these truths?

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reviews: 1, 2, 3, page 4

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