Fahim Speaks
A Warrior-Actor's Odyssey from Afghanistan to Hollywood and Back
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- 5,49 €
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- 5,49 €
Beschreibung des Verlags
A Warrior-Actor's Odyssey from Afghanistan to Hollywood and Back
Fahim Fazli is a man of two worlds: Afghanistan, the country of his birth, and America, the nation he adopted and learned to love. He’s also a man who escaped oppression, found his dream profession, and then paid it all forward by returning to Afghanistan as an interpreter with the U.S. Marines. When Fahim speaks, the story he tells is harrowing, fascinating, and inspiring.
Born and raised in Kabul, Fahim saw his country and family torn apart by revolution and civil war. Dodging Afghan authorities and informers with his father and brother, Fahim made his way across the border to Pakistan and then to America. After reuniting with his mother, sisters, and another brother, he moved to California with dreams of an acting career. After 15 turbulent years that included two unsuccessful arranged marriages to Afghan brides, he finally qualified for membership in the Screen Actors Guild—and found true American love.
Though Fahim's California life was happy and rewarding, he kept thinking about the battlefields of Afghanistan. Haunted by a desire to serve his adopted country, he became a combat linguist. While other interpreters opted for safe assignments, Fahim chose one of the most dangerous: working with the Leathernecks in embattled Helmand Province, where his outgoing personality and deep cultural understanding made him a favorite of both Marines and local Afghans—and a pariah to the Taliban, who put a price on his head.
Fahim Speaks is an inspiring story of perseverance and patriotism—and of the special love that one man developed for his adopted country.
A gold medal winner from the Military Writers Society of America!
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The story of an Afghan refugee turned smalltime Hollywood actor should be a captivating tale, particularly if that actor then returns to wartime Afghanistan to serve as an interpreter for the U.S. Marines as they battle the Taliban. But Fazli's memoir of leaving Afghanistan in the early 1980s, his immigrant struggles in the United States, and his silver screen triumphs as an actor in movies and television shows that included Rambo III, 24, and Iron Man fails to captivate. Even after his return to wartime Afghanistan as a military interpreter, the book suffers from flat, declarative prose that shows little ear for a great life journey. This may reflect the influence of Moffett, a Marine lieutenant colonel and field historian for Marine Corps University, whose use of military jargon and procedural language makes an astounding tale read like a battle report. The earnest decency of both writers' admirable values which are frequently interjected throughout leaches away the power of the author's story by telling, not showing, the fervent and heartfelt love an immigrant can have for his homeland and his adopted country in times of war and peace.
