{"product_id":"9781612191980","title":"An Afghanistan Picture Show: Or, How I Saved the World","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eNever before available in paperback and all but invisible for twenty years, a personal account of the origins of America's longest war.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn 1982, the young William Vollmann worked odd jobs, including as a secretary at an insurance company, until he'd saved up enough money to go to Afghanistan, where he wanted to join the mujahedeen to fight the Soviets. The resulting book wasn't published until 1992, and \u003ci\u003eLibrary Journal\u003c\/i\u003e rated it: \"The wrong book written at the wrong time. . . . With the situation in Afghanistan rapidly heading toward resolution . . . libraries may safely skip this.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThirty years later—and with the United States still mired in the longest war of its history—it's time for a reassessment of Vollmann's heartfelt tale of idealism and its terrifying betrayals.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAn alloy of documentary and autobiographical elements characteristic of Vollmann's later nonfiction, \u003ci\u003eAn Afghanistan Picture Show\u003c\/i\u003e is not a work of conventional reportage; instead, it's an account of a subtle and stubborn consciousness grappling with the limits of will and idealism imposed by violence and chaos.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Melville House Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47051404411120,"sku":"9781612191980","price":16.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9781612191980_p0.jpg?v=1763845158","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781612191980","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}