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| | Description | An American reporter's chilling account of being kidnapped and imprisoned by the Taliban, in the no-man's-land between Afghanistan and Pakistan Jere Van Dyk was on the wrong side of the border. He and three Afghan guides had crossed into the tribal areas of Pakistan, where no Westerner had ventured for years, hoping to reach the home of a local chieftain by nightfall. But then a dozen armed men in black turbans appeared over the crest of a hill. Captive is Van Dyk's searing account of his forty-five days in a Taliban prison, and it is gripping and terrifying in the tradition of the best prison literature. The main action takes place in a single room, cut off from the outside world, where Van Dyk feels he can trust nobody—not his jailers, not his guides (who he fears may have betrayed him), and certainly not the charismatic Taliban leader whose fleeting appearances carry the hope of redemption as well as the prospect of immediate, violent death. Van Dyk went to the tribal areas to investigate the challenges facing America there. His story is of a deeper, more personal challenge, an unforgettable tale of human endurance. | |
| | Product Details | | Author: | Jere Van Dyk | | Hardcover: | 288 pages | | Publisher: | Times Books | | Publication Date: | June 22, 2010 | | Language: | English | | ISBN: | 080508827X | | Package Length: | 9.3 inches | | Package Width: | 6.1 inches | | Package Height: | 1.1 inches | | Package Weight: | 1.05 pounds | | Average Customer Rating: |  based on 27 reviews |
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| | Customer Reviews | Average Customer Review: ( 27 customer reviews )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
53 of 57 found the following review helpful:
 A Vivid and Powerful Story of Desperate Times Jun 22, 2010
By David C. Isby
I know Afghanistan and the Pakistani borderlands. I've been there many times over the past 30 years and have just written my fourth book (AFGHANISTAN: GRAVEYARD OF EMPIRES, published by Pegasus) about that area. So I have encountered Jere Van Dyk, whose expertise goes back many decades, and many of the same people, places and hazards that he did. I can vouch for the accuracy and authenticity of what he has written about. This is all the way it actually is out there. I can also attest to the vivid and compelling way in which he has told his story. This is the real high-stakes world. Unlike the embedded reporters with US and NATO forces, there was no one to call for a rescue helicopter or provide back-up. If anything counts as "extreme reporting" it was what Jere Van Dyk was doing.
The old calypso folk song, "The Sloop John B" has great resonance with anyone that has ever travelled through this part of the world, because of its heartfelt chorus "This is the worst trip I've ever been on". We've all thought we were on that trip on one time or other, but Jere Van Dyk, no fooling, found it. He ended up falling into the hands of some very evil guys and had no idea whether they were going to hack his head off with a blunt dinner knife as they did to Daniel Pearl, sell him to Al Qaeda, or use him to resolve generations of political and religious resentment in even more painful ways. That he not only endured but came through to write this book is a story both of endurance and a demonstration of what is at stake in the conflicts in the region.
18 of 20 found the following review helpful:
The harrowing tale of a Taliban captive Jun 30, 2010
By N. B. Kennedy
Captivity narratives are fascinating in the way a train wreck is fascinating. We don't want to look, but we have to look. We are stunned and horrified at what we see. We desperately want to return to the decisive moment when it all could have been averted. Yet we cannot go back.
Jere Van Dyk wanted to return to the Afghanistan he loved as a young man and the Afghanistan he came to know more deeply when he traveled undercover with the mujahideen in the 1980s, reporting on their armed struggle against the Soviet Union. Given his connections, he thought he could report on the Taliban from the fractious tribal borderlands of Afghanistan and Pakistan, which no journalist had successfully navigated in years.
Renewing old ties and forging new ones, he makes brief forays across the border, but ultimately he is captured. His first look at his cell hints at what might lie ahead: "I was in a small baked-mud room.... I looked behind me to see if there was any blood on the wall. Was this a torture chamber? I saw black marks and wasn't sure. I saw chains on the dirt floor on my right. They were tied to a steel stake." Was Mr. Van Dyk betrayed? He doesn't know for sure. In fact, there isn't much he can know for sure as he endures the degradations of imprisonment. Most chillingly, he isn't sure he will live.
Mr. Van Dyk doesn't pretend to be brave or heroic or otherworldly spiritual. He writes of his fear, his sickness of body and heart, his shame and his grief. He admits to a fascination with his captors and their Islamic rituals, even their way of life. Yet he also feels the pull of his childhood Christian faith. The nuanced way that he experiences psychological torture and physical deprivations makes this a more engrossing narrative than other captivity stories I've read, such as Buried Alive or Kabul 24.
In the end, Mr. Van Dyk didn't get the story he went after, but he found an even more compelling one. His harrowing personal experience probably tells us more about the Taliban than could have been told from a more removed stance. I deeply regret the soul-rending terror he was forced to endure, but I am grateful as a reader that he could craft such a valuable memoir from it.
6 of 6 found the following review helpful:
Incredible Story Aug 09, 2010
By Wood is Good
This was a fantastic read. Van Dyk creates a vivid account of his imprisonment with the Taliban - his fears and emotions are expressed so realistically, you will believe you are sitting right beside him throughout his journey. The paranoia, the fear, everything he experiences is written so hauntingly real that it is hard to put this book down; you will need to know what happens next.
It's not fair to point out particular scenes of interest, it's the kind of book one must experience for themselves and let the journey evolve as it does.
While he was not able to write the book he came to Afghanistan to write, the story Van Dyk tells is about as intimate a portrayal of the Taliban and Afghan culture as you could ask for. It's terrifying, yet disturbingly fascinating to understand the inner workings of the disjointed group of men who call themselves the Taliban.
8 of 10 found the following review helpful:
 Dangerous journey, lingering questions Jul 29, 2010
By Paper Pen
"S. Wilson"
I respect American journalist Jere Van Dyk for having the guts to go into the heart of Taliban territory on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. And I sympathize with him for having to endure a 45-day captivity.
But Van Dyk's account of his ordeal is frustratingly difficult to read. There's a good story in this book, but it's tough to sift out.
"Captive" begins with Van Dyk preparing to make a furtive trip into Taliban territory, a delicate process of shadowy negotiations. But shortly after the trip begins he and his companions are taken captive by men whose motives aren't entirely clear. After a month and half in which Van Dyk repeatedly fears his execution is imminent, they are mysteriously freed.
Unfortunately, the book bogs down too often in Van Dyk's repetitive and circular emotional swings. He is distrustful of everyone (even those who help him after he is freed) and lurches between fears of death, suspicions about his companions, hopes for release, and, again, fears of death. Of course, these feelings are understandable under the circumstances, but detailing each mood change soon becomes tedious and advances the story nowhere.
"Captive" is also hamstrung by Van Dyk's use of short sentences almost exclusively ("It was dark and silent. No one talked. I put my head down and pulled my quilt over my head. I wanted to be alone. I thought of my family.") As a reader, you feel like you're constantly starting and stopping.
Van Dyk does succeed somewhat in putting a human face on the Taliban. He tries to understand his captors, and while they are often cold and exhibit a frightening religious fervor, they sometimes reveal a more compassionate side.
The book could really use a second voice to explain efforts to win his release and to show how his family is reacting. Even at the end, many questions are left unanswered: Why did this trip go awry? Did his interpreter betray him? How did he get freed? Was a ransom paid?
If you are interested in this sort of story, a much better book is "Buried Alive," by Roy Hallums, a contractor who was kidnapped and held for months in Iraq.
5 of 6 found the following review helpful:
A harrowing account of captivity, but also very insightful into Afghani politics! Jun 30, 2010
By Todd Bartholomew
Captive narratives are hardly a new genre, but there is something profoundly deep about Jere Van Dyk's ordeal recounted here that gives tremendous insight not just into his captors psyche but also into what the U.S. faces in trying to establish democracy in Afghanistan that is light years beyond typical captive narratives. Of course it doesn't hurt that Van Dyk is a journalist, but "Captive" strips away the typical journalistic objectivity in favor of a truly direct narrative of his experiences. As a longtime correspondent in Afghanistan and someone quite familiar with the fluidity of Afghani politics Van Dyk thought he could navigate the shifting sands of post-liberation Afghanistan and get the inside story from the Taliban fighters he used to cover during the Soviet occupation. What results is that Van Dyk is instead taken captive, his very existence and survival uncertain from day-to-day, subject to the whims of his captors. In the end, what Van Dyk reports of his captors, their psyches, their motivations, and their behaviors tells the reader more about Afghani society and its people than any other reporting I've read. What readers will come away with is a sense that none of the sides involved in this seemingly intractable situation seems to know what the other sides wants, nor are any of them willing to concede anything to any of the others. Readers also get a sense of the paranoia and insecurity that the Taliban operate under and how they are able to cow Afghanis into obeying their edicts. "Captive" is by turns unsettling, frightening, and illuminating in ways you are unlikely to expect. I could scarcely put it down and believe others will feel the same way. Van Dyk's result is hardly an easy read, but one you won't regret poring over!
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