Summary

Chapter Two is titled “An American in the East.” Power's father suffered from depression and he was discontented with America. Those were the main reasons he chose to travel so much when Power was young. He would take teaching jobs or other jobs in other countries and the family would live there for a year, or he would simply take a year off work for them to live abroad. Travel revived her parents from their otherwise typical Midwestern existence. They were never drawn to religious services. Power's mother was Jewish but seldom observed more than a passing observance to rituals. Her father was raised as a Quaker but discovered that the Islamic culture counteracted his depression.

The family lived in Kabul when Americans knew little about Afghanistan. Later...