Captive

No, I haven't been taken hostage.

Yesterday I listened to Jere Van Dyk being interviewed on the local NPR morning show. He is a journalist who had been in and out of Afghanistan since the '70's and who went back in 2008 to the "tribal" areas on the Afghani-Pakistani border to find and interview various Al Qaida and Taliban types. To hear it said that way, I make him sound like one of these swashbuckling, adrenaline-loving writers who put their lives on the line just to prove their manhood. And maybe he was at one point, but I enjoyed the interview so much that I called Megan up and asked her to go with me to hear him speak at Townhall that night.

He's on a book tour promoting his book Captive, about how his best-laid plains in Afghanistan went badly awry. He ended up being held in chains by the Taliban for forty-five days. In person, he does look like the swashbuckling, adrenaline-loving kind of guy. He's 60ish, very fit, and with near-Hollywood good looks. But in his talk he came across like he did on the radio: a very soft- but well-spoken  and intelligent storyteller with a great deal of humility. I think he may have gone there as a swashbuckler, but he had the crap scared out of him, and came back a different man.

His talk was so engrossing that I bought his book (a dead-tree edition, not for my Kindle). I've just started the book, but so far it's a pretty good read. I'll report back when I'm done.