Though I intended to read it earlier, Basharat Peer's book went mainstream after the release of 'Haider'. I admit 'Haider' made me pick the book over Pandita's 'Our moon has blood clots', which I assume has the same base material. 'Curfewed Night' is a disappointing book. It is written more as a chronology of Basharat Peer's life than as a history of Kashmir. It thus, reads like an overlong blog post. Even so, Peer's experiences are interesting enough to be readable. It is also difficult to not be taken in by the poetry of Peer's writing: it is for the most part beautiful, though the tone eventually becomes repetitive and tedious.
I treated the book as a book of poetic beauty, much like Kashmir, and thus enjoyed it. Even so, it is a poorer cousin to books that talk of torn yet indefatigable souls such as Primo Levi's masterpiece, 'Survival in Auschwitz' or Arun Ferreira's magnificent 'Colors of the Cage'.
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