WARNING: do not keep reading if you don't want to know certain things that happen in the story - though i won't tell you how it ends and i won't give away some really good juicy details that makek the story great. so anyway, the first half of the story is about two boys, Amir and Hassan, who grow up together in afghanistan pre-soviet invasion era. Hassan is Amir's father's servant's son. it's about their friendship and about Amir's relationship and struggles with his father. when the soviets invade Afghanistan, the boys are 12 years old, and Amir and his father flee to Pakistan, then eventually get visas to the US. shortly before they flee to Pakistan, Ali and Hassan move away and stay in a small village somewhere in Afghanistan. the boys never see each other again. when Amir is about 38 years old, he gets a call from Pakistan from his father's best friend Rahim. Rahim was like a father to Amir, and Rahim is dying and wants to see Amir before he dies. so Amir goes to Pakistan, where he learns from Amir that, years ago, Hassan and his wife were killed by the Taliban and left behind an orphan son named Sophan, who was reported to be living in very poor conditions in an orphanage in war-torn Afghanistan. Rahim asks Amir to go fetch Sophan and bring him back to a well-funded orphanage is Pakistan. the rest of the story is about his pilgramage into Afghanistan to find and bring back Sophan. it was an excellent story, well written, accessible, and a page turner. so before the library closed, i went and checked out a book called "Afghanistan: A Military History from Alexander the Great to the Fall of the Taliban" by Stephen Tanner. i also put on reserve "The Time Traveler's Wife" by Audrey Niffenegger. |
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hey nate, that reminds me. after i read deWitt, it inspired me to read "The Lyric Age of Greece". that happens a lot. i read a book about a certain theme or place and then i go get an historical non-fiction book to learn more about it. |
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i know what you mean about the coincidences and the heavy handed writing. did you happen to read that the author is actually a physician? not really a writer at all. he gets a little slack at least for that. there are some books... i guess kinda like the da Vinci Code... where the writing is hardly a literary or masterful, but the story and the plot are interesting and well thought out. many times i enjoy simple stories and books that don't try so hard to be profound or are considered for a pulitzer. it's also like the da Vinci code in that it reads a little bit like a screenplay and it will probably be made into a movie. nonetheless, i loved the story, i loved reading about afghanistan pre-soviet invasion, and i loved that it wasn't a nice, tidy happy ending. at least in that regard, it was believable. |
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also, i never can understand why people bother to finish reading a book they're not enjoying it or they think it's poorly written. |
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