Okay since we can't all gab about Harry Potter just yet (chomp those pages chickies, go go go) I'll jump on Allison's suggestion and start with Kite Runner. Freaky story there - I was in BJ's with my roommate and picked up the new book "A Thousand Splendid Suns" the other day. So checking out I'm telling him about Kite Runner, actually think he'd like it a lot, all those great Scorpio themes. Then I get home and I'm looking for it on my shelves, but it's not there, so I 'm wondering did I pack it for storage when I moved? Did I lend it out (which I tend to do with a good read). Hmm. A mystery. That night I have dinner with my old roommate GM, and he happens to mention that he still has my book... what book is that? Yes you guessed it, Kite Runner. Next day he's in the neighborhood and drops it off. Freaky huh? Kite Runner Voodoo -- like magic -- "Accio KR!" Apparently I'm a powerful witch :-)
Been a while since I read the novel, but it holds a place for me as one of only two books that ever made me weep at the reading (the other being the Perfect Storm). So powerful, the way friendships run so deep, the way moments you weren't expecting and had no time to think through can shape a life. Oh right, and the atrocity of discrimation, brutality and war. The way the past circles back around. "There is a way to be good again" the novel begins. I'd have to read it again to speak more intelligently about it, but feel free to have at it ladies, the door has been opened. :-) - Tigerlily (Holly)
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3 comments:
What I loved about the book was the theme of redemption.
I've been going through a time in my life where I've been re-examining a lot of my past behavior, personally. The protagonist, who did something objectively immoral and then struggled with defining himself in the aftermath of that act, resonated with me.
I also thought it was courageous of the author to use such an unlikable narrator. I thought he risked alienating the audience... but obviously the success of the book demonstrates that he did not.
I agree with you about the circling themes... I loved how he grew up in Afghanistan, moved to the United States, and then achieved some level of redemption by returning to Afghanistan and re-engaging with the people he hurt, to the extent that that was still possible.
I think often about the "spiral staircase" theme in my own life — how issues re-present themselves at different levels of the staircase depending on your ability to manage and confront them at the stage of life you are at.
I felt as though that was a huge part of the book also... that the narrator spent so much of his life running away, but it was only when he ran back that he found peace.
Interesting comments. You thought the act was objectively immoral and he was an unlikeable character? Hmmm. That's interesting because I never thought of it that way. I felt like the main character's act was cowardly, he felt frightened and helpless and succumbed to his own fear. He was just a boy confronted with something so horrific it was beyond his imagination that anything like that could even happen, and I think it overwhelmed him. But the shame of that haunted him his whole life.
I didn't find him unlikeable - I think I had sympathy for his character and what he was struggling with. And I guess I feel like his lifelong struggle with what happened makes him a very human character. Was a 12 year old boy supposed to have the resources to deal with the situation he was confronted with? I guess I tend to think of immoral as perhaps a more aggressive act. Is cowardice immoral? Is bravery expected? That's an interesting question.
More thoughts on immorality -- a con man, a thief, a fully-grown corporate CEO knowingly putting people's lives at risk for profit, a politian who has been trusted to act in the interest of the people succumbing to bribes, anyone abusing a position of power for self-interest or gain -- liars and spies. Does maturity play a role? If the characters had been 18 or 32 instead of 12 does that make a difference? Is there a difference between self-interest for profit, vs. self-interest for preservation? How does one define immorality? Does it have to be an act?
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