The Kite Runner by Khaled Hossini

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hossini (2006)
Read: June 2011

I really enjoyed reading Hossini’s, A Thousand Splendid Suns, and so was looking forward to this book which is more well known as it was nominated for various awards and was made into a film. friends had seen the film and enjoyed the book – saying that it was a moving story. So although I was on holiday for the weekend I decided to take this book to read even though I knew the content would probably be challenging.

The book is indeed a moving tale. What struck me was how well Hossini is able to write from both a women’s and man’s perspective. Where Splendid Suns was written about the harshness women feel in traditional family life, Kite Runner exposed the sacrifices made to maintain the ‘rightful’ order of community and class.

The book is again written over two generations and perspective is given to the boys on both sides of this class divide. A divide that doesn’t exist inside the house – they play together, travel together and receive presents together – but outside must be maintained.

I must admit that I didn’t find this as good a read as Splendid Suns. Maybe it was because that was from the point of view of a woman, and I found that more engrossing, maybe I just empathised with the characters more. As this tale comes to a close though it is very moving to think of everything that the characters have gone through to get to this point. Their sacrifices show friendship and a bridge of the class divide, but then also show that it is so easy to perpetuate the hierarchy of things and change is hard to achieve, even in the most conscious of us.

The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson

The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson (2009)
Read: June 2011
I finally made it onto the third book of the Millennium Trilogy – I had been trying to spread these books out (as otherwise I was finding I was devouring them) but speaking to a friend who had already started the third book she told me that it picks up straight where the last book left off and so it was useful to have recently read the second book.
Whilst the story is still very much about Lisbeth a lot of other characters get their screen time in this book. Erika finally comes to the fore whilst of course Mikkie sleeps around and gets sentimental. This book digs a lot more into the world of publishing, but really gets into the world of the secret police and undercover organisations within government. Everyone is trying to track down each other but can’t tell anyone because they don’t know whose side they are on.
A great book again and a good read – really interesting to get inside some of the politics and police organisations in a western country and see what remains rife.

The Glass Collector by Anne Perera

The Glass Collector by Anne Perera (2011)
Read: May-June 2011

The librarian at work introduced me to this book and I borrowed the school copy to read - on finishing it I went online and bought two copies; one for us and one for my cousin in the UK. It was just brilliant.

The book sounded interesting at first, but on reading it it was so much more than that. The blurb says it is about a boy who lives in the Zebaleen and his job is to collect the glass from the rubbish for recycling. This sounded fascinating to me, as obviously we've visited the Zebaleen a number of times and spoken with them about their work recycling and sorting rubbish, and about what people in Cairo can do to support recycling. I thought it was amazing that a writer had been able to pick up on the story of this community and wanted to see what they had made of it and whether they had done it justice.

They did more than justice to this story - with it being aimed at a teenage audience I thought I'd get through the book in a few days, but by the first chapter I could see it was different. The writing was detailed, but not overly detailed, and the story was so engrossing that you had to really read it; not just skip along.

 

The story was touching on two levels – the situation of the Zebaleen and the situation of this young teenager who faces a harsh home life at the hands of his father and older brothers, whilst longing for a girl’s attention. I think that the story telling did the job of situating this book in the Zebaleen community so well, that you almost don’t realise it. Yes, they are talking about collecting rubbish and having to eek out a living and a meal from scraps they find, but a big deal is not made of this. It made me hopeful that if young people do read this book, then they will accept this community for what they are – hardworking people who have been given a short straw in life, but get on with the work in hand and all they ask for is our compassion and understanding. The boy’s perspective seems so real to me, from my limited knowledge and experience of the community. For example when he says that people don’t even look at him and all he wants is to be acknowledged.

 

Against all this though is that young teenage angst – when you are too young to really “fancy” someone, but your emotions are in turmoil with feelings about family and friends. This young boy only gains negative attention from his older brother, and his father offers him no attention. He shows care and compassion for the animals on which their lives depend – the donkey that tows their cart – and tries hard to be kind to all his neighbours, even those who he finds annoying and those whose lives he finds scarier than his own (one of his friends collects medical waste).

 

I was really moved by this book, as it is written about a subject close to my heart, and it is written in a way that allows an understanding of the community that is marginalised in life and in literature.