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.

The Prince of the Marshes by Rory Stewart

The Prince of the Marshes: and other occupational hazards of a year in Iraq by Rory Stewart (2006)
Read: May 2011

We bought Rory Stewart’s second book first (if that makes sense) as we thought it sounded more interesting; a walk through Afghanistan, as opposed to being a civil servant in Iraq. On reading it though we realised that both were so linked in the Middle East that we really had to read this too. We also so enjoyed his other book; his writing style, his understanding of the region and the people, that we decided we really had to read all that was going of his.

This book was fascinating again because of the understanding Stewart has of the region and its people and culture. It’s also brilliant to see some of the ‘inside workings’ of what you hear on the news about trying to restore order and hand back power to the people. The frustrations Stewart has with his task are the same that any employee has – you start one job, and then you’re given a different job to do before you’ve had a chance to really finish the first one properly! Except that his job takes place in a country that is somewhere between occupation and tribal civil war. The real accounts of compound living and the struggles of constant work and constant bombardment from all angles – with words and bombs – are well written and a must read.

Without being too taxing at all, this book gives real insight to the people and process over just one year. It is done with sensitivity to the people of Iraq that he is trying to serve and the situation that he is trying to manage. A really great book that must be read to gain an understanding of the region and the difficulties of attempting to transfer a system of governance from one area to another without consideration of the specifics of the people and the place.

The Alexander Cipher by Will Adams

The Alexander Cipher by Will Adams (2007)
Read: May 2011

Another one of those charity shop buys - a brick paperback of a rolicking adventure centred around finding the tomb of Alexander. We picked it up because of the Egypt connection to have a light read.
We were having a discussion recently about how we are going to get all these books onto our next posting whenever we leave Cairo (we've filled three shelves on the bookcase and now one and a half of these have a double layer of books!) and I said that maybe we just take the 'Egypt' books we really like and leave some others behind "Like this one, The Alexander Cipher!" but Scotty replied that actually it wasn't a bad book - so I thought I'd better read it to be sure.

He was right, it's not a bad book at all. I've finished it in just about a week of bus journies I think (I've got a bus book and a bed book right now) partly because it wasn't a hard read, but also because it was a quick moving story that meant you wanted to pick it up again.

Thr first third of the book jumps between a few different characters and gradually their stories converge. The female lead, Gaille, is a bit too wet for my liking - the author hasn't quite managed to gain my sympathy for her. Knox, the male lead, is a bit more get up and go and his plans whilst audacious do manage to get pulled off. Whilst their stories converge in the present, there is also a back story to do with the death of Gaille's father, Knox's parents and Elaina's husband. This does seem far fetched that the back story is linked and that none of them had met eachother before.

What I enjoyed most about this book was reading about the places we know here in Egypt. Yes I've read books set in Cairo and Alex before, but here they visited Sharm, Tanis and the delta and Siwa with its coastal road. Scott had read this before our trip to Siwa last month with the P's and I can see why he was so excited to go there and search out the Temple of Amon himself. Great stuff. There was just one point towards the end where it was hard to keep track of who was dead, nearly dead, or shooting who. The story itself left it open to almost write a sequal, but I doubt it.

OK - so this ones a keeper!

Jemo by Stephen P Robertson

Jemo: An alternative account of Operation Crossroads by Stephen P Robertson (2010)
Read: May 2011

This self-published book was sent to me by the author - who also sent me the High Noon book read/reviewed at the start of the year. Prior to reading the book I wasn't aware of Operation Crossroads and this book therefore illuminated that and in particular the ethical issues around controlling (or not) such experiments.
A quick and easy read with chapters that kept the pace up. The characters are explored initially, but then developed as individuals and the story sees them trying to bind together to save falling apart. Nice epilogue.

Empire of Sand by Robert Ryan

Empire of Sand by Robert Ryan (2008)
Read: April-May 2011

Picked up who knows when in a charity shop most likely. It wasn't just the 'sand' in the title that attracted us to this, but that it was about Lawrence of Arabia. We've become fascinated with Lawrence of Arabia since watching a brilliant documentary by Rory Stewart (who we've become equally fascinated with since too) where he looked at what Lawrence actually did in the Africa campaign, his words of advice and how these are used (or not) now with current conflict / western presence in the area. Really really interesting struff!

The book is a fictional account, but I did check a few things with Scotty as some of them rang true - there are a few real events and characters it seems, but the story is a ficticious account and does include some untruths (there is a theme in the book that Lawrence might not be his name, but according to Scotty this hasn't come up before). I really liked the first half of the book which is set in Cairo and includes trips out on his bike to Maadi, some ancient sites and small villages. Great colonialism scenes in the city and then TE trying to fit in and do things his way. The second half sees him travelling through the desert and so reminded me of Fienees and the Ubur hunt. The great thing about TE's desert travel is them trying to work out how to get their rolls desert-proof! I figured ahead a few of the twists around Wassmuss and his precious cargo and the bloodshed probably did compare to the bloodshed at the time.

I really want Scotty to read this one now so that I can ask him more about where the balance lies between accepted history and fictional account.