Seeing much more
Hosseini depicts an Afghanistan no camera or news
report has succeeded to show
July 21, 2004
iranian.com
It has been some time since I've read a book I could
not put down. What is out there these days is either too involved
to keep my
interest, too long, or simply not close to my Middle Eastern heart.
Last year, when the book, The Kite Runner,
by Khaled Hosseini came out, I bought it for my husband. He finished
the three hundred
plus pages in a matter of days and told me he loved it, but wouldn't
recommend it to me.
"Why not?" I asked.
"Well, I know how you are. It's going to make
you miserable."
That did the trick at the time. I was going
through a phase when I could not handle additional - not to mention
self inflicted -
sorrow. I continued to read humor, and watched movies with a
guaranteed good ending and in time felt strong enough to pick up
the book.
A slow reader, I finished it in four days. I put
the book down feeling not only richer with new knowledge of a country
I only
knew as a neighbor of Iran, but I was reacquainted with emotions
so familiar, they could have been my own.
 Dr. Khaled Hosseini, the Afghan born author, probes
the life of his people with such precision that it becomes the
readers'
life.
Through his words I felt the brutality that Afghanistan experienced
under the cruel hands of the Taliban. I also looked at a
simple life through the innocent eyes of an Afghani boy and followed
him to end of the age of innocence.
A gifted writer, Hosseini opens old wounds the way
only those familiar with pain are able to. Through his artistic
prose
and poetic style
he depicts what no camera and no news report has succeeded
to show. From the start, he draws the reader into an emotional
scene
that
looks familiar and introduces characters who are not unknown
to human heart.
Did I feel that way because of the similarities
between our cultures? Was I drawn to names with Persian origin,
enthralled
by Persian
poetry? Did the pure and beautiful language of those
characters
make me feel closer to them? Perhaps. But as a writer,
I saw more, much more.
 The
Kite Runner may
be - as my husband put it - a disturbing tragedy. But if I were
to recommend
one contemporary
novel to a friend,
this would be the one. Not only is the story engaging,
and a definite page turner, but its literary value
is hard to
overlook.
No doubt Hollywood is going to get wind of this
and we may soon see the movie posters. But I would strongly
urge the
readers to reach for the real story before the movie
industry changes
it into
what would suit the needs of the box office.
Author
Zohreh Khazai Ghahremani is a freelance
writer,
poet and artist. She lives in San Diego, California.
.................... Peef
Paff spam!
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