And The Mountain Echoed

Title : And The Mountain Echoed

Writer : Khaled Hosseini

Number of Page : 404 

Publisher : Bloomsbury

Afghanistan, 1952. Abdullah and his sister Pari live with their father and step-mother in the small village of Shadbagh. Their father, Saboor, is constantly in search of work and they struggle together through poverty and brutal winters. To Adbullah, Pari, as beautiful and sweet-natured as the fairy for which she was named, is everything. More like a parent than a brother, Abdullah will do anything for her, even trading his only pair of shoes for a feather for her treasured collection. Each night they sleep together in their cot, their skulls touching, their limbs tangled.

One day the siblings journey across the desert to Kabul with their father. Pari and Abdullah have no sense of the fate that awaits them there, for the event which unfolds will tear their lives apart; sometimes a finger must be cut to save the hand.

Crossing generations and continents, moving from Kabul, to Paris, to San Francisco, to the Greek island of Tinos, with profound wisdom, depth, insight and compassion, Khaled Hosseini writes about the bonds that define us and shape our lives, the ways that we help our loved ones in need, how the choices we make resonate through history, and how we are often surprised by the people closest to us. 

The Kite Runner

Title : The Kite Runner

Writer : Khaled Hosseini

Number of Page : 340

Publisher : Bloomsbury 

"It's wrong what they say about the past, I've learned, about how you can bury it. Because the past claws its way out.”

This novel is about forgiveness and redemption. The main character, Amir was one of the lucky child in Afghanistan because his father was rich. But, he was also the coward that tried to win his father's heart.

Amir had a friend named Hassan. Hassan was the son of a servant and he was not as lucky as Amir. Unfortunately, he was more brave and athletic than Amir. Hassan was good with slingshot, he was also the best kite runner, and that made Amir feel a bit jealous.

"For you, a thousand times over."

As the story goes, we could see how loyal and unconditional love that Hassan had toward Amir. He defended Amir so many times. However, when Hassan was cornered by three bad guys Amir did not help him. He was too afraid and he just stood there watching his friend being raped.

The sin... the guilt... Amir would bring all his regrets throughout his lives. He could not face Hassan after what he did.

After the Russians invasion, Amir and his father migrated to America. Amir saw it as a chance to forget his past.

Years fly... until one day he got a call from someone in Afghanistan.

"There is a way to be good again."

Amir returned to his home country to deal with everything, including saving Hassan's son, Sohrab.

"I wondered if that was how forgiveness budded; not with the fanfare of epiphany, but with pain gathering its things, packing up, and slipping away unannounced in the middle of the night.”

I always like dramatic and sad stories. I like novels that can hurt my heart and make me cry because that way I know that the writer has successfully brought me into the story itself. And Khaled Hosseini is definitely one of that writer. He got talents with words. The way he describes things is so beautiful that I kept repeating the passages. 

"I want to tear myself from this place, from this reality, rise up like a cloud and float away, melt into this humid summer night and dissolve somewhere far, over the hills. But I am here, my legs blocks of concrete, my lungs empty of air, my throat burning. There will be no floating away.”

See? That was just so beautiful. I mean the words. (don't ask why I stupidly love words =.=) Furthermore, the story is so heart-wrenching. There were a lot of memories and after several years later the character would rekindle all of those memories. I always like that kind of story--remember the past, bits and pieces of memories--because those things engrave in my mind and my heart more than stories which only tell the very little part of character's lives. That's why I love story from childhood until the character becomes adult.

Okay, that was out of topic.

What should I say more? This book is just perfect. I like this one more than A Thousand Splendid Suns although The Kite Runner less makes sense in term of plots. I mean there are too many cruelties and coincidences. But like I say, I love dramatic stories and dramatic stories do not make sense.

The ending was very good. The hope arose from simple activity which was the kite fighting. Same as Hassan, Sohrab liked playing kites. And Amir, feeling like twelve-year old again, showed Sohrab how to play kites. 

"It was only a smile, nothing more. It didn't make everything all right. It didn't make ANYTHING all right. Only a smile. A tiny thing. A leaf in the woods, shaking in the wake of a startled bird's flight. But I'll take it. With open arms. Because when spring comes, it melts the snow one flake at a time, and maybe I just witnessed the first flake melting."

Oh, one more. The most important moral in this story is the one said by Amir's father. 

"There is only one sin. and that is theft... when you tell a lie, you steal someones right to the truth... When you kill a man, you steal a life. You steal a wife's right to a husband, rob his children of a father. When you tell a lie, you steal someone's right to the truth. When you cheat, you steal the right to fairness. There is no act more wretched than stealing." 

Fat full five stars! 

5/5

A Thousand Splendid Suns

Title : A Thousand Splendid Suns

Writer : Khaled Hosseini

Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing

Synopsis :
A Thousand Splendid Suns is a breathtaking story set against the volatile events of Afghanistan's last thirty years, from the Soviet invasion to the reign of the Taliban to post-Taliban rebuilding, that puts the violence, fear, hope and faith of this country in intimate, human terms. It is a tale of two generations of characters brought jarringly together by the tragic sweep of war, where personal lives, the struggle to survive, raise a family, find happiness, are inextricable from the history playing out around them.

Propelled by the same storytelling instinct that made The Kite Runner a beloved classic, A Thousand Splendid Suns is at once a remarkable chronicle of three decades of Afghan history and a deeply moving account of family and friendship. It is a striking, heartwrenching novel of an unforgiving time, an unlikely friendship, and an indestructible love, a stunning accomplishment.

I bought this book impulsively because I had read a lot of compliments about this book. Actually the writer was well known for his first debut "The Kite Runner" which I haven't read.

I was not surprised that I really enjoyed reading it. The story was very dramatic. And as a sucker for any dramatic stories, this book was really entertaining.

The book tells a story of two women, twenty years apart, who built their friendship in such unexpected way.

Mariam...
She was the woman who asked very low demands in life. She was raised by her mother in a place far from the town where her father lived. She loved and adored her father eventhough her mother hated him. On her fifteenth birthday, she asked her father to take her to the cinema. Her mother didn't allow her to go and told her that outside world was dangerous and crazy, that nobody liked her because she was a harami (a girl without legitimate father). However, she disobeyed her mother and chose her father instead. And that was her biggest mistake. She found the truth, that her father never really cared about her, even let her sleep on the street all night waiting for him while he comfortably stayed in the house. She hated him but it was too late. When she went back home, she found her mother had committed suicide. Feeling guilty, her father took her and then sent her to Kabul for marrying Rasheed, a shoemaker who was unexpectedly a sadist. He tortured her unhumanly.

Laila...
She was a modern woman. She was taught by her father to be strong and independent. She had a good family although her mother obviously loved her brothers much more than her. Falling in love with her one-legged childhood friend, Tariq and luckily her love was mutual. Until one day... a tragedy took all her loved ones and she was alone. Fate brought him to Rasheed, married him as a second wife.

At first, Mariam hated Laila because Rasheed preferred her. However, Laila agreed to become Rasheed's wife because she was pregnant with Tariq's child. Many things happened and step by step Rasheed changed his attitudes toward her. Two wives, with the same husband, they were tortured and felt betrayed by fate. Friendship blossomed between them.

The books mainly told us about the history of Afghanistan in 1970-2000. About the Taliban and their irrational regimes which treat women like rubbish. I don't know that women were hated that much. They were not allowed to go out without male companion, not allowed to work, even they didn't deserved for getting proper medical attentions. I was angry when I came to the part in which Laila was operated without anesthetics in the stupid and dirty place that they called a hospital specifically for women. Seriously... it was cruel, unfair, and unhuman. Kinda made me wanna shoot all the bad guys.

The ending was okay, not dramatic and all, but I think that was the perfect ending for this kind of story. Happy but there would always be a scar, a wound that would never be healed even by time. It is true that war never gonna ends well, like this story.

I adored both characters. Laila and Mariam were so tough and they could endure their unjust fates. I am sure I will not be able to accept the things that happened to them. Especially the unfair rules between women and men. Oh, I really hate them.

I give this book five stars mainly because of Khaled Hosseini's writing. The descriptions, the explanations, and the dialogs were beautifully written. The sentences amazed me in the way lovely poems would amaze me. The words are intertwined in a very good way.

"One could not count the moons that shimmer on her roofs. Or the thousand splendid suns that hide behind her walls."

Those are the lines in a poem which inspire the title of this book. I interprete it as the happiness hidden behind the pasts and life journeys. It is like memories which will never be lost or fade away, always rest in our minds and shine in our heart.

Nice book with an excellent aftertaste.

Again... Dreamer was not supposed to read novels when exams are coming... But as you see, disobedience always wins...


:)