Reel Books

Shalom:
I am one of the few hold outs concerning the Kindle.
Not that I have anything against it. Mark has one. He brought it for his last deployment and found it quite handy.
But for me, nothing beats the feel of a book in your hands. The feel of paper on your fingers as you turn the page.

I remember many summers, lying in tall grass with the sun beating down on the back of my neck as I got lost in a thick hardback book. Or winter days, in bed with the flu, trying to balance a bowl of chicken soup and a paperback novel. And while much of my research for any subject is online, you can still find me heading the library or a bookstore.

Even now, sits on my nightstand three books I am reading.
Amoung them a book about Papillons.
For me, the Kindle just looks so cold and impersonal, whereas a book looks warm and inviting.
One day I might change my mind and actually try reading Mark's.
But for right now, I have a good book to finish.

The BookSeller of Kabal: My Thoughts

Lailia Tov;
It has been a good and peaceful day. It's get everything done, but hey! there is always tomorrow.
I finally dragged myself through the Bookseller of Kabul. The book ended on a very bad note. Rather depressing, filled with dread, like Leilia, the youngest sister: one's heart turns to dust and it is swept out with the morning dirt.
If you have read my first review on this book, you know I didn't care for it.
Now allow me to say: I hated it.
Ms.Seierstad choices to narrate from an fly on the wall viewpoint. She does not appear in the story, nor does she become part of the family, but remains a stranger looking in, a ghost if you will.
 She remains.....a  reporter...
 A reporter, cloaked in speculation and condescension with a veneer of journalistic self-rightious.
Ms.Seierstad delivers on golden plates the warm, juicy, sensationalism she knows we Westerners will eat up.....
 There is Sultan's being the favorite son and showing a head for busniess early on....
 A split with a younger brother who will not respect him. The courtship of the 16-year-old who became his second wife, against the wishes of his mother and the pleas of his first wife. Together with the Taliban book-burning, within the first several pages.These events, she did not witness, but reported upon.
And then there is the scene in the bath house. The english translation,  tame conpared to how it is really written in the author's mother tongue,  makes one blush, but for such a modest culture, this scence would feel like a rape. Yes, I said rape. For I have several muslim friends and such things are just not discussed. There are other scences I will not mention. Let's just say they shame not only Sultan Khan and his family, but thoughs around them as well.
Having cared for my mother in my home for several months after her stroke, I utter at the thought of such a scence written about us.
 I have been told by many who have been to Afghanistan that  polygamy is uncommon, that the middle-aged men they have  met had grown old with their wives and love them dearly. That they will sell everything they own to make sure their children recieve an education and they adore their wives, children, and their parnets. There is no reason why Sultan wishes another bride,
 What truly sadden and yes made me angry is that the author never tried to find out why Khan and his family did  the things she describes.  Sultan Khan himself remains an enigma, a man who endured two prison terms for selling books by immersing himself in Persian poetry. A man who demands respect, yet shows none. Willing to pay for his young bride to learn to read and write, yet pulled his sons out of school to mind his shops. The author never took the time to find out who Khan  was, or to try to explain his contradictions.
Contradictions that truth be told lie in all of us.
I felt cheated, betrayed. This was not the story I was expecting. And I am sure Ms. Seierstad could care less. In fact, she would take one look at me and think me as oppressed and as backwards as the women of Afghanistan.
For me, The Bookseller of Kabul was like watching CNN.
Which I hadn't watched in years.
Interesting, Mr. Khan has written his own book, There Once was a Bookseller in Kabul.
Now that should be an interesting read.

The BookSeller of Kabal

You don't have to lie about anyone because the truth about everyone is bad enough.

Mark told me right off: "You are going to get very angry with this book. You are going to go after Sultan Khan and his son with a spoon."
Mark was right: I did get angry reading this book.
Much of it was indeed in part because of Sultan Khan and his seven-teen year old son Mansur, how each treated the memebers of the family.
But most of it was the author herself.
It is just after the fall of the Taliban. War reporter Asne Seierstad, finds a bookshop and meets an elegant gryhaired man, the owner of the bookshop. After several visits, Anse is invited to Sultan Khan (not his real name) for the evening meal.
Here, the reporter meets many of Sultan's family and she decides she wishes to write a book about Sultan and his family.
He agrees.
She states shw would need to live with him and his family.
He agrees and so for three months Asne is part of the Khan family, experiencing first hand his family life in the newly liberated city.
I frankly thought I would read a story about  the BookSeller of Kabul; about how he came to be a seller of books, his customers and stories about the books themselves. I even had this imgaine of his telling stories to his family and friends, much like 1001 Arabian Nights.
It wasn't.
Yes, one does learn how Sultan became a lover and sell of books, how he kept his business going. But it stops there.
The stories of the Bathing House, a family wedding and a trip to the Bazaar are the highlights of the book. How women in burkas  keep track of each other; by looking down for familiar shoes. That the BathHouse is one of those few places women have some freedoms, can feel clean and fresh, even if it is for a short time.
Over the weekend, I had to pu the book down. I was becoming depressed....oppressed...like the women I was reading about.
I have a few more chapters to go, but I fear this is no happy ending in sight.
I find it interesting, but I shall not read this book again.
Nor do I recommend it.

My Thoughts on The Kite Runner

There is a way to be good again.
The Kite Runner.

Shalom:
This morning I finished The Kite Runner and rented the movie as well.
While there is much left out of the movie, it does capture the heart and is very faithful to the book, though I believe Baba came off a little harder in the movie.
First, it is not an easy book to read or movie to watch.
The Kite Runner tells the story of Amir, a young boy from Wazir Akba district of Kabud and his friend/Servant Hassan. There are times one cannot tell if the affection Amir feels for Hassan is indeed friendship or that one would feel for a beloved pet.
While set in Kabul, it story is one that is known throughout the world; one that crosses time and space.
It is a difference of culture: Amir is Pashun. Hassan is Hazara.
It is a difference of religion; Amir is Sunni and Hassan Shi'a.
It is a difference of class: Amir is wealthy. Hassan is his servant.
And yet they love each other like brothers.
It is a boy, Amir wanting the love and respect of his father. So much so he is to be silent to a brutal assault, to lie and even setup the fall of another to get it.
It is a father, finally learning to love his son.
It is Amir, finding and recieving forgivness and righting the wrong he himself put into motion.
 That faith in the wrong hands doesn't bring salvation, but damnation. That the fruit we bare live on long after we are gone, that our lives are indeed a tapestry made up of the threads of others. Some bright and golden. Other dark with black with blood and lies.
I read the book with tears.
Remembering being afraid of my own shadow and my little sister beating up the bullies for me. Of my reading to my sister the stories she loved over and over again, even begging me to read the ones I made up.
It is finally coming face to face with the bullies that shamed me and rejoicing they no longer have any power over me. And that it may takes years, but in the end the bully gets his in the end.
How a once beautiful country and people went through the same brutal assault Amir witness and still struggles from.
That someone has to stand up to the bully....that there is a way to be good again.
It is the story of King David who seeks to care for the offspring of his friend, Jonathan.
As Jews, we are taught it is not enough to ask and recieve forgivness. that is the starting place. G-d does forgive, but we should also work to restore if possible the harm we have done.
Amir had to face his past, his sins and in doing so, saved his life and another's.
There are life lessons in this book that I believe, no matter what your background can take away, learn and grow.
I am reminded of the power of forgivness and love, force that doesn't end at death. That G-d always gives us chance after chance to right the wrongs, atleast try in some cases, in our lives, in our world.
I strongly recommend The Kite Runner to all.