37. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini

My mom picked this book up on the advice of some of her teacher friends ... perhaps she is planning to do some reading while she is in Hawaii over Christmas. In which case I am not sure that this is the best book. I mean, it was fabulous and moving and incredibly powerful and she should read it absolutely. But it's not what I would pick up for a little lite holiday/beach reading. Maybe that's just me.

I realized again and again and again just how sheltered I am as a white girl living in a first world country. I can't even fathom any of the events that are described taking place, I have no concept of how I would cope in a lifestyle of continuous fear like that. And I realize that the events described didn't happen as written, this is not a non-fiction work, but I am also not naive enough to suppose that it is entirely fabricated either. I just think how little I know about oppression and religious or ethnic persecution ... and I guess I try to look at it from an academic perspective, partially because I have no personal experience and partially because it provides a little bit of separation, but I just can't wrap my brain around that kind of cruelty. I don't understand the logic that says I am this religion or this color or was born on this day or I have this much money and that makes me better. I know that it happens, it probably happens around me in a watered down version on a regular basis, it has happened throughout history, but I don't understand. I'm not sure that I want to understand. I try to put myself in the situation and I wonder how I would react and how strong I would be and in an abstract world I would definitely be heroic. But in reality? I suppose that is harder to say. And maybe that is what is really scary.

The Kite Runner is set in Afghanistan and I started reading with really very little background information - I knew some very basic facts but not much more than that - and I have very little experience with Islam or the Koran or ... well anything really. I think this booklog has more than proven how little I know. I mean, I know a lot but it is sort of specific knowledge and in the grand scheme of things it is not actually a lot. (If that makes any sense) And part of this project is to broaden my knowledge base and put me in touch with new things. In that sense this book was definitely successful, AND it made me think and feel and wonder and I would say it gets my recommendation.