Khaled Hosseini: The Kite Runner

After reading Rohinton Mistry's book "A Fine Balance" I swore I would never read another book like it. I was afraid Kite Runner would be as equally sad and haunting (it took me months to recover from A Fine Balance) and I wanted to feel hopeful at the end. Against my better judgement I opened it up and jumped in and it only took me two or three pages to get caught up in the lives of the characters and the beautiful words that described an even more beautiful place.

Set in pre-Taliban Afghanistan, the story opens with the lives of two little boys. One, an upper-class Afghani, Amir, and his little servant friend, Hassan. Told through the eyes of Amir it is a story about trust, friendship and courage. Amir is given many chances to do the right and honorable thing and he never does. Eventually he betrays his friend so viciously that neither he or his friend Hassan ever really recover.

The characters are well-developed if a little unbelievable and you really feel for Amir, even as you are forced to watch him do the unthinkable to an almost implausibly kind little Hassan. At times I felt physically uncomfortable and wanted to scream through the pages "Do the right thing Amir!" Tell the truth!"...but Amir would have ignored me anyway. He does redeem himself although true to real-life, it's a little too late.

I didn't feel hopeless at the end of the book and I felt proud of Amir but I still had an overwhelming sense of sadness and felt discouraged about humanity in general. I appreciated the insight I gained into the history of Afghanistan and the cultural heritage of that ravaged country but I also felt dirty at the end...like I had accidentally stumbled into someones most vulnerable moment and was forced to carry that around with me. Which I suppose means the author did his job.

All in all The Kite Runner was a good book. It relied a little too heavily on foreshadowing and what I always call the "Duhn Duhn Duuh" effect. The dangling sentence so obviously meant to draw you further into the plot...like, "That was the last time I saw Hassan smile." It was a bit much but other than that I found the prose to be well-crafted and descriptive. I could see the dusty roads of Afghanistan, the stricken face of a little boy and the rage in Amir's father's eyes. I felt like I had been somewhere...I just feel fortunate that I was able to leave it behind.

Stephen Glass: The Fabulist

When I was in journalism school we did a lot of reading and talking about Jason Blair and in doing so, Stephen Glass would usually come up as a footnote. I'm not sure if it was because Jason Blair wrote for the New York Times rather than the New Republic like Glass, or whether it was his sins were greater or more brazen but he seemed to get the lion's share of the press. Although I'm sure Stephen Glasss didn't feel that way.

The Fabulist is a novel...not an autobiography. Although it sure reads like an autobiography. I have to say that I found the book well written and extremely funny..."laugh-out-loud funny...the side-splitter of the season!" (Sorry...thought I was writing a movie review there for a second.)I can see how someone like Stephen Glass got himself in so deep.

He is a good writer and probably very charismatic. Inside though he desperately needed approval from everyone in his life. His parents, his girlfriend, his fellow journalists and his readers. So, when the story fell short, he filled in the blanks. He was a hot-shot who wrote witty, political and hard hitting stories. He was in way over his head. And, he was a fabulist who could spins yarns that were both believable and entertaining. People wanted the stories to be real, which is partly what kept Stephen Glass in business for so long.

In reading his "novel" you really feel for the guy. Of course it's told from his perspective...and he is a self-admitted liar. But, I digress. It's comical and a fairly easy read and it makes you think about journalism and the fine line between a good story and a good yarn.