The Kite Runner

This should have been posted yesterday-sorry. ) feel I am uniquely qualified to comment on this book, having first listening ed to it on Audio while on a trip with my husband, and then having read it in book form for my public library book club. I think the book was more enjoyable than the abridged version at least, because the end of the book has a bunch of hairpin plot twists, that seemed absurd when the story was paired down even further. The book is about two motherless Afghan boys, Amir, the son of a rich man, and Hassan, the son of his servant. Amir narrates the story, telling first of their boyhood in Afghanistan and then of the flight he and his father made to the US after the Russians have invaded. Amir, must return to Afghanistan as adult and faces his demons concerning his childhood and especially Hussan and his childhood betrayal of him. The book starts strong during the descriptions of their childhood and life in the US, but Amir's trip to Afghanistan is a little too packed with coincidences (born in a a desire to tie things up a bit too neatly). A interesting read, but not an all time favorite.

The Bookseller of Kabul

This book, written by a western journalist (a woman), gives the reader a look inside life in Afghanistan shortly after the fall of the Taliban. By living with Kabul bookseller Sultan Kahn for approximately three months, she gets the family to let down their guard and show their true selves. Kahn, the bookseller, fancies himself an open minded intellectual, but forces his sons to work in the family business rather than pursue an education and treats his daughters and wives as servants. Because he is well read and western in some respects I found myself wondering if other families were even worse. The book is fascinating, recounting everything from the physical condition of the homes, (usually without furniture, the result of bombings from Afghanistan's many wars, to the treatment of women, (much as you'd expect with many personal stories of their loss of freedom and low status) to Afghani rituals such as weddings and pilgrimage. The book pulls no punches, and led to a lawsuit. Clearly, the author brings her own set of biases to the table but the book is a quick read and far more engrossing than Reading Lolita in Tehran.