The Kite Runner

Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner is the story of Amir and Hassan and the unique relationship they share. Initially it is a deep friendship born out of being fed by the same mother as babies and eventually turns into brotherhood.

The book is a beautiful and poignant story set in the Afghanistan of fifty years ago, starting from before the Russians invaded Afghanistan up to modern day Afghanistan. Amir and Hassan's story is reminiscent of ancient mythological stories of everlasting friendship. But one day of cowardice on Amir's part changes his life and one sin leads to another and then another.

It is easy to relate with Amir in some sense, when he tries to push away the bad memories by retreating within him and evading all painful reminders. On the one side is his conscience and on the other is his longing for his father’s attention and affections. Amir is all that his father does not want in a son, while Hassan is everything he wants in his son. When Amir and his father escape to America the father-son equations seem to change for the better. America, always playing the symbol of freedom and optimism, heralding the triumph of immigrants of struggling against hardships, in so many books by Asian authors, seems to bury the old wounds
below the surface for Amir. Until one phone call brings back the memories, the feelings of remorse but also the hope to make amends.

Hosseini writes beautifully, bringing a character to the stark Afghan countryside and its culture. He portrays Amir’s characters and deepest fears candidly, so that even though you know Amir is doing wrong, you cannot help but empathize with him at times. A father’s agony over burdens he carries in his heart, Amir’s conscience that drives him to insomnia, Hassan’s innocence and willingness to forgive – everything is written about with insight and empathy. When I began the book, a friend told me I would cry when I finished it. A page turner that it was, I kept hoping Amir would achieve retribution. So did I cry in the end? I’m not telling. I will just say that I’d recommend this book to anyone for a touching and enjoyable read and to appreciate the coming of age of Asian writing.

Title: The Kite Runner

Author: Khaled Hosseini

One Red Paperclip

This is a bizarre book that I first heard of through another blog that I visit often. It took me to Kyle MacDonald’s site, and although I didn’t get exactly what it was all about, it just seemed really weird. Cut to 2 months ago when I first spotted the book at the store and decided it would be worth a read. Cut to a month ago, where after going through Kyle’s blog I had finally decided I had to have it.

Well, bizarre does not even begin to describe this story. And since you know that it is no fiction, not by the meanest stretch of imagination, it gets stranger. A little piece of stationary becomes a big, brick-and-mortar house – all 1100 sq ft of it!
For the uninitiated – I say that because nearly every news and radio channel covered this guy and his remarkable journey – this book is by Kyle McDonald about his Bigger-and-Better-game-gone-Biggest-and-Bestest!

At the start of this book, Kyle is an unemployed, cheerful twenty five year old, who decides to use the red paperclip that is holding his resume together to trade up to a house. Well the house part does not come first, only the trading idea does. So a few craigslist postings later, Kyle has someone who is willing to trade him for a wooden fish-pen. And so the trades go on. From a beer keg to a cube box and even to a movie role! Kyle keeps nothing for himself and gives it a year to trade up to a house. Along the way he meets some fantastic people, who help him along on his journey, with lots of goodwill and of course, a trade item. Kyle travels across Canada and the USA in his adventure, involving his whole family and his girlfriend, Dom. In the end, Kyle is still unemployed, but now a proud homeowner as well!

The book is a real feel-good read. Kyle is a simple guy, not too bright – thankfully! - and his writing is just like him: simple. No fancy words, no territorial jokes, no I-got-lucky sermons. He tells it like it happened, and peppers the books with tid bits of learning – most of them could have sounded like management lessons (because that’s pretty much what they are) but don’t. I am all for a book with pictures and this one has plenty of them, so that made me really happy! Kyle comes through as a fun guy, with immense faith in the goodness of all people. In the end he writes, that this journey that he undertook was not so much about trading up to a house as it was about meeting great people along the way. Even in the people he chooses to trade with, he ensures that the person he is trading with has real need for his item. This is especially obvious in the way he decides the person he would trade the recording contract with.

I’ll just say this: if you want to know the entire sequence of the trades, then you can just go to his website or google it out. You don’t need the book for it. But what you do get in the book is the journey, and that is what is more enjoyable.
Visit Kyle’s page at: http://www.oneredpaperclip.com/


Title: One Red Paperclip
Author: Kyle MacDonald

How Starbucks Saved My Life

You’re probably wondering how I came to read this book; then again you’re probably not, but I want you to know anyway! It was on the new releases shelf, that’s how! And it cost me all of a hundred and ninety five bucks (excluding 10% discount).

So back to the point… What this story is about is most obvious. But what is not is the fact that it’s a really simple story. No major management sermons, no major sob story. Nothing much really. Except that here’s an endearing geriatric (yes, it’s called the arrogance of youth!) who writes this book with humor and lots of honesty.

At the risk of repeating what’s on the blurb, here is the context. Michael Gates Gill is a really successful creative director at JWT. One fine day he gets fired by a woman less than half his age, and one he mentored. The reason? He was too old and therefore dispensable. Michael then starts his own firm which is anything but a success. On the personal front, Michael fathers a son in an extra-marital affair, and his wife files for divorce, his children no longer want to see him. His affair does not last long. So he is verging on broke, has no fancy home and as an icing on the top, he has just been diagnosed with a non-terminal brain tumor that is causing him to lose his hearing in one ear. Michael meets Crystal in a Starbucks and she offers him a job as a barista. Michael becomes Mike and the rest is what this book is about.

The nicest thing about this book was that there was never any self pity. Mike does cry, more than once, but it is never out pity for his life. There are bits where he rambles on about his father and his father’s father and all the luxury that he was brought up in. He never mentions it explicitly, but I also suspect he was quite dyslexic. So at the ripe old age of 60 and wearing his expensive loafers, he commutes an hour and half to his Starbucks store everyday to be a barista. If I say more then I’ll really give away the story – at 260 pages in large typeface, this isn’t much of a novel.

Mike and his style of narration don’t allow you to take everything too seriously. It could have been a sentimental, sympathy-evoking tale, but it’s not; even in the parts where he is describing his sometimes dysfunctional upbringing, it seems more matter-of-fact than sorry. Mike and his rediscovery of the joys of living and life are more about keeping the faith, and learning to make use of whatever opportunity that comes your way. Mike learns at the end of it all that in all his years at JWT he was never as happy nor as respected as he is at Starbucks. This is more of a feel-good story. I read recently, that these days it’s very rare to find books that you can read on an overnight journey. Well, you need not look further!

Title: How Starbucks Saved My Life
Author: Michael Gill
Published by: HarperCollins

The Ordinary Person's Guide to Empire

I have to begin this review by confessing that I am not too big a fan of Arundhati Roy’s writings. That may be an unjustified statement, considering the fact that the only work of Roy’s that has ever graced my bedside reading pile has been the God of Small Things, her maiden venture. I say it graced the pile only because I could not read beyond the first 40 pages or so, and so it was returned to the library unfinished.
And therefore, it came as some surprise to those who know me to see me engaged in her latest offering, The Ordinary Person’s Guide to Empire. The very reason I picked up this book was that it was non-fiction; which meant to me, no long winding passages describing a minute, perhaps even highly inane and unwanted feature of a somewhat pointless episode. And I was right.

The book is a collection of her writings and speeches from the world over, between 2002 and 2004. Her writings provide an insightful peek into the happenings in the political world around that period of time. Most of the issues dealt with in the book are contemporary in their aftermaths, and provide a deeper understanding of the history of today’s present. It would not be unfair to say that the major chunk of pieces in the book are almost anti-American in their nature: in fact in one of the pieces she goes into a detailed explanation of the meaning of the terms ‘anti- America’ and ‘anti- Americanism’. Right from the indifferent attitude of the Americans towards fleeing Jews during WW2 to the war against Iraq, Roy does not spare America and its policies.

But before u conclude that this book is all about world politics, read the chapter called “Ahimsa”. A touching and thought provoking piece about the protestors working under the Narmada Bachao Andolan, she brings to the forefront the appalling indifference of the Indian government towards the starving protestors.

I recommend this book not just because for its literary value, but because of the tendency of each piece in the book to arouse your curiosity and send you on a quest for further knowledge, made easy by the section called “Notes” provided at the end of the book for people seeking more information about the episodes and organizations mentioned in the book. Especially worth reading are the slightly long but intensely satisfying pieces called “Come September” and “How Deep Shall We Dig?”

Pick up this book because it will encourage you to think of issues in focus in the world today, instead of just absorbing information as you see it on the television or read in print. Pick it up because it is nothing like Roy’s other works of fiction.

Title: The Ordinary Person’s Guide to Empire

Author: Arundhati Roy