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LOCAL LITERARY EVENT:

Thursday, December 8, 2005

We Celebrate the Holidays with The Kite Runner

The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini, is one of those books that seem to be made for discussion groups - it's a compelling read with aspects to think about. It's the kind of book you want to attach to your body so you have it with you whenever you have a moment to read! My husband reserved it at the Austin Public Library, where there are some 20 copies in the system. Three weeks later, we were still #16 on the waiting list. I bought it at Barnes & Noble, so this way we can both read it during relaxation time without feeling the need to read when we should be doing yard work on the weekend.

If you weren’t there, you missed a great party! It was wonderful that so many of us took the time to get together, even with a bit of a ride involved! I’m sure everyone enjoyed the party a lot! It’s always fun to get to know each other a little better and have some time for discussion about other things besides books. The food was great – the idea of a salad lunch worked well! There were some good salads, a range of choices, and enough dessert but not overly much. Our hostess, Pat, made 2 kinds of punch; both were delicious! Pat’s brand new home is beautiful; I knew Pat had hired a decorator to help her, and I was remarking about what a wonderful decorating job the person had done…and Pat said the decorator appointment was for the next day! So, improvements will be made on perfection over there!

There were no negative criticisms of this book! Everyone agreed that the book was well structured, well written, enjoyable, interesting, fun to read, and stimulating for discussion. We discussed the customs of Afghanistan and the former beauty and the waste of the destruction there.

As usual, the group had insights that I enjoyed! One was that such powerful people as the ones in the book and probably the ones running some of the more tyrannical regimes in the Middle East and elsewhere today, may be grown-up hoodlums, coming from groups of people who grew up together and formed the negative bullyish group at school and in society as children and adolescents. The Taliban seems to be that kind of group.

Someone noted that the book’s structure involved a number of “circles,” meaning that loose ends were tied together, e.g., the reappearance later in the book of someone who played an important role early in the book and could have been easily forgotten. It wouldn’t have hurt the book if this person had never reappeared, but reappearing at the time and place he did was very effective and made it seem as though…of course, it had to be that way. What I just said should make sense to you if you read the book, especially if you were at the discussion…but for the sake of anyone who hasn’t read it, I am trying not to give too much away.

We also discussed Amir, the main character, at length; and the effect that his past and the truths and untruths of his life may have had on his strengths and weaknesses. There were some insights during that part of the discussion, but I didn’t write down any specific ones and have since lost them somewhere in cyberspace while shopping online (good excuse?). Best of all, no one complained about the ending of this book – is that a first for us or what!

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