A Book A Week: The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, Bloomsbury 2003, via 2007 paperback (personal copy)

Besides garnering a clearer and more empathetic understanding of Afghan history and culture, here’s what I learned from this story: 

-Keep your promises, even the ones you didn’t realize you were making.

-Morality comes in many forms and even good men lie.

-We are all broken.

-We can all find a way to be good.

-Regardless of the source religion, religious zealotry kills, not the least by legitimizing sociopaths.

-Happy endings are nice, but resolution that resonates with honesty and truth—even if painful and heartbreaking—is even better.

-Afghans are no different than anyone else on Earth. We are all humans. Our American sense of entitlement clouds our understanding of the humanity of others. We have to find a way to see more clearly. We can start by reading this beautiful book. 

A Book A Week (a reprisal): Haroun and the Sea of Stories by Salman Rushdie

Haroun and the Sea of Stories by Salman Rushdie, Granta, 1990, via Penguin paperback (personal copy)

Some books come back to us again and again, each time leaving a slightly different print on our brains. Haroun’s tale of his adventures on the moon Kahani is one of those stories for our family. We have read this book out loud three times now, and several of us have read it individually. The beautiful and twisty language is so much fun to read aloud. Here’s what I said about the book when we read it back in February of 2010. 

The inventive and lyrical language of the book lends itself to fun out-loud reading. Haroun’s father is a storyteller, but after a family upheaval dad has lost his gift of gab. Haroun sets off on a wild fantasy to help restore the flow of his dad’s stories as well as saving the source of that flow—the Ocean of the Streams of Stories—from the nefarious plot of a fiction-hating poisoner. With fairytale elements, imaginative characters (genies, mechanical birds, Plentimaw fishes) emotional honesty, and outright silliness, this book would appeal to middle-grade readers, but is also easy to follow for younger kids. The glossary includes an explanation of the names in the book, many of which are Hindustani in origin. I cannot recommend this one enough.

I’ll add one more bit this time. This book packs a lot of inspiration for me as a writer and appreciator of stories. The idea of a story tap that brings the Ocean of the Streams of Story right to the mouth of the storyteller is fabulous metaphor. The description of the way in which the stories live in the Ocean—their colors, their mingling, their age, their major qualities—is just such a cool way of thinking about the storytelling process. I aspire to be as creative as a Plentimaw Fish, and as judicious as a Floating Gardener. To see what I mean, you have to read this book. 

Rusdhie has published another book in this universe, Luka and the Fires of Life. We have not read it yet, but if Rushdie delivers a little brother that’s anything like Haroun, the book will be delightful to read. 

A Book (or three) A Week: The Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins

The Hunger Games, Scholastic, 2008

Catching Fire, Scholastic, 2009

Mockingjay, Scholastic, 2010

All by Suzanne Collins

This trilogy tells the story of the post-apocalyptic world and life of Katniss Everdeen. In a post-United-States future, the confederacy called Panem is made up of twelve districts. A thirteenth district was destroyed in an uprising that led to the creation of an annual contest called The Hunger Games. The Capitol rules the districts with an iron fist, keeping residents of the outlying districts barely subsisting, while Capitol-dwellers enjoy lavish and absurd abundance. In order to maintain control in the districts, each year a boy and a girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen are called to the Capitol to fight to the death in a fully televised competition in The Arena. Victors of the games are lauded and rewarded, and along with their home districts enjoy the extra food and supplies.

When twelve-year-old Prim Everdeen is called in the lottery, her older sister Katniss volunteers to go instead. The first book is about Katniss fighting for survival against the other tributes and against a brutal government that wants a good show. She has to ‘sell’ the story that has been fabricated to make her more appealing and win her sponsorships, because with sponsorships often come crucial supplies that increase the odds of survival. The horrifying conclusion of the first book is haunting, and leads Katniss into both survival and further danger. She becomes an enemy of the state for her insolence and insubordination in the Arena.

In the second book, Katniss is thrown back into the Arena in a special Hunger Games that features only Victors of previous Games.  It is a fabrication crafted to punish Katniss. She unwittingly becomes involved in an organized rebellion, not just as a resistance fighter, but as the symbol of the uprising. She becomes a spark that ingnites the imaginations of oppressed people to rise up against tyranny. The final book is about the resulting uprising and war.

The books are a poignant and effective illustration of the deep and lasting psychological damage of war, torture, and social violence. Collins crafts a story that demonstrates the ways in which the abuses of a tyrannical regime can create both the circumstances and the people necessary to bring down those regimes.

I was uncomfortable with the artifice and focus on style and physical manipulation that Katniss’ “Handlers” (yes, that’s what they’re called) impose on her. I was very frustrated with the helplessness and disconnection of Katniss during much of the third book. I was wrankled by what I first thought was the uselessness of the Epilogue. I didn’t think the story needed it. But when Collins picks up the folk music theme that is very powerful throughout the story, the Epilogue demonstrates how a song can be innocent for some and painful for others.

But everything I found frustrating in the story was a product of good storytelling. The story made me uncomfortable. The story made me think. That society horrified and disgusted me. I was frustrated, angry, shocked and dismayed by all that the characters endure. And more than a little disturbed by the similarities I see in our reality. 

Katniss is an honestly and consistently wrought character. Because she does not realize the extent of her strength, power, and will, she is manipulated for different ends by everyone around her. Only when she finds a way to throw off that manipulation and be true to herself is there a chance for her people to be free. The story brings Katniss’ life full-circle in a satisfying, if heart-wrenching way.

Collins must be a queen of catchy phrases. The one that sticks with us long after this story ends is the broadcast tagline for The Hunger Games themselves: 

May the odds be ever in your favor.

One final note: As these books are adapted into films and their popularity soars ever higher, anyone who devolves into Twilight-esque Team Gale and Team Peeta nonsense is completely missing the point of the story.

A Book A Week: Gregor the Overlander by Suzanne Collins

Gregor the Overlander (Book 1 of the Underland Chronicles) by Suzanne Collins, Scholastic 2003

I read this one out loud to the Sonars. Gregor is an eleven-year old New Yorker. His mom is at work. His sister Lizzie is at camp—which is where he’d rather be. Gregor’s dad has been missing for two years, seven months, and thirteen days. Gregor is at home, helping take care of his not-entirely-lucid grandma and his two-year-old sister Boots. Boots tags along while Gregor does laundry in the basement of their apartment building.

That’s where everything starts to go down. Underground. 

In an innocent game of catch, Boots falls into an open air vent. When Gregor tries to catch her, they fall through a tunnel and discover a lost colony of humans and a world filled with human-sized bats, spiders, and rats. The struggle to get home turns into a matter of survival and the fulfillment of an old prophecy as the rats declare war on the underlander humans.

This is an entertaining story and Gregor is a smart, impressive kid trying to do the right thing. Even when it’s hard. I wondered how Sonar X11 would hold up under such incredible and dire circumstances with a toddler on his hip?  

There’s no magic, but there is breathtaking adventure and some fighting violence. All three Sonars liked it, sometimes sitting on the edge of their seats through the conflict. When we get our hands on them, we’ll definitely continue the series. 

A Book A Week: The Colorado Kid by Stephen King

The Colorado Kid by Stephen King, Dorchester, 2005, part of the Hard Case Crime series (library copy)

Two old-coot journalists educate their young intern in the ways of the enigmatic story over coke and muffins one afternoon in the newsroom of a sleepy Maine island-village.

The story the old guys tell is mysterious, and all potential explanations are improbable, but there is nothing explicitly uncanny in the book, aside from the barest suggestion of telepathy. That’s more likely attributed to the familiarity of an old friendship, though. Their job, according to the journalists, is to put together a story that makes sense, from the facts at hand. The narration proves most difficult, in the strange case of the Colorado Kid. 

It’s a slightly gritty but sleepy story-within-a-story. Putting the tellers into the book this way brings to mind Blockade Billy. In that novella, King is himself a character, interviewing an old-timer, who tells him a fantastic baseball tale. These would both be interesting examples to think about the nature of storytelling and narration.

Reading The Colorado Kid makes me want to watch the SyFy series Haven, which is supposedly inspired by this short book. At first glance though, the series doesn’t appear to have a whole lot to do with the novella besides setting. Correct me if I’m wrong.