The Kite Runner

Continuing my aim to read widely, and to read good quality books, I finally read The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini.

Amazing! This story was so touching. I was sitting on the train, crying, this week whilst reading this book. The characters were brilliant. The pace was excellent. The narration was terrific.

The Kite Runner taught me a lot about Afghanistan. I had not heard much about life prior to the Soviet invasion of the country. I didn't realise that it was quite progressive, and could be quite an advanced country, if it wasn't for the various wars that have ravaged the country for the last thirty years. It also makes me wonder why Afghanistan became a nest for terrorists who hate America. They should hate communists and the Taliban. Maybe there is a lack of education and perspective in the last two generations. Amir's generation certainly saw a better Afghanistan and knew who the real enemy was. However, the man who later helps Amir to get back into Afghanistan does scoff at Amir's view of Afghanistan, saying he never lived in the real Afghanistan, because his father was wealthy.

It is a story of suffering. Every character suffers. Sohrab's suffering is the most poignant, because the book ends with his emotional turmoil. Amir suffered for his own guilt. Hassan probably suffered the most, though. His chance of happiness was taken away so early in his life, he was raped, and later shot in the prime of his life. He was helpless. Sohrab, although he probably saw his parents shot, and was also raped, at least had a chance at life.

The book also explained the relationship between the Pashtuns and the Hazaras, and the Sunni and Shi'as. Previously, I knew there was a division between these sects of Islam, but I was pretty oblivious really. Even with all the news about Iraq, which broadcast more about this division than any broadcasts about Afghanistan ever has.

Baba was a hard man. He was very set in his ways. He couldn't cope once he got to America. He was a hard worker, and always kept his entrepreneurial spirit which was displayed through his market stall. But, like so many first generation immigrants, he struggled with the language and he struggled with the way of life. He relied more on his son, and because he finally saw his son doing well, I think he softened to him and allowed himself to show his love. Finding out that Hassan was Baba's bastard son certainly did change my view of Baba. Hassan was his favourite, whilst they lived in Afghanistan. His heart must have been torn when Hassan left, and he would never have heard of him again.

Amir was not a hateful person. He thought of himself as a coward. He gave into his fear, but ultimately, he wasn't a coward. He was so ashamed of himself that he took it out on the true victim - Hassan. He was angry at himself, and in way, he was punishing himself by refusing himself Hassan's friendship. He continued to hurt Hassan, which made his guilt worse, in a continuing downward spiral.

On the front cover, Isabel Allende is quoted as saying "Unforgettable ... extraordinary. It is so powerful that for a long time after, everything I read seemed bland". I agree, wholeheartedly. The next book I'll read will be by Isabel Allende

The Secret Life of Bees

I just finished reading The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd. It is a very endearing and touching story. But, having done the creative writing course, I am now much more aware of technique.

The pace of the story is too fast in the beginning, and gets bogged down in the middle. The story is very simply written. There is some lovely imagery, but in other places the language is too simple. I can see that the writer may have tried to keep it simple, since the main character is a teenage girl. However, the narrator is the girl looking back, so she's probably an adult and it need not have been so simple.

Lily is such a lonely child, with no friends, no mother, and a distant and cruel father. She has latched on to the memory of her mother, and her emotions are embattled. She is guilty because she thinks she killed her mother. She longs for her mother's love, because she feels so unloved and unloveable.

I believe her father's version of her mother's death. The gun accidentally discharged. I don't think that he took the gun off her and killed her mother. Although, I think he was relieved that she died. My opinion of Lily's father, T-Ray, changed at the end of the book, after we get a glimpse of the emotion he's holding back. He's so angry at Lily's mother for not loving him, for leaving him. He's turned bitter and angry at the world because of it. To begin with, he just seemed mean. By the end, you know that he wasn't always that way. I don't think he was abusive towards Lily's mother, I think Lily's mother developed depression and T-Ray was oblivious, or didn't know what to do. Men like to be able to fix things - maybe he felt like a failure because he couldn't make Lily's mother happy.

The book is also about race. I don't know much about the southern states of the USA and their racial issues, except what I've seen in movies and read in books. I don't understand the hatred and the segregation. I find it shocking. I like that Lily is so accepting of the Negros, although she also has her beliefs challenged because she didn't think they could be intelligent. I like that the Negros are equally as accepting of Lily, although they didn't have to be, and potentially could have been hurt by having Lily stay in their house. I love that Lily falls in love with Zach, who is black. She finally saw, through him, that their differences were only skin deep. They had even had a lot of the same experiences, because Lily had been bullied and persecuted by her peers.

The sisters have a beautiful relationship, and I think these characters make the novel. August is my favourite of the sisters. She is the person holding that family together. She is so calm. She is smart. She is obviously captivating, particularly with their unique religion, but she is still realistic about Black Madonna. She doesn't think that the statue is the be-all-and-end-all, but that Madonna is everywhere. The spirituality is lovely, and August combined her passion for honey and bees into her spirituality. She lives it everyday.

Nancy Wake: A Biography of our Greatest War Heroine

In keeping with my promise to myself to read widely, and hopefully this will help improve my writing, I just finished reading Nancy Wake's biography by Peter Fitzsimons.

Nancy is an incredible woman, and there's no taking anything away from her life or her story.

I knew nothing about Nancy Wake until I went to see Peter Fitzsimons speak in Wagga Wagga upon the release of his autobiography: 'A Simpler Time'. He's a great speaker, and I knew he'd written quite a few books on various wars. He talked about he book about Nancy Wake. So I bought it after he'd finished speaking, and had him autograph it for me.

Peter Fitzsimons used a lot of cliches in his autobiography. I had hoped his voice wouldn't be so strong in his book on Nancy Wake. Unfortunately, it was. He's got a very distinct writing style, and he makes serious situations seem humorous. Nancy came across as a very frivolous party-girl before the war, and perhaps a lot of the sayings that Peter Fitzsimons used were her own. But I sometimes felt that the language used made the events that Nancy went through trivial, which they definitely were not.

I admire Nancy. I admire her strength and determination. I admire her survival. I feel pity for her, that Australians didn't give her the recognition she felt she deserved, or that nothing in life lived up to war time after WWII. She didn't seem able to settle into normality again, although she was used to living a wealthy fast-paced life before the war. I hope she has found some peace since Peter Fitzsimons wrote this book.

I highly recommend this book, because I think every Australian should be aware of what Nancy Wake did. Just be prepared for Peter's seemingly light-heartedness in his writing style.

The Slap by Christos Tsiolkas

I didn’t realise this was an Australian author until I started reading - and it is based in Melbourne! I also didn’t realise that he’s written a couple of other very successful novels. I might look up his other books, given some time.

The lady in the Collins bookshop said that all the characters in the books were assholes, when I bought the book. She wasn’t wrong! They are nasty people. They are racists. They are drug users. They are unstable. I really hope that the internal dialogue that these characters have is not the norm amongst real people. It is shocking that people can be so hateful and dishonest with those around them.

The book has quite a lot of acclaims itself. It does battle some social issues, but it’s more like a character analysis - there’s no real story or direction to it - it’s just a look at a period of time through the eyes of a number of different people.

Overall, the The Slap made me angry. The only character that I felt any connection with was Connie - but it was because she was the only character that I pitied.

I didn't question Hector's initial response to Harry slapping Hugo. I always rolled my eyes and thought that Rosie was overacting, and that Gary was just using it as an excuse to be vindictive. It wasn't an assault. It was justified in the situation. I think it was just Harry's horrible character that was actually able to slap someone else's kid. It should have been Hugo's parents.

I hated that Rosie was still breastfeeding Hugo. He is old enough to remember breastfeeding when he gets older. He's old enough to speak in full sentences. He has teeth - that should be reason enough to stop.

Maybe The Slap questions the new-age conservatism, and over-the-top political correctness. It also portrays middle-class Australia as a very unhappy and unfulfilled group of people.

I'm just left feeling angry by this book, angry that the world could be exactly as it is portrayed in this book, and angry that we have let the world get this way.

To Kill A Mockingbird

As part of my Creative Writing course with the Sydney Writers' Centre, I had to reread To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee.

It really is a great piece of literature. Very subtle, because the narration is by a child. The girl Scout is a beautiful character - she is real, innocent, and so intelligent. But the events are a loss of innocence for Scout, and more so for her older brother, Jem. It is significant for Scout to look back on those years, but she did not have a full understanding at the time. Jem, who was just reaching puberty, experienced the trial through the eyes of a young man - I can only imagine how it shaped him in years to come. I hope he still became a lawyer, and wasn't disheartened.

It's the third time that I've read this book, and I have got something different from it each time I've read it. Having been a lawyer myself, for 4 years now, I could sympathise with Atticus Finch much better. Particularly when he never took on another criminal matter after Tom Robinson's trial. The justice system is soul destroying. Atticus believed in morality and justice. His views were advanced for his time and for the place his lived in.

The racism is shocking, and the class division is almost unthinkable - and it wasn't that long ago. The life in southern USA is shocking. But then I think of what the Aboriginals suffered in Australia, as recently as in my parents' life times. And the continuing inequality - are we that much different?

Prejudice and racial injustice - what would Atticus Finch think of us now? Would he be proud that so much has changed, or would he be disappointed that so little has changed?

The White Woman on the Green Bicycle

I just finished reading The White Woman on the Green Bicycle by Monique Roffey. This is one of the most touching stories I have read in a long time. The characters and the love story are unique and real. It's heartbreaking.

The book is split into 2 sections. The first half is based in Trinidad in 2006, when our main characters are 75 years of age, and have been in Trinidad for 50 years, since soon after they were married. The husband, George, decides that he has to make his wife love him again. He wants to make some grand gesture of how much his wife means to him - he wants to question the brutality of the black government. He ends up dying, however, and the wife seems to wake up from 40 years of depression and realises how much he meant to her, and how much time she had wasted. She goes out and commits a horrendous crime, seeing as she has nothing left to lose.

The book then jumps back in time to when the couple first arrived. The second half is based in the first person, with the wife, Sabine, as the narrator. It goes through their early years in Trinidad, establishing a family, establishing themselves, and Sabine's growing interest in the politics of the country, and her growing unease of being a white woman in a country that she thought hated her. It was a dangerous time, in the 60s and 70s. Sabine sinks into depression, and her love for her husband becomes hate.

The story is incredible. The characters, like I said, are so unique and alive. The writing is easy to read, and flows very well. The change for third person to first person is touching - like Sabine looking back on her life, when she knows the end is close. Brilliant.

Night Street - The Beginning

On 23 October 2010, I was staying with my parents in Canberra. We went to the National Library. In the bookshop there I bought Night Street by Kristel Thornell. It was the winner of the Vogel literary award in 2010. The main reason I bought it, though, was because there was a little sticker on the front cover for a competition to win $3,000 from Allen & Unwin, the publisher. The money had to be put towards creative writing courses and/or a manuscript assessment.

I won!!!

I have written short stories before, and have won the odd competition in local newspapers. I have written one novel, but it's still in its first draft and I hate it too much to do a second draft. I hate my own characters.

I've been too busy to write much in the last couple of years, but winning this competition is everything. I am motivated and inspired, and I have ideas gushing.

I am going to make the money stretch as far as possible.

The first course I'm doing started this week. A 5 week creative writing course through the Sydney Writer's Centre. So far, so good. Keep reading ...

Books I've read in 2010

Part of my goal to be a great writer is to read as much as possible, which I hope can only improve my writing. The books I read last year were:

• Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
• The Road by Cormac McCarthy
• The Time Traveller's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger 
• The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
• Girl with a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier
• The Other Boleyn Girl and its sequel The Boleyn Inheritance by Philippa Gregory
• Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey
• Cold Sassy Tree by Olive Ann Burns
• Life of Pi by Yann Martel
• The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
• The Black Dahlia by James Elroy
• Breath by Tim Winton
• Swallow the Air by Tara June Winch
• The Dressmaker by Rosalie Ham
• The Tea Rose and its sequel The Winter Rose by Jennifer Donnelley
• The Virgin Blue by Tracy Chevalier
• Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates
• Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones
• Mister God, This is Anna by Fynn
• A Simpler Time by Peter FitzSimons
• Daughters of Nazareth by Patricia Hughes
• The Quest by Wilbur Smith
• A Room At the Top by Heath Ducker
• Tokyo Year Zero by David Peace
• Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery
• Tuscan Rose by Belinda Alexandra
• Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
• The Millennium trilogy by Stieg Larsson 
• Down Under by Bill Bryson, and
• Night Street by Kristel Thornell

2010 was a wonderful year of reading, but I didn't achieve much writing!