Have you ever done someone wrong and wished if you could get a second chance to correct it?
"Hassan and I fed from the same breasts. We took our first steps on the same lawn in the same yard. And, under the same roof, we spoke our first words.Mine was Baba. His was Amir. My name."
With love :)
Happy Reading!
Quotes
- For you, a thousand times over
- What happens in a few days, sometimes even a single day can change the course of a whole lifetime
- It's wrong what they say about the past, I've learned the way to bury it. Because the past claws its way out
- And that's the thing about people who mean everything they say, they think everyone else does too
- I opened my mouth, almost said something. Almost. The rest of my life might have turned out differently if I had
- I didn't remember what month that was, or what year even. I only knew the memory lived in me, a perfect encapsulated morsel of a good past, a brushstroke of a color on the gray, barren canvas that our lives had become.
- Children aren't coloring books. You don't get to fill them with your favorite colors
- When you kill a man, you steal a life. You steal a wife's right to a husband, rob his children of a father. When you tell a lie, you steal someone's right to the truth. When you cheat, you steal the right to fairness. There is no act more wretched than stealing
- I would walk by, pretending not to know her, but dying to
- It turned out that, like satan, cancer had many names
- Every woman needed a husband, even if he did silence the song in her
-The first time I saw the Pacific, I almost cried
-Proud. His eyes gleamed when he said that and I liked being on the receiving end of that look
- Go slowly, my lovely moon, go slowly...Let the morning sun forget to rise in the East,
Go slowly, lovely moon, go slowly.
- Not a word passes between us, not because we have nothing to say, but because we don't have to say anything
- War doesn't negate decency. It demands it, even more than in times of peace
- I'm so afraid. Because I'm so profoundly happy. Happiness like this is frightening...They only let you this happy if they're preparing to take something from you
-It's wrong to hurt even bad people. Because they don't know any better, and because bad people sometimes become good
-Hassan returned the smile. Except his didn’t look forced. And that’s the thing about people who mean everything they say. They think everyone else does too
Life gives you many chances at that very moment to redeem yourself but once you were able to come out of the discomfort zone of the righteousness- chances are high that you would be comfortable in the easier zone of lies, betrayal and deception. Contrary to it, the book depicts the story of Amir and his redemption. The ending was dramatic and at a point, I didn't want Amir to come out of his guilt - howsoever!
Book starts with two friends Amir and Hassan based out of Afghanistan in and around 1970's. Amir belongs to a wealthy family and Hassan is the son of a servant in Amir's family. Hassan idolizes Amir and Amir idolizes his father.
Tables are turned the moment Amir is put on a test in an incident and he fails to survive it with a clear conscience. From that moment till he leaves Afghanistan, he goes on to commit one sin after the other to hide his previous acts.
Hosseini started off pretty well, left me numb at a point but by the end I realized it's another tale of trying too hard to make a hero out of a character who defines nothingness so well.
To Hosseini,
In real life, nobody walks up to you to correct their wrongdoings. Somewhere between the right and wrong - one has to find the peace. Book would have been more realistic if Amir had found peace by accepting the things and crying his heart out to his father.
With love :)
Book was a little disturbing in the beginning but I started enjoying rather mundane affairs of son and father in the later pages. Hosseini has put together a moving tale of relationships - be it father and son, servant and master or childhood friends. It was unnerving at times to see a childhood scarred by a moment of cowardness.
Overall, a very good one time read -Though a little disturbing as it is set in a war torn country and covers the most taboo topic of sexual abuse in everyday's life but I remember while reading it, I loved chemistry of Amir and his father in US so much that I ended up gifting it to two of my very close friends.
Happy Reading!
Quotes
- For you, a thousand times over
- What happens in a few days, sometimes even a single day can change the course of a whole lifetime
- It's wrong what they say about the past, I've learned the way to bury it. Because the past claws its way out
-He knew I'd seen everything in that alley, that I'd stood there and done nothing. He knew that I'd betrayed him and yet he was rescuing me once again, maybe for the last time
- And that's the thing about people who mean everything they say, they think everyone else does too
- I opened my mouth, almost said something. Almost. The rest of my life might have turned out differently if I had
- I didn't remember what month that was, or what year even. I only knew the memory lived in me, a perfect encapsulated morsel of a good past, a brushstroke of a color on the gray, barren canvas that our lives had become.
- Children aren't coloring books. You don't get to fill them with your favorite colors
- When you kill a man, you steal a life. You steal a wife's right to a husband, rob his children of a father. When you tell a lie, you steal someone's right to the truth. When you cheat, you steal the right to fairness. There is no act more wretched than stealing
- I would walk by, pretending not to know her, but dying to
- It turned out that, like satan, cancer had many names
- Every woman needed a husband, even if he did silence the song in her
-The first time I saw the Pacific, I almost cried
-Proud. His eyes gleamed when he said that and I liked being on the receiving end of that look
- Go slowly, my lovely moon, go slowly...Let the morning sun forget to rise in the East,
Go slowly, lovely moon, go slowly.
- All my life, I'd been around men. That night, I discovered the tenderness of a woman
- And I could almost feel the emptiness in [her] womb, like it was a living, breathing thing. It had seeped into our marriage, that emptiness, into our laughs, and our lovemaking. And late at night, in the darkness of our room, I'd feel it rising from [her] and settling between us. Sleeping between us. Like a newborn child
-Every day I thank [God] that I am alive, not because I fear death, but because my wife has a husband and my son is not an orphan
- Sometimes the dead are luckier
- He walked like he was afraid to leave behind footprints
- when she locked her arms around my neck, when I smelled apples in her hair, I realized how much I had missed her. 'You're still the morning sun to me...' I whispered
- Not a word passes between us, not because we have nothing to say, but because we don't have to say anything
- I'm so afraid. Because I'm so profoundly happy. Happiness like this is frightening...They only let you this happy if they're preparing to take something from you
-It's wrong to hurt even bad people. Because they don't know any better, and because bad people sometimes become good
-Hassan returned the smile. Except his didn’t look forced. And that’s the thing about people who mean everything they say. They think everyone else does too
-There is a God, there always has been. I see him here, in the eyes of the people in this [hospital] corridor of desperation. This is the real house of God, this is where those who have lost God will find Him... there is a God, there has to be, and now I will pray, I will pray that He will forgive that I have neglected Him all of these years, forgive that I have betrayed, lied, and sinned with impunity only to turn to Him now in my hour of need. I pray that He is as merciful, benevolent, and gracious as His book says He is.
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