Thursday, June 14, 2007

Light in the Darkness in the Light

Of what I've read so far in 2007, I'd highlight 2 books with striking differences and similarities.


The first one is "Kite Runner", by Khaled Rosseini. Not a very exciting story, to be honest, with some decisions that I would reconsider if I were the author, to say the least. But beautiful, very beautiful. It is lyric, it is amazingly well written, and it is profoundly human. If I had a little more self confidence, I'd confess that my eyes were edged with tears in two different parts of the story.


The second is a masterpiece. Not on literature, but on the human condition. Ishmael Beah was only a young kid back in Sierra Leone, in the nineties, when civil war tore the country apart. He leverages on his photographic memory to narrate, in "Long Way Gone", his experience as an orphan on the run, then corrupted by the forces of the government into becoming a doped combatant, and then rescued back to humanity by the UNICEF. It is so inspiring and powerful that is one of those stories that actually change your view of life. He's been recently touring the book in the US and Canada, and there are some interesting interviews (I'd highlight http://www.cbc.ca/thehour/video.php?id=1538, for a canadian channel) with what appears to be an honest hindsight.
What is so amazing about the story is that there is no right, only wrongs, there is no redemption, only some sort of salvation, there is a bitter somewhat happy end, but there is a strong and remarkable 101 on very raw human relations.

The first book mimics reality superbly (ok, not as much on the plot, but mostly on the characters).

The second book is on a reality so strikingly harsh, that it's like it's flirting with fiction.

Two great books for this first semester. No wonder I've been reading John Grisham in the last couple of weeks (The Broker and The Last Jurors). My mind needs rest from so much humanity.

2 comments:

Iara Alencar said...

ola
voce é breno do jogo aberto??
eu sou a iara.

Emerson said...

"O caçador de pipas" foi um de nossos presentes de Natal para a Carolina, nossa filha, que andava com muita vontade de le-lo, mas, como de hábito, ficou esperando que eu comprasse. Ela leu e adorou, assim como seu marido.

Agora o livro veio pra casa e está no meio dos que ando lendo. Dei uma parada, mas já avancei o bastante para concordar contigo.

É um livro bonito, sensível, bem escrito e vem com essas qualidades de um lugar que o senso comum, não, de um lugar do qual o desconhecimento só nos permite esperar budas destruídos e ignorância.

"Kitte runner", atrevo-me a dizer, é uma boa mostra do quão bem já se escreveu e ainda se consegue escrever em lugares em que a literatura já era uma realidade quando nós, no Ocidente, ainda batíamo-nos com as trevas da Idade Média e da Inquisição.

Não li ainda o livro da jornalista escandinava "O livreiro de Cabul", mas, de antemão, acredito que pelo menos em parte o livreiro tem razão em suas queixas, agora expostas no "Eu sou o livreiro de Cabul".

Boas intenções podem ser um perigo.

Começou bem a sessão literária, Breno.