A Thousand Splendid Suns

Perhaps the timing was rather peculiar, but an old part of me came for a visit yesterday after such a very long time. Yes, its the part that had a huge thing for NOVELS lol.

The kind that gets you eye-glued to the book that when you look at something else your head gets all whoozy lol,

the kind where you just can't let yourself put it down or the curiosity will haunt you like a ghoul,

the kind where the images of the words you've just read kept playing in your mind again and again that you tend to space out from the realness of reality lol.

I haven't been that way for awhile. Not until yesterday, when it came by and said hello.

Lingering i was at the bookstore, searching for a book to kill an hour and a half before the movie starts. Something nice that i could sit at the bench and read without having to find any other book. I did this recently, like a month ago, but that was due to the fact that the book was totally out of my budget and i decided to finish reading it there and then. It was a guide book on how to take care of hamsters btw lol. But this time, the situation is a bit different. So while i was browsing through the shelves for a book, I saw 'The Kite Runner'.

Many people have told me how good the book was, i even bought it once, but i was not able to finish it. Not even a chapter lol. Not because it was not good, but i guess i didn't really feel like reading at that time. The last time that i was really into novels was during matriculation, with the twilight series. That was four years ago. And then there's 'The Last Lecture' by Randy Pausch which was recommended by a friend of mine who's so into self-help books lol. The only reason i finished that book, tho, was not purely because of me wanting to finish it, but rather because i was stuck in the plane for quite a number of hours and i didn't have anything better to do (but its definitely a good book. It may not be my kind, but its alright hehe). This was last year, and after that, no more novels.

Next to the Kite Runner, was 'A Thousand Splendid Suns' by the same author who wrote The Kite Runner, and that was the book i held on to. I did pick out another one, which title i have forgotten lol, but it had a very antique map of the world as it's cover lol. With those two books, i found myself an empty wooden stool to sit on, and started with A Thousand Splendid Suns. I may not do it enough justice, but out of all the books that i have read, not one ever pictured such honesty and hardship as this novel did.

Before i knew it, an hour and a half passed by just like that, and i was at page 140. Glued to the book, i tell you. Simply. Glued. lol. But i had to leave for my movie. I never expected to buy a novel that evening, really. But this one, i had to. and i did.

I'm done with the book now, and i'm left with mixed feelings. Like how movies are projected, each of the author's words came to live and depict images i can make sense of. A tale that had no pinch of fakeness, and the emotions felt so real. One of a kind, this novel was, or else, it wouldn't have made me sat there for an hour and a half attended just to it, considering the years it took me with so many books to do just that. It wasn't just an hour and a half. It included my whole night and this morning as well lol I missed this :)

It may be a tale, but parts of it i believe do happen out there. How men treat women the way Rasheed did to his wives, the way Jalil did to Nana, how the beauty and simplicity of Islam is being misunderstood, how politics can ruin the nation, how greed and hunger for power ruin everything, all the sufferings, the separation, the sacrifices. Although the story may not be true, these things are true in other stories out there. And i've always wondered, humans are made to be equal. All the sufferings and happiness one feels, others will feel it, too, perhaps in other ways, but with the same impact. Now, how will i ever be able to cope with similar sufferings as to what these people had to go through? huhu At such a comfort zone we are in now, as we have the luxury to be in denial of major things that are happening out there, and instead making all these small misfortunes around us a huge matter that often makes us lose sight of the bigger fortunes we have, how will we ever cope? Can we ever cope?

"And to Allah belongs the east and the west. So wherever you [might] turn, there is the Face of Allah . Indeed, Allah is all-Encompassing and Knowing."
Al-Baqarah 2:115

:)