The Kite Runner: Movie Preview

Hollywood is in a turmoil today. Movies they spit out are more like bank notes moving millions of dollars from hand-to-hand, hoping the check doesn't bounce. Granted, some films from the year 2000 to the present have been excellent, award-winning pieces of movie history, while others have been bigger flops than Hercules vs. the Moon Men; and that is a hard act to follow! Now we have another film coming out in mid December: The Kite Runner. Yes, you've heard right, if you haven't already known, the Kite Runner is going to become a major motion picture in theaters released this month. Hollywood is using hype by getting publishers to put out an illustrated copy of the book, in hopes that this will boost enthusiasm, if not boost the sale of novels again. Khaled Hossinni gets much press on this blog, but do not think for a moment I believe this movie is going to be an automatic Oscar-winning performance. Not that the Oscar are important to me, it's just that I have some hope that you have to at least have a decent movie to be in the running (no pun intended).

Image of Kite Runner Movie Poster, and cover of the newest edition of the Kite Runner novel. Image from http://www.steadywinds.com/exhibitimages/kiterunner/kite_runner.jpg

The Kite Runner will be directed by Marc Forster, director of Stranger Than Fiction, Finding Neverland, and Monster's Ball.
A link to the trailer can be found below, uploaded to youtube.com.

The trailer gives you an idea of the making of a great film, but seems to focus on the Taliban a tad too much, and may very well become a political statement, rather than what the novel was based upon: redemption, forgiveness, friendship, and betrayal. Not much more can be said about this upcoming release, but I promise a full-page review of how I honestly felt about the movie when it hits theaters December 14th. the official movie site has links to what the press feels about the film, including: Vanity Fair, Roger Ebert.com, and Variety. .
Keep surfing the web for more information about this and other films set to be released in the upcoming year, and be sure to check back to Malacast Editorial for further updates. As always thank you again for your support, and be sure to comment on how the site is doing to provide you with the up-to-date information on the things that make you click.

"A Thousand Splendid Suns" Review

"A Thousand Splendid Suns" was a huge surprise, as it was suppose to be nanmed "Dreaming in Titanic City" so I worried about the next Hossieni novel, when I saw this, I thought he released one, and went on to the next. Luckily it was not that I was being left behind, but rather I was right on time for the next installment in Khaled Hossieni's stories about Afghanistan.
Now, I have a love for this author's work. Hossieni's style truly makes you appreciate the fact that some authors do in fact have a talent in this world today/ Hossieni is an instand modern classic, and I would not be shocked if his works are even used as required reqading in some colleges and high schools about the country.
The novel, " A Thousand Splendid Suns" is about two women whos' lives are intervened by tragedy and harship. Mariam and Lalia find themselves under the smae roof, and married to the same husband through a twist of fate that forces them both to learn to deal with each other's prescence. The novel has four parts: the first part is told through the perspective of Mariam, from a little child up to her marriage with her cruel husband, Rasheed. SPOILER WARNING: The sory of Mariam takes the worst turn when her mother commits suicide, and she goes off to live with her father, Jalil. Her father treats her well, but at the same times, acts like she is not his daughter, since she is a hamrami, or a "bastard". This in turn, leads to her farther making her sleep one night out on the street. Since her p[rescence prings forthh shame to Jalil's family, she is soon married off to Rasheed, who is a shoemaker in Kabul. Since Mariam has lived in a kolba most of her life, near the city of Herat, she does not want to be married off at the age of 15 to a man of around 45, more than twice her age. With the climax of the first part of the novel over, we are then introduced to Lalia in the second part of the book.
Lalia grew up in Kabul, and was a trtacted to her childhood friend, Tajik. Tarjik had an amputated leg, and need a prostehtic one to walk around. Due to beign the victim of a mine, like many other children in that era. Tajik was highly protective of his friend, Lalia, and even would threaten the bullies that picked on her in school. Lalia came from a background of an educated, but considerably soft father, and a mother that was like a comatose victim, ever since her two songs went off to fight the Soviets in the jihad (Holy War). Lalia by horrible misforutnes becomes Rasheed's second wife, to find out more, you'll have to read the novel.
The third part of the novel switches between the persepctives of the two wives, which shows their contrasting views, and Lalia's immaturity, and Mariam's aged wisdom. The story progresses much in this part of the story, leading into the amazing climax. END SPOILER
The novel goes through a lot of time, pretty fast, as the story starts out in the mid sixites, and finishes around 2003. So about forty years of times passes through this novel. The novel flows well, and Hosseini makes the literature come to life with not only a lot of descirption, but the imagery and symbolism is perhaps better than was in his first novel, "The Kite Runner". Not much more can be said about this book is positive, since there are so many things that specifcially make this story show Hosseini's talent as a storyteller, but ther are some very molecular flaws that I have noticed. The main issue that I had with the story, was that some of the words used in Fashi did not have an English word to describe its meaning. Unless i missed it, I could not see what the word hamshira meant, but again, such a minor issue, that google can help you decipher.

"A Thousand Splendid Suns" Preview

For those of you who are like myself, and are behind with their book reading, I have a gem that needs really no preview/review to tell you it will be good. Originally titled "Dreaming in Titantic City", Khaled Hosseini has made another novel to follow-up his 2003 masterpiece "The Kite Runner" (which if you are a long-time reader, have known that I have taken much liking to that book, and that it was awe-inspiring. I even accredit it with inspiring me to write my second full-length novel.).
The book was released May 22, 2007, and has seemed to go underneath the radar for the last month or so. "A Thousand Splendid Suns" is about two Afghani women from two different areas/cultures in Afghanistan. Amazon.com has a full review, and synopsis of this novel. One of the women is from the city, the other from the country, and the book seems to follow a path of these two encountering two different worlds. I knnow not much of their personalities yet, nor of their history. I do not even know the names of these two women yet, but once I finish the book, I promise to have a full review. I will also be giving a special review of a Marquis De Sade novel entitled: "Philosophy in the Bedroom". Return soon for more updates, which shall be much more frequently than usual. I do plan to update at least three times a day with new information, and reviews, preview, and updates as the summer goes on. Please tell friends about the Malacast Editorial, the more support, the more frequent will be the posts. I appreciate the support, and thank you again for reading the Malacast Editorial.

Image from http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/05/29/arts/Book-Kaku.jpg. This book should be on everyone's wish list, and will amke the perfect summer read. Every year, I look for that summer book that needs to be read, and this year; I have found "A Thousand Splendid Suns". I highly recommend this book, along with "The Kite Runner" if you have not read that one either. Buy both books, and you will have your first half of the summer set. These books will keep you up longer than you want to be, and make you wake up earlier to get a few chapeters in before work. Do yourself a favor, and read Khaled Hosseini's works, they are modern classics, and beautiful prose, something that you only find once or twice in a generation.
Hosseini has found the elements of human power, and put the classics themes into the novel for our generation to read. Do yourself a favor, and pick up this man's work, I cannot vent how much these dramas can penetrate the heart, and inspire all of us to write like a laurette.

The Kite Runner...Awe is not a strong enough word

Here it is, the book review of "The Kite Runner". This novel was written by Khaled Hosseini, author of the upcoming book; "Dreaming in Titanic City" scheduled for release in the summer of 2006.
This novel is by far the best book I have read this year, and I have read several already. This could also be one of the best books I have read in the last decade. No book has touched on our modern years as this one has; it is an instant classic that my children may one day be required to read in high school. This book does what not many others have been able to do, and that is use irony on the level that Hosseini has done. This book has opened up worlds of thought to its reader, and makes you look deeper into the specific events that lead towards the realistic resolution. As this book puts it, what is a happy ending anyway? Is not suffering a way of life? Is it not seen throughout the years?
The lead character Amir is the focus of this novel, and he is also the narrator. His life journey with his dearest friend Hassan is what starts off the novel's epic storyline. Amir and Hassan participate in a contest that happens every winter when school is closed which involves kites. The object is to cut the kites using string with sharp glass, and be the last kite in the sky. Every year tey look forward to this event, but only in 1975 does Amir wiin this contest. When the last kite, a big blue one, tries to take down Amir's, he usses a tactic, and brings it down, then the "kite runner" who in this case, is Hassan, runs out to catch the kite that has just been defeated. He is very good at this, and says the lines that become the loss of innocence of Amir's childhood: "For you, a thousand times over."
After an hour or so, Amir starts to worry, because he knows that Hassan can run a kite better than anyone, and should have returned, so he hunts him down to see that he has found the kite, but he also ran into trouble. Assef, the bully of the town, who due to a prior confrontation with Hassan was furious due to a slingshot shot to the head, beats up Hassan, and rapes him in front of Amir; who stands too frightened to help his most beloved friend.
After this horrific act we are forwarded to America where Amir, and Baba have been forced to go, due to uprising in Afghanistan, and thus the story unfolds, with the greatest elements of tragedy in human nature: fear, regret, revenge, and the inevitable cycle of karma that can brandish someone with mental and physcical pain.


Picture from:
http://www.onebooktwovillages.org/images/KiteRunner.jpg

This book will move you, it has to move you in some way; but no matter what, you will have a reaction to the power of this great novel. I know I cut a lot of slack for books (excluding Hemingway, of course.) but this book turly deserves all the awrds it has won, and deserves the respect of every proclaimed reader to be bought, and put on the shelf. This book has made me want to learn more about this culture that few do know about. I want to understand what made the Afghans take up Hazzaras slaves, I want to know how Afghanistan has become ruled by tyranny, when they were once peaceful and plentiful with common freedoms. This book will make you want to leran more, if not yearn for understanding of these people, and how this country has came to be how it is today.
Do yourself a huge favor, if you want to read a great book, something better than everything out now, and you have not read this book, then pick it up, sink your teeth into the pages, and devor every last letter printed on that page.