Living

<< Previous   of   Next >>   ADVERTISEMENT   CONTACT THE HERALD Melanie Munk, Features Editor munk@heraldnet.com   Published: Tuesday, July 24, 2007 Fiction opens a pathway to truth By Linda Bryant Smith, Herald Columnist L azy, hot days just call for a good book and a cold drink. I have books to read at the lake between dunks, books in the car in case we drive to Sammamish for a grandchild fix and books by the recliner when it's too hot to leave the house. My husband has perfected fishing and reading. Takes his gear, a lawn chair, book and thermos to a nearby lake shortly after sunrise. He's scoped out a place on the bank that's perfect: flat enough for his chair, shade from the bushes. Once his line is cast and his pole in the pole holder, he pours a cup of coffee and settles in with his book. If the bell on the holder signals a fish on, he sets the book aside long enough to see how serious the trout is about getting caught. Some mornings he comes home with fish for dinner and a finished book. If there are no fish, he's still had a perfect start to a summer day. He also does the reading-and-napping combo in the reclining lawn chair on the patio effectively almost every afternoon. Is this a good life or what? I can remember being "hungry" to read as a kid. There never was enough time to get through all the books I brought home from the library because "chores" got in the way. Now I assign myself books first and chores second. The bonus of being retired is that you can read anytime and almost anywhere you choose. And it is in selective choosing that we move beyond the easy summertime mind candy of mysteries and beach-time bodice rippers to serious books about the world in which we live. It was in my more serious mode that I read two riveting books by Khaled Hosseini, currently U.S. envoy to the United Nations Refugee Agency. Born in Kabul, Afghanistan, he moved the United States 27 years ago. Both "Kite Runner" and "A Thousand Splendid Suns" are rooted in the history and culture of Afghanistan. This is a country we should all know more about. We've sent men and women in our armed forces there to fight and die in the name of freedom from the violent, oppressive rule of the Taliban. Before that, the country was invaded by the Soviet communist regime, no bunch of sweethearts, either. You and I live in a country where our freedoms are sometimes taken for granted. We travel through our country without barriers, our children are well educated, we have excellent medical care, we go to any church we choose or not. We revel in our "pursuit of happiness." Life under the Taliban, where women and children had no rights other than those granted by their "masters," is hard to fathom. And yet, the lives of women, especially, were harsh at best and grim beyond imagination when the Taliban controlled Afghanistan. Imagine a city the size of Seattle with only one hospital open to women. And this hospital is overcrowded, unheated, filthy and without antibiotics or anesthetics for a woman undergoing a Caesarean section to save her life and the life of her unborn infant. Or, being sold to a man in marriage and then having him add a new wife, against her will, and relegate you to her servant. Then, beating and raping you both at will to maintain "order" in his home. The story of these women runs through "A Thousand Splendid Suns." Ultimately, it is also a story of courage, survival and a future being shaped with the help of America and its allies. "Kite Runner," Hosseini's first book, has been on bestseller lists for the last two years. Again, it shows an Afghanistan far different than what we see in brief television clips and news specials. There were great universities and schools open to men and women, hospitals with skilled doctors and medical researchers. There were people with great wealth, a middle class and a servant class. All treasured the country's rich history and culture. Children were loved and treated with great care. And, they had glimpsed and adopted bits and pieces of our popular culture. Before the Soviet invasion and then the Taliban's rule, American movies like "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" and westerns starring our childhood heros, Roy Rogers and Gene Autry, were Saturday matinee favorites. In reading both of these books, I was reminded once more of a quote from prize-winning author Philip Roth: "Fiction is the lie that tells the truth." Housseini's words, although presented in the form of fiction, are now implicit to the lens through which I view news from that war-torn country. And that's what a really good book does ... offers new insight into our world, entertains, exposes, educates and then opens the door to let another book come in to do the same. So pass me a cold glass of iced tea ... I have a bit of mind candy for this afternoon, a mystery by my favorite Southern author, James Lee Burke. Linda Bryant Smith writes about life as a senior citizen and the issues that concern, annoy and often irritate the heck out of her now that she lives in a world where nothing is ever truly fixed but her income. You can e-mail her at ljbryantsmith@ yahoo.com.

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