t’s father, I thought that the protagonist would be fighting the Russians. Everything indicated that his father would lead in that direction. It turned out that the lower class did the fighting and the upper class immigrated to other countries.

The Afghanistan rich became the American poor who struggled to earn money by selling yard sale junk in flea markets on the weekends and working long hours in mundane jobs during the week.

Whether in America or Afghanistan, the family rigidity and structure were maintained. The double standard for men and women was strong. The since of being, knowing your ancestors, your class, was not lost. Being poor did not make you a member of the “poor” class. That anomaly bothered no one.

In the end, it turns out that the poor boy---

Wait, the author just chimed in: For gosh sakes, don’t reveal the story!

Well, here is your second assignment; read The Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allan Po

I just finished reading The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. It was a gift from my oldest granddaughter who is in graduate school in Michigan.

I don’t read many novels anymore. I tend to read nonfiction. Occasionally I will grab one of my novels and sit down and read it and wonder where in all creation all the stuff came from.

My last novel reading binge was in 1956 when I lived on a remote lake in Massachusetts and there was nothing to do but fish and read. Every night and on most weekends, that’s exactly what I did. I didn’t catch many fish but I did read about a zillion novels provided by I don’t know who.

None of these novels were classics. They were the humdrum that is produced continually in our country and none of them were memorable. They fulfilled one of the basics of novels; they told a story. Each of these stories could have been told as a short story if the story was more poignant and interesting; great stuff for romance magazines.

I read The Hunt for Red October, The Day of the Jackal, Hawaii and other such novels. Clancy became boring as had Michener before him and I didn’t have the stomach for Jurassic Park and such. You can tell if an action novel is written to become a movie so I wait for the movie.

The Kite Runner is both poignant and interesting. Too many things complex the story to keep it short; there are 371 pages. The story is written in the first person so that the writer can show the childhood cowardice of the protagonist. (The protagonist in a novel is the main character.) As an adult the protagonist gains courage, first because it is forced upon him, and then by his own determination. That’s the stuff that good novels are made of; action is only a backdrop to what’s going on in the mind and heart of the protagonist.

The thing that interested me in this novel is the setting. It occurs in Afghanistan, Pakistan, the United States, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and then back in the United States.

You see rich boy, poor boy playing together in Afghanistan before the war. Then you see the life of refugees from Afghanistan in the United States followed by life in Afghanistan under the Taliban.

People suffer and die and life is never the same after that.

Setting is the background descriptions of the environment where the action takes place. Action is what the characters in the novel do. It might be sleeping on the couch or riding a bronco. Setting is the couch and the rodeo arena. People do not sit quietly on their hands when watching a cowpoke ride a bronco.

Details of setting must be controlled according to their importance. Too much detail turns what could be interesting facts into endless diatribe.

An author can succeed or fail according to how well he handles the setting. The setting must contribute to interest and sympathy and help unfold the string of events that make up the novel. Weed growing in the garden can indicate the passing of time.

Here is what Robert Louis Stevenson said, “You may take a certain atmosphere and get action and persons to express and realize it. I’ll give you an example–The Merry Men. There I began with the feeling of one of those islands on the west coast of Scotland, and I gradually developed the story to express the sentiment with which that coast affected me.” Read this story at http://gaslight.mtroyal.ca/merrymen.htm. That’s your first assignment.

The Kite Runner reveals harsh times, sometimes brutal. Afghanistan is tough country. High elevations and harsh winters can bring misery. But the real harshness and misery comes from the Russians, followed by the revolutionists that took place when the Russians left, and finally, horror of horrors, the Taliban.

At the first of the novel, noting the toughness of the protagonist’s father, I thought that the protagonist would be fighting the Russians. Everything indicated that his father would lead in that direction. It turned out that the lower class did the fighting and the upper class immigrated to other countries.

The Afghanistan rich became the American poor who struggled to earn money by selling yard sale junk in flea markets on the weekends and working long hours in mundane jobs during the week.

Whether in America or Afghanistan, the family rigidity and structure were maintained. The double standard for men and women was strong. The since of being, knowing your ancestors, your class, was not lost. Being poor did not make you a member of the “poor” class. That anomaly bothered no one.

In the end, it turns out that the poor boy---

Wait, the author just chimed in: For gosh sakes, don’t reveal the story!

Well, here is your second assignment; read The Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allan Poe

azines.

I read The Hunt for Red October, The Day of the Jackal, Hawaii and other such novels. Clancy became boring as had Michener before him and I didn’t have the stomach for Jurassic Park and such. You can tell if an action novel is written to become a movie so I wait for the movie.

The Kite Runner is both poignant and interesting. Too many things complex the story to keep it short; there are 371 pages. The story is written in the first person so that the writer can show the childhood cowardice of the protagonist. (The protagonist in a novel is the main character.) As an adult the protagonist gains courage, first because it is forced upon him, and then by his own determination. That’s the stuff that good novels are made of; action is only a backdrop to what’s going on in the mind and heart of the protagonist.

The thing that interested me in this novel is the setting. It occurs in Afghanistan, Pakistan, the United States, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and then back in the United States.

You see rich boy, poor boy playing together in Afghanistan before the war. Then you see the life of refugees from Afghanistan in the United States followed by life in Afghanistan under the Taliban.

People suffer and die and life is never the same after that.

Setting is the background descriptions of the environment where the action takes place. Action is what the characters in the novel do. It might be sleeping on the couch or riding a bronco. Setting is the couch and the rodeo arena. People do not sit quietly on their hands when watching a cowpoke ride a bronco.

Details of setting must be controlled according to their importance. Too much detail turns what could be interesting facts into endless diatribe.

An author can succeed or fail according to how well he handles the setting. The setting must contribute to interest and sympathy and help unfold the string of events that make up the novel. Weed growing in the garden can indicate the passing of time.

Here is what Robert Louis Stevenson said, “You may take a certain atmosphere and get action and persons to express and realize it. I’ll give you an example–The Merry Men. There I began with the feeling of one of those islands on the west coast of Scotland, and I gradually developed the story to express the sentiment with which that coast affected me.” Read this story at http://gaslight.mtroyal.ca/merrymen.htm. That’s your first assignment.

The Kite Runner reveals harsh times, sometimes brutal. Afghanistan is tough country. High elevations and harsh winters can bring misery. But the real harshness and misery comes from the Russians, followed by the revolutionists that took place when the Russians left, and finally, horror of horrors, the Taliban.

At the first of the novel, noting the toughness of the protagonist’s father, I thought that the protagonist would be fighting the Russians. Everything indicated that his father would lead in that direction. It turned out that the lower class did the fighting and the upper class immigrated to other countries.

The Afghanistan rich became the American poor who struggled to earn money by selling yard sale junk in flea markets on the weekends and working long hours in mundane jobs during the week.

Whether in America or Afghanistan, the family rigidity and structure were maintained. The double standard for men and women was strong. The since of being, knowing your ancestors, your class, was not lost. Being poor did not make you a member of the “poor” class. That anomaly bothered no one.

In the end, it turns out that the poor boy---

Wait, the author just chimed in: For gosh sakes, don’t reveal the story!

Well, here is your second assignment; read The Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allan Po

States, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and then back in the United States.

You see rich boy, poor boy playing together in Afghanistan before the war. Then you see the life of refugees from Afghanistan in the United States followed by life in Afghanistan under the Taliban.

People suffer and die and life is never the same after that.

Setting is the background descriptions of the environment where the action takes place. Action is what the characters in the novel do. It might be sleeping on the couch or riding a bronco. Setting is the couch and the rodeo arena. People do not sit quietly on their hands when watching a cowpoke ride a bronco.

Details of setting must be controlled according to their importance. Too much detail turns what could be interesting facts into endless diatribe.

An author can succeed or fail according to how well he handles the setting. The setting must contribute to interest and sympathy and help unfold the string of events that make up the novel. Weed growing in the garden can indicate the passing of time.

Here is what Robert Louis Stevenson said, “You may take a certain atmosphere and get action and persons to express and realize it. I’ll give you an example–The Merry Men. There I began with the feeling of one of those islands on the west coast of Scotland, and I gradually developed the story to express the sentiment with which that coast affected me.” Read this story at http://gaslight.mtroyal.ca/merrymen.htm. That’s your first assignment.

The Kite Runner reveals harsh times, sometimes brutal. Afghanistan is tough country. High elevations and harsh winters can bring misery. But the real harshness and misery comes from the Russians, followed by the revolutionists that took place when the Russians left, and finally, horror of horrors, the Taliban.

At the first of the novel, noting the toughness of the protagonist’s father, I thought that the protagonist would be fighting the Russians. Everything indicated that his father would lead in that direction. It turned out that the lower class did the fighting and the upper class immigrated to other countries.

The Afghanistan rich became the American poor who struggled to earn money by selling yard sale junk in flea markets on the weekends and working long hours in mundane jobs during the week.

Whether in America or Afghanistan, the family rigidity and structure were maintained. The double standard for men and women was strong. The since of being, knowing your ancestors, your class, was not lost. Being poor did not make you a member of the “poor” class. That anomaly bothered no one.

In the end, it turns out that the poor boy---

Wait, the author just chimed in: For gosh sakes, don’t reveal the story!

Well, here is your second assignment; read The Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allan Po

nd help unfold the string of events that make up the novel. Weed growing in the garden can indicate the passing of time.

Here is what Robert Louis Stevenson said, “You may take a certain atmosphere and get action and persons to express and realize it. I’ll give you an example–The Merry Men. There I began with the feeling of one of those islands on the west coast of Scotland, and I gradually developed the story to express the sentiment with which that coast affected me.” Read this story at http://gaslight.mtroyal.ca/merrymen.htm. That’s your first assignment.

The Kite Runner reveals harsh times, sometimes brutal. Afghanistan is tough country. High elevations and harsh winters can bring misery. But the real harshness and misery comes from the Russians, followed by the revolutionists that took place when the Russians left, and finally, horror of horrors, the Taliban.

At the first of the novel, noting the toughness of the protagonist’s father, I thought that the protagonist would be fighting the Russians. Everything indicated that his father would lead in that direction. It turned out that the lower class did the fighting and the upper class immigrated to other countries.

The Afghanistan rich became the American poor who struggled to earn money by selling yard sale junk in flea markets on the weekends and working long hours in mundane jobs during the week.

Whether in America or Afghanistan, the family rigidity and structure were maintained. The double standard for men and women was strong. The since of being, knowing your ancestors, your class, was not lost. Being poor did not make you a member of the “poor” class. That anomaly bothered no one.

In the end, it turns out that the poor boy---

Wait, the author just chimed in: For gosh sakes, don’t reveal the story!

Well, here is your second assignment; read The Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allan Po

t’s father, I thought that the protagonist would be fighting the Russians. Everything indicated that his father would lead in that direction. It turned out that the lower class did the fighting and the upper class immigrated to other countries.

The Afghanistan rich became the American poor who struggled to earn money by selling yard sale junk in flea markets on the weekends and working long hours in mundane jobs during the week.

Whether in America or Afghanistan, the family rigidity and structure were maintained. The double standard for men and women was strong. The since of being, knowing your ancestors, your class, was not lost. Being poor did not make you a member of the “poor” class. That anomaly bothered no one.

In the end, it turns out that the poor boy---

Wait, the author just chimed in: For gosh sakes, don’t reveal the story!

Well, here is your second assignment; read The Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allan Poe. You will find it at http://bau2.uibk.ac.at/sg/poe/works/cask_amo.html.

The End