Title: The Attack
Author: Yasmina Khadra
Did I like it: I liked it but may not read it again for a while.
Should you read it: I'd say its definitely worth checking out, but probably not as your first book in a year.
Synopsis: A terrorist attack sends many victims, including Dr. Jaafari's wife, to the hospital where he is a surgeon. Shortly after realizing that his wife is dead, he is told that she is the prime suspect in the attack. Cue depression.
Author: Yasmina Khadra
Did I like it: I liked it but may not read it again for a while.
Should you read it: I'd say its definitely worth checking out, but probably not as your first book in a year.
Synopsis: A terrorist attack sends many victims, including Dr. Jaafari's wife, to the hospital where he is a surgeon. Shortly after realizing that his wife is dead, he is told that she is the prime suspect in the attack. Cue depression.
This book was written very well. I folded page corners throughout the book whenever I found a particularly wonderful sentence. Here are a few:
"With a movement of her chin, she directs me to the living room, where a wicker chair and a worn old leather armchair are staring daggers at each other."
"By now her cigarette's just a twig of ashes suspended in the air."
"In Jenin, Reason has a mouth full of broken teeth, and it rejects any prosthesis capable of giving it back its smile."
This book was interesting because it narrated a side to the mess in the middle east that I personally don't encounter very often. To be honest though, I don't really keep up with the news. I'm generally far more interested in Tuesday's Science Times than in the front section of the paper any day of the week. In that regard while the new perspective was intriguing, in some ways reading this book felt like work (or, as my mind puts it, like school). I read to have fun, to relax, to be peaceful and quiet, and (cliche I know) sometimes to escape from parts of my life. This book didn't really allow me to do that, so I probably won't read it again until I go literary (which does happen some times). I did like it though, and would recommend it to the right type of person.
And now a story about how I got this book that you don't need to read because its not really relevant but that I think deserves to go here anyway. I took a year off school before entering college. One of the things I did that year was work part time at a Borders in D.C. I loved that job. At the time I didn't have very much to compare it to, and while I still haven't done much job-wise, it remains my favorite job with lots of fond memories. The work was alright, but the people I worked with are really what made the experience what it was.
I didn't buy so many books that year because we were allowed to "check out" the books in the store as if it was a library, but I decided that I was going to make the most of my employee discount while I had it and buy a bunch of books right before I left for school. I asked a lot of people for suggestions and wandered around the store for a while with a V-cart picking out books I liked. I don't remember exactly how many books I got or how much I spent, but I do remember that I definitely needed the V-cart because I couldn't carry them all at once, and that getting home that night wasn't easy.
I've since read all the other books I got that night, "The Attack" is the last one. It still has the Borders sticker on it which tells me that it was printed on April 30th, 2007, and the triangular 3 for 2 sticker that I probably put on the book myself. A close friend who was one of my coworkers at the bookstore at the time recommended it to me. Recently Borders declared bankruptcy and the store I worked at is closing. I think its sort of appropriate for me to be finishing the last of those books now as the store is being liquidated. I'm sad to see the store closing and hopeful that my friends who are still there will find new jobs soon. I feel like I need a concluding sentence here, but I don't know what else to say... If you called a bookstore and someone answered the phone with "You've reached Borders at 18th and L home of the waffle, how can I help you?" what would you say?
