Thieves in retirement and All thats left to you

I'll start off by saying that Thieves In Retirement was a total waste of my time. I found it in the library but couldn't find a description of the book so I was kind of in the dark about it. The book is by Abu Golayel and is basically about nothing. For the first time ever I read half of the book and still wasn't interested at all. It was like I was still on page one and didn't know yet what the story was going to be about, only I was on page 52 out of 120 pages. I didn't finish that book because it was going nowhere. The narrator was like an old man who starts off telling one story, and then is reminded by another story, then another and another until I had no idea what the point was because none of the stories are referred to again afterwards.

So after wasting most of my reading time on that book I began All That's Left to You by Ghassan Kanafani. I wasn't able to read the entire book but what I've read was really good so far. It feels good to read from a familiar author.

Finishing my paper

I used the books Persepolis and The White Castle as the base for my paper on culture. I used these two because one book is about a person from the Arab world going to the Christian world and the other is about a person from the Christian world going to the Arab world. It wasn't so easy to write my paper because of how many different things I could write about culture, but eventually I got into this grove and it became really easy. At first the paper was hard to write because the entire time I was trying to define what culture was at times, but when I realized that Culture can mean many things to many people and that trying to define it would be impossible, I just started asking questions about culture. Those questions lead to more questions and the paper sort of wrote itself. I'm pleased with the turnout of the paper, although I think it could be better, I'm still happy with how it came out.

Persepolis links

The books Persepolis 1&2 both deal with the Cultural Revolution that took place from 1980-1987. This link is to a page that summarizes it.

This link it to a youtube video of a man who briefly describes the situation in Iran and how it has changed since the Cultural Revolution. It's a bit short but I think it gets the message across.

I also found this very interesting video of Sadat and the Shah of Iran in an interview from many years ago with who appears to be the Imam of Egypt.

Persepolis

I've read graphic novels before, and this has to be one of the best I've ever read! This book is about the life of Marjane Satrapi. Marjane lived in Iran during the cultural Revolution in the seventies, and the book is from her perspective as a young child. It is strange how normal her family is, she has a loving mother, a protective father, and a wise grandmother. I couldn't believe all of the things that this little girl saw and heard growing up. There is a very sad part in the first book where her uncle says goodbye to her for the last time as he is going to be executed.

The first book is more about how confused this young girl was growing up in the midst of so much turmoil. This book is very interesting because it is all from the point of view of a kid, and it's interesting to see how warped her logic is being that she is so young.

The second book is more focused on Marjane becoming a woman and dealing with becoming an adult. This book surprised me very much. Through out the entire story Marjane is very inocent, somewhat, and knows nothing of things like sex and drugs. Then suddenly she is trying to have sex with her gay boyfriend and getting high every weekend. It's so insane.

I definitely recommend this as someones next read.

Movie Trailer

Sadat Assassination

At the end of the book The Day The Leader Was Killed, the president of egypt at that time is killed. I was curious about this because it is a very short part of the book even though the books title refers to it and the cover has a picture of Sadat on it. I found a website that had a newspaper article from that day on it so its kind of like going back in time and reading the same thing that people all over the world may have read that same day.

The picture I posted here is an actual photo of the assassination.

The Day The Leader Was Killed

So I read "The Day The Leader Was Killed" by Naguib Mahfouz and overall I'd have to say I enjoyed it. The story is focused on three characters, Muhtashimi Zayed, Elwan Fawwaz Muhtashimi, and Randa Sulayman Mubarak. The book is set in 1981 and is about the Elwan and Randa's love and how it suffers due to the social atmosphere they live in. Muhtashimi is Elwan's grandfather and throughout the book he gives Elwan advice about his situation. The book flows well between the characters and is very interesting as the story progresses, until the end. As I've said before for many of the other books we've read in class, the ending is depressing. I don't want to spoil the book for those who haven't read it and are going to, but all I will say is enjoy the happy moments of the book while they last, even though there aren't many.

I would definitely recommend the book to anyone who's interested, so if anyone wants to borrow it just ask me. It's a short read totaling in about 103 pages, I read it in one night, so its perfect for those who don't have too much time on their hands.

The first link I have here, is a link to a website talking about the children casualties in Iraq due to the War. The second link I have here is a youtube of a former U.S. soldier talking about some of the things soldiers are told to do in Iraq. Enjoy!