The Splendid Runner

Last night I had one of those moments that will remain with me indefinitely. Of the things I am grateful to my job for is the opportunity I have to meet authors I admire. For the record, I have met Mitch Albom, Rosa Guy, Edwidge Danticat, Julie Andrews and, last night, Khaled Hosseini. Dr. Hosseini wrote The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns.

I attended the book signing, which turned out to be so much more, with a friend from work and her mother, who is also a fan of this extraordinary writer. As a result of this job of mine, I and my friend and her mom, were able to have seats reserved for us in the very first row, directly in front of Dr. Hosseini. Good thing, too, because by the time the author arrived, the place was packed with people from one end to the other. We, however, were happier than peas in soup!

There was a decent stretch of time between when we took our seats and when Dr. Hosseini actually arrived. During that time, I witnessed, with admittedly quite a bit of envy, the interaction my friend had with her mother. I noticed every detail of their refreshingly sweet relationship. I noticed the way their knees faced each other, almost touching, when they spoke. I noticed how they both had similar hand gestures when they spoke and how their eyes sparkled reflecting the other. I watched as they giggled and joked around and how they spoke about things so openly. I watched her mom brush away the bangs on her daughter’s face with such a natural ease, that I doubt my friend even noticed the loving gesture. I sat by them slightly slumped, leaning a bit without intruding, to capture a little bit of what I had lost.

Thankfully, the time came for the author to make his entrance and take his seat for the brief reading and interview before the signing. I was grateful then for the distraction his voice and presence would bring to me. I didn’t want this gathering to become something sad for me and it was heading down that slope.

Once Dr. Hosseini sat before us, the sadness slowly melted away. This 47-year-old handsome man, with dark, pleasant features and a relaxed sense of self, is perhaps shy in his personal life. There is a tiny glimpse of a bit of effort being made on his part to contend with the unexpected and worldwide fame his two books have afforded him. A simple family man from California, going about his life as a medical doctor in the remote fashion one adapts when he feels all things in life are settled. He became a doctor and, admittedly hated it at first but, he said “like an arranged marriage”, it grew on him. Yet, the carving to write that he always kept hidden resurfaced again and again. That part of him remained unsettled. And so one day he ventured over to his computer and decided that he would give it a go. In a dreamy state of unreality this writer who, by his own admission, was never professionally trained to write, pops out two amazing bestsellers – he then becomes every writer’s idol. He becomes my idol. He takes a moment at the start of the event to read from his book, A Thousand Splendid Suns.

He chooses a poignant passage from chapter 24, midway through the book. Like eager students, all who’ve brought their book, turn to the place where he will begin his read. I feel like I am back in elementary school and it’s Reading Time, as we children gather ‘round the teacher to listen to the tale. But in this book, there will be no pauses in between to lift the book and reveal the illustrations that build and carry the story along. At this reading, the visuals emanate from the sheer beauty and weaving of his words. We all follow his voice, fingers stroking the words on the pages as the man who created them brings them to life. We hear his pronunciations of the names and places and think: “A-ha. So that is how you say that word, or name.” And just like a seasoned storyteller, he stops, at chapter’s end, with a deep pause that leaves you wanting more.

Though I have read the book and recall each word vividly, it becomes something entirely different coming from him. During the course of his interview, following his reading, the appointed company book reviewer asks the questions that allow me to learn about Dr. Hosseini’s background growing up in Afghanistan before the wars began. I learn of his carefree and normal childhood and understand that childhood, for all of its wonderment and innocence, can be the same for every child on the planet, were it not for the circumstances and the adults who choose to destroy it.

From him I learn that, as difficult as it is to come to America not knowing the language or the culture, it is still possible, through perseverance and determination, to become an eloquent, respected and admired speaker and author in your adopted country. I learn that The Kite Runner had elements of his own upbringing, but that A Thousand Splendid Suns is a purely fictional tale about two women in war torn Afghanistan and it was completely conjured up in the head of this brilliant man. I learn that here, there, or anywhere on earth, no matter your culture or religion, we all share inherent human behaviors that make us more alike than different. These behaviors are separate from what we believe, how we worship, how we behave and what we feel. I learn that, like many in attendance on this evening, I can no longer just ignore, or disregard news or stories about this man’s homeland, no more than I can disregard stories about the homeland of my parents.

The moderator then opens the floor for a brief question and answer session. She walks around with an open microphone. Here and there hands go up. They ask Dr. Hosseini about becoming a writer, about the war in his country and our involvement, about how his books changed their lives. I am debating whether to ask what is on my mind. I almost debate until it is too late, but I get in as the last question of the night. I was dying to find out how a male author can so perfectly capture the voice, emotions mannerisms and thought processes of female characters. His answer blew my mind, both for its simplicity and its truth. He stated that he really stressed on and worried about and fought himself on just the right “sound” for these strong, but terrorized women. Yet, in the end, he said, once he got a few bits and pieces down about them, they “got away from” him – in a good way – and wrote themselves.

Of his first book, The Kite Runner, he admits, the book practically wrote itself. Of A Thousand Splendid Suns, he says, the characters just evolved. He closed the amazing night by signing and personalizing our books. The evening was more than I could have asked for and more than I expected. I left there with a better sense of what writing as craft entails. I saw a lot of his passions reflected in my own. I found myself nodding in agreement on so much of what he shared. Of everything he said, I learned, that he may not be an academically trained writer and literary master, but that is fine because he is something better – he is a gifted master who was born to leave his gifts to the world in the shapes of his books and the tales they hold within.