Tales From Agrabah

• 13. K. Housseni: (٣) "Sad Stories Make Good Books"

• T h i r t e e n •

K. Housseni: (٣) "Sad Stories Make Good Books"

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For all the heartache K. Housseni puts you through (ugh 😭), it would still be an honour to decorate your bookshelf with TKR. You will literally just keep this book aside and cry your heart out many times, but then pick it up again. I've wanted to race with the words to the finishing line in very few books; this is one of them. I haven't reached there yet, as I can't read a word past chapter 16 yet. 🥺💔

There are too many things spiralling in my head, I don't think it's possible to find a voice for all. One of them is the honesty of the story; I love how the readers aren't cheated over lies, or false truths. I guess that's the perks of a novel, it's always free of lies, and maybe that's why I like them so much. There are many books which don't offer you a good look inside minds, but K. Housseni is peeling off one layer after the other, and it's just... ✨

Does being honest do that to us? You know that feeling when someone has let you in on a part of their being they've tried their hardest to hide? It's the best. It goes unnoticed most of the time, but it speaks volumes to me. We are usually more concerned about the subject being discussed than the act itself. Aside from courage, it's an entrustment we must cherish. Amir telling us this story is as equally important as the story itself. Perhaps he's being truthful because an outcome doesn't exist from us for him, but the lesson behind it is that you'd never be afraid of your faults in front of people who don't really matter. Because they can't hurt you.

But we love Amir, he matters to us because the excuses he has for his faults are our saviours. Isn't that crazy? In this way, I guess you can call bookworms selfish.

After all, the world isn't short of judgements.

Soraya, through Amir's eyes, isn't like that. She is one of those who thinks only people who matter have the right to judge. I agree with her more than I agree with Amir, on more than one subject. Her remark about "Wuthering Heights" caught my eye though, she said 'sad stories make good books'. I don't know if K. Housseni made her say it because Amir's book was a little sad, but who knew you could flood the gates of the Good Book Library and filter out the sad ones to keep?

There's something that makes us think sad stories make good books; that's courage. They build courage, every page is a brick. You'd find people wiser after going through a sad book, because they've lived through a tragedy. And the worst (or maybe the best?) thing is you can't change anything. That stacks up as experience on your part, it becomes a part of your life. Sadness arrives with great lessons to teach, but most of the time, we're too busy nursing the pain to notice.

Does that mean good books can't be happy? YES. When has happiness tasted sweeter, until it's after sadness?

And this chapter was from a guy's point of view, aaahhh, I learnt so many new things. Another treasure you'd hardly see; Amir was so logically cute. 🤭 The pictures he painted are so different from what Soraya would see though, I'm only saying this based on her bold dialogues. His descriptions of her were awesome (poor guy 😂), and he's definitely a people-reader. 😍 I guess my views are, again, biased. I like this Amir much more than his childhood version. Not just because Soraya makes him question his faults and how to deal with them, but because he acknowledges his wrongs and wants to do something about it.

He's had to endure some really heavy blows, SubhanAllah. One of them being the migration for safety. I love the culturally sensitive setting of this book; though it gets a little annoying when people keep saying "the Afghan way" and "by Afghan standards", although I think the thing holding this culture up are only the elders. Some of them sound really inflexible; pride and patriotism aside, it's distasteful to see them bring in culture unnecessarily like that, especially where it impacts religious boundaries.

Their names, and the khastegari are two things that made me believe they're Muslim, otherwise, every Islamic value was turned upside down, mangled with and torn into indistinct pieces. It made the reading uncomfortable for me, I don't like being represented under characters like the ones in TKR. It's inevitable for now, and that's why the writers here have been trying their hardest to change that, Alhamdulillah. 💕

May Allah help us make a difference. 

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Jasmin A.