De NIRO’S GAME by
Rawi Hage (2006).
How to find a good book, you ask? Easy. Just read the
back of the book for the general info and then read the first chapter. Spend 5
minutes and you will have enough info to judge what kind of book you are about
to read. If the author is good, maybe just a first paragraph. 2 minutes maximum
and you are good to go. Buy or move on to the next book. However if the writer
is extremely good, he can do better job, right? This guy RAWI HAGE is one
of them and came out with probably the best one line ever to start the book. It
goes like this
“Ten thousand Bombs had
landed, and I was waiting for George”.
This
just creates amazing number of questions and bottomless curiosity. Ten thousand
bombs? From where? By whom? And why are you waiting for George? I mean who’s
George? Is this metaphor for US Army or the person is actually named George?
How do you survive, out of everything, TEN THOUSAND freaking BOMBS!! Sky must
be coated with fighter jets roaring with endless thunder!!
P
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layers. – This is the story of two boys
name Bassam, the narrator of the book, and his best friend George
in Beirut
during one of many wars. Not like George who is more aggressive and passionate,
Bassam is quite, reserved and observant and very, very careful which is
actually a necessity to survive in the war tone city like Beirut. They go through the same stuffs what
most of us experienced when we were young. Partying, drinking, dating,
stealing, smoking( cigarettes and a little joint), job hunting, breaking
the law, getting into bar fighting etc. etc. But because they are in constant
danger of getting killed in the city of war, they do everything much harder and
faster.
Later on, Bassam and George take different paths and eventually
face each other as enemies like typical Hong Kong Action Movie. But their
friendship never frail just like typical Hong Kong Action Movie.
P
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lace. – Like I said before, war-torn Beirut, Lebanon.
It is actually quite modern city, rich with history and historic buildings and
beautiful coast-line. However, reading this book, you never realize any
of these. The city depicted here is explosive, dangerous and so real in every
sense. Not the one you experience when you go there as a tourist.
For the
last chapter of the book, Bassam moves to Paris
for variety of reasons which I shouldn’t reveal in here. But his war
never ends. It just takes different shapes/enemies and keeps going on. Perhaps
until the end of his life. Which is a bad news for his enemies cause he is, not
physically but mentally, one really tough dude who is always waiting for that
exactly right timing to strike!!
P
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lot. – Two boys growing up in the
city. Simple as that. However, they are surrounded by, rich bastards who buy
off everything with money and muscle, high school classmates who works for the
most profitable business in the area, which is off course terrorists,
government officers who is so completely bent, can’t even walk straight any
more, and lots of bombs and violence is overwhelmingly
everywhere. What else? Oh and dogs. This is good, by the way. You see, when the
war starts, all the rich people fly out of the area immediately, leaving their
dogs behind like used furnitures. Naturally, all of them turn into the wild dogs
and taking control of the city during night time guarding garbages and
patrolling their areas. People can’t even go outside during night times,
because these dogs, hungry and vicious, attack you with madness. Can you
imagine one thousands dollar toy poodle biting your leg off?
V
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erdict. – It is quite natural that this
book won bunch of awards in 2006. All the emotions which make life interesting
such as desire, hatred, ambition, jealousy, love, they are all in here with
powerful and bold writing. This is a contemporary masterpiece and a supreme
work of literature, which is quite entertaining and shocking at the same time.
Highly recommendable.
The writing style kind of reminds me of No Country For
Old Man-nothing separates dialogue/monologue or just plain description of the
scene, which makes it little confusing at the beginning but once you get used
to it, you won't have any trouble.
This book is more GRITTY and DARKER version of the "KITE RUNNER" and if you like KITE RUNNER-like story line, you know kids growing up in the war torn area and all that, you will absolutely love this book.
This book is more GRITTY and DARKER version of the "KITE RUNNER" and if you like KITE RUNNER-like story line, you know kids growing up in the war torn area and all that, you will absolutely love this book.
Totally worth every single minute
you will spend on it.
