Luke Anderson: Summarizer 11/19/10

            Normally I don’t read the foreword or prologue of most books, but for this one I did, and I’m glad I did because the background information in the foreword was both interesting and useful.  I found it interesting that the author stayed with a family in Kabul based solely on the fact that she met the owner of this bookstore named Sultan and liked him.  It was also very interesting that the author presented herself as just an observer of the families day to day activities and not necessarily someone who’s soul purpose is to write a book.  I found it odd that she chose to stay with an “upper middle class” family versus a normal family in Kabul.  To me this says that she clearly is interested in the ventures of this family alone and probably not the city or nation as a whole.  I think that it is disgusting that they think that it is normal and even honorable to marry your cousin.  At the beginning of the first chapter Sultan is looking for a new wife because his first wife is getting old.  He finds one, but he goes about asking for her hand in a weird way.  Normally a woman in the man’s family must ask, but Sultan goes to the house and makes a few proposals ‘for his friend’ allegedly.  Eventually he sends his aunt over and the girl’s family agrees that she will get married to Sultan.  The next chapter is about the entire life of Sultan: how he came to love books, how he met his first wife, the struggles he went through, like jail, and having his books burned.  The 3^rd chapter is about Sultan’s first wife Sharifa.  Most of the chapter is devoted to the gossip that Sharifa hears and all the so call scandalous experiences she has because apparently taking to a boy in a park is the same as adultery to these people.