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The Walking (2013)

by Laleh Khadivi(Favorite Author)

3.51 of 5 Votes: 1

ISBN

1596916990 (ISBN13: 9781596916999)

languge

English

genre

Fiction

publisher

Bloomsbury USA

review 1: I selected this book because I had so enjoyed the author's first one: "The Age of Orphans", but they are as different as night and day. I couldn't even finish "The Walking", though technically speaking it was an exciting story and should have held my attention. Two young boys are forced to flee Iran at the outset of the 1979 revolution after a gruesome execution in which they are unwilling observers. Saladin and his brother Ali journey through deserts, cross the ocean, before Saladin lands in Los Angeles alone. It sounds thrilling and it should be, but it seems like it's all been said and done before. If you read and enjoyed "The Kite Runner," or "Not Without My Daughter" or " A Thousand Splendid Suns" or "The Age of Orphans" , you can skip this one. If you can't ge... moret enough of this genre, you might really enjoy this one.
review 2: This is a haunting and beautifully-written novel. Laleh Khadivi's lyrical, poetic style creates a dreamlike beauty that is interwoven like a soft mist into the story that begins in Iran at the time of the Islamic Revolution and ends in America. It is at times a story of the love of family and culture but also of fear, confusion, grief, and displacement...and eventually of redefining oneself in a new country. The novel is, for the most part, the story of Saladin, one of two Iranian brothers who escape from Iran. It is written in the third person, but the voices of other immigrants in America gradually appear, and are an almost ghost-like presence that speak in first, second, and third person. This novel takes its time, moving slowly to not only describe events and experiences, but it also transports the reader there to experience and feel what Saladin and others like him are experiencing and feeling. I could feel their pain and taste their tears...and I shared in their small joys as well. It is an unforgettable novel...a magnificent sculpture in words. I highly recommend it! less

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