Irony

The first time the author brought up this concept of 'irony' was through the story that Amir had written about the man and his pearls. (middle Chap 4) When I read it, I didn't think much about it, until Rahim Khan's note was read. I went back and re-read the story. As I got to the end of Chapter 4, the concept of irony became so apparent. Amir reads the story to Hassan and the latter's question, "Couldn't he have just smelled an onion?" and Amir's reaction to that innocent question made so much sense to me about the characters and the concept of irony which the author succintly introduces.

It dawned on me at that point the evident parallels that runs through the story - Amir, the poor little rich boy who had everything, but longed for his father's affection. Hassan, the despised and poor servant boy with nothing, but was intelligent, brave and had his father's affection. The man who had to kill his wife in order to have pearls which meant he had to be sad in order to be happy.

I don't know about you guys, but I haven't read a book as powerful as this one for a long time. So far, I have been amazed by the author's extraordinary penmanship - extremely subtle and poignant. I have 2 words which keeps popping up in my head, 'oh wow.'