How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #10
"So what do you do in America, Amir agha?" Wahid asked.
"I'm a writer," I said. I thought I heard Farid chuckle at that.
"A writer?" Wahid said, clearly impressed. "Do you write about Afghanistan?"
"Well, I have. But not currently," I said. My last novel, A Season for Ashes, had been about a university professor who joins a clan of gypsies after he finds his wife in bed with one of his students. It wasn't a bad book. Some reviewers had called it a "good" book, and one had even used the word "riveting." But suddenly I was embarrassed by it. I hoped Wahid wouldn't ask what it was about.
"Maybe you should write about Afghanistan again," Wahid said. "Tell the rest of the world what the Taliban are doing to our country."
[Amir:] "Well, I'm not...I'm not quite that kind of writer." (19.51-56)
We think the plot of A Season for Ashes might be the most ridiculous plot ever. How could Amir not feel guilty as an Afghan writer (or even as a writer in general)? He's not writing about his homeland, or the devastation and destruction there, but instead about a professor who joins a troupe of gypsies. That's silly. We see how A Season for Ashes could be a serious book – both funny and heartbreaking at the same time – but the book seems to have nothing to do with Amir's life. It's "fiction" in the worst sense.