Hosseini's honesty impressive in book reading

By Liam Satre-Meloy

"Afghanistan is more than just a chronically afflicted, distant land," Khaled Hosseini, author of The New York Times international best-seller "The Kite Runner," and Santa Clara University alumnus, told a sold-out audience in Mayer Theatre last Tuesday evening.

And this is, in part, the message Hosseini wanted his book to communicate to his predominately western readership.

Hosseini's novel, which chronicles the life of a young boy growing up in Afghanistan during the tumultuous 1980s, was published in 2003.

His reading was the second installment in the "President's Speaker Series" at the university.

The event attracted enough people that the university was compelled to designate the California Mission Room and the Williman Room as spill-over spaces where those who didn't have tickets to Mayer could watch a telecast of Hosseini's reading.

Before Hosseini delved into the reading from his novel, he acknowledged, for the first time in public, the extent to which the Jesuits helped him pursue his education.

As a member of a newly-immigrated family, Hosseini had to work full-time -- while he attended school -- to help pay the household bills.

Near graduation, when he found out he had been accepted to various medical schools around the country, he tentatively approached his professor William Eisinger after class one day and explained to him that he didn't have the money to afford the travel expenses to attend the mandatory visits to the schools.

"A few days later, Eisinger brought me a check from the university that more than covered the costs for airfare and hotel arrangements."

Responding to a question about his memories from Santa Clara as a student, Hosseini recalled experiences shared with specific instructors. He spoke fondly of Santa Clara's academics and emphasized his feelings of debt to the compassion and generosity the university showed him throughout his undergraduate experience.

"I particularly enjoyed how genuine and intimate he was with the audience. He didn't speak as a revered author; rather, he was honest about everything," commented Lauren Verrilli, a junior who arrived early to the theater and waited in line for an open seat.

"I was very impressed with the way he frankly responded to a question about the political situation between the U.S. and the Middle East," said Verrilli.

"He was very honest with the audience when he said that he was not an expert and did not even feel much like a citizen of Afghanistan anymore."

Before the reading, at a reception in the California Mission Room, Hosseini interacted amiably with dogging attendees -- fully present to each person he spoke with.

While sipping on a Heineken long-neck, he approached an old professor and commented on how he specifically remembered reading Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein" in her class, recalling that the professor had written "Kudos!" on one of his papers.

Before the reception ended, Hosseini signed a few copies of "The Kite Runner," that some faculty members had brought with them, even though the book-signing period was reserved until after his reading.

Hosseini graduated from Santa Clara in 1988 with a degree in biology.

He graduated from University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, five years later.

After a brief respite, he practiced as an internist from 1996 to 2004.

Due to the acclaim garnered from the success of his novel, Hosseini has taken a sabbatical from practicing medicine and instead has devoted his time to philanthropic efforts.

In 2006, Hosseini was named a goodwill envoy to UNHCR, the United Nations Refugee Agency, and has since been working with the agency to raise awareness about refugee-related issues all around the world.

This change in profession sits well with Hosseini: "Writing has always been fluid and emotional, like falling in love, whereas medicine has always been rigid, like an arranged marriage."

Hosseini's second novel, "A Thousand Splendid Suns," will be released by Riverhead Books this coming May.

Contact Liam Satre-Meloy at lsatremeloy@scu.edu.