At that point, I just stopped believing. In retrospect, I realized that every little detail in the book is so carefully sutured in that there's very little room for actual life to be depicted. It's a greenhouse book, a hydroponically grown, artificial story that subsumes its interesting descriptions of Afghani life beneath a sordid and farfetched melodrama.

Which "actual life" are you talking about?

You don't think rape and inequality were part of "actual life" in Afghanistan before the Red Army showed up?

So tell me what you think Afghanistan was like then in its "actual life"?

I will recommend the book I usually recommend:

"The Tragedy of Afghanistan" by Raja Anwar.

This book is mainly about the failed reformers of the 1970s and why their reform attempts failed.

I don't understand why you're being so defensive about this movie, like it personally offends you.

Why are you insisting that this was not "actual life"?

If you think rape played no role in relationships between men in Afghanistan, then you're wrong. This was "actual life."

It was "actual life" that the Afghan educated tribal aristocracy was racist and self-involved and ignored the worst problems in the country and it was "actual life" that sexual abuse of younger men by older men was part of the "chain of power" in that society.

This is not a made up melodrama. I've done a lot of reading on this and from what I have read, there is nothing melodramatic or coincidental about this rape or the other things depected in the book.

The author is to be applauded for his courage in talking about the real Afghanistan.

This story is not far-fetched at all. It's not a sordid melodrama. It's what these people have survived, and the least you could do is show it a little respect.

These are two allegations that have been made on the subject of sexual abuse in Afghanistan:

1. Gulbuddin Hekmatyr, the mujahedin leader who is accused of using captured Russian soldiers as sex slaves in "Charlie Wilson's War," was reputedly kicked out of his engineering college because he sexually abused younger men.

2. Mullah Omar, the leader of the Taliban, claimed to be waging a campaign against the sexual abuse of younger men by commanders like Hekmatyr, but it is also alleged he usually picked the most attractive, feminine looking boys at the madrassa to be his "favorites."

The Western press doesn't talk about this problem but there's a gay site you can find on the Internet that posted a big article on it.

It was very dangerous to be an attractive young man in Afghanistan. Perhaps even more dangerous be an attractive young woman.

There is no coincidence or melodrama in a story line that has a forceful young gang leader raping a boy and then growing up later to become a top Taliban commander who is still raping young boys.

This was "actual life" in Afghanistan.

Mullah Omar promised to stop the problem yet he surrounded himself with pretty young things just like Hekmatyr did.

This is not a sordid melodrama. This is one the things these people have had to survive.

Hooray for Hosseini for bringing these dark secrets into the light of day.

There was a rather small number of educated upper class people living in Kabul. There were only a few schools. It's not a major coincidence for them all to know each other as children and then cross paths later on.

Read Anwar's book and you'll see.

I believe that the rapist character could be a composite of Hekmatyr and Omar and some other warlords known to surround themselves with pretty young men.

I believe that Hosseini took everything he'd ever heard rumored about Hekmatyr's youth and combined it with everything he'd ever heard rumored about Omar's adulthood.

Hekmatyr held Kabul first, and under his rule it has been described as pretty much a rape-a-thon. Omar's forces then took over thanks to Benazir Bhutto. The villain in The Kite Runner has aspects of his biography that connect to both men.

I don't this story is supposed to be about some universal behavior in Muslim countries or in any other countries.

I think the author is saying these kinds of things did happen in his country.

On the gay site, the article I read traced this behavior to a combination of Greek custom transferred from Alexander's generals who took over and ruled for a while after Alexander left, combined with the "traditional" violence towards anything feminine in Pushtun tribal culture.

I didn't bookmark the URL. It's out there somewhere.

rtab can say the story is implausible melodrama and get a star. But he's refuted by some facts and the refutation is not worthy of discussion.

Whatever.

She's so gushy and oversincere. Her audience claps for her like trained seals clap for fish.

If I voted for Obama, it would in spite of her visibility in his campaign.

It feels like Oprah Day at Salon.

So what comes next -- is Joan going to hand out new cars?

Health care in the future matters more than how someone voted in the past on the war.

I felt like vomiting after reading this disgusting item but luckily I have a powerful anti-emetic at hand.

That Bay of Pigs thing. Oh Dana indeed.

And then there's Rudy Giuliani, with his romantic vision of America beating the Nazis all by her lonely self.

Forget science -- today's Republicans can't even master the history of the century they were born in.

America saved the world from the Nazis!

Sergeant Shultz was a drama queen -- there was no Russian Front!

Isn't that his position on WWII?

I thought America's Next Top Model proved that she'll say anything for attention.

And here you are -- giving it to her.

Janice 1, Broadsheet 0.

Lynn Cheney has spent a lot of time on TV complaining about the neglect of American history in American higher education. Dana Perino would make the perfect poster child for Mrs. Cheney's movement.